Teaching CPR

April 30th, 2008

This morning there was a meeting of the facility committee. I am part of the committee. We are exploring what is needed in a new fire station. Including location and more. I am part of the subcommittee that is deciding what is going to be included in the station. I am the only reserve on the committee.

This evening it was time for CPR class. I went to the station to set up the classroom. As people started to make their way in Pete tried to call me. He had called me earlier. But I didn’t answer it the second time. I listened to the message later on during a break and found out he was telling me that he was on his way to a double fatal car accident. This is the second time we have had a double fatal on a day I choose to teach a class. The other time John actually covered the class for me.

John came over to my place and we played poker for a couple hours. I wasn’t doing all that great and lost some money. I think was down around ten bucks when it was over with.

I talked to him about the idea of working as a career fireman. I asked him about the softball question. I don’t want to miss softball. I told him I noticed that others who played softball tended to miss a lot of games. I asked if this was because they chose not to take the time off, or if it was because too hard to get the time off.

He told me in the first year I would probably miss games. But in the following years that I should just put in for vacation about six months in advance in order to make sure I get the time off. Because softball season is always the same time, it shouldn’t be hard to figure out what days to take off.

Working at Colfax Fire

April 29th, 2008

I went to Colfax Fire today and I was planning on working at the jail, but I ended up staying at the fire station. While I was there we got called out on a fire alarm at the school. It turned out to be burnt food.

Later on Tim and I got a pizza while waiting for the meeting to start. We learned about the plans for the new radio system and the fact that once everything is in scanner-land will die as they will not be able to scan us. That is sucky in my book.

After the training we played poker for a couple hours. Jim and I got into a laughing fit again. We seem to feed off each other. Something will happen that will crack us up. Then we start to feed off each other laughing harder and harder. That usually will go on for a couple minutes.

Last Radio Show… Ever

April 28th, 2008

Went into the studio today to do the final show with Tom. But it was clear very quickly that the transmitter was not working. I worked on it for a while, but it was hopeless. We finally left about thirty minutes into the time slot. While talking with Tom I found out he wasn’t planning on doing the show again. I also thought about it for a little bit.

This last semester or two the show has suffered from my lack of time preparing for the topics, getting guests, and whatnot. I don’t have the fire in my gut like I did. I just don’t have things to talk about like I did at one time. I also am worried about things with work and everything else. I decided it was time to pull the plug on the show. My last show was today and I never even got on the air. I may see about subbing a show next April to do my show on the Easter Massacre with Karl.

At fire training tonight we were doing more on the wildland class. It was the final day. I had missed all the other trainings because of various reasons, but I also had completed the Red Card last month in Colfax, so I didn’t need it anyway.

Working with Chipper

April 27th, 2008

I worked the WSU Baseball game for the fire department. We had no one who was going to work it. I called Heston and set that up.

When the game was done I was at home and a call came in. I went to the station and stood by. Chipper and I went out with Rescue and worked on some engineer stuff with Rescue and how to operate different items on it.

We did that until it was time to start the rig checks. The rig checks were hard to get done as we got a call shortly after we started. Before we were done with that call we got a second one.

We had time to get the rig checks done when those two calls were done only to get two more calls before we were able to get fuel and back to the station.

It was a pretty long evening between all the calls and rig checks. It helped to give me a couple more hours for the month however.

Driving in my New Motorhome

April 26th, 2008

I got up after allowing myself to sleep in. By the time I got up and got underway it was around noonish. I filled the gas tank. I went down to Jon’s house and saw my mom and the boys for a while before hitting the road.

It was sort of slow going as one might expect in a large vehicle with a smaller engine. I had to stop a couple times along the way to get some gas as well. I finally pulled into Spokane around five in the afternoon.

I met up with Ryan at WSU Spokane and we drove to the theatre to watch Harold and Kumar. It was not nearly as funny as the first one. But there were a couple good moments.

When it was done Ryan and I got some dinner and I made my way to Pullman. I got there around nine o’clock at night. Tyson had moved out and Brandon moved his still into the house. But he had to leave his stuff outside of the bedroom because Tyson was still here when Brandon had to leave.

Death Investigation Class Day Five

April 25th, 2008

Today is the final day of class. We had a lecture on photography that I was looking forward to because I want to get better at what photos are needed and ideas of ways to take the photos.

The class got done around three o’clock PM. That allowed me to get on the road and I figure I will get back to Pullman before it is horribly late.

By the time I got back to Renton and I went through the motorhome with Bill explaining how to do certain things with it, it was nearly seven o’clock. I took off, but before I got far down the I called Ryan about coming out to watch a movie. It was so late I wouldn’t get there before the theatres closed. So I turned around and went back to the house.

I figure I will spend the night and then head out to Spokane in the morning.

Death Investigation Class Day Four

April 24th, 2008

After class this afternoon I went to Portland with Greg again. On the way we stopped by a marina to look at some more sail boats. We checked out the various boats for a while.

We went to Powells Books again. This time we spent about an hour. I went back to the section I was at the other day. I also went through their gay sections. I was looking for something, but I didn’t know what for sure. I figured I would know it when I found it. I turned out not finding anything I wanted.

After we got back to Kelso we stopped to get something to eat at Arby’s. As we were walking into the hotel there was a ten-six-seven passing me by. I sometimes wonder who they are. I sometimes think about how there are millions of people in America and I will probably never see that person again. I sometimes would like to just stop and say hello. I figure if you say hello to everyone you pass, you will have said hello and “met” a lot of people, but it would be interesting to think that even with a lifetime of doing that you will not have even met one-percent of the population of America, I would bet.

Death Investigation Class Day Three

April 23rd, 2008

The plan for this evening was to go to an extra lecture about international mass graves and working for the UN to uncover the graves.

Right after class Greg and I went to a small town a few miles South of Kelso to look at a small sailboat he found on craigslist and wanted to see. We checked it out for a little while before making our way back to Kelso. We got some dinner and went back to the hotel.

The lecture started and went on for about two and one-half hours. It was very interesting to hear about the mass graves and why they are happening. We learned about the lengths they went through to un-Earth the graves and try to identify the people who were in the graves. He showed us a lot of photos and maps of the areas that these mass graves were at. Shared stories about who killed these people and why they were being killed.

It was pretty amazing to think about what it would be like to live in some parts of the world. Where we worry about non-life and death issues all the time, to them a fear is whether today is their last day on Earth. It can put things into perspective.

Death Investigation Class Day Two

April 22nd, 2008

After our class was over today Greg invited me to go out with him. I am not sure what he was thinking, but I wanted to work on some of the workbooks we had in order to get them completed. I didn’t do any last night, so I wanted to get last nights’ chapters and today’s chapters completed. I got some of that done but it was slow going.

I finally got to bed pretty late and ended up not doing much else for the evening.

Death Investigation Class Day One

April 21st, 2008

I was hoping to get the classroom early enough to choose my seat and get everything ready. After all I was a total of about fifty seconds away. But the sad part is I was still getting in the door just as the class was supposed to start.

I ended up getting a seat in the very front of the classroom. It wasn’t so bad. I was sitting in front of Greg.

After the first day of class I went to Portland with Greg and a guy from Yakima county. We looked at a sailboat that Greg was interested in. We also went to a book store in downtown Portland, it was called Powell’s Books.

It was a good time, but after being there for thirty minutes I made it one tint sections of this three story, one-city-block sized book store. It would take me a long time to get through it all. I ended up buying one book.

Driving to Kelso

April 20th, 2008

I made my way down to Kelso today. I stopped in Puyallup to pick up a rototiller for someone in Pullman. He found it on craigslist. I put that in my mom’s car and continued to Kelso. It was my first trip down there, so I wasn’t sure how long it would take.

I got checked into my room and then went to Safeway. I bought some items for breakfasts and dinners. I was going to cruise around Kelso and check it out, but I opted not to do that so much.

Three and Out

April 19th, 2008

First thing this morning I had to be at the Russell Road playfields for a softball tournament. The weather was cold, windy, and nasty. I stopped at McDonald’s for breakfast because I was running late on getting to the field. But I found upon my arrival that no one else was there. I put on my cleats and waited for the others to arrive.

It wasn’t long that I learned that I would not be able to use my metal spikes. I was upset about that, but I worked on changing them out to the plastic ones before the game started.

The first game was really bad. We didn’t hit well, and they hit really well. We lost by more than twenty-two runs when it was all said and done.

That gave us time to have a break. It was about an hour and a half before out next game. We went to the shelter to get out of the rain. But it wasn’t all that rainy at this time, it was really windy however.

The second game was closer and we ended up pulling it out. I wasn’t hitting the ball that well, but the others did hit the ball okay.

The third game was played right afterwards. We also didn’t do too well there. It was a tight game for a distance into the game, but the other team started to get a lead. What was making us made is they kept hitting at Jake, who was pitching. It was getting frustrating.

It was a double-elim tournament. And we were gone after that loss. Most of the team went to Pizza Hut for some late lunch/early dinner. I went back to Renton and got cleaned up. I didn’t go out because I wanted to get ready for my trip to Kelso tomorrow.

Seattle Road Trip

April 18th, 2008

I got packed and ready for my week-plus long trip over to the West side. I had softball this weekend and the coroner’s training next week.

On the trip we listened to music for awhile and talked. Outside of Othello the road was closed due to a fatal accident. So we had to take a detour. Once that was done we put The Departed in Edgemon’s computer to watch it. We got to the part of the movie where it seems like things were really going to start to happen, but then the battery went dead. We were near Ellensburg. We stopped in for dinner and pushed forward.

The pass had some snow falling. But as we were going down the hill it was getting worse. Near North Bend it was so bad we had to go very slowly. Turning off the headlights of the vehicle actually increased visibility due to the large, hard falling snow flakes.

I finally got home around ten o’clock PM. It was a long trip from the pass on due to the snowy conditions. But it was good to finally get home.

Bummer of a Loss

April 17th, 2008

This evening we had our first playoff game. With the team we are putting on the field today I have great expectations of going all the way. But it was not to be. We went out there flat with our bats. I did well getting a triple in my first at bat, but many of the others were not hitting the ball well.

The other team, not a great team, but a good team that was putting runs on the board every inning. To start the game they only had eight guys and we were not able to beat up on them. After the game was over I was so bummed out. I just didn’t want to think about it. I was mad that we lost. We should not have lost.

When the game was done Ryan and I went to Cougar Country. I then had enough time to run down to Colfax for the coroner’s meeting. We got our schedule set up for next month. We talked about some recent cases including some from the past dealing with the river and Rock Lake. I also got the final instructions for the training I am going to next week.

Wiring the Church

April 16th, 2008

I told Ken I would help him wire his church up for Internet. He has DSL there and we needed to lay the wires to install the Internet into his office, the visiting pastor’s office and the sound board man. We only got two of the offices completed.

I also helped him to get Total Recorder to start to record his services. Now he can have them saved directly to an audio format. He is happy about the improvements we made.

I went to the fire department after that. Tim talked to me about working as a part-timer down there. I told him I was interested. So we started to talk about it and talk about the things the part-timers need to do and need to know about working there. I spent some time helping him fix a part on the pump of one of the rural trucks.

We worked on there for a couple hours. Then we went to the dayroom when we were done to watch some TV and have dinner. We ordered some pizza.

I hung out there until about eleven o’clock without a single call coming in while I was there. But that is almost always how it is while I am there.

Drive Time with Chipper

April 15th, 2008

Clark and I went out to do some drive time today at the fire department. We were only going to do an hour, but we ended up getting all his hours completed on rescue. So now we are closer to him getting done with this part of his rookie book.

Later on we had our coed softball game. I didn’t plan on playing any of it. I was just going to coach. We had a ton of women and quite a few men. We ended up losing because our men hit horrible.

In the last inning I subbed myself in for Dan because I knew I could get a hit and we needed that. I did get a hit. But we lost with the bases loaded down only by three runs. That sucked.

Brandon played on the team today as well. Then following the game we went to The Zzu. We played pool for a couple hours. I was on fire for a while. I won most of the games we played. I did another shot that needed some good english on the ball for it to be made. That was the second time I did that in front of Brandon. He just laughed when I made it.

I also saw the guy who Russell called “The Hottest Guy in Pullman”. He was having some beers with a guy I know. So I am going to talk to the guy I know.

Turning in the Rosters for Softball

April 14th, 2008

I worked my radio show this afternoon. It was the second to last show for me for the semester. The last few weeks I haven’t had a ton of time to prepare for the show so we have sort of had to wing it.

After the show I got a couple more signatures on the rosters before turning them into the city. I stopped by My Office and I got a check from Jeff for the team for men’s.

The season for men’s and coed start around the end of this month. I am pretty excited.

Playing Extra Innings

April 13th, 2008

After getting up I went on a call just before I had to be at practice. It took almost all the time I had to get ready for practice and get there. I had only about ten minutes from the time we returned from the call to get to the house, changed, and to the city playfields.

The practice took two hours total. I did some hitting. It went okay. Nothing too great, but I wasn’t getting many real pitches to hit.

Later on the men’s team was playing at the Valley Road Playfields. The first game was a FFT win. The second game was started early because the team we were playing also had a FFT win their first game.

Our sticks were dead. We couldn’t hit the ball to save our lives. We had three hits through the first three or four innings. We were able to hold the other team with some of the best defense I have seen on the team — ever!

One play that involved me was while I was playing first, Ryan was on second. I moved to my right to make a play on the ball. Ryan was moving to his left to make a play on the ball. I got to the ball and looked towards first. Mike was pitching and did not move to cover first. I had no real chance at running back. Ryan just kept moving. I tossed him the ball. He kept running to first base and made the out just before the batter got there.

It was tied two to two going into the bottom of the sixth inning which is the last inning in IM’s. The umps said we could be allowed to play extra innings. So we went into the seventh both teams scoreless. Finally in the eighth inning our team caught some fire and we scored eight runs.

They got two quick hits and then we held them scoreless and we won the game. Afterwards Ryan, Brandon, and I went to Cougar Country for dinner and then I was off to the fire department for rig checks. I ran the engine pump test and that was all there was to do.

The other guys had finished everything else.

Sir Elton Plays Pullman

April 12th, 2008

I started by washing my Durango and putting on the new license plates. It felt good to get that washed. Then I was on my way to Lapwai for the Palouse Thunder football game. I was nervous as always before the game. I had to get a lot of information gathered and make sure everything was set up.

That went pretty well. I was able to spend some time relaxing and getting photos of the team doing practice and warm ups. Once the game started I was having problems with the mic. It was not wanting to work at first. After some troubleshooting I was able to announce.

I had to leave the game early due to the work I had to do in Pullman at the Elton John concert.

I went to the Elton John concert. It was a great night of music and fun for everyone involved. I was impressed that Elton played for about 2 1/2 hours without a break.

I was hoping that he would play Funeral for a Friend. One of my favorite songs. As it turned out that was the very first song of his set. That made my day.

The crowd was great and full of energy. The atmosphere was great. During Crocodile Rock everyone sang the chorus. I am glad we had a chance to pull in this performance.



Bien’s Going Away Dinner

April 11th, 2008

The plans for the morning after working out was to do the call with NU and work on my Windows Home Server. The call lasted around thirty minutes. Windows Home Server took longer. At first the install was crapping out. Finally I got it to fully install and for it to connect to my desktop. I also got my laptop set up. I then put one more hard drive into the server. I have a total of three five-hundred GB hard drives in the system. I copied all the data from my external drive to the system and have it set up to do a redundancy. I believe that my data should be pretty well protected.

Wilcox and I went to get the new rescue and get it back in service. We had to pick it up and move the tools over. When we were at station one I was given a pair of leather fire boots. I am happy about that. From what I have been told they are lighter and more flexible to work in.

We went to the Deuce to start on the BBQ. Bien was running late. So when the food was ready he wasn’t there. But neither were the guys from station one because we started to get a couple calls when the dinner was supposed to be ready.

It turned out only the reserves were there without Bien. It was sort of funny that the dinner just wasn’t working out very well. I invited Heston to come down as well. He was going to work the baseball game until we could get a couple people up there to relieve him. Chipper and I ended up relieving him.

The Cougs were getting blown out by ASU. We were standing at the top watching the game and talking. Heston left after a little while. While we were there a foul ball came right at us. Chipper got out of the way really fast, I sort of leaned to the side. It hit less than a foot from where we were standing. It then bounced off the top of the brick wall and towards the crowd.

People saw us get out of the way and one guy was giving us a hard time that we were supposed to protect the people yet we were getting out of the way. I said that if the ball was on fire I would have run to it. He then said out loud to other in the crowd to give us a round of applause. As they clapped Chipper and I were a little embarrassed.

Following the game it was pretty dead. There were a couple EMS calls but nothing for the engine to do.

Another Hard Drive Needed

April 10th, 2008

After spending time trying to get my Windows Home Server to work with a SATA drive and a PCI SATA controller I was unsucessful. I decided it was time to buy another IDE hard drive. I picked that up and brought it home. I installed it into the computer and WHS started to install just fine.

But I kept having different issues arise. One time after the installation my home PC would not connect to the server. After researching the problem for a while I decided it was time to reinstall WHS and that would most likely fix the problem.

Before I went to bed I started another install and I figured when I got up this morning it would be ready to go.

The Old Rescue is Back

April 9th, 2008

I went to the Rec center today off of my normal time. Usually I go in the morning but I was busy doing some stuff on the computer, so I went in the early afternoon. While at the rec center I saw Pritch and A. Wilcox there. Wilcox and I talked a couple times while we were doing our work outs.

The old rescue was called back into service because the new one needed to get serviced. Dearth and I went to move tools from one rig to the other. When that got back to the station I got ready for my meeting with Parrish. I went over some engineer calculations with him. He was doing just fine on those.

I went to the KZUU meeting up in the CUE. That took about an hour. I was expecting a call to come out while I was there, but nothing happened.

Freak Hail Storm

April 8th, 2008

Today there was a freak hail storm that left more than an inch of hail on the roads down by Dissmores. But near station two we got nothing to speak of. I had come down to the station for a call. While I was standing by Stallcop showed up for something else. He told me about the hail in the town. He said we are probably going to get called out for a car accident.

Within a couple minutes we were toned out to a motorcycle wreck. We got first on scene. I set up command and did my thing. As we were getting ready to park Rescue we got another call. We got on scene the same time the ambulance did. They transported and we went back to the station.

Soon the reserves were called on to do a transfer to Spokane. I called in on it and we ran the patient to Spokane. Drew and I had some dinner before heading back. It was a nice trip over all.

I talked to Drew a little bit about the whole homosexual thing. He asked me about it years ago when the article appeared in the newspaper where I was named for the lack of gay magazines at the Bookie.

I was telling him about some of the other things that happened since thing at the jail and at a call once with a WSU Police officer. I also told him I didn’t want the reserves to know. I know that at least one of them knows but I am not worried about that so much as I am about the newer guys finding out.

Working the Event

April 7th, 2008

The show today I had Tom run the board and do all the production stuff. I was his whipping boy for the day. We talked a lot of protests including the French who were trying to sabotage the running of the Olympic flame due to their dislike of the Chinese.

Today I was working an event at Beasley. My job was to make sure that the part that dealt with fire juggling went off without starting a big fire. So I had to go back stage and watch that part. Then for the rest of the show I was in more normal place for it.

I watched the show for a bit, it was the Fred Garbo Theatre. It was meant for young kids. They seemed to really enjoy the show. I watch parts of it, but spent most of my time in the first aid room.

Better Weather for Softball

April 6th, 2008

This afternoon the weather was not snowy and it was a lot better for softball. It was a little on the wet side still. I worked the WSU Baseball game first. The Cougs had a big first inning with seven runs, but then let the game slip away.

Later I was on my way to the Valley Road Playfields for some softball. The first game was coed. It was a FFT because not enough women showed up. That is part of the reason why I hate running the coed team. But as a returning championship team I had to put it together again.

Then it was off to our men’s games. The first game my hitting woes continued. I have been having a hard time seeing the ball or something. I am swinging and missing when I shouldn’t. Then there is the whole not making good contact on the other times I am hitting it. We won the game pretty easily. Dave pitched a one-hit shutout.

The second game was against a better team. We battled after being down by eleven runs. We got two back and then battled some more. We had an eight run inning getting us closer. But they were still scoring runs.

We were having some issues with the field umpire hesitating on calls and making a blatantly bad call. That took us out of three innings. We still came close. We put the winning run to the plate with two guys on. But when the batter hit the ball, the umpire didn’t see the play at first. He hesitated on the play. Didn’t know what happened and called our guy out for the final out of the game. That was madding. We were not very happy about it. We ended up losing that game.

Ryan came over to my place. We watched the Sunday night Fox shows and ate some pizza.

Full day of work

April 5th, 2008

I taught a First Aid class at the fire station today. It took about eight hours total. I finally got out of there around five-thirty in the evening. I went home to change and ran down to the station to talk with one of the firefighters. He wasn’t there, but I talked to the other guys.

While talking to them I got a phone call asking if I could do a transfer to Spokane. I went ahead and did it. The trip went really fast because we didn’t stop for food after dropping off the patient and the drop off went very fast as well.

Later I went to Brandon’s where we played some games. We ended up playing Taboo. That was a lot of fun. I was paired with Shannon. We ended up pulling it out at the last minute winning by two points.

Renewing my CPL

April 4th, 2008

I looked at my CPL the other day only to find it was expired by about two-and-a-half months out of Idaho. I went to the Latah SO and I was able to renew it and only had to pay a late fee. If I had been two weeks later, it would have been a much bigger process to do this.

I was on call tonight. The engine crew worked at the Family Fun Day. It was held up on campus. Our role was to hand out a “gold” metal to all the kids who finished the events around the gym.

A couple of the WSU interns that I know were there. We got into a text message war. We were insulting each other. I thought he shut me down, but I was able to think of a comeback that shut him down and he admitted it via text. It made me crack up.

SCBA Training

April 3rd, 2008

My day pretty much revolved around marine patrol training. We were going over the new SCBA’s that we will be using on the boats plus we covered several other items. It took about three hours total.

After that we went to dinner for Mom’s dinner. We had mexican food. I planned on leaving right away after the dinner to head back to Pullman.

The trip went along nicely. Without icy roads and snow I was able to move along around the speed limit the whole way.

A Day About the House

April 2nd, 2008

I am spending day two in Seattle. Without my office to go to I had to work out of the house.

I also went out to the motorhome and spent some time looking through it trying to see if there were anythings I would have to fix or work on. Over all it is in good shape. It was need a good wash on the outside and some cleaning on the inside, but for something that is more than twenty years old it is not in really bad shape. I am excited to get it.

Town Crier III – Easter Massacre

April 2nd, 2008

With the month of April upon us I want to reflect back on an incident that took place in Pullman in 1949. April 17th, 1949 to be exact — Easter Sunday. It would become known as the Pullman Easter Massacre, an event that made national news some 59 years ago.

When the dust settled and the smoke cleared there were five dead — the Sheriff, a Deputy Sheriff, a Pullman Police Officer, a taxi driver, and the shooter.

Karl Heuterman, a WSU student in the 1980’s, has researched this incident for many years. Much of my knowledge came from Heuterman, with additional information found in the Pullman Herald, Daily Evergreen, and Spokesman Review. There is a two-hour interview with Heuterman about the Easter Massacre that can be downloaded from: http://radioblog.thepes.com/2006/04/easter-massacre.html.

Heuterman‘s interview was on The PES, a local talk show. The interview covers the events leading to the incident, the incident, and information discovered after the incident.

It started when the shooter, George McIntyre, was wanted on a warrant for an assault charge. McIntyre and his family had made a trip to Moscow Mountain, with plans to head to Colfax. On the way, McIntyre needed to purchase some fuel and stopped at a gas station that was located where Beasley Realty sits today.

Pullman Police Officer Ross Claar saw McIntyre and attempted to make an arrest on the warrant. McIntyre pulled out a gun then shot and killed Claar. He left his family at the gas station and drove home. At the time he lived near NW Ritchie and NW Harrison behind the current location of Snap Fitness.

He grabbed a rifle, a pair of binoculars, and went across Grand Avenue and up the hillside towards Maple Street Ext behind the Cougar Country Drive-In.

The sheriff and a deputy were radioed about the shooting and drove to Pullman. When Deputy Sheriff Gilbert Gallagher arrived in Pullman, he drove towards McIntyre’s house. He stopped a distance from the house and saw McIntyre’s vehicle and a man matching the description of McIntyre near the house.

Gallagher drove down Railroad Ave which is located at the base of the hill under Maple Street Ext. He got out and went around the car to the side facing the hill, using his car as cover. Gallagher didn’t know, however, that McIntyre was actually on the hillside. He was killed with a shot to the back.

By this time people were starting to go to the area where the shooting was taking place. Taxi driver Earnest Buck was one of these people. McIntyre had Buck stand on the edge of the hill where he was then shot and killed. One other Pullman resident survived being shot.

Soon thereafter, Sheriff Pete Parnell and Deputy Sheriff Jim Hickman drove towards the house. Not knowing where McIntyre was, Parnell stepped from his patrol car. McIntyre, a sniper during WWII, shot across a then-two-lane Grand Ave instantly killing Parnell. Hickman was shot and injured.

By this time more and more people were coming to help capture McIntyre. As McIntyre was getting surrounded by Washington State Patrol and Pullman citizens, he committed suicide. He used a bolt-action rifle to shoot himself in the heart three times.

That was the end of what became known as the Easter Massacre. In the years since this incident Heuterman has researched and revealed many of the back stories about why a family man and recent military GI would go on a shooting spree.

Some Pullman residents, who knew McIntyre as a Boy Scout leader, were shocked. They felt he was a good man who wouldn’t do something like this. Others who had run-ins with McIntyre were not surprised. They felt he had a short temper and was known as a hot head.

In most situations the truth is somewhere in the middle of the two extremes. No matter who is correct about McIntyre, the fact remains he is responsible for the death of four people on that Easter afternoon.

To continue with my last Town Crier column, the countdown is still going and we are at T-114.

Bought a Motorhome

April 1st, 2008

I made my way to Seattle. But while I was en route I found out that the pass was going to be closed for a while as they were doing avalance control. That caused me to have to wait in the car for an extra period of time.

When I got home I paid for the motorhome. I now own the motorhome. I am going to have to figure out where I want to store it while it is over here, but for now it will remain at my parents’ place.