Colfax Responded to a Structure Fire

February 29th, 2008

I wanted to get my truck washed today because it was pretty dirty. While washing it I was trying to think about what I would do tonight. I figured a trip to the car dealer to see about getting a fifteen-hundred truck would be a good idea.

I upgraded to a twenty-five-hundred because I figured that I would get a camper for my truck. I needed a bigger truck. But with my decision to buy my parents’ motorhome I don’t need a camper at this time and paying off a huge truck payment is probably not necessary.

But before I was completely finished cleaning my truck a call went out for a structure fire for D-twelve. Soon I heard it was a two story house that was fully involved. Calls started to come in for Albion, Colfax, D-Fourteen, and Steptoe.

When Colfax was asked for I called the fire station and asked them to bring my gear so I could help with the fire cause.


Photo By: Hillary Hamm/Daily News

When I arrived I saw what was in the photo above. I helped with the water shuttle. I helped to get a couple of the Colfax rigs filled with water and then helped to fill the dumptanks. I was on scene for around four hours of the night.

Done Stewing

February 28th, 2008

I woke up this morning and started to think about what I was told last night by Chapman. I can say I was very mad about it last night. I stewed about it as I went to bed and I stewed more about it today.

Around ten in the morning I called the other person who was in the vehicle when the incident happened. He backed up what I believed had happened. So I was happy that I had remembered the situation correctly. That made me relax a little bit and enjoy the rest of the day.

We had a couple car accidents go out at the same time later in the afternoon. So I went to the station to help out but I ended up standing by with one because no one else showed up.

I had to be back at the station to meet with Turpin and Parrish about some training things that are going on. When that meeting was done I spoke with Turpin about some of the issues that were brought up with me about various things. I let Turpin know that I had made a mistake in letting a specific person to drive code. I think I misunderstood something from the training officer. I told him what I should have done in order for this mistake to not have happened.

Then I talked to Chapman some more about last night. I got a little bit more and confirmed what I had already understood about what had been said about me. By this time in the evening I was pretty calm and decided that it probably wouldn’t do any positive changes by bring it up with the person or anyone else. I felt that it was best if the whole thing was dropped and it just went away.

The whole drama thing just takes away the fun from the fire department. I just would like it to go away and for the business of being a firefighter and not a whiner would be in the forefront.

I watched the Cougs on TV with John at the station and we saw them crush Cal. I just wish they had done that last time they played.

Horrible Car Wreck

February 27th, 2008

After my workout this morning I was at home cleaning up. I heard Colfax Fire get dispatched out to something. But I didn’t hear what it was. I was going to ignore it, but I figured that I would turn on my scanner and listen to it while I was cleaning up. I just had a feeling it was a big one.

Before long I heard one of the cops on the way to the scene say there was one “possible.” So I listened in closer as the units were arriving on scene. I heard the ambulance get on scene and say that there were two confirmed and to notify Paul-Sixty-Four.

I called Pete to give him a heads up. He asked if I could take the case and call Ken to help out. I was just getting finished cleaning up so I was able to run pretty quickly.

When I got to the scene it was pretty quickly obvious that it was a bad one. We wee on scene for hours and hours because we were waiting for various people to do their part of the scene.

After the scene we went to the funeral home to continue our investigation. We were starving. It was after six o’clock. Pete took us to Eddy’s for dinner. We went over the findings and had dinner. Then it was back to the office for the remainder of the work on the case.

It was a very long day that I didn’t expect to be half this long.

The photos shown on the news showed the car had been smashed down heavily on the driver side. The news also showed a semi truck that had busted through some guardrail and went into a field. It looked like a lot of force was in the wreck. A state trooper was quoted in the newspaper saying that it was the worst he had seen in a long time.

Bought a Pop Machine

February 26th, 2008

I did some shopping at Safeway and stopped by Al’s Auto Body to look at the pop machines. I found one that I liked. It was branded as a Coke machine, but I figured the features it had it was worth dealing with that. It has up to nine selections. It holds a lot of pop. Plus I can vary the prices depending on whether I have pop, beer, or some other beverage in the machine.

I had to run home for a bit then I went back to pick it up. I helped to do some cleaning on it and replaced the locking mechanism on it. Then the guy delivered it to my house.

I set it up in the garage. Next to the other vending machine.

I went to Colfax for fire training. We were doing our Confined Space refresher course. That went pretty quick. Carl, Jim, Tim, and I play poker. I had to get some cash from the store. While I was there I saw they had a good deal on some kinds of candy. So I bought thirty bars for the vending machine.

I didn’t do great at cards, but I ended winning a couple hands late and walked away with about fifty cents.

A Lengthy Interview

February 25th, 2008

It was a good radio show today. Both Tom’s were on the show. We talked about RFID and privacy. Then Tom called and we talked about some stuff on Palousitics.com including the stuff about the Hawkins development.

Following the show I had to rush over to Moscow for an interview. It was one of the longest ones I have been in. They spent time quizing me about SQL Server and writing stored procedures. As well as building webpages. They said they would call me and let me know one way or another soon.

I got home and got ready for training. I was going to help out with the EMT class because the OTEP training tonight is one that I have already had recently. While at EMT class I worked with groups on various scenarios.

All is Alive

February 24th, 2008

I was the on call coroner today and all quiet at the office. I also was working for the fire department. We had our final Sunday night rig checks. I worked with Clark on doing some of the checks on Rescue Thirty-Two.

The rig checks we pretty late into the evening. I was on engine tonight and it was quiet all night as well. I haven’t gone on a call for a while now.

EMT Extrication class

February 23rd, 2008

Started the day with Extrication class in Colfax. I got my turnouts from Colfax. My role was at photographer and as a trainer on some of the scenarios. I would set someone up in the car and help people with how to take them out of the car. Later on when we were cutting I mainly was taking the photos of everything. I ended up with more that four-hundred photos on the day.

I worked the Cougar Basketball game. We need to be able to beat Arizona, but we were not able to do it. I don’t know why we are having some of the problems this season that we didn’t last year.

It sucked to lose to them. That sort of put a damper on the day.

Last Day in the Old Office

February 22nd, 2008

Ricky and I went to Wibley’s for our last meal there when we could walk there. While there we saw Terry and Shawn. I hadn’t seen Terry in years. We all had some small talk for a while then Ricky and I went back to the office to eat.

I stayed at the office late tonight. A lot of things were being given away. I ended up getting a CRT monitor so I could set up my Windows Home Server machine. I also got a couple other things as well. I loaded up my truck with all the stuff and headed out around seven o’clock at night.

The roads back to Pullman were smooth sailing. I was able to get back a little before midnight. I unloaded my truck and put most of the stuff on my shelves in the garage.

Welcome to Canada

February 21st, 2008

Got up this morning and started my trip to Canada. It started with picking up three of my co-workers along the way. In Renton, Bellevue, and Kirkland. Then we hit the road and made our way to the border. At the border I was being questioned. But I was answering the questions with brief information that should have been a little more descriptive. For instance when asked what we were doing, I said “going to a meeting.” So after getting the information he wanted we continued along the way.

But we didn’t go the exact way the directions we had included. So it took us some extra time to get to our final destination. About an extra hour or so. When we got to the office we got a tour of it.

Then it was to a meeting room. We went over their product. Showed our product. Had some pizza for lunch. Then ended the day with talking about the work they are going to have us do on their product.

We hit the road and it was a long haul back to Seattle. We talked about the people we met and the product we were going to have to work on. I dropped the people off in the reserve order that I picked them up. It had been a long day.

Later I got a call from Jon. I was meeting up with him to play poker down in his neighborhood. I got there it was very bad. I couldn’t do much to win anything. We were playing two-four dollar limit. That made it hard to push people out. But we finally upped it to ten dollar limit. I had my last buyin in front of me and I went to work. When it was done about forty minutes later I won back all my lost money plus about twenty bucks more. So it turned out to be a good day. It just took a while.

It wasn’t like the last time I was there when I took a couple hundred bucks and didn’t lose more than two hands all night long.

Meeting the New Bosses

February 20th, 2008

The new bosses were in town. I had a chance to meet them for the first time. We had an all day meeting in my office pretty much. It was decided that I would be going to Canada tomorrow with a couple others from the office.

I am not sure I am looking forward to the Canada trip, but it is going to take place so I will be making a long trip tomorrow.

A Change of Locations

February 19th, 2008

It has been almost four years that I have been with NU. Today I had to move my cubical space. Recently we were looking at old seating charts. Through the years people have come and gone. At one time I was surrounded by people. By the time I left yesterday it was just Wil and I back there. Wil left and I was the only one left.

I was moved into the “dev conference room” which was Chris’ old office. I joked around about me being fired because everyone who has been in this office has been fired. I will be in this office for the rest of the week. Then I will be back at home. The only question I have is where I will be next time I come out here. No one knows for sure how things will be set up.

It is sort of neat to have this office space rather than the cube, but it sucks that it is only a short time. So the day was mainly spent cleaning out my cube and moving to my new office and getting it all set up.

I didn’t really do a lot at home last night. I was excited to watch House. But instead American Idol was on. I don’t watch the show. And when it preempts House that really sucks.

Nostalgia

February 19th, 2008

I was watching CSI on Spike TV this evening. One of the people on the show, Katherine, was running some experiments to determine how fast paint would dry. She would write down the results as the test progresses.

That reminded me about using scientific methods for recording and testing unknowns. That got me thinking about the days of my Chemistry Labs. I then thought back to one year when my Chem lab was from three to six o’clock PM on Friday.

Many people didn’t like to have a lab that late on a Friday. I didn’t like it at first, but soon I fell in love with it. As most people were in a hurry to finish and leave the lab, it would make it so there were no lines waiting to use certain shared equipment items. I wasn’t slowed down by other people.

I spent my time calmly working through my experiments and just relaxed. Then when I was done I would walk from Fulmer to the Roto for dinner. It was still relaxing as the spring was moving into warmer weather. People were scarce on campus as they had all left to go home.

But for me I was just relaxed. I would have dinner at the Roto. I would pull out my newspaper and read through it from front to back. I would get lost in my own world. People would come and go. Crowds would come and go. I would just ignore it all and read my newspaper.

I came to realize that there was no big hurry to be ready to go at six o’clock on a Friday night. Nothing really got going until later. So I wasn’t missing anything. I was able to relax as others were doing the old “hurry up and wait” routine.

Those were some good times. Sometimes I wish I could go back to them, but at the same time what makes the special is that you don’t do them anymore. If I was still doing that stuff after a decade it might not mean very much to me today.

Back in the Saddle

February 18th, 2008

I am back in the saddle as I did a workout today. I hadn’t done one all last week because I was either hurt or resting myself for the swim test. But I am back in the saddle. It felt good to get a work out in.

I also washed my truck. That was another thing that was needed. But when I washed my first wheel I got up with a lot of pain in my back again. I have not been one hundred percent since I hurt it last week. And I re-hurt it today.

I went to Staples today and got mom a GPS unit. I was going to get her one for Christmas but the one I wanted to get was not available. So I picked that up as well as stopped at a medical clinic because of my eye. Turns out I have pink eye. So I had to get some eye drops for it.

Recovering

February 17th, 2008

I spent a couple hours today sleeping after my ride along with Joe. When I did get up I checked through the newspaper. I found a GPS I want to get for my mom. I was invited to go to the play a Carco Theatre because my mom wasn’t feeling well.

It was a good play. I enjoyed the experience. I really should start going to the plays in Pullman when I am back there.

Riding in Whatcom

February 16th, 2008

I planned on going on a ride along in Whatcom county today. I got up this morning for a little while. Then I went back to bed to take a nap so I could be more awake for my ride along.

When I got up I got dressed and then fueled my truck and went to Whatcom County. I went to Joe’s house and hung out with him for a little bit. I helped him with his website. He had messed something up and I fixed it for him.

We hit the road and started at the office. He had to write up some reports before we went on patrol. Then we went to Wendy’s for dinner. As we were finishing up dinner we went to the report of someone shooting.

We found the people involved. It was nearly midnight. They all got cited for disturbing the peace. We went to a house party where some people were taking DXM. It is in many cold medicines. It causes euphoria at a lower dose and at higher doses it can cause some other problems. It can kill you in an overdose situation. The ambulance had to get called on this one.

We went on one more shooting call but were unable to locate the shooting noise this time. We went to the dispatch center and hung out with Doug for a while. It was about four in the morning when I called it a night. I rolled home and when I got here I pretty much peeled off my clothes and went fast asleep.

Grandpa Patterson’s Funeral

February 15th, 2008

I started the day off at a swimming pool on Mercer Island. I had to do a swim test for the boat patrol. We started with a two-hundred-and-fifty yard swim, but they ended up having us swim five-hundred yards. That wasn’t that big of a deal because that is what I have been doing at the rec center. After the swim there was a thirty minute treading of water. When that was done we practiced some recovery swimming techniques. It lasted a total of two hours.

I got home and cleaned up for the funeral. We went to the Greenwood Cemetery for the funeral. We had the service. Jon and I were pallbearers. We went out to the gravesite for a graveside service as well. The VFW was there they did a gun salute for him. When that was done we all went back to our place for the wake.

Later in the evening Dave and I went to see Rambo. When it was over Dave and I sat in the parking lot for about an hour talking about my efforts to make life changing habits that will lead to a more healthy life for myself.

Smooth Sailing

February 14th, 2008

If I had to come back to Seattle last week or the week before it would have been bad. But coming back today wasn’t a big deal at all. The roads were pretty much bare and dry the whole way. I was able to cruise along nicely.

I got to the office around eleven in the morning. We went to QDoba for lunch. I spent some of the day working with Ricky on some stuff dealing with a non-development realted server problem.

I was there until around seven at night. When I got home my mom had me go to Papa Murphy’s to get some pizza for dinner.

Thats a lot of Change

February 13th, 2008

I too my change to Dissmore’s today to use Coinstar and turn it into cash. I had so much change it took about ten minutes to get it all counted. The machine kept stopping me from adding more as it would try to catch up. I ended up putting in more than two-hundred bucks in change.

This morning I did a workout for the first time since hurting my back. It was just swimming. But I got that done and it felt good to get that done. I was starting to feel like a slug not getting out there.

I made it to the fire department and got the photoboard updated with the new reserves that I have photographed as well as updating the shift changes and the rank of some of the reserves in the EMT class. It felt good to get that done. I was about four months out of date in some cases.

Transaction Completed

February 12th, 2008

I met with the crew leaders and the Lt’s about some issues and where we stand in the whole order of things. I went to Colfax a little bit later to complete the transaction for the boat. I met up with Eric at the Auditors office. I signed over the boat to him. He paid me the final portion of the bill.

I went to the fire station and stayed there until they were back from the call they were on. I talked to Ralph about getting into the Red Card class they were going to have coming up. I also got information about the CISD training. There is a class coming up in April. I am thinking about signing up for that. But the class will be in the Seattle area.

I spent some time with Bien on the engine. Once I am satisfied with his knowledge of the engine he is able to get checked off with it. We went down to HazMat training. It was fairly short. I spoke with Chapman about the meeting we had this morning as well as some of the issues we have had with some of the guys.

Transmitter Down

February 11th, 2008

The transmitter was down when I started the show. It was time for Tom and I just to chat about various topics including a time to train him how to use the equipment. He had to leave at about one o’clock pm. The transmitter came back about fifteen minutes later. I completed the show, but I was not as prepared as I would have normally been.

In the evening we were having fire training. I had hurt my back yesterday and I was a little on the slow side. I wasn’t able to work out today. I was happy to hear we were only going to do table top stuff. We were going over the SOP covering Incident Command.

Pizza Dinner

February 10th, 2008

I bought pizza from Pipeline to be picked up for dinner at the station. I invited the reserves down to eat with the duty crew from the Deuce. I got a party pizza plus a chicken pizza. I also ordered two orders of breadsticks. It was running very late. The guy picking it up told me that they didn’t have it done on time. They forgot one of the pizzas. So they have me thirty-five bucks in gift certificates. That was cool.

Heston taught the hydraulics class and I watched it while Bien and Parrish worked on Rescue. After the class I went out with Clark and worked with him on checking off parts of the engine as well as showing him how we do the weekly pump test.

Sold my Boat

February 10th, 2008

I got an e-mail yesterday from someone wanting to buy my boat. I e-mailed him back and told him that he could come look at it on Sunday. He called me today and came over. It turned out it was his parents who bought my house in Colfax last year. Pretty funny. I was thinking that was the case when I saw the name.

He spent time looking it over. We made a deal and it was sold. I helped him load it onto his truck and away he went. I am a little nervous about being upset about selling it. Sort of sellers remorse, but I think it was the right thing to do for me and my situation. Now I have a garage that is more cleaned out and I can fit stuff into it better. I plan on now getting some carpet and setting up my poker table. That is pretty exciting.

Grandpa Patterson Died

February 9th, 2008

I got an e-mail from my mom today telling me that Pat died today. I called her to ask about some of the details. Sounds like he was sick and in the hospital for a couple days. But it was known by people that it looked like there was going to be a poor outcome. He died during the day on Saturday. So I have a funeral to go to when I am back home.

I made plans to meet up with Brandon and Kevin tonight. Russell also wanted to come over and watch the Devil’s Rejects. Kevin and Brandon also came to watch that.

In the morning I woke up in time for going to the Cougar Basketball game. I went up there with the fire department. Only four of us worked the game. The Cougs were playing a great game. They crushed USC. If they had played like that during the last couple games they would have won those games too.

On the way back from the game they toned for reserves to call the station for a transfer. I went on it. So that pushed back the time I met up with the guys. Because I was in Colfax I stopped by the fire station to pick up my W-Twos. I washed the ambulance when I got back and went to pick up Russell and Nick. Brandon and Kevin came over.

We had pizza and watched the Devil’s Rejects. Following that movie I took Russell and Nick home. When I got back Kevin, Brandon, and I played Racko and Mexican Train Dominoes. We stayed up until around three in the morning playing games.

It was a great time with them.

Completed the Photo Board for the Deuce

February 8th, 2008

I completed the photo board for the Deuce. I have been working on it for a while now. I got the final parts for it and put it together. It looks good over all. I met up with Clark to get his photo for the photoboard and for the website as well.

I went to the Deuce and found a spot to put it. I hung it up. I was happy with the final product.

There wasn’t much going on tonight. I was tired from last night, so I didn’t stay up too late. I also had to get up early for the basketball game tomorrow morning.

Another Loss, Not Good

February 7th, 2008

The Cougs should have beaten UCLA today, but that did not happen. It was sucky to watch as they could not get anything going. The shooting was poor. We couldn’t play great defense. We couldn’t score when it mattered. We went on to lose again.

I spent a lot of time on the phone today with Ricky trying to get my computer set up and running with the certs and receiving credit reports. This is a problem that until it is fixed I cannot do anything about fixing the issue in my inbox.

Seven and a Half Straight Hours

February 6th, 2008

I took some photos last week when WSU closed, but I didn’t post them until today. After tonights snow it is starting to look like this again.


The sidewalk getting to my house, had to duck under the tree.


The view of my house and the car buried under snow.

The snow started to pile up. It just kept snowing and snowing. We were supposed to get around one inch. But it was nearly around fix inches when I went to bed.

I was coving on Rescue until the guys got back from EMT class. I was down at the station and we finished up rig checks. On my way out the door I asked if they had gotten any calls today. Just was we were discussing the fact that one call happened this morning the tones went out.

Turpin had a can of food in his hand. It turned out to be a call to Palouse so he didn’t need to go. He said “you’re lucky Anderson!”. I was laughing as I checked the map. The snow was bad and it was slow going getting up there mainly due to the traffic. We transported to Gritman because Pullman went on divert.

Normally Rescue will not go to Gritman, but the Medic wanted one in the back with him, so they said they would bring him back. Bien and I went back to the city and I told him I had been to a lot of hospitals in the area, but I haven’t been to Gritman before. I have always wanted to go.

While we were cleaning Rescue, the tones came out for another call. We were pretty much on scene the same time as the ambulance. We transported and I was in the back. We ended up getting diverted to Gritman. So I was able to make my first trip over there.

When we got back we stayed at Station Thirty-One standing by for additional calls. A third call was also going on at the same time as the others. For a while we had all the reserves on duty out with the ambulances because we were spread pretty thin.

I didn’t get home until after one in the morning, and we ended the night with a fire alarm after five in the morning. I was dragging when I went back to bed.

Another Cancelled Colfax Training

February 5th, 2008

The snow hit hard this afternoon. I was watching it pile up when I heard D-Twelve get toned out to a car accident. Soon I heard it had three cars involved. They asked for Pullman Ambulance and Rescue to get toned out. I knocked on Tyson’s door and went off on the call. McPherson came down as well.

We got to the scene with three cars. We did pop a door on one car, but that was about it as far a rescue went. It was a long scene as we called for an ambulance from Lewiston because we didn’t have career guys to run the other two ambulances in Pullman.

As we were clearing the hospital I heard Colfax get an information tone about the fact that training was cancelled today. That made my life easier. I wouldn’t have to drive down there.

When we were back at the station we cleaned Rescue and I stuck around to chat with the other guys for a little bit before going home. I had some dinner. Plowed the driveway and watched House before going to bed.

Welcome Tom Two

February 4th, 2008

Had the radio show today with the new co-host, Tom W. He was a two time guest last semester. I asked him to join me this semester. He accepted. We talked about Super Tuesday. He tried to get me to answer certain questions, but I refused to answer. I ran him in some circles. I was having fun with that.

Tom F. called in and we talked about the Whitman County vote to allow the bond to go through for Hawkins. That was great news as it would start a major development on the corridor.

Tonights Monday Night training we covered the engineer sheet. It has some new information about how you do the calculations when looking at water pressures under three-hundred-fifty gallons per minute.

The training went well. Afterwards Michael, Reed, and I met with Mike about some reserves issues and what we need to start to do about them.

I was getting some crap from people about being Mr. “Standing By With One”.

Super Bowl Party

February 3rd, 2008

Today’s Super Bowl party was held at Bryce’s house in Colfax. I purchased some peanut butter cups, chips, and dip. I brought that down with my pop. I got there around the same time Carl did. He brought his beans stuff. Jim and Connie brought their taquito’s. Everyone had their thing there.

We started by playing some poker. But I was not doing very well. I sort of just bled out money most of the night. We were rooting for the Giants to beat Patriots to ruin their attempt at a perfect season. We stopped playing cards at the start of the game. We were not very impressed with the commercials this year. They were not very funny nor ground breaking.

At half time we played cards until there was about five minutes left in the game. After that we went back to watch the final part of the game. That was probably the best part of the game as well.

We played a tiny bit more cards before calling it a night. I went home and watched the end of House.

Another Cougar Loss

February 2nd, 2008

I worked the men’s basketball game today. I had to be at the station around ten in the morning. I had worked last night for the fire department, but it was pretty dead.

The Cougs didn’t do very well on the court. The first half they were rebounding well. They were making it look like Stanford would be going down. Then in the second half we couldn’t do anything to work towards a victory. We ended up losing by two. Taylor had a chance for a lay-up at the very end of the game, but missed it.

The evening I was going to be on call for C-Shift. I was looking forward to being on Rescue. We got calls steadily through out the night. I helped to find the cause of a fire alarm in a frat. Plus every time I went to bed, I would get woken up by the tones. We had calls to the point where I was up for every hour through out the night even though I had gone to bed twice.

Got Fired.

February 1st, 2008

WSU got cancelled again. It was announced last night. It was weird because I was someone who had to work even though everyone else didn’t.

Today was the day I was going to get fired from NU. But it was one where I was told I would be fired. It was more of a formality than anything. They had to “terminate” everyone to close out the books. Then start the new company. I was hired back on.

When I had my conversation with the guys it seemed the idea of me working from home was very good with these guys. On top of that, the need to have me back there monthly was also a thing of the past. So I think this summer you will see me in Pullman a lot more than years past. So today is my first day under the management of the new company.

Tonight on call at the fire department was dead. I spent a lot of time over at Brandon’s in the evening playing cards. I went to Russell’s to see the snow cave that Russell and Nick built. I also spent time talking to Parrish and Bien about fire department related things, as well as heating ideas for my garage.