Purchasing a Poker Table

February 28th, 2007

Tyson and I were supposed to work an event at Beasley. When we got up there I was starting to think there was a mistake. Sure enough someone saw us and said she thought the event was in Bryan Aud. We loaded our equipment in the mini-van and drove over to Bryan. When we got inside we talked to the performers. They directed us to the person in charge of everything. That is when we found out they we were not even needed at the event. Tyson and I fueled the rig and called it a night.

Mike brought over the poker table and the folding chairs. I decided that I was going to buy it from him. He has a nice table and with the folding chairs I will have enough chair to fit more than ten people for poker games.

Mike invited me to go out to Rico’s with them. It was a good night out on the town. Andy and Mike were there. We played a lot of pool. There was a ten-six-seven who had a perfect square for a soul patch. It was well trimmed and the dark hair make it stand out. I spent some time looking that way. Then another ten-six-seven came in and was a friend of Mike’s. He played some pool with us.

We left around midnight and I went to Russells. A group of people were there and we played Apples to Apples and had some pie. I won the first game of Apples to Apples when we could argue for our decisions. Then one girl who I had not met before was complaining that it was no fun to debate whose card was the best. She just wanted people to lay the cards down and have it chosen without any reasoning.

It was fun to play that way, but I thought it was funny that she seemed mad that we had to debate points.

Monthly Coroners Meeting

February 27th, 2007

When I got to Colfax I wanted to get a couple things taken care of, so I started at the SO and I talked to Jodie about my OC spray training records. I also saw Tom. I was debating about asking him how he knew about me, but I opted not to.

I went to Colfax fire and hung out there for quite a while. I looked at Tim’s CAD drawings of the well incident. They are doing a critique on it today. But because of the Coroners meeting I couldn’t stick around.

I went back to the SO and down to the coroners meeting. It was pretty much same ol’ stuff. We got our schedule done for next month, followed by covering some of the cases we had over the last six weeks or so. We have not been too busy on the weekends lately.

Bad Night at the Table

February 26th, 2007

The fire training scheduled for today lasted all of thirty minutes so that meant that I was going to get to Mike’s house quick tonight for poker. I was excited to get there early and have more time to play. The problem is that also gave me more time to have a bad night. I had a run of cards that I could not win with. Even when they looked decent I was losing, and after a while I started to play dumb hands because I was not seeing anything at all.

But then after I did things like that other guys would play crap hands. That did not help the situation. Other guys on the other hand were playing bad hands and beating me or others. It sucked, but I had fun. I got the word out a little bit about my upcoming game. I hope to get some of the people there.

Falling down a well

February 25th, 2007

So my plans for the whole day were to sleep in and then work on the material for my radio show. As it turned out I was able to do that, but I also did a few other things.

I heard Colfax get toned out to a boy down a well. I figured I would not be able to get there in enough time to help. Reed called me and asked if I could cover him at Pullman for the night. I told him I would. Right after that call they toned for more manpower. I decided to head to the scene.

I got there about twenty-five minutes after the tones went off for the additional manpower. I was on one of the lines helping to hold and pull the people in the well. Then I was asked to go above and get on a different line.

I helped to hold the line and then pull when it was finally time to start to get the people out of the well. According to the newspapers he had fallen about forty feet down and was only about fifteen feet from hitting water.

As soon as he was out I helped to package and transport him to the hospital.


Firefighters Look Down Well

I was just done with that when I had to get to Pullman for being on call here. I made some dinner and went to the station. We had to do rig checks. I worked with Chris D. on some engineer basics and had him do the pump test. We worked on getting through the system when we got toned out to a fire alarm.

It was nearly an hour and a half long because we could not find the problem to start with, then finally once we found it, it was water hitting the detector head. So we put Chris in the ceiling to find the source of water. Between us trying to mitigate the problem and finding the source it took more than an hour.

We got back to the station and finished out the rig checks. We only got one more call on the night at around three in the morning. When I got back from the rig checks however I used that time to get the prep work for the show taken care of.

A long day at the PFD

February 24th, 2007

I had signed up to work the Family Fun Fair at WSU today. I had to be up and ready for that. I got dressed and down to the station. I got the rig ready. Keith was working today’s event and he wants to be an engineer. He was starting to get in the passenger seat. I asked him what he was doing. He said he was putting his stuff in the rig and then asked who was driving. I said “You are.” His mouth dropped and his eyes went wide open. He was very excited.

When we arrived at Smith Gym we set out some equipment to show the kids that stopped by, but it was so cold very few people actaully stopped. They all just went straight inside. Some WSU police interns were there and I talked to them for a while including Brandon who is coming on my show this Monday.

The Family Fun Day was winding down around one in the afternoon. He got some extra sandwiches and put away our equipment. Then we got a call for a person having a seizure. We went en route from Smith Gym. It was my first time driving engine code on a call.

After the call I had Keith drive. We went around the city. He drove for about three hours. He did very well. We looked at FDC’s are various buildings around town. We got done around five-thirty and went back to the station. Tyson met up with us and helped wash the rigs and do rig checks.

We had to go fill some air bottles. We stopped by Station Thirty-One to do that. When we got back to the Deuce some of the guys wanted to do some one-minute drills. Tyson and Keith also wanted to participate with them. We spent about forty-five minutes doing the one-minute drills, discussing the one-minute drills, as well as practicing with the buddy breathers.

I actually left the station a little after eleven o’clock PM. I had been with the fire department for more than twelve hours through out the day. Much of it standing. My ankle was in a great deal of pain.

Travel Time

February 23rd, 2007

So my time in Seattle is done and I am ready to head back to Pullman. I made plans to hang out with Ben tonight. He got a new job and is leaving Pullman on Tuesday. When I got to town I got my truck unpacked.

I got a hold of Ben and he came over around eight o’clock. He brought his computer and we came into my den and looked at some stuff on his computer including sharing some stuff back and forth.

Then we went down stairs and watched some episodes of Mr. Bean and started to watch The Wall. We got almost all the way through the wall when Ben had to go get the girlfriend from the bar. As we was leaving he gave me a hug and told me we are going to play some golf at his new employer this summer.

I Hate the Ducks

February 22nd, 2007

Oregon did it again, beating the Cougs at basketball. It seems like we don’t have an answer for some of their guys. They just score and score. Granted our defense still does a good job and keeps the scoring low in comparison to the opponents’ normal scoring output.

We lead most of the first half but struggled to break out with a long lasting lead in the second half. It was disappointing for us to go down to Oregon and most likely drop us from the top ten in the polls. I am sure we will be ranked, but not in the top ten. Only if we can finish out the season with wins we may get back to number ten.

I spent some time going through my blog and getting the labels added for some old entries. I need to go through and do it for more of them, but it is a slow process. I got about eighty completed out of the six hundred posts yet to do.

Poker at Diamond Lil’s

February 21st, 2007

Today would have been my Dad’s Sixty-Eighth birthday.

I have been wanting to get back to Diamond Lil’s for a while. I finally decided tonight I would head down there. When I arrived it was pretty busy. I had to wait for a while to get a seat. Finally when I did I was playing my game. Very tight. I was doing well, infact I had more than doubled my buy-in.

Then my name was called to move up to the higher limit tables. That table was not as nice to me. I called a couple hands and I was not doing very well. I was down to my last forty bucks. I got pocket nines. The flop was an Ace-Four-Four. The turn was a Four. Someone got me all in. I went ahead and called. I realized my only hope was a nine hitting, because the others were playing with an Ace. A nine hit on the river giving me a better full-house than everyone else at the table. That put me back into the game, but I was down from my starting point of coming to that table.

While I was sitting there a ten-six-seven was seated at the table. When I first saw him I was thinking he was younger and dressed a little like he was a G. Then when he sat at our table I was able to get a better look. I loved his haircut. It is very short. I don’t know what it is about guys and long hair. It looks horrible. I have seen some guys who I thought were butt-ugly get a good haircut and all of a sudden they were actually very good looking.

So after seeing his widows peak and his hands and arms I could see he was a little older than I thought. Now I put him around his mid-to upper-twenties. His fingernails were very nicely trimmed, almost look manicured. He didn’t have the blonde hair that makes everything so much better, but it was a nice light brown. Gave me something to stare at when I was not playing a hand.

Finally a little after midnight I decided to cut my losses and leave. I walked out of there only down fourteen bucks on the night. Not too back for going all-in at one point.

Ho Hum

February 20th, 2007

When I got home from work yesterday it was funny because my mom asked why I was home early. I told her that I was getting back at my normal time. It was my eight o’clock arrivals last week that was abnormal.

With code complete starting this week I am finding all my bugs are done and turned in. There is not really a lot for me to do at all. So I helped Will, our new guy, with some stuff on his computer. Other than that I am not doing much at the office but waiting around for bugs to get handed off to me.

I got home and had dinner. We had tacos. I helped to clean up and we watched NCIS. House was not on due to American Idol. I hate it when House is pre-empted for American Idol.

Poker at a New Place

February 19th, 2007

With today being President’s Day I did not have to work. I started by making me way to Fife to get sized for my shirts for the Boat Patrol. Then it was off to Seattle for the shorts and pants. But when I got they were closed. I guess I will be going there tomorrow.

I got home and just hung out until dinner time. I was just waiting until it was time to head out for the poker game. I was playing with a bunch of people I have never played with before. After reading the house rules I realized that it was going to be a lower level of players. When I got there that is what I found.

I was about even for the whole night. Then on the final hand I was in a couple bucks and then I ended up going all in for another eight bucks. I won with a flush. I took down about thirty bucks from that pot and walked away up a little over ten bucks. Not a bad night for playing with new people.

Just Sitting around the House

February 18th, 2007

I wanted to hit Diamond Lil’s for the poker tournament today, but I found the tournament started around ten in the morning. I guess that isn’t happening after all.

So it was time to just sit down and do some stuff on the computer. I pretty much watched movies on TV and played on the computer.

As the day wore on I wanted to go to Diamond Lil’s, but I also did not want to lose the money I won the other night. So I decided to stay in the house after watching my Sunday night TV shows.

Hanging with Joe

February 17th, 2007

The plan for the day is a ride along with Joe in Whatcom county. I stayed up late last night to work on my ability to stay up late tonight. I headed up his way around four o’clock pm. I got up there just before six. We went to dinner. Then back to his place. We watched some TV before heading to the station for a briefing. It was about an hour long. They just covered some stuff that the sgt’s discussed in their meeting and things to pass along.

Joe and I headed to our district. We pulled over some cars and looked for some drunks. After about a half hour driving back and forth on this one road we stopped at a store to get some pop. Two other deputies just arrived there. We stayed there for about an hour and a half talking shop and telling war stories.

Then we got on the road. We backed up one of the cops who made a stop and arrested a guy for DUI. We looked around for a DUI for several hours more without any luck. We made several stops, but it was very quiet that night. Our final call was to a guy who was stalking his girlfriend. We assisted the arresting officer.

It was past three in the morning and I was ready to call it a night. Joe took me to his house. I got my truck and some pop from a store and then headed back home. It was a good drive and I was not tired at all.

When I got home I took my laundry down stairs then went to bed. It was around six in the morning.

Good night at Diamons Lil’s

February 16th, 2007

I worked on my bugs and got a lot of them retired. Ricky, Noah, and I went to QDoba for lunch. After we were done I had some time to get my database updated. Then we had our meeting. I was telling them about my problem with the GFE and Shawn told me that he made some changes and that I needed to update some stuff and I would be good to go. I did those updates and got the remaining bugs fixed. Then I worked on finishing off Shawn’s bugs. I got those done as well.

I went home after spending some time talking to Ricky about the future of the company as well as the upcoming product we are going to start to build soon.

After dinner I spent time watching TV with the family. I had planned on staying up late because I am getting ready for the ride along with Joe. Joe was online and we chatted for a while. He said that he wants me to start to work for his company again. He wants to pay me five bucks a month now. I went to Diamond Lil’s a little bit after midnight.

I got some cash and found a seat at a four-eight table. My name was on the list for a eight-sixteen table. I had lost some money at four-eight early on. But I won a couple good pots and I was back near even.

Then when I went to the eight-sixteen table I bought in for more money because I wanted to be able to compete. I was playing tight after the flop but loose before the flop. One guy at the table was kicking butt. He was playing really loose and always betting. He won pot after pot after pot. He was up around eight-hundred bucks at one point.

A couple ten-six-sevens came in. I recognized one of them from playing there before. He was ripped and very fit. He started by playing at a different table. Then he moved to my table. When he was coming to my table I could not take my eyes off him. Then I looked down and realized that everyone was watching for me to do my action. Oops! Oh well I spent the rest of the time playing cards and watching his arms flex and show off his muscle as he moved.

I won a couple nice pots after being on the ropes at one point. I was getting some good start cards but the flop was bad. But sometimes it would be a good flop for me. At one point I had pocket fives. I was going to fold. I ended up staying. The flop was all cards under nine. With how loose people were I played. And on the river I caught a five and busted a guy who had jacks.

I finally left after three-thirty. I was up two-hundred-twenty-two bucks. It was a good night for me.

It’s like being on vacation

February 15th, 2007

After staying up to the wee hours of the morning I made my way into work around eleven o’clock again. I was only there for about fifteen minutes then I was off to lunch at the Three Pigs with Jon, Terry, and Jim. The normal crew.

Following lunch I went back to work. It was pretty much the same as yesterday. I spent the day working to get my bugs completed as well as some of the new bugs that were coming my way.

When I got home I just kicked back and relaxed. It is not normal for me to be able to do that when I am in Pullman. Over there I am always doing something in the evening. So doing nothing here is like being on vacation.

Working Late

February 14th, 2007

So I made my way to Bellevue today. The trip wasnot too bad coming across the state. The roads were in pretty good shape without ice and snow. I got to Bellevue around eleven o’clock. I decided that I was going to get a lot of work done, or as much as I could.

I was working with Brian on some stuff. As always when working here people will stop by and get me side tracked on some other things. Which is okay. I usually have two or three things going at a time when I am over here it seems like. Always getting little things thrown my way as I am working on the bugs.

One of the things Brian and I were working on kept me preoccupied. So I worked on it a little after eight o’clock. I started to listen to the Cougar basketball game as well.

I decided I needed to get home and watch it on TV, plus there was not much more I was going to be able to get done. I got into my truck listening to the game. For most of the game the Cougs lead the Huskies. When I got home I watched more of it. But the Huskies started to play better after half time.

The game went down to the wire, but the Cougs stayed on top and ended up winning the game. That will help keep the Cougs ranked going into the final two weeks of Basketball.

An extra day in Pullman

February 13th, 2007

I was supposed to be in Bellevue today but because of the busy weekend with the lack of sleep I pushed it back one day. So I spent the day working on stuff from Pullman once I finally got up, which was around eleven in the morning.

I made my way to Safeway to get some gas for my truck because I had the ten cent discount that expired today. I also decided to make some dinner at my place. I invited Russell over for Tacos and he asked if Nick could come. I said it was okay.

Nick and Russell showed up. We had tacos while I was telling them about Sunday. They thought that was a pretty funny story about how the whole thing unfolded. When dinner was done I got the dishwasher loaded and I ran a load through it. I met to go to bed early, but I ended up getting to bed after midnight.

Incredibly Tired

February 12th, 2007

After getting to bed and sleeping for about four hours I was up again. I was very tired and I got the last few things done with the HazMat CD’s. Shortly thereafter I had to get to the radio show. I went to the studio and I forgot my cell phone at home.

I was dragging as I started the show and I did not have my “A” game going. So I was just being loopy but I got through the show. I did not think it was all that good. I had a little bit of time at home before I had to get to the fire station to work on the Rescue and where to put the new tools. When I got home there was a message from Pete about a suicide down at the river. He ended up going on it.

I met up with Erik at the fire station and we put the new tools and Rescue and rearranged the tools that existed on it. It is cool that we are running the new tools now. With OTEP training coming up at seven o’clock I just decided to hang out at the station.

Pete called me and told me that if I had some time to go to the funeral home and investigate the wounds to get an idea of what happened on this case. It was interesting because now I have seen shotgun, handgun, and rifle damage to the human head. There is a lot of differences between each one.

The OTEP training was pretty short over all. We covered burns. Once we were done with the training I went to Mike’s house for poker. I was there until midnight. I ended up walking away with an extra thirty-one bucks.

When I got home I wrote back and forth with Matt and Monte about the call from yesterday. I told Matt that I was not offended and that he could not offend me. I asked both to keep the information secret. I also asked Monte how Tom knew about it. It was Tom who told Monte. Monte said he heard about it several years about and it was a non-issue to him. I was surprised to hear that Tom has known about it for three or four years. Monte said “remember it is a small world”. I wonder if the Evergreen article is how Tom found out.

Drive By Cellphoning

February 11th, 2007

I was so tired I just couldn’t get myself out of bed. I had planned on getting up around ten o’clock am to call George. I finally got up around noon and called him about getting my truck seat fixed. I left a message and he called me back a while later. By they I had planned on going to play some poker at Mr. Z’s, but I wanted to get my truck seat fixed. He gave me directions to his place and I headed there. He has a really nice house over looking the LC valley. I helped him remove the seat and chatted with him while he was fixing it. It did not take very long compared to what I thought it would take. It was a total of two hours. He glued all the foam back together as well as added reinforcements to it so it will not happen again anytime soon.

After he was done he took me to his house to show me around. he had a very large house that he built himself. His downstairs had twelve foot ceilings so he can display all his hunting kills. He has a ton of those as well. I got back to Pullman with some time to spare before rig checks. I made myself some dinner and kicked back ever so slightly.

Before long though I had to go to the station. I first spent time with the new guys on their map tests. We got several of them knocked out. While working on the map tests a call went out so I asked Tyson to go on it in my place. It was only a fire alarm. By the time they got back I had started to wash out the bay. We got another call. I went on that one and had Tyson go over some of the tools on Engine while we were gone.

Finally we were able to get back and just work on the rig checks. We were nearly done. Tyson and I did the pump test while Keith and Brian showed the new guys how to use the tools.

When we were all done I went home and started on the project for the HazMat team. I have a bunch of DVD’s they want copies of. I wanted to go to bed because I have to be up for the radio show, plus I am leaving town and wanted some sleep before I would have to prepare for the road.

As I was working away on the DVD copying project I was also working on my organizing of the boxes of files and papers I have that I need to get put away in order to complete the move-in process.

I was able to get a fair amount of that complete as I started the next DVD in the machine. But on the last DVD I was having problems with it not finishing the read.

Before I got to that point, however, I got a call. When I got onscene I was helping with the patient and Matt, from WSU PD, made a joke about the patient having the same issues that I was. I had heard why we were there and then when he said that wasn’t sure I heard him correctly. I was taken aback slightly because I was unsure if he said that because he knew about me or if he was just making a joke. It because clear to me it was a joke at the time. As we were walking out of the apartment he said he was sorry. I then told him I heard he gives reach-arounds, something Kelly, yesterday, said I need to joke with him about.

That was that as far as I knew. But when I got back to my place and I was working on the DVD project I decided to check my facebook account and there was a message from Carl.

I was talking to Matt who told me what he said to you at the Medical call. He said that he felt really bad about it and it was not his intention to offend anyone. He always jokes around but wanted me to tell you he was sorry.

So when I saw this I figured he must now know, if he didn’t already know. I tried to get more information from Carl. It seems that somehow Monte told Matt about me. What really surprised me is that Monte knows. I am not sure how he would have found out. I am curious as to how Monte found out, unless he remembers it from that one article that Rob wrote for the Evergreen. So now Matt knows.

I hate it when people find out. It causes me concern. It is the whole idea that when only I know they other person is normal or what they do to me is them acting out who the are. But when they know I am gay and I know they know then I seem to be hypersensitive about it insofar as I am always wondering what they are thinking. Because now everything I do will go through their “gay” filter. They will wonder if I did something because I am gay. That will be on their mind, and because I know they know I am gay, then I know that they are thinking certain things, therefore I get concerned about what they are thinking. So rather than them being themselves around me they will self-censor and I can never really have good friends if they are always afraid of being who they are.

They should not worry about making any kind of jokes. I don’t want them thinking they need to keep their back to the wall around me. I want them to judge me on being a softball player, or a firefighters, or whatever I am doing. Not based on the fact that I am gay.

How do you explain that to someone? John G. seems to understand what I am saying and he gives me a hard time. Which is how John acts, so he does not treat me differently. But what about Matt. How can I explain to him the concept of being gay I don’t fully understand it. I can explain that I am not happy that I am gay. That it is not something where I make a conscious choice to be attracted to certain guys. I can try to let him know that I would love to be attracted to women and that I could live out a normal life. But because I cannot the only thing that will help is if people don’t stop being themselves around me.

I want him to understand that I believe that you must choose to be offended. And in no way was I offended on the call. He probably thought that because of my reaction, but my reaction was because I was concerned that he knew.

I now have to try to talk to him and hope that he doesn’t start to act differently around me. I hope that I can also get him and Monte to not say anything to anyone as I want the information to not make it out to everyone. I like having my own little secret.

So to top that off we got two more calls. One was for a rollover car accident. Turns out that no one got hurt, but we were on scene for a bit. We got the rig cleaned up. It was nearly five in the morning I figured that we were done for the night, but nope. We had a drive-by cellphoning. That is where someone sees what appears to be a car accident and rather than stopped to see if people are okay, they keep driving and call it in on their cellphone.

The problem is that many times no one is hurt so we all go out there to find the person is fine, or that no one is even there anymore. I wish people would just stop for a couple minutes and see if the person needs an ambulance before calling it in. That would help everyone involved in the situation.

Ryan Came to Town

February 10th, 2007

Ryan came down today to see the Cougs play the Bears. We met up at Cougar Country for lunch to start the day. Then it was off to the game. The Cougs went out and pretty much dominated the whole game. They lead the whole way and really played well on defense. It wasn’t until late that the Bears got some points going, but for a while the Bears were averaging seven points every ten minutes.

After the game we went to my truck and off to Safeway. I got some groceries for the poker game for tonight plus I thought I would get some other items that I needed around the house. I ended up spending about one hundred bucks. I got the stuff put away and started to set up for the game. I had Kelly coming over with a bunch of other guys. I also has some of my friends coming over including Ben and Dave from the softball team.

I gave Ben a hard time when he told me he got a job working over in Tacoma starting in March. He may come over and play one week with us or maybe two. I hope. I will miss having him around.

We had enough people that we broke into two different tables. I moved the furniture around in the living room to make room for the second table. We had about six people per table. I was doing well to start with but things started to go down hill after that.

Kelly brought over some guys from his softball team. But after winning some hands early on I started to lose, and pretty much spent the evening losing money. The game finally broke around midnight. Ryan helped me clean up a little bit and get my house back in order. Ryan left a little bit after midnight to go home. What is funny is I asked if he would play cards, at first he said no. Then later on he decided that maybe he would play for a little while. Then he ended up playing all night.

I had a good time having everyone over. I hope to do another game in the near future.

Time at the Jail

February 9th, 2007

I was going to work the jail on Saturday morning, but with the basketball game coming up I decided to work the jail today instead. I did my work at the office and had the meeting like normal on Fridays. Then I got dressed and headed into the jail. It was a pretty quiet night over all. I had a couple commits around seven. I got them knocked out real quick. The rest of the night was spent just doing rounds and running the control room.

After the shift Dale and I hung out in the control room for about an hour watching TV and chatting with the guys coming on. I played a joke on Brett who was working control. I called the jail from the cell phone and hung up when he answered it. After two times he realized it was me.

After the jail I went to Zeppoz to play some poker. I was not having a good night. I was not catching very good hands and I was getting impatient. I was playing some bad hands and losing my money. I was there for about an hour or so and then that was it for the night.

I told Russell about Ryan coming in to town tomorrow and invited him to come out to lunch with us at noon tomorrow.

Another Men’s Basketball Win

February 8th, 2007

Stanford, number twenty-five in the country, came to town to play the Cougs. I was working for the fire department at Beasley. As far as work went it was a pretty quiet day. I was disappointed that we did not even have a packed house. But the Cougs did just fine against Stanford. We didn’t really have patients to deal with.

In the end the Cougs won by thirteen avenging the loss earlier at the hands on Stanford.

Teaching a CPR Class

February 7th, 2007

I offered to teach a CPR class for Michael today. I had not taught CPR for a long time so I was a little nervous. I also realized that I needed to get my truck from my old apartment one of these days. So that day was today. I went to put air in the tire that was flat, but it was not working. So I called Les Schwab. They sent out a truck that put air in my tire and gave me a jump start. I headed to Les Schwab to get some new tires after taking a close look at them.

The new tires helped make turning and driving easier. I thought I was getting weak because it seemed like I had a hard time turning the truck, but I found that the new tires made a big difference.

Tyson came to my place and gave me a ride on my Dodge at the old apartment. I was getting ready for my teaching gig. I went to station thirty-one. I got my equipment and went to the WSU Childcare Center.

The class was pretty good. I got a lot of good reviews. The new videos that we are using are better than the old ones. I didn’t have time to review it so I was didn’t know what was coming up next in each section, so I just had to roll with it, but it turned out really well. I had a good time teaching the class.

General EMS Training

February 6th, 2007

Today at Colfax Fire we were doing follow up CPR training for the people who missed it earlier this year. The rest of us worked on learning some of the other equipment on the ambulance. We pulled out the stair chair and went through the ambulance and rescue seeing where some of the tools were located.

After that training I went over to the SO to do a mile and watch House.

Glenn Johnson Interview

February 5th, 2007

Today was my interview with Glenn Johnson, the mayor of Pullman on my radio show, The PES. We caught up on some of the old things we talked about and I was able to see the progress. We then went into some new items. It was a good interview, but I did not get him for the whole hour like I had hoped because he had to get going early for a meeting he had to be at.

After the show was done I made my way home until it was time to head to extrication training. We were using the new tools and getting some hands-on time with them. At the training we discussed the vehicle placement for the tools. All the A-Shift guys wanted to have the best tools on Rescue. That is the way the crew leaders want it as well. I am happy we are going to have more than just the combitool on Rescue.

Superbowl Party

February 4th, 2007

Today was the final day of our class for Firefight I. I was not quiet as tired today and I made my way to Colfax. I have my new presentation. I had print outs that I made at The Deuce. I was ready to nail my presentation.

We started with a review and then the test. It was a pretty big test and unlike many of the tests we take, this is one you actually had to study to do it really well. I was ready for it and I finished the test before anyone else in the class. I was done a bit before the next person.

I waited in the dayroom at the fire station for everyone else to finish. When everyone was done we went back to the presentations. I wanted Ralph to grade mine. I knew he would grade me hard but I would get good feedback. After my presentation I realized I nailed it hard core.

Ralph talked to me about it. He said I am a natural. He said I did something he has never seen anyone else do when doing the particular presentation that I did. We all have seven choices to choose from. I was teaching the tying of the bowline knot. Ralph wants to get me involved in teaching. He said he liked my presentation and how I did not just read off the slides but talked and explained things. I think I nailed the test and the presentation.

It was time to get home and prepare for my Superbowl Party. I have all the people from the Colfax Fire poker players. Each year we play a poker game and watch the Superbowl. I was about to grab a beer with the others when a call went out for Pullman. I wanted to know who was on for my crew so I checked the schedule and found I was on call. So it was a good thing I did not have one.

We started a tournament. I was in the chip lead when a call came out for a structure fire at the hospital. We went code down Grand to get to that. We got on scene to find it was nothing. We were there for a little bit when another call came out on Clay Ct. We went code back down Grand to that one. But we got cancelled.

I was on my way home when we got called out to yet another call at Zeppoz. We went code down Grand once more. I was joking about how the people would think we were lost with us going back and forth a couple times in a matter of thirty minutes.

I got back to my place to find my chip stack was gone and I was out in third place. Tim and Connie were playing for first place. Connie ended up winning it. We all decided to have a poker game each month on the fourth weekend. The next one will be the end of Feb at Connie and Jims. The winner of the tournament will host the next one at the winners’ house.

We were cleaning up when I got another call downtown Pullman. The guys cleaned up my house the rest of the way when I left. I got back and did the final touches. It was a long weekend and I was ready to relax a little bit.

Firefighter I Instructor Class, Day Two

February 3rd, 2007

I was tired this morning when I got up for class. I got to Colfax just in time for the start of class. We spent the first part of the day going through the final chapters of the book. We also went over a practice test for the final test.

Then it was time for lunch. We had a group lunch. We made tacos for everyone. Following lunch we did our presentations. I had a chance to go through my presentation. I went almost the full twenty minutes. Our target time was fifteen minutes, but no less than ten and nor more than twenty.

After my presentation I watched the remaining presentations from the other people who did Powerpoint presentations.

When I got home I worked on my presentation. I made some things better and redid other portions. Then I worked on doing my final workbook pages. I also got the test worked on and made sure I memorized certain things.

Firefighter Instructor I Class, Day One

February 2nd, 2007

I spent a fair amount of the day getting the final chapters completed before my Firefighter Instructor I class was to get underway. While working on my stuff I heard the dispatchers send an ambulance to a call where a guy was doing CPR on the side of the road. Patti ended up getting called out on that.

The class was starting at six o’clock pm in Colfax. I am actually doing this class for both Pullman and Colfax fire. I got the books and got signed up through Pullman, but I will be doing teaching at both places now. Keith went down to the class with me. We got through several of the chapters in the book. We also got our lesson plan assigned to us for the teaching on Sunday. I was given the Becket bend knot.

While in the class Colfax Fire was dispatched to a car accident. It was not long after that when we found out it was a fatal. We were nearing the end of class and Patti called me. She asked if I wanted to come help. I still had to wait until we were done with one more chapter. It was short one. I was on my way.

We got the scene where a SUV rolled several times and the person was ejected. It does not appear that he was wearing a seatbelt. But I am not sure about that. From what I was able to find however it appears it was not worn. Also the state patrol said it appears that elevated speeds were involved.

I helped get the deceased on the cot and to the funeral homes’ van. They drove it to the funeral home and Patti and I made our final photos. We drove in to the funeral home to complete the investigation. There were a lot of injuries. It was clear what the cause of death was.

I finally got home just after midnight. I then spent the next two hours working on a Powerpoint presentation to go with my classroom teaching of the Becket Bend. We were doing a practice teaching on Saturday to get an idea of what we need to work on for our final on Sunday.

WSU Girls Basketball

February 1st, 2007

Tonight the women were playing basketball at Beasley. I went there to work EMS. The men were on TV. I was watching that game in the first aid room and working on my homework for my Firefighter Instructor I class that I am going to be taking this weekend in Colfax.

The women lost, but the men went on for a victory. It was close near the end, but it was nice to see them get away with a victory. They are climbing up the polls after each victory.