Engineer Calculations Work

August 31st, 2007

This evening I planned on meeting up with Gribbon to work on the engineering calulations. We got the clipboard from the engine and started to go through different calculatons. A big storm was moving in at the same time.

Soon thunder, lightning, and rain were all around us. The lightning was striking all around us. A small fire was started just outside the city that D-twelve went on. Gribbon had to leave on a fire alarm. But he was back in no time. But later the FD was getting called to down lines and fire alarms all over the place.

Gribbon left again, and I waited at the station for him. But I got a call from Foster. He asked if I could find another reserve to help me guard one of the down lines. I got Bien and we went to the scene in Utility.

We were on Ruby making sure people did not go through the scene. But a lot of people had to be stopped because they did not pay attention to the barrier tape all over the place. Many people would walk up to the tape and then walk under it. We would stop them and make them go around. One guy was starting to walk around the tape, then decided to run under the tape. He went running down the road. He was right under the powerlines. It was a stupid move on his part.

The house we were in front of has having a party. So people kept coming out to chat with us. This went on for hours. We were there until nearly one-thirty in the morning. When I got back to the station Gribbon was there. We went through the final calculations I had created for him to do. I didn’t get home unti two-thirty in the morning.

Second Coroner Training

August 30th, 2007

Today in Colfax we had our second coroner training. We went through some more cases and handed out the equipment to everyone. We talked about the case that Ken and I had. He talked about his experiences.

I spent some time this afternoon at the fire department playing Ghost Recon with Rich and Reed. That was pretty fun. I am still driving the Bumblebee around. It was pretty hot today.

It is funny, as I drive the Bumblebee around now I am always so worried about getting in an accident. Because I realize that should I be in one, I probably will be baddly injured or killed. It is interesting that I think about that the whole time I am in it as we drive down the highway to and from Colfax.

Fall Co-ed Softball

August 29th, 2007

I was going to meet up with Nick to have him read through some stuff I wrote for the Town Crier III. I am going to apply for a position to write for the Daily News. It is a weekly column called the Town Crier. There are thirteen people, so you end up writing four times a year. I went to Avery hall thinking the writing lab was there. But it was moved. So I got some lunch while I was up there.

I got home and Tyson was around the house from school today. I asked if he was going to go on calls. He said if they were higher level calls. I was going to head to the writing lab, but an Echo call came out. Tyson and I went on it. We ended up doing CPR. It turned out the person did not make it, so Pete had me do some coroner related stuff with it. I needed to find out if the doctor would be willing to sign off on the death. He was, so we did not take jurisdiction.

We got called from the hospital to another call. We got on scene and helped to package the patient then we were cleared.

I got home and ended up spending over an hour on a conference call. We were estimating time on the things we need to do for the next release. Finally just after five we broke the meeting and said we would continue it tomorrow.

I sat around waiting for the softball game. I was looking forward to playing. The game was at ten o’clock in Moscow. I was the starting second baseman. I missed one ball I should have gotten. My first at bat was ugly as well. But then after that I did a little better. I felt a little more at ease up to hit, but I still did not feel one hundred percent.

We were winning until the final inning. We had a six run lead. But a severely bad call at second base cost us an out that would have ended the game. That allowed them to extend their inning and make the necessary hits to come back and beat us. That really sucked.

Two Weeks in a row

August 28th, 2007

I called again about the notice on the Bumblebee for parking on the street for too long. I am not very happy about it because my neighbor called me in. The neighbor is from across the street and it is not like they want to use the spot. I have no idea what the reasoning for it was. I need to talk to parking services to see what I can do and make sure they will not be problems in the future.

For my second week in a row I made it to Colfax for fire training. I got down there a little early and ate some dinner. We went to the training trailer to do some evolutions and test some hose. That lasted about two hours. We got back to the department and placed the hose out to dry.

I went back to Pullman and I was off to the Zuu. I was going to meet up with Brandon, Peter, and Kevin. They were up there playing pool and enjoying taco Tuesday. Brandon and I talked for a while. I also saw Eric and Michael B. They are playing in a fall co-ed league in Moscow. I was invited to play with them. I am excited about getting to play softball some more.

Evolutions at the Tower

August 27th, 2007

Tonight for training we were going to do engineer classroom training, but we ended up going to the tower to do some basic stuff including SCBA drills, we went through the collapse course as well as pulling lines off the engine and reloading them. It was mainly because so many people were out of town and we had a chance to get those guys to get reacquainted with the hose loads and the SCBA.

FFL Live Draft

August 26th, 2007

This morning I scheduled to work with James on driving the engine and pumping on it. We planned to put in a total of four hours including one hour pumping. We first went to the tower to pump on the engine. We talked about how the pump works and how to run it for various hose lines. Then we went driving. I started on the bigger less crowded streets.

As the time flew by we went all over town. I also got him to think about roads and go onto road he didn’t know very well. We got a couple fire alarms. We responded to both of them. But both times we pretty much got called off for one reason or another.

Around one o’clock I spoke to Chapman about keeping the engine one extra hour. That caused us to get two more calls. One of them was weird. The guy was running away from us even though he should have been seen. I explained to him that it wouldn’t cost anything to take a look. He still ran off. Then a few minutes later it became clear there were other issues. There was also a verbal domestic going on at the same time with him and someone else.

I got the police down there and we clear as a no patient found. While on that a second call for a guy who fell from an apartment building came out. We went along on that. We did the transport. So, it was after three and I was a little worried that Chapman was going to be upset about us still having the engine out and about.

I also had my FFL draft at four o’clock. The last two years the coroners office has had calls right at draft time. I was hoping that would not happen this year. Turns out it didn’t, but the EMS call almost made me miss part of it.

After the hospital we had to fuel up the rig. Then it was off to the FFL draft. That took about four hours. I got Farve like I do every year.

Following the draft I went to Dan and Denise’s to play poker. John was over there as well. We played nickle, dime, quarter stuff until the three o’clock in the morning. It was a long day at the end of a long weekend for me. I couldn’t wait to get to bed.

More Women’s Volleyball

August 25th, 2007

I spent this morning in Moscow getting my new cell phone. I have been needing to do something about mine. It is getting into real bad shape and as of the last week the END button has not been working for me.

I had to go get the phone from the mall and have my contact list moved to the new phone. It took a while to get that done. There were people in front of me in line. When I was done with the phone I went to my truck and got some of the settings taken care of. With the new phone I had to search my way through things to see where they were located.

I went home and talked to Peter on the phone for a while about law school and the tests. I got a phone call from Nick at the volleyball game. James had gotten there early and they were leaving early. So I had to get up there quicker than I had planned. That was okay, however, because I didn’t have much going on anyway.

I watched the final game, but it was more than an hour away. Andrew and I spent time just talking about EMT class, being a firefighter and whatnot. Once the game got going we spent time watching the game. Mosebar, a trombone player from the band, saw me and came over to say hello.

Then a guy who was working the event came over to ask help for someone stuck in the handicap wheelchair lift. The thing had gone up two inches and stopped. I was able to get the guy free from the lift.

When the game was done, a different Peter had invited me to come to his place and play some poker. When I got there it turned out there were not games to speak of. So I hung out until I got an EMS call.

When the call was done John, Gecas, and I played a couple games of cribbage. We got one call in the middle of the cribbage playing, but the night over all was a fizzle as far as calls went.

Day off to work

August 24th, 2007

I took the day off from NU in order to put in a bunch of hours at Pullman Fire. We had a volleyball tournament at Bohler Gym. We had to be up there around eleven in the morning. We worked there until nearly nine-thirty at night.

Nothing happened during the game that we had to deal with, but we did get a chance to see some volleyball. It was ten hours of pay for working there.

Working a Shift at the Jail

August 23rd, 2007

I decided to work the swing shift in the jail. I also figured I could go on Colfax fire calls if any came out. After my first round I was in the front office and Pete was there. We had the coroner clothes come in. We went through those and went across the street to give Ken his stuff. It turns out I got the wrong size for him.

Shortly there after a call went out for a fall. I went with Ken in the fire engine. I got back to the jail and did some rounds and hung out in Control. Close to midnight another call came out. I did a round down. I was going to close the till out when Dale came down to relieve me. He said he heard the call and figured that since I was in Colfax I would probably want to go.

I got to the fire station and ended up driving the ambulance. We picked up our patient and transported to the hospital. We got to the station and restocked the ambulance. I found out Ken had a MySpace page. I added him to my friends list when I got home and made a page for Amber.

First Case for the New Deputy Coroner

August 22nd, 2007

I was sitting at the computer when the tones went out for an unattended death in Pullman. I listened in. It wasn’t more than about thirty minutes that I was getting a call from Pete about a case in Pullman he wanted me to do. I contacted both deputy coroners. Ken was able to make it.

He drove up to Pullman and we went to the scene and did our investigation. It took some extra time due to going slower for Ken’s sake. When Bob from Kimballs got to the scene I saw it was the old Bob that worked there a few years ago. It was good to see him.

We went to the funeral home to finish up our investigation. Ken did well and was able to understand what we were doing. After talking to Pete we wrapped up our investigation. I went home and started on the paperwork.

Loren got a hold of me and we met up at Rico’s for a little while. It was good to see him. I also saw Bruce from Cougster. He looked very good.

Back at Fire Training in the ‘Fax

August 21st, 2007

With summer I am playing softball on most Tuesday nights. Then with work over in Bellevue I was gone for some weeks. So I have not been able to make it to many of the trainings in Colfax. I was able to be there tonight.

It felt good to be there. Tonights training was very good. We were broken into groups and were assigned a vehicle. We went through each compartment. Talked about equipment in the compartments and started up the power tools from those compartments.

I drove Engine Three outside and ran the pump. We did hose tests on several of the hoses. We reloaded all the hose lays that we pulled out of the rig. That was the end of training. I learned a lot about the engine.

Scott and I went to Subway afterwards. We had a sub and talked about some of the calls we have had in the past.

EMS Evaluator

August 20th, 2007

This evening was I asked to cover for Blanks because he was sick. I went to do rig checks followed by the EMS Evaluator class. When I went inside I found several people who were not from Pullman. One was a pretty boy-like ten-six-seven. Not my normal kind of eye-catching guy, but something about him made me want to see more – a lighter brown skinned white guy with brown eyes and brown hair.

When the class was done I helped George look through a list of computer spec that his son is looking at getting as a laptop.

Tweleve Hours Plus of PFD Action

August 19th, 2007

The plan for the day was to do engineer training with the fire department. I went to the station around ten-thirty. Bien was also doing engineer training. I went with Turpin in Engine Thirty-two. We did some drive time and talked a little bit about the control on the engine.

We were out and about until about twelve-thirty. Bien and I continued to do drive time in Engine Thirty-one for him. We started by getting lunch at Cougar Country. We then drove around the town. We went from street to street, hill to hill. The plan was to stop at five to get dinner so we had time to eat and be back at the station for rig checks at six o’clock.

While we were on Pioneer hill we heard the police talking about someone who was unconscious on College hill. We decided to make our way that way in case we got a call. It took a while to drive that way. When it sounded like they were not going to want us, I heard the cops ask for us. We were right there, less than a block away.

We drove to a nice parking location and the tone were getting started. By the time they finished the tones I was on the radio walking towards the scene letting dispatch know we were on location.

After dealing with that call we went to get fuel. Following fuel we were on our way to Dissmores to get a sandwich. We were behind schedule because of the call and getting fuel. Bien did go into Dissmores from the Grand Ave driveway. He had forgotten about turning in. But we got into the turn lane. To go in off the Stadium Way side. That is when the tones went off for a fire alarm at Avalon. We were less than three blocks away.

By the time the tones were done sounding we were one block from that one. I took command and did a arrival report. We found no alarm nor reason for the alarm. We cleared and went to Dissmores finally. We got some food. While in the store the tones went off again for a pole on fire. We were just behind Engine Thirty-two. They were going code, but we did not. As we arrived on scene we were put back in service and told to stand by for the next call. No other call came in.

We were finally able to get the rig checks under way. I had the guys who did engine last week switch sides. Bien and I did rig checks on Engine Thirty-two. We did not get out of there until nearly ten o’clock at night because we did not get started until real late due to the calls.

Ryan’s Wedding

August 18th, 2007

Today is the big day. I woke up and got cleaned up. Russell and I needed to go to the tux rental shop to get new pieces for the tux. My shoes needed to be bigger as well as a better fitting shirt size. Once that was completed Russell and I were off to find some roses.

We drove around for a little while and bumped into a place called Just Roses. We were able to get two red and two pink roses. We went back to the hotel to check out and send our postcards that we wrote last night.

Russell and I took Ryan’s parents to dinner at Franks Diner. I had to cut out a little early and pick up Anna and one of her friends from the mall. I took them to the hotel and then parked my truck.

I had been stressing about the best man speech, but this morning in the shower I figured out the direction I wanted to take the speech. I was going to talk about what friends are and what a best friend is. I was going talk about meeting Ryan and playing softball and hanging out with him over the years. I felt better now that I knew what I was going to say.

We went to the hotel and started to get ready. Nick came and I got some photos of him and Russell together.

Russell and Nick looking dignified

Once everyone got their tuxes on we went around and took photos. I got one of Ryan in the dressing room in a chair. I also got Russell and one of me in the chair as well.

Ryan in the chair

Russell in the chair

Me in the chair looking like I am from the nineteenth century

I also got one of me being silly.

Being Silly

We then went out and took photos around the area. I also was getting photos. I got one of Ryan’s brother and his new brother-in-law.

Ben (ten-six-seven), Ryan’s new brother-in-law

Keith, Ryan’s younger brother

Once that was done we were back at the hotel, the time was counting down for the wedding to start. People started to file into the Davenport hotel. The wedding started and it lasted around thirty minutes total. I was the best man and stood next to Ryan. It was neat to see the whole thing.

We went and got some more photos and then made our way to the reception room. They made a grand entrance for Ryan and Anna. I sat at the table with Ryan and Anna. I went and made my way through the line for some chow.

As it turned out Russell and I were sitting at a table with a couple other gay people. So it was the gay table. With Nick there as well. We did not know the other guys, but it was pretty obvious about them.

It came time for the toast. I got up to give my speech. I did a great job doing it. I was prepared and it went smoothly. I did not try to be funny, but the parts that were lighter got some laughter. That was good.

Making My Best Man Speech

Ryan and Anna did their first dance together.

The first dance

The first dance

Russell and Nick got out there to dance a little bit as well.

When the reception got going Ben gave Russell and I a cigar. We went outside to smoke it. It was not very tasty. Russell got a great photo of him smoking it.

Russell smoking the cigar

As the night was winding down I signed the paperwork for Ryan and Anna’s marriage. While we were doing that Keith mention that he lost a stud from his tux. Ryan looked at me and said “So have you”.

First Night in Spokane

August 17th, 2007

I got off work early today to head up to Spokane for Ryan’s wedding. I picked up Russell and we hit the road. It was slow going with all the traffic going both ways. We got near Spokane and I called Ryan to tell him that I had to turn around due to a car accident on the highway. Russell called him back shortly after I hung up worrying that Ryan would be too worried.

When we got to Spokane we went to the Davenport where the wedding was going to be held and where we were staying. While in the lobby I saw Ben. He was ten-six-seven. It is funny how different people can be different ten-six-sevens. Ben is more of a young-man like ten-six-seven. Russell thought he was good looking as well.

We started with the rehearsal. Everyone practiced walking to their appointed position. Went through the workings of the ceremony. Then it was off to the dinner. We were eating a place just around the corner from the Davenport.

On the way back from dinner I decided to walk because we were a block away. Ryan, Russell, Anna, and her friend went back with Ryan. While walking down the road Ryan slowed down to ask “how much”, making a joke that I was a hooker.

I said, really loud, “For you, big boy, anything for fifty cents”. I was two steps from the corner. As I turned it there was a guy and a girl walking around the corner we almost bumped each other. The guy gave me a funny look.

We had to hurry to get to the comedy show. We ended up sitting up front. That added to the joy of the night for sure. One comedian was on stage and asked if anyone lived with their mom. I started to make a clapping motion then stopped just before hitting hands. He noticed this and pointed it out to everyone. I started laughing very hard.

The rest of the evening different comedians would joke about me. One guy looked at Ryan and Russell and said it was nice of them to take “their special friend” out on the town.

When the show was done it felt like I had been roasted. It was a great time. I went to the bar area where the comedian who did most of the roasting was. He saw me and came over. He shook my hand and gave me a half-hug. We talked for a few minutes. One guy who was watching the show said I earned a Good Spirit Award for taking the ribbing so well.

We went back to the hotel and I started to try to think about what to say for the best-man speech. I was having a hard time coming up with anything. I pulled out a postcard that the Davenport gives away with the room. I got a phonebook and opened it to a random white page location and randomly pointed at a name in the phonebook. I then wrote a message to that person on the postcard.

While I was writing the letter to the person a phone call came in around two in the morning. It was hotel security saying we had a noise complaint against us. I then wrote in the letter “We just got a noise complaint, WHATEVA!”

Russell got a postcard and also wrote to the people who lived in Medical Lake. We thought that was pretty funny.

After Ryan left the room I spent some more time trying to think about what to write, but I was not able to come up with anything. I finally went to bed around three in the morning.

Welcome to the new Deputy Coroners

August 16th, 2007

I got my bugs done for the day sort of early so I headed to Colfax early. I figured I would spend some time at the fire station in case of a call. Turns out we did not get a call, but I got to hang with and speak with Ralph for a little while. When it got closer to time for the coroners meeting I went to get some dinner from Arby’s.

I got to the office and I was the first there. Close to the time for the meeting I went to the side door to let the two new deputy coroner’s inside. We have Bill and Ken joining us. Ken is with Colfax fire and Bill was a captain at Pullman fire when I started on the department.

We went through the meeting in the normal way we do it a mix of joking, side tracks, war stories, and learning. I enjoy the meetings.

At the end of the meeting Pete and I were talking about the Easter Massacre. I was telling him about the research that I had done about it in the past. I told him about the shootings and how the official report said that the shooter committed suicide. Pete got interested in it and he is going to look up some information, whatever he can find. We might be going somewhere with this. Stay tuned for that.

It Felt Like I Should Be Working

August 15th, 2007

Today was a day that felt weird that I had nothing going on after I got off work. I worked on getting bugs solved. I did respond on a car accident that turned out to be nothing. I did spend a couple hours working on the department website. I got the photos for the last two fires we had as well as the physical agility test photos posted.

When I was done doing all of that I went downstairs to make myself some dinner and watched some TV. It felt good to not worry about having to do anything in the evening. But it also felt weird as I thought I should be doing something.

A Day Off Where I Work For Hours

August 14th, 2007

Today I had a teaching first aid class to Pullman Transit. The class started at nine o’clock AM at City Hall. I was running late and when I got to the classroom the TV and DVD player were missing. I found a TV and VCR and hook it up in the classroom where running about fifteen minutes late. Finally we got teaching and watching the video. The class was a lot of fun everybody seemed to enjoy learning first aid.

I kept getting phone calls from work as they did not realize I taken the day off. I think I got a total of four phone calls or five phone calls as I was trying to teach the class.

After lunch we finished up the rest of the class, the video, and doing the test. When the class is over with one of the participants asked me a question about internal bleeding. He was asking about symptoms that you can look for to see if internal bleeding was taking place. I was telling him that about a case I had a while back or somebody had internal bleeding. He said he knew who I was talking about. I asked him some questions in the answered them correctly and I found out it was his mom and I was talking about. He told me the whole story about what happened that night. We spent about another thirty minutes talking.

I went back to station one to sanitized and mannequins. While I was sanitizing the mannequins the tones went off asking for reserves to call the station for a transfer to Spokane. I ran into the captain’s office to let him know that I was available. I was able to do the transfer with one of the brand new paramedics Blake. We picked up or patient from the hospital and drove to Spokane. It took a little over an hour and half to get to Spokane. We drop the patient off and then went to dinner the A&W; Rootbeer restaurant. I grabbed some chew.

On the way back to Pullman we talked about career vs. reserves, firefighter training, EMS levels, as well as a couple other issues. I had a good time talking with Blake. When we got back to Pullman we went to fuel up. While you’re driving down guy street Blake tried to get a hold of the dispatch center. He accepted two times with no contact. I jokingly said they would probably answer for me so he gave me the radio. I called for the dispatch center and they quickly answered me. I told them we are back in the city and in service. After getting fuel we went to the hospital to make up the cot.

I went home and checked my e-mail. I saw that Joe bought Pete’s Bar and Grill. He invited all of us down to help him celebrate. He is working on getting the bugs out before the real opening. I got down there hours after the e-mail went out, but Dan and Michele were still down there. I talked to them and congratulated Joe.

I just wonder what will happen next season when it comes to softball. I would like to see us stay My Office because we have been that way for a long time, but who knows what will happen. Maybe a My Office/Pete’s Team.

Engineer Training

August 13th, 2007

Our Monday night training was engineer training. It was not just vehicle placement, but additional things that didn’t have as much to do with vehicle placement. After the training I told Brown I would like to see the class deal more with principles behind vehicle placement and less with what the class dealt with.

Long Weekend Nearly Over

August 12th, 2007

I was on call for the corner’s office today, but it was really quite as it normally is. We don’t get a lot of calls each month. Usually on average one or two that we investigate.

I had spoken to Chapman about the fact that it seemed like our rig checks on A-shift did not go very well. Many times I felt like people were skimming through things. We would get done when I wasn’t there in record times. So I knew a good job was not being done. He said he gives people sheets. When they are done with the sheet they had to sign the sheet that they did it. That was later on if something was missed I could go to the person involved and talk to him about it. Doing that made the rig checks take longer than normal for our shift. It seemed like everyone did really well and we got stuff taken care of.

Ryan’s Bachelor Party

August 11th, 2007

Ten o’clock was an early wake up time after being up until after six in the morning. I had to get my truck cleaned out for the people riding with me. I had to pick up a couple people along the way. I first picked up Russell then it was off to Steve’s house. We all went to Shopko and picked up a white shirt and a place Sharpie pen. I drew out what I wanted to have the shirt. Steve worked on filling it out along the way. We were heading to Ryan’s house to pick him up. I presented him with his shirt and made him put it on. He went with it and wore it.


We started by going to get some pizza. We went to the same place as we did for his birthday. Dan met up with us there. While there we took his cell phone so people could not call him and bother us on his party. Russell took the phone and left a message saying we had taken his phone away and that he wasn’t going to call anyone back. After pizza we were walking down the street. With Ryan’s shirt I put on a drawn in six-pack. A guy without a shirt was walking down the street towards us. I said to Ryan “He’s wearing the same shirt as you”. Everyone laughed about that.

We went to the mall and watched a movie. While walking through the mall a couple of us were saying outloud “Deadman Walking”. We left a gap between Ryan and us. one younger guy was starring at his shirt. I looked at the guy and said “You like his abs?”

When the movie was done we went to the comedy club. We were pretty early. But we ordered prime rib and ate it while talking and joking with Ryan. I talked to Chris the owner of the Brickwall and made sure he knew we were there. During his warm up he was making fun of Ryan and roasting all of us about going to a comedy club in Spokane for the bachelor party. Other comedians who came through also made similar jokes to us.

Following the show we went to get some dinner at IHOP and then more or less called it a night. It was a nice calm bachelor party for Ryan. I wasn’t sure if that is exactly what he wanted, but Ryan is not much of the drinker/party animal. I think he enjoyed being able to be with his friends and just enjoy the day.

On the way home Russell got us to stop on a dark side road where we watched the stars. there was a meteor shower going on. We saw some of them fly by while we were there. I didn’t get home and in bed until into the wee hours of the morning. I am on call for the coroner. I just was hoping that I wouldn’t get a call an hour after I went to bed for a death.

Big Fire on A-Shift

August 10th, 2007

Today I was ending my short four day run in Bellevue. I had Chapman covering for me tonight, and he was going to cover until I got back to Pullman. I knew it was going to be a long day at the office because of what I had to get done. Around six at night I checked the Daily News website. I saw that there was a big fire in Pullman at the grain bin on the Pullman-Moscow Highway. I was disappointed because I thought I missed a fire. But I also figured it might go on long enough for me to do something at.

The View of the Fire before I left Bellevue


A view of the fire from the backside


Another daytime view of the fire

I made the trip without trying to rush it too much. When I got back to Pullman I found that the bay was empty at Station Thirty-Two. I went my house changed and back to the fire station. Upon my arrival I found the ambulance was back. I went in and spoke with Chapman. He said I could probably go to Station One and get out to the scene. My only concern was if I would be able to get back in time for Ryan’s bachelor party.

I decided to go to the station and see if I could make it out to the scene. Within a few minutes of getting to the station I was sent out with Erickson to the scene in the ambulance. I got to go into the bucket with Nick. We were using the masterstream to help keep the side grain bin remain cool. The middle bin was burning. Brown gave me a camera to take some photos. While I was up there I noticed what appeared to be smoke coming from the eves of the side grain bin. I notified Brown. Later on D-Twelve said the same thing. It was not long that we received word that we were not going to stop it from burning.

I sat in the bucket for a while by myself waiting for the side bin to really get going. I had a camera and I had been taking photos of the whole thing. We moved a propane tank away from the building and used the masterstream from the PL to help protect the PL and the propane tank from the heat of the fire. Wilson showed back up and I used a handline to keep us cool in the PL bucket.

As the fire got roaring I got some action shots.


Hot grain flows from the middle bin like hot lava.


Beginning stages of the second bin burning


Second bin is full of fire, metal siding is red hot.

As the fire got rolling it was very hot in the bucket. We were the closest for the fire. We really didn’t do anything to slow down the fire progression. Once in a while I would stop flowing the handline, which I had in a fog pattern, to see the difference in the heat. It was pretty big. Around five in the morning the small bin had burnt to the ground.

Our replacements showed up and I got to go to the station. While I was there A. Wilcox was there. We talked about the fire and the response for the rest of the night. It was just him and I on Rescue should a call have come out. But by six in the morning nothing had come out. I got home finally and in bed.

I failed at hurting myself

August 9th, 2007

I had a quick appointment at the doctors office this morning it was for only a shot. When I got to the office a ten-six-seven was sitting in the lobby. He came out with a limp. Not sure what the problem was, but I couldn’t really get my eyes off of him. When I got into the office I was so painfree, my ankle felt better than it had in years it seemed. Perfect! The doctor wants there to be pain so we can tell if the shot does anything to help. I left the doctors office, but I made sure to take care in shutting the door which gave me extra time to watch my ten-six-seven in the lobby.

Trying to get my ankle to hurt

August 8th, 2007

Part of my plan to make things hurt was to walk Amber around and throw the ball for her. I went up and down the driveway a whole bunch of times. We were out there long enough that even Amber was getting tired of all the walking around. My attempts at causing myself some pain were in vein however. I failed to fell pain when I was done for the evening.

Great Pullman Sunrise

August 7th, 2007

Today was a travel day to Bellevue. On my way to Grand Ave I found the sunrise to be incredible looking. Something like the sunsets we see in Pullman. I stopped to take some photos of it.





Over a period of a couple minutes it went from the top photo to the bottom photo. Once I was done gawking I hit the road. I had a doctor’s appointment to have my ankle MRI read to me. As it turned out when I got to the doctors office I was not able to show any pain in my ankle. That made it nearly impossible to get a shot and fix anything. The doctor asked me to go home and see if I could do anything to make it hurt. That is an unusual request. Without playing softball and working events I don’t see how I can get it to hurt easily.

I Am Going to Kill Them

August 6th, 2007

People who know me well know that I am not a violent person. However, even those of us who believe in being peaceful, friendly, and who rolls with the flow will at some time hit the final point where peace is not an option.

This is different than being defensive. Like most red-blooded Americans I reserve my second amendment right to protect myself. The only time that would be used is in a defensive posture. Sometimes when it is you or them. Fight or flight. Being judged by twelve or carried by six. You have to choose. If my choice is fight, then I have what is necessary to protect myself and get out alive.

In some cases, however, you may have to go on the offensive and take a proactive approach to protecting yourself defensively. That is to say that sometimes you have to strike first in defense of yourself.

Why might you strike first? Lets say there is a group of beings that are unwilling to negotiate and who have a different outlook on life. There is no understanding between my life, my house, my property, and what they view as their life, their property, and their house.

If they should attack you while you’re on your home turf, you might have to go to their home and wipe them all out in order to not get attacked again.

That is what happened today. I was going to BBQ in my backyard when a swarm of bees decided to use my stairs as their home. They attacked me unprovoked. I retreated. I went to the Grange and bought some bee killer. I went back to their home and killed them all.

Sorry to ruin everyone’s impression of my peaceful laid back nature. Now have seen my violent side.

While I was not getting stung by a bee, I took some photos for the photo board for the fire department and got them posted. We had fire training tonight. We went over the first part of our engineer training. The whole month we are doing engineer training.

Doing the Dunes

August 5th, 2007

The Keeton’s plus one of their friends as well as Russell and I went to the river. We started out at Safeway I got fuel and water. We drove down to the river and put the boat in the water. Then we got rolling from the dock to the dunes. I figured even though the boat was leaking a fair amount while at the dunes the worst it would do would be to ground itself.

I was going to go ashore, but I spent some time trying to find my tennis ball. I brought that to have some fun with the softball bat. But I could not find it. Then the kids wanted to play with the tube. I stuck around the boat. We were there for around an hour. Then we took the boat out and started to cruise. The kids got on the tube and rode it for a while. Then I got Dan on the tube. After making him crash we took the tube back to the beach and took Russell on the water skis.

He got up on the first try. He skied for a while then wanted to stop. After resting a minute or so, he got back up for a little bit more.

After that was done we went back to clean up our beach area and head to the dock. I had to be back in Pullman by six for being on call. Russell wanted to get me some dinner for me. So he picked that up at The Emerald and met me at my house. I got my uniform on and went to the station.

I ate really fast while rig checks were going. I went out to assist with rig checks. After we were done with them for the most part, I worked with A. Wilcox on his Rescue check offs as well as talking to him about engineer related information.

We got out of there around ten-thirty. But the night was quiet and we received no calls.

Golfing in the ‘Fax

August 4th, 2007

This morning was Joe’s golfing game. It is always an early tee time. I always get there just before the actual tee off time. Today was no different. I spent the normal amount of time hitting trees. In fact I won the award for the most trees hit.

After the golfing I went to Colfax Fire. I hung out for a couple hours. Eric and Rick were there. We watched Rocky. But as the day was going it was very quiet.

I had been needing to do some shopping for a while. I finally got off my duff and made my way to Safeway for a shopping trip.

Structure Fire at CCS

August 3rd, 2007

So there I was. Just leaving the bathroom on my way to the bay when I heard the pre-alerts saying there was a structure fire. I didn’t believe it. I looked around to see if someone was playing with a recording. But the I realized it was a real one. The tones went off and we got into our turn outs.

We were close to going to do some training in Rescue when the call came out. In fact we have A. Wilcox down with us for the training. He jumped in the Engine and Bien, Williams and I got into Rescue.

We followed the engine to the scene at CCS. I could see some light brown smoke coming from the area. It appeared we did indeed had a fire. When we got there A. Wilcox had the hose out and ready to go. Turpin had us back him up. That is when Dean Hare from the Daily News snapped this photo.


Getting ready to put out the fire.

Soon after this photo was taken the fire was out and Williams and I were sent to do a quick building search.

I tried all doors before I forced them. But I ended up having to force two of them. I paid attention to the door as I tried it. One I found the door locking system to be weak, so it only took a small hit with the shoulder. A second door was stronger so I used the halligan tool to get into that. There was no one in any of the room. After that it was pretty much over with for us, except for the clean up.

A. Wilcox took over on rescue for Williams. Bien and I took him up to the tower and worked on his engineer stuff until just after eleven o’clock. We got a ton of stuff done with A. Wilcox. I went home to get to sleep because I didn’t get a lot of sleep this morning and I had to get up for golfing in the morning. But we would get a call at three in the morning. After I got home I spent the next hour tossing and turning as I was thinking about various things.

Covering for Chapman

August 2nd, 2007

With all the wildland fires happening, Chapman called me up to see if I would cover for him. I told him I would. While doing rig checks I noticed we needed to fuel the engine. I called one of the guys down to the station who was not there. He was on duty. Before he got there we were called for a medical call.

We got done with that call. We got the engine and made it out the door this time. We opened the gate at the city shops only to get a second call. We went on that. It was a fire alarm. Finally, we made it back for the fuel. This time we were able to fill up the engine.

But as far as additional calls, it was dead the rest of the night.

Tux Fitting

August 1st, 2007

Russell and I went downtown today to get sized for tuxes. They will be for Ryan’s wedding later this month. We are both in the wedding.

We grabbed some lunch at Pizza Pipeline and I went to the banks to make deposits. When we got back to my place he was in my office and saw my project that I am working on for the coroners office. I am putting together a collage of car accident photos.

He asked about what happened in each one. I told him the circumstances around each wreck. Then we talked about the choices people make in life which brought us to a long discussion about suicide. Why people choose to do it, and what is being gained by it.

Following the suicide we got into a little bit of politics. That is where we are vastly on different ends of the poles. But we stayed mostly in an area where we both agree, and it is about giving up freedom for “security”.