The Housing Plot Thickens

August 31st, 2006

So I look into the loans and I get pre-approved for the smaller amounts. I found a house I really like. It is on NW Brandon. It is large and has the things I want, including a game room. I get pre-approved for that amount of money only to find the house was in the process of being sold. I guess it is a good thing because now I don’t have to worry about spending more money than I should on a house.

New Home?

August 30th, 2006

At work I got a bug back from yesterday. They added something new to it and I had to redo my SQL query. It took a little bit of time to think through how to do it and get something done. But it appears that I have it working. I got it checked in. I was supposed to wear business casual today because of people who were coming into the office. So I even shaved. We had a business lunch with everyone.

I spent some time talking to Barb about the eight-twenty loans and the one-hundred percent loans and got some information about that. I contact Washington State ECU about looking into the eighty-twenty loan. They are going to run the number. I contacted the real estate agent about the house on Terre View drive. I am really considering it. It has central AC, washer and dryer, nice wood work and more.

I also got working on another problem for Brian. As I got going on it I found there was an error in our DU files and it had probably been there for years and no one knew it. I worked on it some more and got it fixed, but then Barb, Miki, Brian, and I looked into it some more to see if it would cause problems elsewhere. So far it seems like my fixing it was a good thing.

I got a call from Jon about Logan’s football practice. It is also his birthday today. I was going to give him mom’s present. Plus I got him a card with money. I went to his practice. It was funny to watch the little guys playing ball. Jon was a coach and he was in his element. He was able to yell and get the kids fired up.

I spent about a half hour on the phone with Joe. I am getting some ear pieces from him and I am going to sell them to the other guys at the FD if I can. They are nice ones. I also talked to him about doing a ride along this weekend as well as my new house dilemma. I am waiting to see what happens. I may go back early to look at the house. I will see what happens when I talk to the real estate agent.

A few more bugs

August 29th, 2006

A couple new bugs trickled into my pipeline. I got them worked on as I got them. I was able to close them out as the came in pretty much. I went out to lunch with the guys. We went to Round Table Pizza.

At home I was looking on Realtor.com for properties that were for sale. I was thinking about buying a piece of land and then building on it in a couple years. While looking I found a condo for sale that was pretty cheap. I started to look into that. Then I found another one that was better and closer to the fire station. I looked into that. Finally I found a house that was more than two-hundred thousand bucks. It was right up from the fire station. I started the process of getting pre-approved for a loan.

I got the pre-approval. I am nervous about getting into a house when I told myself I wouldn’t. I need to hold strong to that but so far I am not.

Two Weeks in Bellevue

August 28th, 2006

I got up at four in the morning and got my truck loaded. Then I stopped by my office and picked up my work notebooks. I got gas and was on my way to Colfax. I got my quad from the house and that was the last thing I had to get. I left the remaining key in the house and left.

I was flying for a while. I was doing about eighty to eighty-five for a lot of the way through Whitman County. Then I slowed down to about seventy-five to eighty for most of Adams County.

I got to work around nine-thirty. I was able to get some of the bugs that I had been holding off working on for the last week and a half due to the lack of Internet access at the office. I got everything in my pipeline completed.

I went home and I was there just in time for dinner. I put my stuff away. After dinner I unloaded the quad. Something was not working correctly. It did not want to drive. I got it into the shop. It seemed there was a problem with the breaks being stuck on. I looked at the back and I saw a rope that I had in the back of the truck was stuck around the wheel and sucked into the break. I spent about fifteen minutes trying to free the rope. It was stuck in there good. When I got it all out I looked in the break and I could see what looked like a small spring was broken. So I will have to take it in and get looked at. I am a little upset about that being broken.

I also got the new wireless router set up and running with my mom’s laptop and my laptop as well as her desktop. I also got my new Streets and Trips with the GPS. I played around with that for a while. But I had to download a text to speech program so the Streets and Trips could read out my next steps.

FFL Draft

August 27th, 2006

Starting at noon I was on call for the coroners office. I got up and wanted to go to Lewiston to watch Aden’s Seattle Studs baseball team play, but I just could not get motivated to driving down there. So I ended up sticking around. I had to get ready for the FFL draft anyway. I went to the office and did some searches for rankings of players so I could draft my team.

I went to VanNesses and installed his new RAM. Backed up his data and started to install Windows XP. But I had to leave before it was done. I told them to call me if there were any issues.

I went to Matt’s place for the draft. Ernest, Carl, Grant, and Matt were there. I got there just before the draft was to start. As it turned out I got a call for the coroners office. Right at the time the draft was to start. This is the second year in a row where I got a coroners case when I should have been doing the draft. So I made some calls and found out what was going on with the case. I talked to the doctor in the hospital. Then I talked to Pete. It appeared like a case I could refuse jurisdiction because we know what the person died. I told Pete what was going on. He agreed with me. I was able to call the hospital and tell them we were not taking jurisdiction.

The draft started. I got most of the guys I really wanted to get. I think I have a pretty good team over all. If I can just run it correctly. We were done with the draft around nine-thirty. I called up VanNess. They said things were going well. They seem happy right now.

I went home and got my boat locked to the back of the Bumblebee. So hopefully no one will steal it while I am out of town. I also got another call from VanNess. I helped his wife find some stuff she was looking for. Then I went in and went to bed because I was getting up really early in the morning to head to Bellevue.

Second Boating Trip

August 26th, 2006

Today was the date of my second boating trip of the year. It sucks that I have only been out one other time, but with all the work on the weekends, driving to and from Seattle, and gas prices I have not made a lot of trips to the water. It will be nice to get out there. I have struck out on getting people to join me however. With as busy as people are and them being out of town or working I only got four people in total to go, and one would meet us down there.

I met up with Peter and Mike at Safeway. I got some breakfast/lunch foods. I went to my truck and got it cleaned out then I got the boat filled up with gas. Mike, Peter, and I rode down in my truck, but with the back seat so full they ended up riding in the front seat with me.

We launched the boat and it did the thing where it did not want to turn over at all. Then after a tiny bit it turned over and started quickly. We got out there and did some cruising. We were waiting for Dearth Jr to make it out to the river. I hear he is quite a stud on the water.

About an hour after we got there he showed up. We went out and he started the knee-boarding. Dearth got up in the first try. Then Mike went out. We tried to get Peter up but we were never able to get him out of the water.

Later Dearth tried to use the knee board like a wakeboard. He got up and then rode it for a bit, finally he went down to his knees and rode it some more. He was only with us for a tiny bit then he had to get going. We got Mike on the skis a little bit. Peter went on the tube.

I drove around following the birds trying to tail them. But most of the actually flew faster than I could drive.

We left around four-thirty. Got the boat trailered and driven to Pullman. There was this car going hella slow all the way up the grade and on the Wawawai road. I passed it up and left it in the dust.

I also had a voicemail waiting for me on my phone. Chuck said that we were going to do some Rescue training at five. I called and let him know I would be there for that.

I got home and cleaned up. Then I went to the station. There were three guys on OT today so they had a big meal down at the Deuce and invited the reserves to join them. Walker, Parrish, and I went to Dissmore’s and got some stuff for the BBQ that was going on. When we got back to the station I backed the Rescue and went to put the chaulk out. I found it was missing. I told Walker that we needed to get some Chocolate-Peanut Butter ice cream. He said we were not going back to the store. I said yes we are… we have to get the chaulk.

We got the chaulk and he got some ice cream. Shortly after our return to the station we ate. It was very filling and very good. The families were also invited down. It was a nice meal.

I was on Rescue for the rest of the evening. We had a couple calls, but nothing too major as the night went on. I went to my office and made a CD for the Rescue. One song was C’Mon C’Mon from the soundtrack for Rescue Me. So when we got a call around two in the morning we drove out of the station with C’Mon C’Mon playing. Walker and Bien loved it.

After the call we went to, it was a non-transport. We got called around the corner to another person. Rescue was first on scene. We transported. That was pretty much it for our night. It was not too busy of a night.

I am Done Moving, Finally

August 25th, 2006

I started the day off by getting up at seven-forty and talking to James about my report. He said I had done a good job on it. I decontaminated my trauma scissors and then went to my apartment. I went to sleep for another four hours. Then I went to work and got a couple bugs closed out. I drove down to Colfax and did the final moving things I needed to do. I consolidated my boxes and made a dump run. Someone from Palouse came and got the dog house and all the other things I was giving away for free. I then went back to my place got the Bumblebee running. I loaded my truck will stuff and then went to the fire station.

I hung out with Carl and we talked about the wildfire in Pullman. Mike was going to come and help me get the rest of my stuff and move it to Pullman. I got back to my house around seven-thirty and loaded the Bumblebee and waited for Mike to show up. We loaded up his truck and then headed to Pullman. I got the stuff put in my apartment and the storage place.

I got online and checked my bank account. My HELOC was closed out and I am now nearly out of debt. I only have the truck over my head. It is awesome.

I went to the office and used my computer that had the Internet, that too was nice. I got caught up on all my blogging and all the other Websites I seemed to have been missing for about two weeks.

Smoke in the Sky over Pullman

August 24th, 2006

As I finally was able to leave Colfax for the night and descend to Pullman I noticed light-brown air filling the sky. Coming down Davis Way the brown air was so thick I could barely see across Pullman. It was pretty amazing. The smell of smoke is all about.

I made my way to Pizza Pipeline for some lunch and went directly to the office, getting to work sometime after eleven in the morning. There was some work to do. I tried to get going on it, and did accomplish a little bit, but I was tired. I have been up for more than twenty-four straight hours. I am also on call tonight so it does not look good for sleep.

After being at work for a couple hours I was dragging hard core so I went to my house and cleaned up. My bed was calling, but I decided to get ready to be on call. I got my bedding. I thought staying at the fire station would be a great idea for tonight.

I was down there for a while when James mentioned that the “Meet the Staff” link still has the old shift line ups. So I went to the computer and fixed those. Chuck called and said he would be down there for the BBQ we were going to around five o’clock. He asked me to check the rigs and see if they needed to be washed. Rescue was not bad, but I gave it a wash anyway. There was a fine layer on dust on it.

I got done in time for us to put our gear on it and drive to the Columbia Village apartments. I was told to back the Rescue into the gate. It was so tight I had about an inch between the truck and the gate post. But I made it in. I got myself some dinner. While we were eating I found out Chuck got hired by Shelton Fire. So he will not be going to Medic School, but he will be leaving for sure. So it looks like I may be a Crew Leader pretty soon.

After we were done with dinner we were showing the Rescue off. The kids were really annoying, even more than normal to me. It could have been that I was tired. I am really not sure why. The cops were there too and let the kids play with the siren. I told the captain that we needed to use the growler and let them hear a real siren. He gave me permission. I went to the PL and hit the growler. Not a lot, but it was awesome. It gave me a smile.

Once the people stopped coming over and it was winding down we started to get the rigs out and leave. It was tight making Rescue leave. We drove down Forrest Way towards Two-Seventy. Reed was the only one with me. We were listening to the police on our radio when they started to talk about a motorcycle versus a car accident in a parking lot. There was confusion about the exact location. It was thought to be CCN or CCS. But it was also said that it was on SE Olympia. There is no SE Olympia in Pullman, but there is a NE Olypmia, it is right by Stephenson. We were right by Stephenson, so I turned on Nevada which turns into Olympia. That was about the time they were dispatching it.

They put it out as a Delta response, with a possible broken leg. A broken leg is usually not something that someone will die of, so I was not too concerned. I figured it was all a low speed. But when the cops got there I heard the dispatcher come over our frequency and let us know the cop is there and holding pressure to slow the bleeding. That is when I knew there was a bit of a problem.

It was put out in the CCS parking lot and a cop was right there. So we took the scenic route to get there. It really was the scenic route, but if we had not turned to go towards Olympia we would not have had the extra couple roads to travel down. We were coming up Merman Drive as Engine Thirty-Two was coming down. I saw the police cars.

I parked across the street to leave room in the parking lot for the Ambulance. We walked across the street to the parking lot. I could see a group of people standing around and some people across the street by where I was parked. It was quite the thing to do at the time. The motorcycle was on the side and he was laying on the parking lot with a cop holding pressure. As I got closer I could see hunks of flesh with blood. I knew that was not a good sign. There was a fair amount of blood and the injury was severe.

We put on a couple trauma dressings and an air splint to stabilize the injury. He had bones showing with a hug cut area showing muscle and fat tissues. It was very bad looking. He was transported code-three. I got to the hospital and helped to clean everything up.

Reed and I stopped by station one and saw the first responders doing their testing. We were talking about the call as well as joking about other things. We were there for a little bit when we got called to the SRC for an injured ankle. But when we got on scene we were cancelled. So we went back to the Deuce. Chuck was there and we talked about house buying. He is looking at houses in Shelton on the Internet.

I sat down and watched some TV but I was so tired that I decided it would be a good idea to go to bed. But with me being up for thirty-six-plus hours and with the fact we have had very few night time calls I knew tonight would be the night for them. I went to sleep ten minutes after ten o’clock. Within thirty-five minutes we were getting dispatched to someone with chest pain.

It was out in the county. Sort of a frequent flyer. D-Twelve also came and they went with the Ambulance to the hospital with the patient. We cleared and went back to the station. Just as we were going to back it in another call for a fire alarm came in. We got changed quickly and drove to the scene. I was IC. I did the size up. We went inside and could see the smoke detector going as well as the smell of the burnt food. We spent some time trying to find the alarm panel. When Engine Thirty-Two arrived we had them come in and help with the panel. Finally we sent Keith outside to get someone from the house to show us the panel.

We got the system reset. James asked if I wanted to hand off the case to him or if I wanted to do the report. I told him I would like to do it because I have never done one. He got me started and then I wrote it up. I printed it off and set it on the log book. I went to bed. But it was not to be for very long. I got another call for a detox at a little after two in the morning. That time I was really tired. I am talking super duper tired. I said to the other guys, now I know what it is like to be a mortal and feel really tired.

We finally got back and I went right to bed, but it was after three in the morning. I decided I should get up before James leaves and talk to him about my report. My alarm clock was set for seven-forty. Way too early for my last two days.

Big Huge Fire

August 23rd, 2006

After nearly ten days without Internet access in my office I was ready to take whomever could get to me first and install something that worked. I worked the phones trying to get people who would listen to me and help me out. After having picked up my modem from UPS and installing it, the same thing was happening. But NU was worried about LP and I had to get to work on it, so I went to Taco Time for lunch and to sit there using the computer. I got a couple things done before I got a call from First Step Internet. I went back to my office and tried a couple things to no avail.

After sitting around for about two and a half hours I got work Verizon found the problem on their end, after days ago saying it was all good on their end. They would have it fixed in the morning. I said that was unacceptable. But the guy at FSR said it is normally a week turn around, so the fact I am getting it over night is pretty good. I was not impressed with all the other errors from Verizon. Later on I pulled in my DSL modem only to see it start to work. I got in more than a hundred e-mail messages and started to work on things that I had not gotten to get to.

I got into work on the LP stuff right away. But as I was working I heard Colfax out running a fire call. It was a grass fire that was getting away from them. They started to calling for other departments to come. As it turned out members and rig from every fire district in Whitman County showed up. But I was stuck getting my work done. I worked hard on it for a couple hours then when I finished I checked it in and took off for Colfax. I had called Jenny to see if people were still needed and she said yes.

When I got to Colfax there were a lot of people there. I went to the bay and got my wildland gear. I did not have pants yet so I figured I would wear my bunker bottoms. Even if I had pants I did not have boots. When I took my bunker bottoms off the rack I saw a set of bottoms for wildland. I tried them on and they fit. Then I saw a pair of boots over my stuff. I tried them on. They fit, but the metal toe was really tight and caused painful pressure points. I decided against my better judgment to wear them anyway.

Within minutes of getting my stuff on we were out the door. It was Matt, Zach, and I with Steve from the City driving us. We were heading into the fire ground. I was in awe. I have seen footage like that on the news before, but to see it in person was amazing. The hillside had one line zigzagging line of fire. Smoke was thick and there were spots of fires all over the place. It was dark outside and I could not see how bad the damage was, but I could see the fire. It was all around. It was making the area glow. It was almost over whelming. I have never been in a place like that. It was dark, I was surrounded by fire and it was so pretty. But I had no idea what I was going to have to do. I had my webgear and my fire shelter. I surely hoped I would not need to use that.

We went to the Chicken Ranch Road on the South Palouse River Road. We got out. My old coworker from IS, Dan was there with Rosalia fire. We chatting briefly. Steve did not take off right away because he did not want to leave us until we were assigned somewhere. We had only one radio channel being used and it was full. There was not time to talk. It was constant chatter. We tried several times to get out on the radio. But we were not able to reach command. Shortly thereafter my night started. A lady in a Suburban came by. At first I was annoyed because the road was filled with people driving around looking at the fire and it was hard for the fire apparatus to move around. I saw one grey truck was off the side of the road.

Anyway the lady rolled down her window and said that she thought the grain silo was on fire. We got in Steve’s truck to check it out, on our way there Clark got on the radio and said he had emergency traffic. He said the grain silo was on fire. We got there and the grey truck was still parked about twenty feet from the silo. It was in the collapse zone. I had found out it belonged to a firefighter from Colfax fire, Rick. It was being used by David who was doing rehab runs. He was trying to back out of the way for a big rig coming through and got it high centered on the back axle. A guy from Garfield Fire was there in his POV. He pulled out some chains and we were going to yank it out. But we needed to get inside. We were about to break the window when Rick’s son Eric came running up yelling that he had the key. He got in and we got it yanked out. While yanking it out the back wheel came about three feet off the ground. But it was out without incident.

We had some people from one of the agencies trying to put some water where the flames were coming out from the top of the silo. But it was not enough. After a couple minutes we had them back up and Elevator Command was established with Scott running it. I was with Scott on the West side of the Elevator. Several units were with us. There were several more units on the East side as well. We were waiting for spot fires or a collapse to fight the fire. We were there for a couple hours as it burned and slowly collapsed in on itself. At one point when the wall and floor gave out on one level a very large amount of grain started to fall from it onto the railroad tracks that were right next to it. There was a mound about ten feet high covering the tracks. When only about fifteen feet of the wall remained we figured it was pretty safe. There was no danger of it collapsing on the road. It was close to that time we learned about a train trestle that was fully involved.

Matt, Zach, and I jumped in Jeff’s truck and he drove us to the scene. On the way Zach was saying someone was asking him what squad he was from. We decided to name ourselves Squad Fifty-One after the TV show Emergency. We got on scene and the trestle was burning pretty heavily. We walked to the area where the fighting was going on. We were there for about twenty minutes and it became pretty clear that our efforts were in vain. The far side that was over the river was not going out and we could not get water on it. So they finally decided to stop fighting it and we were going to let it burn. We kept one tender truck there with a small pump. Squad Fifty-One was going to help fight spot fires. Jeff also stuck around. All other units cleared that scene and were reassigned.

For the next several hours we watched it burn and watched it start to fall apart and fall into the river. A bunch of reporters from the Daily Evergreen came by. They were taking a lot of photos and talking to us. They wanted to see this one large support beam fall. It looked like it was close to falling, but it was after three o’clock in the morning the most of them were ready to leave. So they took off and it was another hour or two before it actually fell.

I thought about a way to fight to save some of the trestle. Only half of it was in the river. The other half was over dry land where we could get to both sides. I thought that with people on both sides there we could fight it and save that part. I told my idea to Jeff and we went to look. He agreed with me. We decided what support beam set we were going to fight from. I called it the Alamo. We drew a line and we were going to fight to the end. Zach said we lost the Alamo. I said I know, we are going to fight to the end, like they did at the Alamo. We knew at the speed of the fire we had about an hour before we had to fight, so we talked to command and got two tenders and a pumper to come down and play.

With the time we had before fighting the fire we asked for some food from the Command Post. The Red Cross showed up with food and what-not. Scott came down with the food for all of us. We were able to get something to eat before it was show time.

The fire was getting closer, Command told us to be careful fighting a night-time operation. We got the unit coming and got ready to fight. We layed out the hose line and I went to the far side
of the trestle and started to wet down the supports and the beams. The fire got closer and closer. Other guys were on the other side putting water there. As the fire got closer Jim and I put down our goggles and put up the face from our coat. The heat was bad and it was still approaching. I was fighting to save the rest of the trestle and I was starting to worry a little bit about the heat and how long I could stay there. I only had a one-inch line and there was another one-inch line on the other side. The fire was slowed, but not stopped by us. Then Jeff showed up with a one and a half inch line. With his help we not only stopped the fire but fought it back. We ended up winning the Alamo and saving two extra trestles. D-Twelve showed up and got on top of the trestle and put foam and water on from the top side. For the next hour we kept spraying down the trestle supports and keeping the fire at bay. Soon it was not necessary to constantly fight. I kept an eye on the fire and sat down. My boots were hurting my feet in the toes area where it was really tight.

For the next couple hours I kept watch on my part of the trestle. I would spray water from time to time to keep the beams cool. Soon light was peaking over the hill and I could start to see all the blacken land. The fire had done a good job on burning things. A TV crew shows up and got some video of us in our operation. I was only holding a hose waiting to do something. Jim was standing next to me. I figured with us just standing around we would not be of much interest to put on the news. But I was wrong. We appeared on the news and on their website with the slide show.


Jim and I Watching the Trestle


Other Members of Squad Fifty-One Watch over the “Alamo”

Around seven in the morning I was getting pretty tired. We started to clean up and roll up our hose in anticipation of being relieved. It was only one more hour before we would get relieved with the new crews. But there was a communication break down. As the new crews went out they did not realize we were at the trestle. Clark showed up and said “this is where the missing engines and tenders where.” It was another thirty minutes before we were able to leave. So it was nearly ten in the morning when we got to the command post to fill out our paperwork and got some food. We were there for about thirty minutes getting everyone’s paperwork fill out.

Jim and I took Eleven-Zero-One to the station. We had to clean it up and spray out the radiator and air filter before we were cleared to leave.

Colfax Fire Training… Finally.

August 22nd, 2006

It has been a long time since I was able to do Colfax Fire Training because of softball, being on call at Pullman, and being out of town. I missed nearly all of the summer. I did some work at Taco Time and then I went to Colfax. I moved a ton of stuff from my basement to the car port and then I did some cleaning of the mouse droppings.

I got a hepafilter from the health department from Judy. I used gloved and went to work. I took a short break and signed the papers for the house sale. It is going to be finalized this week. After spending several hours getting that work done I went to the fire station and had training. We were doing some pumping and water shuttling. I was put on rehab and photo taking because of my hurting back. I got some pretty cool photos of the people on top of engine three spraying water and the red lights flashing.

After the training several of us went to Subway for dinner. I had eaten at Eddy’s so I just hung out with everyone. After the dinner I went home and went to bed.

Still no Internet

August 21st, 2006

I am not happy about still not having my internet, but I know the new modem is on the way. I went to Pizza Pipeline for lunch and did some work online there. I am not able to get a lot done because it is a lot slower going while using my laptop.

I decided that I was not feeling up do doing training tonight because my back was starting to hurt more than the last few days. I am upset that my back hurts so I cannot get any work done around the house. I am mad because I cannot get work done because the Internet is down. So I am just sitting around wasting time. I would be sort of okay with the bad Internet if I could at least get some work done around the house.

Getting Checked Off

August 20th, 2006

I started the day out by sleeping until noon. Then I got up and made some lunch and watched a movie. NTeck joined me and when it was done it was close to the time for the autopsy for my latest case.

I got to the funeral home in time for the autopsy to start. It was pretty interesting to see someone who was young and fit. My other two autopsies were with old people so I got a chance to see what things should look like this time. Young organs and things that looked normal.

After the autopsy I went to the apartment and got ready for my cone course to get signed off on the new rescue. But we were doing an inventory of the new rescue first. So I helped with that and it took a couple hours to do that. I did my cone course in the dark. I ended up passing the cone course and only got dinged for my hand placement and not using my signals. But we were not really in places where they honestly would have been used. All the logical places to use a signal I used one.

I am now signed off on using the new rescue. I am pretty happy about that. I went to the office and didn’t do a whole bunch after that.

St. Maries Softball

August 19th, 2006

I got up at five in the morning and got ready for softball and then headed out. I got some pop and filled my truck. Our first game was at eight in the morning. I was still tender in the back area. I got to St. Maries after about an hour and fifteen minutes of driving. I was going fast.

We went to the field and I got a couple beers and then we played ball. I was not able to hit anything. I went oh-fer in the first game, but I did get on base once. We lost the first game which meant our next game was going to be at three-thirty in the afternoon. I was not looking forward to the long delay. I had some more beer and watched the women play a game. I also saw the coach of the Palouse Thunder there. He lives in the area and planned on seeing some of the guys on the team who were planning on playing in some of the games.

We had a guy on our team who we called K-Fed for Kevin Federline (Britney’s Husband). He was a ten-six-seven and a good player. He also happened to play for the Thunder for part of this last season.

I went back to camp and hung out for a while trying to relax my back. I made my trip to Serva Burger. It is like Cougar Country. They have some good food there. It was about an hour and a half before game time. I got some food and went back to the field.

We had our next game and I was hurting a little bit. I was playing catcher. We had some close plays at home and I got some action. We ended up losing that game as well. I went oh-fer in that game as well. I decided that I would try to make it back to be on call. I wanted to be on Rescue because it was the opening weekend before school and many times it is busy as heck there.

It turned out to be dead more or less. But I made good time to Pullman. I was able to drive from St. Maries to Pullman, shower, get my pop, and get to the station in about an hour and fifty minutes.

I went to the station and we got some calls. I was on rescue the whole night, but we only got four calls. Not what I was hoping for. But they came pretty close to a bunch. So five of us stayed at the station for most of the night. Keith and Tyson were in the bedroom with me and Chapman, Reed, and Brian stayed on the furniture in the dayroom. We did not get any additional calls. I got up around three in the morning and went to my apartment and slept for the rest of the night.

I Got My Modem Finally

August 18th, 2006

I started the day off with a trip to Colfax. I sent in the order for sunglasses. I also signed some paperwork for my house sale. We needed to allow the closing agency to pay off my final debts for the house. I got the paperwork for the case from yesterday done and printed out.

My modem was supposed to have arrived yesterday, but they sent it two-day instead. I was not very happy about that. I hooked it up and it did not fix anything. I talked with FSR. We did all the things they thought we should test out. Then they decided to send out a guy to do some stuff on site. He said it was a bad modem and I needed a new one.

So I got on the phone with the people from Verizon and spent a fair amount of time until I talked to someone and a new modem was on the way. I told them the problem with the first shipment. They said they would send this one out nextday.

Peter and I met up for dinner at the Emerald. We were there for nearly four hours. We talked about the PES and other things. I saw the new Rescue and engine go by. I knew they were now in service. I went to the station and took a look at them. I saw where the equipment was put and talked with Chapman for a while. There was also a problem with the engine smoking, it looked like a small electrical fire was happening. Eric from the main station came down and looked at it. They determined something with the charging system went bad and caused the smoking.

I wanted to get to bed sort of early because I had softball in St. Maries in the morning and I had to get up early to get there. Because I went to the station I did not get an early bedtime like I had hoped for.

Non-Stop Working

August 17th, 2006

The day started with a call from Pete at seven in the morning. I forgot that I was on call, but I had been up late and I was tired. I answered it and he said there was a case in Rosalia. I called Whitcom and got more information. It turned out to be a twenty-six year old found in a car. But they had the bike rally starting up that day and wanted to take care of everything as quick as possible. I got going and raced to Rosalia. I also called Patti and Pete and let them know what was going on. I invited Patti to come out and work the scene as well.

I arrived about ten minutes before Patti. The guy was found in his car and CPR was started, but it was not successful. He was pronounced dead at the scene by MedStar. I started to do my investigation. Patti showed up and helped me with everything. We got the funeral home there and they took the body to Kimball’s in Pullman was we finished up the scene. I got all sorts of photos and talked to the family. Pete showed up and helped talk to the family. Patti and the Rosalia Town Marshall went to the dad’s house and interviewed him. It was looking like an OD.

I left and went to Kimballs. Pete wanted me to get blood and urine to send to the state. I also took temperatures.

I went to Taco Time and got some work done then I went back to my office and got my paperwork completed. Pete called and asked if I could go to the Autopsy. I said I could. I planned on getting my clothes on for that but then I got another call telling me that it was ready to start and I had to get there right away because Pete was not in the area and it was starting early.

I got to Kimballs and watched the autopsy. It was interesting. I was able to see inside the Abdominal Aorta. It was full of really rough substances due to age. It was like feeling sand paper. Pete showed up at the end of the autopsy and we talked about it all.

I was on call tonight. While at the station Tony called to see if Rescue could help with the First Responder class. We had Drew coming to do more with the Rescue training. We worked on it and was mostly done when we got called away to a medical incident. When it was done we went to the station and started to do check offs. But we got two calls in the process of the check off’s. We had all our calls when we wanted to get other things done, but by the time we were done doing our work the calls also stopped coming in.

I was supposed to have gotten my Modem from Verizon, but it had not arrived. I called

New Engine Training

August 16th, 2006

Because we are going to get the old WSU engine for the reserves I need drive time in it. Erik and I went out in it for about three hours. We drove all around town and I was able to do all the hills finishing on College Hill. By that time I was more comfortable with the smaller roads and the size of the engine. We drove all around and there were a lot of people around milling about because it is Rush week.

I did not do a lot more because my system is still down. I finally found out that Verizon said there was nothing wrong on their end, but they thought my modem was bad so they were going to send one overnight.

Rescue Me at Keith’s Place

August 15th, 2006

I worked with FSR on my computer stuff some more. But without having the Internet I decided to go to Taco Time where there is free Internet access. I did that yesterday as well. I was able to get work done while having lunch.

I was on duty tonight. My back was still tender but I was not going to not work. Drew was going to come and check us off on the new Rescue Thirty Two. It was going to go into service very soon. We were nearly done when we got called away on a car accident. So we didn’t get a lot done. We went to the scene and got cancelled pretty quickly.

Because of calls and whatnot we were unable to watch Rescue Me at the station so we went to Keith’s apartment and watched it up there.

Taking the Day Off

August 14th, 2006

Because of my hurting back I decided that I should take the day off of work. It also didn’t help that the Internet in my office was down. I dealt with FSR about trying to get it figured out. We could not find out what was wrong with it. I was going to skip fire training tonight but I decided that I would cowboy up and go.

Now that I am an engineer I was assigned to take Engine Thirty-Three to the CUB. I put my stuff in the engine and we went to station one before going to the CUB. There was a question about what I was going to do. At first I was going to get assigned to a team and then I put on my coat to find out it was too small. As it turned out I had someone elses coat. I was going to have to find out who had my coat.

I was assigned to be a victim in the CUB. I found a hiding spot and they were going to have to find me. They found me finally. Then we had a short critique after it was done.

I got back to the Deuce and found that Walker and I had gotten our coats switched around. So I fixed it and then I headed home.

Hurt my back

August 13th, 2006

Because the softball tournament was cancelled for me I decided that I would get more moving done. I also called Patti and asked to take Sunday from her so I could do some boating on a weekend to come. There was more stuff to pack and start to move. It was slow going. I only had the basement to do, but I really hated to start on it. I hate moving and the stuff in the basement is full of cob webs as well as the fact there has been a presence of mice down there. I am worried about hantavirus in the droppings, so I am looking up information about it and trying to be careful about what I do down there so it makes it real slow going.

I got some stuff done, but I also started hurting more and more as the day went on. Steve, the guy buying my house wanted me to show him around the property. I went up on my quad and he took his motorcycle up there. We drove around and looked at everything.

When we were done I was really hurting. I went to the fire station. Around seven in the afternoon I got a call from Patti about a case to do. So I called the hospital in Pullman and found out what happened. It turned out someone died of a AAA. Because of that I knew I should investigate to make sure there wasn’t a medical misadventure as Pete calls them. There was a AAA in the past where the doctor did not do what he should have in diagnosing it.

I went to the hospital. But I was hardly able to stand and walk. I walked hunched over into the hospital. The chaplain was there and carried a bag for me. I did my investigation. Craig from Kimballs showed up and we removed the body. I went back to the funeral home and did more of an investigate. Pete decided and autopsy was in order.

I called the family and talked to them and went to my office to start on my paperwork. I got it all done and went to the coroners office to get it all printed off for Pete.

The Second Big Move

August 12th, 2006

After having packed all my stuff, it was my turn to do the packing — packing of boxes up and down the stairs. I made trips and up and down as I answered phone calls in reference to my craigslist listing. I had several things for free including he SAAB. A ten-six-seven from Spokane came and got it. He was shirtless and looking good. He got the car and took off. Other people showed up through out the day and got items I was giving away.

I also was working on taking the stuff down to the truck and packing them. It took a while to get everything down to my truck. Once it was all packed we went to Pullman. Dan met us at the storage place and helped to unload everything. Then we went to my apartment and unloaded the rest of the stuff.

My mom went to Cougar Country after that and had dinner. She was going to head back to Seattle after getting some food. I still had a long night a head of me for doing some unpacking and arranging my room. It got my desk set up and decided how I would arrange my room so all my items were nicely arranged. I have a lot of boxes of stuff to go through and put away.

Mom Helping Me Pack

August 11th, 2006

My mom came over from Seattle to help me pack my kitchen and the remainder of my stuff today. We both got into Colfax around the same time. We got some lunch and she worked on packing stuff. I loaded my truck full of items and made my way to Pullman to drop them off. It was nice to have her over and her help made my life so much easier, because packing the kitchen for me would have taken for ever.

Last night in Renton

August 10th, 2006

Tonight is the last night I will be in Renton for a couple weeks. I took my mom’s computer to work to see if it would work on the wireless network. It worked nicely, so I think that the problem is with the wireless router at home. I went to Amazon and bought a new one for her.

I also talked to Dave on the phone for a bit. It sounds like he is close to selling his house in Covington. I would love to see him move out to the Pullman area. I doubt he will, but it would be so nice if he did. I would like to have him around.

The rest of the day was spent trying to find a camper or canopy for my truck on craigslist.

I hit lunch today with Jon, Jim, and Terry. We went to Three Pigs today. It was nice to be here for a week. It was like being on vacation. I did not have to worry about anything in the evening. I just worked and went home. But I want to get back to Colfax and get moved out of my house so I can close the sale and be done with it.

Another day in Seattle

August 9th, 2006

I was able to get the problem with the import of liabilities solved. It was nice to get that done. It has been on my plate for a couple weeks. I worked most of the morning trying to get my computer to do service orders so I could debug. Then I could not step into the VB components. So I battled that and found a different way to do some debugging. Once I saw the data that we were using I was able to fix the problem with no time. Now I am done with everything on my plate until Monday.

I hit Arby’s for lunch with Jon. We talked about my softball application and a car accident that we saw on Coal Creek Parkway this morning. We each saw it at a different time. As it turned out a guy had a medical issue. Slumped over the wheel of the truck he was in. Hit one light pole on one side of the road and went across six lanes at a high rate of speed and hit head on with a tree.

I also spent some time looking up information about flights to Alabama. I am thinking about seeing the Cougs play down there. It would be fun to see an away Cougar game. Konty has a place for me to stay and tickets if I can make it down there.

Helping Jon

August 8th, 2006

Jon and I went out to lunch today. We talked about NetUpdate. He asked me if I was willing to come back to the Seattle area and work full time. I told him that I wasn’t. I want to stay in the Pullman area.

At work I got a couple issues resolved and Chris was happy that I am getting those things fixed.

Following work I helped Jon get his boat out of the water. He is planning on going on a trip and he wants to take the boat with him. I was looking into going to the Cougar game vs. Auburn. Konty said that he has a ticket and a place to stay if I can get my way down there. But it is looking like it will cost around five hundred bucks to make it down there. I want to go, but I am not sure I want to spend the money.

Back in the Office

August 7th, 2006

After being gone since June Second I made my first appearance into the office. They have done some remodeling of my area including taking down my paper curtain to shield the light from my eyes and taking down some of the other things I had. Some of them made jokes about not knowing who I was. I was sort of getting mad about everything, but I didn’t say anything. Ricky now has an office. I am not going to say a word. I have no need for an office. My cube is just fine. On top of that if I said anything they would probably make issue with me working from home.

Other than that it was pretty uneventful. We hit lunch at a new Mexican place near the Crossroads Mall.

I got home and saw Amber. She was happy to see me. I also saw Jen and the parents. We had some dinner and were watching the M’s when Jon came up to get his boat trailer. I also worked on getting my mom’s new laptop set up and running on the network at the house.

Moving Spree is Over

August 6th, 2006

After spending the last couple days in a moving frenzy I have now done. I got my final load dropped off in Pullman at the storage place and at the apartment. I dropped off the UHaul in Moscow like I was supposed to. I told them about the letters that got damaged. It cost me more than a hundred bucks. Then while we were doing paperwork a Moscow cop showed up and came up to me. He asked me what my route of travel was. I said “huh?” He asked if I came from the South. I said that I had come from Pullman. As it turned out someone in a UHaul with a white hat, like what I was wearing, was driving erratically. They asked UHaul to call the police if someone showed up matching that description.

The cop left and Travis gave me a ride back to get my truck. It was at station one still. I got the truck and spoke to John for a bit. Then I decided to go to my apartment and get stuff put away. I debated how to put the desk and bed in the room to give me the most amount of space possible. I tried one configuration before I decided on one that will work for me. I was only able to work on that until around five because I had to get ready to be on call today.

I got some dinner and went to the fire station. We did our rig checks. We knocked out Rescue and the Engine in no time. Wilcox, Parrish, and I went to station one to get some stuff. We ended up talking with VanNess and some of the other guys for more than an hour.

The night over all was uneventful. I finally ended up going to the office and getting my stuff gathered for going back to Seattle tomorrow.

The Big Moving Day

August 5th, 2006

Today is set to be the big day with friends coming over to help me move. I had to get up a little early and get started on moving. It was a bit of a challenge after having stayed up later than I planned. When I finally did get up I got more boxes moved from inside the house to outside. The from outside to the UHaul. It was a slow process. People were supposed to show up around noon, but most came around one in the afternoon. But once they got there we got packing. It took a couple hours for us to get the desks, big furniture, and other boxes out to the UHaul.

Once we got it full Brad, Dan and his wife and kids, Russell, and Jim all went to Pullman where we unloaded the UHaul at my storage place and the apartment. John joined us at the storage place. We filled up the storage place and filled my room with boxes and other items. The couch was too big to get into the storage unit, and it almost did not make it into the apartment. We worked it for a while before we got it inside.

When we finally unloaded the UHaul, Brad had to go, but John was still with us. We drove back to Colfax. I got everyone dinner at the Top Notch. Then it was back to my place for loading more stuff. We had some electronics and some furniture. But some of it was being used for the Texas Hold’em free roll I was throwing.

I had bought an eighteen pack of beer and a case of pop. Everyone was drinking something and playing cards. The kids had things to play with from their home. We started out the tournament. I was sort of up and down. We had the blinds going up every twenty minutes so we could get the tournament done as quick as possible while still allowing time to have fun.

Jim was the first one out, followed by John, then Denise. Dan and I went to the final two people. I was paying the top two, but first place got seventy-five bucks, where second place only got twenty-five. I wanted to protected as much money as possible. I knew I would be saving some of it because I was number two, but Dan had a huge chip lead on me and we battled back and forth, however, the blinds were getting steep. Pretty soon it hit in such a way that my blinds were forcing me to go all-in. Dan won the all in by getting help on the river.

We then finished loading the UHaul with the remainder of the furniture. They left to go home and I didn’t do a whole bunch more myself. I watched some TV and had some dinner. But I mainly was relaxing from all the work I have done the last couple days.

A Little Help From my Friend

August 4th, 2006

Today the only help I got offered was from Russell. I spent some of the time packing my boxes and going through stuff I am planning on throwing away. Russell showed up and we got the UHaul full of garbage and other things I wanted to get rid of. We went to the dump and made three passes by the scale. Once for yard waste, which is free to throw away. Once for the wood, and finally for the trash. The wood was nearly six hundred pounds. The trash was a bunch more. The yard waste was nearly one hundred pounds. In all I had nearly three-quarters of a ton of trash and throw away items. That is not all. I have more coming. But that is all or today.

Following my trip to the dump Russell and I loaded up boxes with tools and the table saw and moved those to the storage place in Pullman. I took Russell out to dinner at the Emerald. He went home and I went back to Colfax and started to work some more on packing boxes. I hate to even think of the work I have been putting in. I hate moving and I do not find it even slightly enjoyable. So I spend the night packing boxes and getting as ready as I can for the people who will be coming over tomorrow to help me move.

Moving Day One

August 3rd, 2006

I took today and tomorrow off of work so I can start the moving process. I have e-mailed a lot of people looking for help and so far everyone is going to be gone this weekend. Russell has said he would help. So I have one for sure. I started by getting some boxes at Rosauers and then going to the SO for a while. I saw Pete and helped him look for some photos on the computer. I did not get home and really started on the moving until nearly one in the afternoon. But I spent eight straight hours packing boxes and going through stuff to get started. I had so much junk mail I had to go through to get rid of the mail and pull aside stuff I need to shred up. It took me almost two hours doing that and I was flying through it.

When I was done with that I started to pack up my old TV room followed by the den. I hate moving so much. I am glad I don’t have to do it yearly like I did while living on campus. But now I am going to try to consolidate my stuff and get rid of things I really don’t need. But today was just trying to get stuff packed up.

I also went to the SO later in the evening and hung out there for a while and talked with Rick for a while. I helped him with a computer problem and I asked him about rewiring the Bumblebee to get it so the radio and other things work as expected.

Getting Into the Moving Spirit

August 2nd, 2006

I took two days off of work to get ready to do my moving. I started out the morning by making a run to Rosauers in the morning to get boxes for moving. I dropped them off at the house. I went back to Pullman and started my day of work.

I wanted to get a couple things knocked out at work so I could take these next couple days off without worrying about work not getting done.

Overall it was pretty uneventful today. I spent the early part of the day covering for Tadema at the fire department. The later part of the evening was spent around the office getting stuff ready for leaving town on Sunday.

I was going to go to Colfax tonight, but I ended up staying in Pullman tonight and I will get back to Colfax tomorrow and get started on my moving.

It is Official!

August 1st, 2006

I got a call today from my real estate agent. He said the paperwork is signed and I can start to move my stuff from the house. I have set the plans in motion with renting a new storage place that is larger. I also sent out an E-mail to a lot of people looking for help. I am willing to throw a kegger with a free-roll Texas Hold’em tournament for those who help.

I got the photo board at the fire department updated finally. But While I was updating it we got called out so I had to leave it on the floor until I got back.

I spent a couple hours working on Duane’s computer. He is having serious issues. It is very slow and all I have really done so far is run spyware programs and got an anti-virus application installed.

We watched Rescue Me as a group down at the fire station. It was good times. After the show, within about ten minutes we got a call. After that however it was quiet.