Falling off a car

June 30th, 2006

There were a lot of things I had to do after I got off work today. I could work at the jail. I could do some work around the house, like mowing and weedeating, or I could go to the fire station and hang out. I stayed in Pullman until nearly eight o’clock pm getting some bug completed as best I could.

Then I went to get some dinner at Little Caesars. I decided to go to the fire station. I saw some pictures from the burn they did recently. I also talked to Carl about his final days being a full-timer.

I went home around ten o’clock pm and watched some TV. I got into a show when a call came out around one thirty in the morning for someone who fell from a moving car in LaCrosse. I decided that I would go on this one.

I got to the station and drove the ambulance to the scene. While en route LaCrosse EMS called Whitcom to launch the bird. The patient was combative and it was a wise move. We got to LaCrosse and loaded the patient into the ambulance and drove to the football field. They got the lights turned on and the bird landed about fifteen minutes later.’

By the time we got back to Colfax it was well after three in the morning. I got some pop from the gas station and Third Watch was on. It was an episode I had never seen before. I decided to watch it until it was done, which was at five in the morning. That is when I finally got to sleep.

SCSAA

June 29th, 2006

I didn’t get up until noon today. I called VanNess and let him know I would not be able to get to his house until Friday to work on his computer. Then I got into work and spent the next few hours banging away at one of my bugs. I had a meeting with George and Darnell at SCS about the alumni association. This is fall out from Tory’s funeral where we decided to get something like this set up.

I got to the IT building around four in the afternoon. We talked for about an hour about the ideas and did some minor brainstorming about this project. We are thinking about a portal where messages, news, events, photos, and whatnot can be posted.

After the meeting was done Darnell and I chatted about programming. Then he took me to his office and showed me SCS Tulz. It is quite the application. It is really impressive all the things it can do. They are working on a Tulz Lite program and selling it to other departments for part time workers to use to track hours. SCS may actually get into the black ink.

After we were done I got some dinner from Cougar Country and went to the office to finish the bug I had been working on all day. I was able to finish it off and get it checked in around eleven o’clock at night. I also got some more work done on the fire prevention website.

Third Night in a Row Playing Poker

June 27th, 2006

In our last few games of the softball season, we are looking at needing a win in all of them, if possible, to allow us the opportunity to win the B league. Right now we are not in control of our own destiny. We were going against Otto’s Grays tonight. Jeff, an old manager from the Treaty Ground Rock Hounds, was playing on this team. Jeff had kicked me off the team after five games back in the summer of ninety-nine for batting four-twenty-nine.

We crushed his team winning twenty-two to five. I hit a double, a homerun, I had a walk, and a single. I also got a couple RBI. It was a pretty good day for me. I wanted to shine a little more, but I am happy with it.

After the game I went to My Office to buy a pitcher of beer for hitting the solo homerun. When I hit it, it was one of those ones that felt perfect. It was off the sweet spot of the bat. The second I hit it, I knew it was going to be a homerun. There was no doubt about it. It went to center-field. What was funny was their left-center fielder went running for the ball and hit the fence and tumbled over it.

After being at My Office I was invited to play poker at Mike’s again. I went over there just after nine o’clock. I sat in what is now known as the Wild Bill seat. Because your back is to the door.

Tonight, just like the last two nights, I started my nights by losing money and rebuying. Finally after thirty bucks of buy-ins, I was down to forty cents. I had a six-three suited. I went all in. A six and three hit the board and I won part of the pot. So I was up some money. Then I went all-in a while later and won. Then I just kept building and building. Pretty soon I was up quiet a bit from the forty cents.

We ended the night with Omaha like normal. I came back in my money, like normal, but this time we did not play long enough for me to come all the way back. I lost about twelve bucks on the night, but I am still up over the last three days.

Hose Testing Day Two

June 26th, 2006

I spent some of the day calling all of the recruits to see if they would be coming to our hose testing tonight. I did not get a hold of most of them, but I left messages. Due to my calling around several people showed up. It was nice to have all the bodies there to help the process.

We only had two guys show up to the first hose testing, so I made a big deal about it in front of the other guys. I mentioned when everyone else was listening to it did not go unnoticed that they were the only two to show up.

This time around we had all but one guy show up. We tore through testing at a pretty good clip. We got the hose reloaded on the truck and were done with everything in about three hours. After it was done I thanked all the guys who showed up. I told them their help was appreciated.

Once that was done I went to Mike’s for more poker. Tonight we played until three o’clock in the morning. It was looking bad for me as I was not getting my hands. We actually played some seven-card stud followed by Omaha. It was not until Omaha that I started to make my comeback. I ended up leaving the night winning another thirty bucks or so. Most of it on one hand.

I had garbage. My best cards were the nine and queen. A nine and queen were on the board. I announced to the room that I was on a huge draw. That I had nothing unless the right card hit. Someone had gone all-in. I called it, then Mike raised five bucks. I called that. Then the turn was a nine. I announced I got my card. Then I sat back in my seat and called all-in. It was about twenty-one bucks. Brian called me. Mike folded. The river did not help Brian and I ended up winning the whole pot, which is what gave me the winnings on the night.

The Cone Course

June 25th, 2006

This morning seemed to come early. I got up and went to the Deuce for engineer training. Chapman gave me the keys to the gate and send me up there to start to set up the road course. He and Reed had to take the Engine to station one before showing up. I got a lot of the cones set up before they arrived.

I was the first one to do the cones I hit one cone along the way. It was only because I did not realize that we could re-position the Engine. That would have been the only time I needed to do it. When I was done Reed did his cone test. We both passed on the first time. Afterwards we put the Engine inside the tower and sprayed water. I had a chance to practice being the Engineer setting up the rig and pumping water.

While pumping water a grass fire call came out. We unhooked the stuff and got ready to go. Only to be cancelled as soon as we went en route. We went back into the tower parking area and reloaded the hose. I had to leave to do the homerun derby, but I did not think it was going to happen.

Joe, Matt, and I did show up, I let Joe know about Eric’s E-mail about postponing this until next week sometime. We all left. I got lunch and went to the Deuce to wait for Chapman and Reed. They decided to do weekly rig checks. I helped them out with it. Just was we were getting close to being done we got called out to a natural gas smell.

We went to the scene but just waited around in Rescue. Andrew came out at the end and came to Rescue. He said that we are going to block off a five-hundred foot radius and give Reed a flare and see if he can find the source. We all got a chuckle out of that.

We were put back in service. I left the station shortly after getting the final touches on the weekly rig checks completed. I went to the city playfields to watch the Zeppoz Co-Ed team play ball. It was the My Office team, but they switched sponsors. A lot of the My Office guys are on the team as well as couple old My Office guys, such as Dan and Carl. It was great to see the team out there.

It was around eight-thirty and I planned on going to Davolts to play poker. I bought in for ten bucks and lost that over some time. I bought in for another ten bucks. I was playing really loose. Later we switched to Omaha. By that time I was starting to win money. Then in Omaha I won a lot more. I ended up leaving with forty-five buck total. I had one hand where I had the best hand when someone called all-in. I knew he was on a draw. But I called him, hoping the draw would not hit. This is the same guy who hit the Royal Flush on me last week.

After we were done Kristin and Andy talked about the old times at High School and all the drama in their lives, etc. It was pretty interesting to hear about all the problems and family issues of the other people. I did not leave until almost three-thirty in the morning. I was so tired I went fast asleep.

Getting closer to being an Engineer

June 24th, 2006

Today is the final day of the five.four.one release for new code. I spent some of the day figuring out problems with the code. One problem is a bugger because each time you do one thing to fix it, something else seems to break.

But finally I got the problems solved and I think life is good. Tonight Chuck is out of town so Chapman and I are on. I asked Chapman if he would be willing to do my final engine drive with me. He said he would. It takes about an hour and a half to do the whole thing, but we got it done.

I was also invited to come to engineer training tomorrow with Reed and Chapman. I am going to do that.

I was at my office when we got toned out to a call in town. Chapman and Cy rode in to the hospital. Cy was doing his ride along time for being a recruit. It was his first call ever. I had him do the radio traffic.

Following that call I was down at the station. I was going to do some more stuff in my engineer’s packet. I had already finished doing the photo board this morning and got it put up. I also finished my packet by doing the engine equipment location.

Around midnight we got a call to Palouse. I looked up the location on the map. I ended up driving on that one. When we got to the house, it was a PUHA situation. The ambulance with code-three to the hospital. I took a wrong turn and went to highway ninety-five in Latah County. So it took me extra long to get back to the hospital.

I got Chapman and we went to the gas pumps to fill Rescue. On our way out of the gas pumps we got called to Bishop Place. We went code there and transported that person to the hospital. As we were done for the night, it was nearing three-thirty in the morning. You could see the light just barely starting to fill the horizon.

Very Busy Night

June 23rd, 2006

I covered for Dearth at the fire department tonight. It was just Ross and me. It was actually pretty tame for the first five hours of the shift. Bien was doing a ride along until eight o’clock pm. But it was quiet, so we just talked and had a good time.

I was planning on watching Rescue Me at eleven o’clock when it came on. I was watching other shows until then. Finally Rescue Me was on. We were about twelve minutes into it when call came out. Ross came down and we went to the scene. We transported to the hospital.

During the transport to the hospital I was listening to the radio. There was a pursuit going through Pullman that started in Moscow. I listened until they finally caught the person at the Pullman Grill and Bar.

Following that call we were getting the ambulance back in service when an Omega call came out for someone who needed help up. The ambulance guys told us to go on it because they were not ready yet. It was only a public assist, so we probably did not need an ambulance to go anyway.

We went en route and the ambulance form station one went as well. They were running short of people so they had already done a career callback and they also did a reserve callback. While on the scene of the public assist another call came out for someone who was unconscious. It was in the campus housing. We stayed on the public assist, and Engine Thirty-Two went from the deuce because we were tied up.

The ambulance from the hospital responded to that call. They cancelled engine thirty-two. We cleared our scene and went to get some gas. On the way to the gas station the ambulance on the call for the unconscious person called for our help. We went to that scene and helped with the transport.

Finally when we were done we went to the gas pumps and back to the Deuce. Ross and I got our paper work filled out and walked to our vehicles. Just as we said bye and shut our doors a call came out. We ran in and got ready for it. I drove code to the scene. It was about six miles West of town. En route to that call another call came out for a car accident. I was hoping to go on that one instead, but we continued to our call.

Chapman got on scene of the car wreck and called for a second ambulance and extrication. So we left the scene we were on and hightailed it to the scene of the accident, which was about fourteen miles away. The IC on scene thought that Palouse would get there quicker so he called for them. They went en route around the time we were going through Pullman. I knew at that point we would beat Palouse on scene.

We pulled up and were positioned right by the car. Ross and I got out and set up the extrication stuff. I cut the B and A posts then sent the cutters to the other side of the car. I then helped get the person packaged and out of the car. The other cuts were made and we rolled the roof of the car forward. Ross and I cleaned up our stuff and gathered all the Pullman Fire equipment then went to station one to drop it off. We went to the hospital next to drop off the sheets and blankets that were left over.

We had to go get gas again. We were finally done with the calls at about three o’clock in the morning.

Fun Softball Action

June 22nd, 2006

At my softball game tonight I was hitting the ball really well. I putting the ball all over the place and the ball was hit with good power. I even got my first homerun of the season. That felt really good. What is funny is before the game I was at My Office with several others from the team. As I looked around I noticed that all of them have hit at least one homerun except for me. I mentioned that. Then in the game I hit one and everyone was joking about how I had said something about my lack of homeruns. We went on to win pretty easily.

After the game I was on call for the evening. It was a very quiet night. I was able to sleep through the whole thing.

Cleaning up the Jail

June 21st, 2006

I got into work and got some bugs closed out, so I decided to leave at three in the afternoon and go work the jail. I wanted to be there for all eight hours today. I had some dinner when I got there then I helped serve the meds during the dinner round.

When six o’clock rolled around I took a crew onto the floor and we washed all the windows and cleaned the walls and doors. It was really dirty. It was a pretty quiet night. No bookings came in. There was one that was a hang over from dayshift, but the Sgt did that one.

We cruised the web a little bit and did our normal BSing while in the control room. I left at midnight to head home and watch some TV before hitting the sack.

First On Scene.

June 20th, 2006

I am covering for Reed at the fire department tonight. I went to the station after getting some work done. Dearth, Tadema, and I went to station one for Death to do his class. Tadema and I took the Rescue to get some gas. We stopped at Cougar Country for me to get dinner. While there we got a call for a car accident. We took off and were first on scene. I did my scene size up and took command. We ended up transporting the person in the wreck.

We went back to the station and I was able to eat my food and it was still pretty warm. We waited around for Dearth to finish his class part. Then Heston taught stuff on driving safety as part of the firefighter safety stand-down day.

Following the training I went to Davolts for some poker action. I was not doing too great. The game was doing the normal breakdown later in the evening. There were four of us there when we switched to Omaha. I had a K-J-Five-Three, the K-Three were suited. I called. The board was Kh-Jh-Jd. I has a nice full house. I bet twenty cents. I was raise. I re-raised all-in. I was called. We flipped our cards I was up against someone with trip-tens and the Ah. So he had a one-card out. He had to have the Qh to hit and give him the Royal-Flush. The turn was the Queen of Hearts. Everyone yelled. I could only smile. I got beat hard-core by the best possible hand. It is so rare to see it was fun to be part of the whole thing.

We broke up the game on that note and I headed to the office to get some work done before going to bed for the evening.

Getting Crushed at Softball

June 19th, 2006

I worked most of the day getting the bug from this weekend finished. I had thought about some ideas while I was driving to and from the coroners case I had last night. My ideas worked and I got closer to fixing this problem. I still had to figure out the E-mail issue, but it was close to game time and I went to the city playfields.

Only nine guys showed up to play. I was disappointed about that. We were playing Coors Light. They scored twenty runs on us in the first inning. I had a good day. I was two for three with a double, two runs scored, and an RBI.

After the game I went to the station for training, but it was nearly over so I stuck around until it was, then I watched the guys play some poker. After that was done Tim, Meow, and I were in the training room chatting about random things and watching the UFC. I left after the first fight and went to my office to finish up my bug.

It took me until around two in the morning to get it done and get ready to check it in, but I ran into problems because of the merge. So I sent an E-mail to Ricky and went home for the night.

They come in threes?

June 18th, 2006

So today I found out about Brandt, as seen in my other post, and this week I also found out about Tory. So if they come in three’s then I have one more coming my way. Let’s hope that is not the case.

I finally went to bed around nine this morning so I slept in until three this afternoon. When I did get up I got some lunch and then went to the office to try to get some work done. I wanted to have something to show for all the work I put in yesterday. But it was not to be early on. Finally I changed focus on my bugs and switched to something else. I was able to solve that one and get it checked in.

I decided that I would go down to the fire station at six o’clock pm and help C-Shift with their truck checks. With only two people it is a pain in the rear. Having more people really helps. It took about two hours to get them done. I was invited to Station One for some ice cream. I went down POV because I was on call for the coroner.

While at the station I got a call for a case out in Hooper. To get to Hooper you have to leave Whitman County into Adams County and then re-enter Whitman County a few miles down the road. I got fueled up and headed to the scene. It is about sixty miles from Pullman. I cruised out to the scene and did my investigation.

Once I was done I went back to the SO and typed up my field notes, printed the pictures, and counted the medications. I got done with the case at nearly three o’clock in the morning. I went back to Pullman and went to sleep.

Another Kick in the Gut

June 18th, 2006

I met Brandt through Garrett a couple years ago out boating. I have written about him in my blog before. He loved to go balls to the wall on the tube. He was fun to have around boating. I have been trying to find out when he is coming back to the area to get him out boating again. I was searching through the web trying to find him, and I ran across this:

Brandt Eugene Gehrke

LEWISTON, Idaho — A celebration of the life of Kirkland, Wash., resident Brandt Eugene Gehrke, 26, will begin at 2 p.m. today, Nov. 5, in Lewiston Community Center. Private family burial will be in Asotin, Wash., Cemetery.

His body was found by search and rescue teams on Oct. 24, 2005, at Merritt Lake Trailhead, near Leavenworth, Wash.

Born Feb. 28, 1979, in Lewiston, he was the second oldest of four children of Penny O. (Wilson) and David A. Gehrke. During his high-school years in Nevada, he excelled in all sports and was state champion in wrestling. He graduated from Asotin High School in 1997, with high honors and a grade-point average over 4.0.

He enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1997 and served in the 82nd Airborne, 2/505th Parachute Infantry Regiment. From May through August 1999, he was a Quick Reaction Corps peacekeeper in Albania, Macedonia and Kosovo. He served his last six months in Egypt and was honorably discharged in February 2001 at the rank of sergeant.

He lived in Pullman, Wash., from 2001 to 2005; and worked full-time as a bartender at Valhalla’s Restaurant and Lounge. On the Washington State University president’s honor roll all four years, he earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology with a minor in business.

He met his fiancee, Jacquelyn Potwin, in January 2004 while they were students at WSU; and, in July 2005, moved to Kirkland to be with her.

An avid extreme sportsman, he enjoyed rock-climbing, parachuting, surfing, on-line gaming, modeling, snowboarding, and spending time with his sisters.

Survivors include his mother and her fiance of Asotin; three sisters, Lisa D. Millikin, her husband, and two nephews of Glendo, Kelly E. Gehrke and her fiance of Lewiston and Brianna I. Gehrke and her fiance of Clarkston, Wash.; maternal grandparents, Orine A. and Dr. R.D. Wilson of Clarkston; his fiancee; and several uncles, aunts, cousins, nieces and nephews.

He was preceded in death by his father and paternal grandparents, Joan M. and Eugene O. Gehrke.

Memorials may be made to the Scholarship Fund for Children of Special Officers Killed in Action; search and rescue organizations; or the National Center for Missing Persons.

Ward’s Funeral Chapel of Leavenworth is in charge of arrangements.

PFD Photoboard

June 17th, 2006

I spent the morning and early afternoon working on the photoboard for the fire department. I finally figured out how to post the pictures. I am going to take a thick type of paper and cut them into strips. Then I will glue them into place. That will create a pocket for the photos to sit in. I was mostly done when we got a call for an injury accident.

I went to the deuce to go on it. On the way I called Reed to make sure he was going to come out and play. I got to drive code to the scene. On the way we were told to go by the van from the car accident to pop the door. When I got there with Rescue they decided the guy can self extricate. So we did not get to use the powertools. I did get to have some patient care.

After the car accident was taken care of we were cleared of the scene and were en route to the Deuce when VanNess asked us to meet him at station one for equipment exchange. When I got there I worked on the photoboard some more while waiting for VanNess to show up. It was a little bit before he got back from the hospital.

I went to my office after that and worked on an enhancement. It is a rather large one. Some of the things are easy, but there are somethings they want turned off. The system I am converting is made for public use. But they want loan officers to be able to use the system. When the loan officer uses the system some of the behavior needs to change. The problem is the system was not built to do that. Because of that I have to figure out a way that I can let the system know that I am a loan officer adding the application and not someone from the public.

I keep running into dead ends. As the night wore on I stayed at the office. It was getting later and later. Pretty soon it was nearly five in the morning. By that time I was tired of running into dead ends. So I started to search the web for Brandt. I wanted to get ahold of him to see when he would be back in the area. What I found instead was his obituary. I tried to find more information but I was unable to. Finally after eight in the morning I gave up and went to the apartment to get some sleep.

Wakeman’s Goodbye

June 16th, 2006

Starting off the day I thought I would have to go to Wakeman’s going away party being on call meaning no beer. But I found out hours before the event that I could go and have some fun with them.

I went to the station around five in the evening to see when people were going to go to the bar. Wakeman was having some dinner and we were talking. I was getting hungry so I went to My Office and got some lunch and played some trivia.

The others started to show up around eight o’clock. We had a good turn out of people there. I had my camera and took photos of everyone with Wakeman at one point or another through out the night.


Chris, Wakeman, and Paul Enjoying Beer


Meow and Wakeman Enjoying Beer


Wakeman and Chris Being Tough


Wakeman Having One of his Many Shots

We were there until a little after midnight. I went home and had some pop tarts before going to sleep.

Wakeman’s Last Duty Night

June 15th, 2006

Today’s is Wakeman’s last day with the fire department. We are having a get-together for him tomorrow at My Office.

I had a softball game today. I am on duty as well, so I let Chuck know that I would be responding following the game. The new recruits were going through Rescue today therefore it would be used while that is going on. We got spanked by the Tax Dodgers. Our worst loss ever to them. We scored twelve runs in the whole game, and they scored that in the first inning alone. It was not pretty.

When the game was done I went to the station and talked to the guys down there. They asked me how the game went and I could not say anything other than we got crushed.

After that I went to my apartment and got ready to be oncall. I went to the station and hung out there until the Rescue got back. I stayed for a little while and finally decided it was time to leave.

I did not really get more than an hour of sleep when our first of three back-to-back-to-back calls on Nye street came out. Two of them were to the same guy. Following those calls I went home and within two hours we were back at the station going on a call for abdominal pain. Just as we finished that we got a second call for abdominal pain. On Wakeman’s last night we had five calls after midnight. Some of them we got to run code on. It was a decent last day for Wakeman.

I was well after seven in the morning when I finally got home and got some sleep.

Golf Meeting

June 14th, 2006

I got the photos for the fire department photo board printed out at Rite Aid finally. We had problems with the size of the photo. The machine would not just print the photo to the size I had it leaving the rest of the paper blank. It wanted to print from edge to edge. I finally had to redo all the pictures making them to a four by six size and just filling the rest with a green color. Once they were printed I used the paper cutter to get them to the correct size.

I also got the names typed up and we were able to decide on a font to use for them. My idea of how to hold them to the board is not any good when it comes down to it. It will hold the photos and name tags, but I am afraid that moving the photos around will become a hassle. I am trying to come up with a better way. I am thinking a piece of soft plastic glued to the back of the board making pockets for the photos to sit in may be the way to go.

For the coroners meeting today we met at the Tekoa Golf Course. We got a couple carts and made our way to the first tee. The ground was pretty wet and the greens were very soggy. To the point that at times when stepping on them a large amount of water would come to the surface. I lost several balls along the way as well.

When it was over Pete beat Patti and me. I came in second by a single stroke. It was a fun meeting. Afterwards we went to Pete’s house and had some pizza and talked about some of the recent cases. We set up our on-call schedule and that was about it for the meeting.

HazMat Suits

June 13th, 2006

Aside from learning about Tory today I talked to Brian and Dan about it. All of us had worked together at SCS and Brian was a roommate of Tory’s while at WSU.

I was on call with Wakeman at the fire department. We went to Hazmat training. We were getting into the suits and doing some activities to get practice at being as nimble as possible in the suit. We had to stop some leaks, look through a spotting scope, write some information down, and use books to look up information.

When we were done with that I took Wakeman out to dinner. This is his second to last shift on the fire department. He is leaving to go to Paramedic school at Central at the end of the week.


Wakeman during EMS Week

I will miss working with him. He was around a lot during the day and would go on all the daytime calls, not just the “good ones”. It was nice to know he would be around. He is also a very nice person who will be missed around the fire station.

Kicked in the stomach

June 13th, 2006

While I was at the survival outing this weekend I had heard that a twenty-nine year-old person had died in Pullman. That is all I knew about it.

Today I went to the city of Pullman police department website. They have all the things that they respond to listed online. I found the report for the unattended death and that someone had called it in and it was on Merman Drive.

Later on there was a medical call I was going on with another reserve. I asked if he went on the unattended death call. He said he did not go. I asked if he knew anything about it. He said that he knew the guy had had several previous heart attacks. As soon as he said that my mind started to race.

I thought about Tory. He fit all the descriptors. He lived on Merman, he had past medical problems and he is about twenty-nine. So I got this sinking feeling in my gut.

When I was on scene of the medical call I was feeling sort of sick to my stomach. I saw a cop was there. When he was free for a minute I asked him if he was on the unattended death call. He said he was. I asked him if it was Tory. He said it was.

He is someone I use to work with at SCS and I would go over to his place once in a while and hang out. He was into many of the things I was in to. It was pretty shocking that he had died. Though he told me a while back that his doctors told him he was living on borrowed time, I still was not expecting something to happen.

Winning at poker

June 12th, 2006

I spent much of the day working on VanNess’ computer. He is running Windows ME and there was some problem with it and error messages. At first I was thinking spyware. But as I got into it I found the problem was a missing system file. From looking on the web I see that is a problem with a lot of people. I found out how to fix it. I had to get the CAB file and extract a file. It took a while to find the CAB file, but I finally was able to get it done.

We had hose testing today. One one person from my shift and C-Shift showed up. All of B-shift was there, but it was their night to be on. Only two of the eight new recruits showed. I was pretty disappointed by that. I was able to help them out until it was time to play some softball.

We had a game against Lefty’s. It is an A-League team. We were not able to hold pace with them, allowing them to score ten runs in the first inning. After that we held them well, but we were unable to score. Only getting three runs when it was all said and done.

I was invited to Mikes to play some poker. I was bouncing around a lot until we switched from Texas Hold’em to Omaha. Then I started to win a lot of hands. When it was done I had won about forty bucks on the night.

Survival Outing Day Two

June 11th, 2006

My day started at the crack of midnight. After an hour of sleep I was back to the instructors area. We sat around the fire some more talking and eating. At this time the students could come to the instructors area if they wanted. It turned out that only one student stayed with us all night long. Two others made their way there and stayed for a while then went back to camp.

Keith, Joe, Jacob, and I started to get into a conversation about politics. Keith is very liberal where the rest of us are conservative. It was a nice discussion. We started talking about trickle-down economics and went from there. I could see Jacob was more liberal when it came to some social issues.

I was going to go to sleep around four in the morning, but the conversation was so good that I was not tried. Pretty soon it was six in the morning and we got the students back to the instructors area. We had a final briefing. The night was mild with no rain. So it was an easy one this year.

Thuot and the students went on the rounds going from shelter to shelter talking about the good and bad about each one. Joe, Jacob and I started to take down the instructors area. I had to be gone around seven in the morning to head to the softball games.

Now I was pretty tired. I got my uniform on at the gate to the Bandera Airfield. I headed straight to the field. I stopped in North Bend to get some breakfast. I showed up about thirty minutes late for batting practice. I got a couple swings in.

I was wearing metal spikes because I had not changed them out. It was going okay, but I had to go to the bathroom really bad. Finally I had to run to the bathroom. Someone from the team we were playing second heard me running on the cement and said something to my coach. I had to take them off.

I did okay in the games. I was getting on base and making the outs at first base. We won the first game by four runs. Then we were playing Grandpa’s old team. We beat them by two runs. I had a triple in that game. I am leading the team in triples this year. I have about six or seven on the season.

When the games were done I said my goodbyes. This is my final game with the Maulers. I am not going to play next season with them because of the driving involved and the gas prices. Don asked if I was going to be able to play in the All-Star game. I was voted in this season. It actually was not one of my best seasons and I finally was recognized. I cannot play because next weekend I am on call for the coroner and I do not want to drive over to Seattle for one game.

I went home and crashed. I slept for about five hours. I got up just before dinner. I was going to leave after dinner, but I stayed longer surfing the net. Then Old School came on I watched that until nine o’clock. I finally hit the road. It was a nice drive. Very little traffic in the way.

I got home around one in the morning. I checked my mail and then I decided to make my way to bed.

Survival Outing Day One

June 10th, 2006

When I got up I got some breakfast and went to Ken’s Truck town to meet up with Thuot for the survival outing. That was at about eleven in the morning. By noon we were underway. We made our stops along the way where Thuot would talk about hiking areas. Then we went to Bandera Airfield for the start of the survival outing.

I helped to set up the instructors area when the students were out looking for a place to set up their shelter. There was some down time for use while the students where making their shelter. I helped to get the fire going for the instructors area. We hung out and talked about old times.

Around five we put the students on a solo. That is an hour where they just sit by themselves. They don’t get to do anything but sit there. When they were done we brought them back to the instructors area for a few final words about the night to come. They had more time to work on their shelters. It was about eight o’clock that they had to be in their shelter until midnight.

We sat around the fire relaxing and doing rounds every two hours to check on everyone. My shift time was going to be early in the evening and I was going to get the four to six hours off. I also had some time until midnight to sleep.

I went to my truck and slept for one hour.

Waking up late

June 9th, 2006

I heard my alarm clock go off to get me up for going to Bellevue to work, but I kept on sleeping. It was about ten in the morning when I got up and decided to work here instead. A call came out for an injury accident East of Palouse. I went to the station with Brian and we got on the road behind the ambulance. When we got on scene there was a truck that had our patient in it. His truck was sideswiped by a car that had crossed the centerline.

After that call I had my weekly dev meeting. My plan was to head back to Bellevue when that was done. I wanted to get the Website for the softball team updated first. So I did not leave Pullman until four in the afternoon. I got pack and stopped by Colfax fire. I ended up hanging out for a couple hours. I did not get on the road until almost seven in the evening.

The trip itself was uneventful. I got home around eleven at night and watched some TV and surfed the web for a couple hours before going to bed.

Softball Double Header

June 8th, 2006

I spent part of the day going on calls as they would come in. It was right about the time I was going to stop going on calls until after softball when a call came in. I decided to go. It took about an hour total. I dropped off Rescue and then I got to the apartment and changed for softball.

We had a double-header tonight. In the first game we were playing PSPT. We were beating them until the sixth inning when we let them take the lead. In the fifth and sixth innings they scored seventeen runs. It was terrible. We ended up losing by two runs.

The second game was a little better. We took a lead and did not give it up. We ended up scoring twenty-nine runs. We had a total of forty-eight runs on the day and lost one of the games. I had eight hits and four doubles in the games.

After the games I went home and got ready to be on call. I went to the fire station and hung out there until around ten-thirty. I got some dinner and went to the office. I headed to Dearths for his party. There were a lot of the reserves there and a couple full-timers. There were other people there as well. I hung out outside talking to Dearth Jr. and some of the other guys. About midnight we could an Alpha for a citizen assist. The update was that someone was stuck in a tree.

We got there and two girls up on Greek Row had gotten into a tree for a water fight and then were trapped because the ladder they use was gone. The cops were there and were not amused to what was happening. It was a pretty unusual call.

Lightning Strike

June 7th, 2006

Today I was covering for Reed at Pullman Fire. Wakeman was covering for Chapman, so we had two A-shifters and one C-shifter on call. During the day Wakeman and I went to a call at around eight in the morning. We got cancelled just as we were going to arrive on scene.

Following that call we went to EMS rounds and stayed for the OTEP training afterwards. So we were in Rescue all morning long. Shortly after EMS rounds people were going to lunch with Scharnhorst who was in town. It was at the New Garden. Wakeman and I went to that in Rescue as well. So we were running the town most of the day in Rescue.

Just before six in the afternoon I went to the Deuce to do some rig checks. Tadema and Wakeman showed up a little while later. We chatted at the station for quite a while. Tadema decided to leave. Before she left the parking lot we got dispatched to a call.

A couple hours later it was lightning outside pretty good. It was all dry lightning. Then I saw one that lit up the sky. I hear a loud boom of thunder. Within a few minutes we were called to a big tree on fire near Valley Road with a structure being threatened. But Tadema has to come across town. So by the time we got there the fire was nearly out.

We helped roll hoses and get the rigs back in service. That was pretty much it for the night for us.

My Office Site up to date

June 6th, 2006

Today I spent some time getting the My Office Website up to date. I was out of town during two games so I was behind on getting things completed. But with the help of Eric and Duane I got caught up.

I also spent time at work trying to get some bugs finished. One showstopper came out and it looked like it could be a problem. The scope of the fix that was applied to the last release was too big and caused undesirable behavior. Basically the appraisal value was not updateable. To fix the scope problem I had to understand the data flow and get closer to just the one stream. It took some time. Chris was worried about me getting it solved quickly. I figured it could take a couple days. I was able to finish it off yesterday.

I also found out that SQL Server two-thousand-five is more picky about things that two-thousand let you get away with. We had some sprocs break. Finally after banging my head against the wall because I was getting resistance from others, Shawn helped me realize that the problem was with the fact that the new SQL Server was picky. I was able to quickly fix that problem and retire it. But it was only quick once I found out the info about SQL Server.

After work I went to get my pants from Moscow. I got back to the Deuce in time to go to ropes training. I am not on the ropes team, but I was able to help out in the training doing a non-technical role.

After the ropes training we got Rescues cascade system topped off and then it was off to the Deuce again. I watched Rescue Me with the guys at the station.

Davolt was having a poker game. I was there long enough to play two hands when we got a call. I left only to find we got cancelled on scene. I went to the office and wrote up my thoughts about the extrication tools from class on Monday. I am voting for the Amkus tools over all. Once I sent that off to George I went home and got to bed. Before long I was on my way to the station for a fire alarm at Stephenson North. We sat in the rig on scene for about twenty minutes before being cleared.

ATV and the Tree

June 5th, 2006

I ran a fair number of calls today. I was up pretty late as it was with calls last night. I went down to one call and Wakeman was still asleep. I let him keep sleeping. A while later we got a call for an accident in Albion. Normally Rescue does not go to Albion calls, but because they said accident I went to the station.

Wakeman had my stuff ready to roll. We were first on scene. An ATV had gone down a hill hitting a tree branch pretty good trapping the person. I helped to cut away tree branches and then I rode in the back of the ambulance on that call.

Following that call I had to get back to the office to take care of some burning issues. I got two bugs solved and checked in during the hour and a half that I was there. We were doing extrication training today. We are using some new tools to see what ones we like the best. We were using Holmatro and Amkus tools. There were pros and cons for each one. We were there for almost four hours using the tools and cutting apart cars.

After the training was over it was getting late. I needed to take my pants back to Moscow to get them fixed, so I decided to stay in Pullman tonight rather than driving to Colfax to sleep. But it has been more than a week since I was last home so I need to get there and get the mail.

Working on my Ollie Day

June 4th, 2006

This morning when I woke up I found the softball games had been rained out. I then decided I would go to Pullman and work instead of taking my day off. I called Chuck and let him know I was coming back. But I had to wait around the house until my clothes were done being washed.

I got on the road around one-thirty in the afternoon. I had to fill up my truck and grab some lunch along the way. Now that I don’t have to do that drive as often I am really disliking it. For a while it was a fact of life, so I put up with it. I want to do it as rarely as possible. Twice a month is the most I would like to do if possible. This week however the survival outing is coming up so I will have to make my way back home.

I got to Pullman around six-thirty. I got my uniform on and to the Deuce. I spent about two hours with Heston and his son. I was demonstrating our extrication tools for him, including the air bags. It was nice to get them out and use them. I rarely do that.

After that we had a crew dinner then it was on to vehicle maintenance. It took about two more hours. So I did not get out of the station until after eleven at night. I was going to do some shopping at Safeway. But I went to Dissmores instead. I got some pizza and went home to fix it.

My roommate was up and he asked me some stuff about being webpages. There is a project he would like to do for his Senior project at school.

Making Whatcom County Safer

June 3rd, 2006

I got up and went down to Fry’s to get a new thumb drive. I found one that was a gig for about thirty bucks after instant and mail-in rebate. I got that and some CD-R’s. Then I went to Diamond Lil’s. I wasn’t doing all that great. I was not finding many hands that I could stay in on. I was playing a higher limit table than normal because I was hoping people would not stay in and catch. While I was playing Joe called to see if I still wanted to ride.

I decided to do it, so I went home and changed and then headed to Bellingham. I got there about ten minutes before Joe went on shift. It was a pretty quiet night over all. We ran a lot of traffic on this one road looking for DUI’s. We did not find one there. We also had a chance to go code a few times. That was fun.

We had one call where some people were having a party. A young girl was there and her mom went to get her. There people in the party would not talk to the mom and shut the door on her. She called us to help. We got there and knocked. When they asked who it was it was announced “Whatcom County Sheriff”. Within about a minute we heard a lot of people running out the back.

We went around back and saw the place was empty. It was a rental that was not rented out. So we checked for people inside. We did not find anyone, but we found a wallet with ID. So we knew one of the people who was inside. The guy came back and faced the music. It turned out he met some girls on MySpace. They claimed to be sixteen. They were only fifteen. They were twenty-one and came up form Gig Harbor. The cops told them that they should go back to Gig Harbor and not come back. They said they would.

We let them go and then a DUI was caught by someone else. Joe was handed the PC and took the person. At first he was not very nice, but as time went on he got better. We released him to his wife. Then Joe dropped me off because it was almost four in the morning.

I made my way home. It was starting to get light out as I was going. It was only four-thirty in the morning and it felt like it was later than that because of how light it was. As soon as I got home I went to bed.

Dinner on the Hill

June 2nd, 2006

After work today I had a scrimmage game against another softball team. It was played at the Raineer Beach playfield. We did really well in the scrimmage. They had one big inning, but we had lots of big innings. I even poked one out of the park. I played firstbase and pitcher through out the game.

After it was done Jamie, Chris, Don, Kevin, and I went to Capitol Hill to a pizza place on Madison Ave. It was packed inside. We had to wait a little while for the seats we got.

We hung out talking about softball and they spent time talking about boys. It was around ten-thirty when I headed out and went home for the evening.

Not Breathing

June 1st, 2006

When I woke up I realized that I had fallen asleep before putting on the CPAP. So I did not get a chance to see what it was like to wear it. I did put it on for a little bit and try it, but I wasn’t really that tired so I could not get back to sleep very well.

I went into work around ten in the morning and got a couple bugs done on our next release that is coming up in October. All the work for the current release is done and checked in.

After work I went to my sisters house where my mom has been staying. I hope she does not get a divorce. Through everything my step-dad has been my father figure since I was ten years-old. So he is my dad in many ways and I would not be able to turn my back on him, which could strain my relationship with the rest of my family I would think.

After that I just went home and played some poker, watched some TV and went to sleep remembering to put on my BA today. I will call my CPAP machine BA for breathing apparatus from now on.