Large House Hunting

June 30th, 2008

I got my workout done and finished off my town crier column completed and turned in. It will print on Wednesday.

Pam and I were going to look at houses today. One has been on the market for a long time and I have wanted to go look at it, but I just never have. So with the price reduction I went to look. It was a house on Lower drive. It is over forty-eight hundred square feet. There are a lot of large rooms through out the house. The upstairs is very nice and updated. Downstairs is a little dated. But as a bachelor pad it would be great. There is no place to park the motorhome there but it is nice and close to campus which would make walking to events and the rec center more doable.

I also looked at one on Upper drive. It was a large house as well, but it appeared to be a little more dated through out and not as large feeling. It is nice, but not really for me.

We had hose testing tonight I figured I would get Engine Thirty-One because no one else would think about it. That was the case. So I drove it to Station One so we could test the five-inch hose on it. It didn’t take a lot of time for us to the hose test.

I spent some of the time talking to my mom. She said that Amber and Jen have new homes. That they are living with people who can care for them and love them and will be around for them. I also told her about the houses I looked at.

Incredibly Hot

June 29th, 2008

It was a long day in the heat of the hottest day of the summer. It got in the upper nineties today.

I started out with batting practice at the city playfields. Jake needed to work on pitching a little bit for an upcoming tournament. I was hitting the ball well in the batting practice.

I went to the fire station to pick up an ambulance after the BP. It needed to go to station two to get waxed along with the Utility. I was there from around eleven until after four doing the waxing and rig checks. It was a long day doing that, plus it was still really hot, even in the bay.

After the work I took the ambulance back to station one and drove to the city playfields. We had a double header. But the first game we had to FFT because we didn’t have enough women to start the game. So we did a practice game against Zeppoz. Then it was on to the second game.

We had enough women for that game. I hit the ball very well. I had three stand-up triples and one single. It was great. After the game Heston and I went to Cougar Country for some dinner. I was very hungry because I didn’t have much of anything to eat while I was working all day.

Pullman Fire Test

June 28th, 2008

Started the morning off with the written test for the fire department. There were several people there wearing shirts from other fire department. Pritch calls them “Shirt Testers”. He agrees with me that they are tools. I didn’t feel like I nailed it like I have felt in the past.

When it was done we were going to have to go to the training tower to find out what our score was. If we didn’t do well enough we would have to leave. I didn’t want to do the walk-of-shame if I didn’t pass, so I waited outside the high school for the test administrator to come out. I was told I passed and I was off to the physical agility test. That made me feel better.

They did the test in alphabetical order. So I was one of the first to go. I bested my last time by about one minute. After I tested I spent the rest of the time helping with the other tests. I was resetting the dummy drag and the hose drag. It was hot and I drank as much water as I could.

I went home and showered. I hung around my house for a while. I was going to put together a poker game, but there wasn’t enough people. I decided that I would go to Zeppoz to talk to Loren about putting on some games at my house.

While I was there I played some Spanish Twenty-One. I won two bucks when I cashed in and tipped it to Loren. I talked to him about poker. I saw Gilbertson from Colfax Fire. He was playing Spanish Twenty-One. He had a moment where he was able to double down. He got a very small card, so I suggested a double-double down. The dealer had an ace showing. Gilbertson double-doubled and got a twenty. I said “Watch the dealer flip over a three and draw a seven for twenty-one.” The dealer flipped a three. Then an eight, then a nine for a total of twenty-one. Everyone was laughing at the table and it pretty much broke him.

I am Looking at Houses Again

June 27th, 2008

The houses slump hasn’t really hit Pullman so much, but I have seen some houses come down in price a little bit. One place I looked at before I wanted to see again. It is cheaper in price, also I wanted to see it again so I can remember why I didn’t like it over all. After seeing it, I do remember what it was about the place I didn’t like all that much.

I was at home doing some stuff on the computer waiting for the time to head to Dan’s to play poker. It was John, Dan, and I. We did ten dollar buy-ins. I wasn’t doing too well. I wasn’t going to stay really late because of the test for the fire department. But I lost my money and bought in one more time.

It didn’t take as long for me to lose all that money too. So I dropped about twenty bucks playing cards with them.

I got home and Brandon was here. He was here because he was going camping tomorrow by the Snake River and he was in town doing some laundry and waiting to go off. I talked with him really briefly because he has a girl with him.

I called it a night shortly after I got home.

A Day in Colfax

June 26th, 2008

I spent most of the afternoon and early evening working in the jail. I did a couple rounds along the way. I also ran control a fair amount of time. It was the first time I really had a chance to run it for a length of time.

Captain saw for the first time I was losing weight. Up until now he didn’t even notice. He is probably the only one who hasn’t noticed. I needed a new belt and Tom suggested that I could use his old belt. He gave it to me, but it is still a little bit too small for me. In another couple week I suppose I should be able to fit into it.

Closer to seven I went to the jail to attend the coroner’s meeting. We went over a couple cases and signed up for on-call days.

Not Quite the Run Output

June 25th, 2008

We played the same team tonight that we played last week and scored a record thirty-one runs. But this game was very different. We couldn’t get any kind of rally going. But neither could the other team. We scored more in one inning last week than we did in the whole game this week. But we did get some timely hitting by some of our bigger sticks.

I have been coming around with my batting average now above five-hundred. I just need to start to hit my extra-base hits. That is probably the biggest difference between my game this year and last year.

A Painful Loss

June 24th, 2008

I went to Moscow to get some business card paper to re-print the dollar off coupons for Cougar Country because the last ones I did had Country spelled County. That sucked.

I stopped in at a scooter place to look at the scooter they had for sale. I looked around and it turns out the ones they sale are Chinese scooters. So they are not great quality, but they are inexpensive and work. But I am still not sure that is what I want to do.

I hung out there for a while talking to Roger from Green’s Cleaners. It has been a while since I have really seen him. We talked softball, music, and more. It was a nice conversation.

Later on I had a softball game. It was against Bomb Squad. It was a close game all the way through it, but we were not able to pull it out. We let them score several runs in the top of the seventh inning. We had a chance, but left the bases loaded. I was so disappointed that we didn’t pull that one out. We had a chance.

I also was on call for the fire department. We got toned out around one in the morning and ran two calls. But the second one we didn’t go to the hospital, so that made for a shorter call.

Reserves that Don’t Like to Work

June 23rd, 2008

This morning I made sure to get in and do my legs workout. Because of the physical agility test on Saturday and the fact that I don’t want tired legs going into it I will not do another legs workout this week.

After the workout I did some work on the reserve time log. We are going to standardize the time log to be more like the career OT time log. I wanted to have my input used in making it.

I also was asked to help out with some videos for training tonight. I was trying to help Wehrung download some, but that was no use, so I just had him link to them using favorites.

We had our training. It was firefighter standdown week. So we spent time going over safety information and looking over our protective equipment to get it repaired if there are any problems with it.

After the meeting Brown, Chapman, and I started to talk about training. Soon that went into a discussion about the reserves and their lack of willingness to do anything more than the minimum. They don’t like to pick up events nor extra shifts. They don’t come down on daytime calls and they don’t usually have their pagers on at night in case of a second alarm. It is pretty pathetic at times the turn out we get from the reserves when a second alarm hits. That is one of the big reasons why we exist. If we don’t start to show our worth they may decide they don’t need us.

I was on call running the engine with Chapman. We had one fire alarm call come in around midnight. Just before the call came out I got an e-mail from one of my guys asking for a night off because there is a streak where four out of five nights we will be doing something. That was an eyebrow raising request in light of the conversation we just had. I told Chapman about it because the timing of the e-mail was incredible.

Small Reserve BBQ

June 22nd, 2008

Due to the busy week I missed two work out dates, so I went to the rec center today to make both of them up. I was there for about an hour doing that. Then I shot hoops with Matt for a while. We played some one on one and HORSE. I lost both of those games.

I went to the store afterwards and did some shopping. I was getting low on some food items I need. The trip took about an hour in all.

I had some time to get ready for the small BBQ we were doing at the station with Andrew and Clark. We were having the package of brauts left over from camping last weekend. I cooked those up and we had those plus some potato salad and ice cream that Clark brought in.

We went on to rig checks. There were only three of us so it took a while to get through everything.

Steptoe vs Colfax Fire Softball

June 21st, 2008

Colfax and Steptoe Fire had the second annual softball game for bragging rights and a traveling trophy. I had an okay day at the plate, I did get an inside the park homerun driving in the go-ahead runs. But before we knew it the Steptoe team went to work in the sixth inning and they came back for the victory. At one point Scott was at bat. A pitch came towards him. He didn’t move and let it go right off the top of his head. It cracked everyone up.

I got in Albion’s Ambulance with Jessie and Ben in St. John to go to the Sprint Boat Races. We hung out with the Rosalia ambulance crew and watched the races for the next five hours. It was a lot of fun.

A boat racing in the slough

This boat hit the side hard and ended up flipping

Some of the boats left some big rooster tails


The Jeeps that were used to launch the boats

The one thing that was nice was the weather, at least for the first part of the race. That caused a lot of ten-six-sevens to remove the shirts giving all the more eye candy to enjoy as I was there.

I got back to Colfax and was dropping off some paperwork for some coroner’s cases when Heston called about setting up some huge tents for Cougar High School Football Camp. We had to get two of them set up. That took us a couple hours. A. Wilcox was helping… Yet another ten-six-seven.

I went to the fire station and did some Excel work for Rudy to help me consolidate hours for overtime so they could use it during the upcoming negotiations.

Pump Time with Gribbon

June 20th, 2008

I spent time with Gribbon and Rose doing pump time on the Engine. He is working on being an engineer and Rose was there to help me with spraying water and reloading the hose.

Rich and I played some Xbox for a while. We were playing Las Vegas for a while getting through a couple of the missions before calling it a night.

It was a pretty quiet night tonight having one call come out around one o’clock in the morning. We didn’t do much on that one. In fact we were cancelled en route. But we had to fill up the rig.

Jersey Night Lives On!

June 19th, 2008

I spent a couple hours with Ben driving in Engine Thirty-One going around looking at FDC locations. It started with an EMS call coming in. We went to the scene with Rescue. Then it was off to the engine. No calls came in while we were using the Engine.

I went to the WSU Surplus said with Bruce. We found him some pants to wear but as it turned out the whole box was sold in the auction and we were not able to get the pants. That sucked for him.

We were going to be playing against his team this evening in softball. It wasn’t quite a run away like the others games for us. My first at bat was a triple and that felt good to hit it. It was my first extra-base hit in the regular season for men’s softball.

We ended up being tied at fourteen each. We went into the eighth inning. We shut down Tubbs. On our at bat we went to work. Warren hit a double. Peter got walked and Kelly hit the game winning double. It was a nice victory. We are starting to click as a team.

After the game Joe invited me to go to Pete’s to meet up with his team, Tubbs. I said I would come down, but I needed to say Happy Birthday to Heather first. I went to the Moose. I said happy birthday to her and said hello to many of the others who are part of that group.

Then I went to Pete’s. I was only going to drink pop, but it was Jersey Night. Jessie and Craig from Colfax fire were there. I sat with them for a while and we talked. Craig and I started a text messaging game on accident. We had to text message a single word to the other person that has something to do with the word that was texted to you. We went on with that for a long time.

Joe came over with a shot for everyone. I had one. Then another shot. Then some beer. Then it was over with for me. I got my vehicle home and back for more beer. Then we went to ValHalla. Loren was there and he was drunk. He gave me two Long Island Ice teas that he couldn’t finish. Plus I got another drink there.

The next stop was Mike’s. We had more to drink there. Plus the guys from Tubbs were being crazy. A couple of them were in the dancing cage having fun. Then it was off to Thai Ginger, which use to be Shermers. On the way Chambers, from Tubbs, wanted to run to the bar. We were taking a taxi. He went off sprinting. A couple Pullman cops were in the area and almost had to jump out of his way. They were wondering what the heck was going on.

He beat us to the bar. We had more to drink there. We played some darts and other games. Then it was across the street to My Office. That was the final stop of the night. We closed out My Office. I spent time talking with Jake and Mac from Tubbs. I think both of them are ten-six-sevens. It was a very fun night. I got a ride home in a taxi. I stayed up for a while drinking water before going to bed. It was going to be a short night because I have to get up on the early side tomorrow.

A Big Day Scoring Runs

June 18th, 2008

This morning I was very tired getting up after only a couple hours of sleep. I went to the station and met up with Gecas. We took Engine Thirty-One out to do drive and pump time. We spent a couple hours driving and about thirty minutes pumping.

I got done in time to rush down to Lewiston to see the doctor about my finger. He said the injury I have usually takes nine months to heal. He said I should buddy-splint my finger. He gave me a couple buddy splints. He suggested using tape when I am playing softball. It was good to know it will heal on its own, but it will take a long time.

I got back and started to get ready for my softball game. It was being played over in Moscow. We were playing a team we have never played because they are a new team. We scored eleven runs in the first inning and just kept hitting away. We scored a total of thirty-one runs in the game. That is a record for the softball team.

After the game I went to the Zzu to meet up with Michele and Heather and the other girls from the softball team. We hung out there until around midnight. I had some nachos and pop as we sat around talking about softball and random other things. It was a fun night out.

Staff Meeting

June 17th, 2008

I went to the first full staff meeting representing the reserves because Chapman was unable to go. It was a pretty short meeting only lasting about two hours. We covered some updated SOPs and other department information. I got home and typed up the parts that dealt with the reserves and E-mailed them to Chapman and McPherson.

I did my workout at the rec center. I didn’t get up there until later than normal because of the staff meeting.

The softball game tonight was a late game. We were playing the team at the top of the standings. I didn’t know that going into the game. We had eleven guys and we played very well. I used a different line-up than we had been using. We hit the ball very well. We went on to win with twelve runs. It was a good game for us.

I went out to My Office after the game and had some pop and talked with Joe who was there after his game.

I got home and out of my uniform when I got a call from Whitcom about a death. I talked to the ambulance crew and went to the scene. I did my investigation and that lasted until around three-thirty in the morning. I went to bed right when I got home because I was going to have to get up early to do drive time with Ben on the engine.

Day Time Call with Ben

June 16th, 2008

I was working on a problem on the phone for a couple hours with the guys from the office. It was a three-way call. Soon a couple calls came out from the fire department. Then I heard someone “Standing by with one”. So I went down and we went out on the call.

Later on we had training at the station. I brought my binder down, because it was OTEP training. We were doing CPR and AED training. Because I am a CPR instructor I helped to run people through a scenario. When I was done with that I became the student with Brown putting me through the ropes.

Another Tough Loss in Softball

June 15th, 2008

After getting up and starting my morning I went to the camp site where everyone else was. I brought out my muffins as we started to cook breakfast. I did the eggs. Carl cooked the hashbrowns and Jim cooked the bacon. We sat down to eat breakfast then people started to pack up.

I got my motorhome taken care of then I helped Jim and Carl with their camp areas. We left there around eleven in the morning. I got back to Pullman and got cleaned up.

I went down to the station and started with the rig checks. I got the bay cleaned out first and the pump test done. Then the others started to show up and we checked the rigs. That took a couple hours in all. I was done in time for me to be at the coed game.

We only had five guys and five girls show up. That was good because everyone got to play the whole game, but we were hurting at the left side of the infield. We gave up some outs we would not normally give up with our normal starters.

It was a close game, but we were not able to get the timely hits. That has been a problem with all my teams lately. We cannot get a hit when it matters. We ended up losing the game by four runs, but again we had a chance and with our starters there I think we could have won this one.

After the game we went to Cougar Country. I got a Cyclone and we sat around talking before breaking up a little after eight. I went home and I was on call for the rest of the night. We got one call that came in around three in the morning and that was about it for the night.

Camping at Central Ferry

June 14th, 2008

After sleeping in a little bit due to my late night I was still up around eight in the morning. I got the final things into the motorhome and headed to the store. I got some food for the meals we were going to have and headed out. I got some fuel in Colfax and made my way to the park.

I got my motorhome set up pretty quickly and joined the others sitting around talking and joking. After a couple hours I went back to the motorhome to get some sleep. Everyone else went off to walk their dogs or do something like that.

I was sleeping for about two hours when Carl got me up and we started to play cards. I was on fire. I was winning stacks of coins from the other guys. We played until it was time to start dinner. We had brauts and hamburgers. Dinner took a couple hours in total between starting it, cooking, eating and cleaning up.

Once we were all cleaned up we started to play a Texas Hold’em tournament. I went all in on the first hand with pocket eights. I won against Connie who called me with pocket threes. I had a big chip lead, but that went away over time as I wasn’t able to get much going. I did hit on one four-outer. But that was about the best of what I could do.

I went out third and watched the rest of the game. It only took about thirty more minutes then it was done. It was not terribly late, but everyone made their way to bed.

An Evening on Rescue

June 13th, 2008

Today we had a couple calls starting with a call where it looked like CPR was going to take place, but we didn’t need to do that, but soon we were running from call to call for a couple hours. Once that was done we headed back to the station and called it good for the day time because the guys I was with wanted to get some lunch.

Later that evening I was on call on Rescue. Parrish was on Rescue with Chipper. We got our first call just after midnight. On the way back to the station Parrish and I broke in Chipper with our rendition of Convoy. That was good time. But we soon got called out on a couple more calls. We were up until three in the morning on calls.

I had to get up early in the morning for my trip to Central Ferry park. I got the motorhome ready for the trip today between running calls and doing rig checks.

Regular Season Game Two

June 12th, 2008

We got to play softball again tonight even though the weather was not that great. I had to call in a sub because we had people who were not going to be there. But the problem was I didn’t remember about Taj. We ended up playing with only nine players. That probably cost us in the outfield.

We were playing against a team that was nearly unstoppable for several years. But this season they have not been as strong. We held tight with them the whole way, but we were not able to get the timely hitting necessary to win the game. We went down and that sucked.

I spent time hanging out at My Office with some people from the fire department as it was Greg’s retirement get together. We spent time talking about the old times and telling stories with each other.

A Bad Mood Today

June 11th, 2008

I started off by seeing an E-mail saying that we left the Rescue in bad shape after the fire and that it was unfair to the other to make them clean it up. That we had no regard for Rescue. Then I got an E-mail from my Lt asking why it was left like that.

So I was boiling over everything. This same person who was complaining had a situation two weeks ago where the same kind of thing was left for my shift. But we fixed the problems and I just notified the crew leader. I didn’t send anything off to the Lt’s. That is the part that made me the most upset.

I went to work out and that made me feel a little better as I started to forget about the E-mail. Then I went to the station and spoke to the Lt. I explained to him that we had washed it, but forgot about the inside. It was just an oversight. He said he understood and that I just need to pass along to everyone that we need to make sure to double check things.

I felt a lot better, but I still wanted to talk to the crew leader who sent the E-mail to begin with rather than just talking to me.

My softball games were rained out again tonight so I did drive time on the engine with Parrish. Before the drive time started I got another E-mail that included E-mails sent by one of the guys on my shift. I felt like he was hanging me out to dry. I was mad all over again.

I went to the station and the firefighter who sent the E-mail out. I took him to the bay and told him that I felt like his E-mail left me out to dry. He said he didn’t mean that. I told him, that is how the E-mail came across.

Parrish started our drive time. I called the other crew leader. I asked him why he didn’t talk to me like I did for him. He said his Lt wanted to have an E-mail about it. I wondered why he said anything to the Lt to begin with. So I said that if we want to always send problems to the Lt in the future that is fine, but I want to be on the same page, to make sure I send problems along to my Lt as well.

I told him I preferred if we would start by keeping it at our level and if nothing gets fixed, then to escalate it. But I would do what he is going to do. I am not going to be the nice guy and then turn around and get beefed by the Lt’s. I said that it would be better if we were to keep it at our level so we don’t get a bad reputation as a group.

I then read the E-mail that I got that I felt like I was hung out to dry. I didn’t say that was my feeling before I read it to Parrish. But as soon as I read it, Parrish’s comment was “Sounds like you were hung out to dry.” I said that I had the same feeling. I wasn’t the only one who saw it that way. I talked to Parrish about it for a while and I came to the conclusion that I am going to continue to report things the way I always have. I am just going to keep it local unless it is a problem that has been on going. I hope the other crew leader does the same for me.

The drive time went uneventful. We washed and fueled the engine we used for the drive time before calling it a night. It was a quiet night for us.

Crazy and Busy Day

June 10th, 2008

This morning my pager, which was on second alarm mode, started to make noise. The page said “Pullman Fire, Delta Response for a Structure Fire”. I quickly got up and started my way downstairs. I heard the address and knew it was close to my place.

I opened the door and saw snow. I thought to myself “Am I more shocked over the fire or the snow?”. Then I looked up and saw heavy brown smoke coming from the south-east area behind my house. On the way to the station the guys leaving Station Two quickly called or a second alarm. I drove by the scene and saw the whole front of the building involved in fire.

I got to the station and got ready for the call. Two others showed up and went headed to the scene. We were the second rig on scene with the PL and ambulance right behind us. I backed up the guy on the handline and we worked to put out the fire and protect the exposure. We worked that line until the PL started to put water on the fire from above us.

Once the PL started to put water on the fire we started to get ahead. Up until then we were only maintaining, maybe gaining a little ground. Soon we didn’t need to use our handline anymore. We set it down waiting for our next task.

The snow was still falling and it was starting to stick. We were sent into the apartment where the fire got started. We checked it looking for more fire and making sure there was no one in it.

After going through that building we went into the upstairs apartment to back up the team doing some overhaul in the two upper buildings. After we got out we got dispatched to a car accident. By this time there was about an inch of snow on the ground in June! We locked our hubs and went to the wreck. It was non-injury. On the way back to the structure fire we got toned out to a fall.

We were first on scene only to find our EMS kit was at the fire being used for rehab. So we went in with our other equipment to help the patient until the ambulance got on scene. Once we cleared there we went back to the apartment.

We helped to get things broken down and started to head back to the station to get the rig back in service. But we got called back to help with taking care of a water flowing problem. We turned off the water and then went to the next call that had been toned out. We were getting called to a lot of tree limbs falling due to the weight of the snow.

We were cancelled before we got on scene. We got to station one and there was a lot of food for breakfast that Carl from the PD cooked for us. I had some food and made sure Rescue was back in service.

We got back to the Deuce and washed the rig before heading out. It was a long morning.

This evening our softball game was cancelled due to the snow getting the field really wet. I went to HazMat training instead. We had a fake call that we worked and spent time putting together an action plan including research on the chemical involved. I was put in charge of the research team because of my computer skills.

First Day of Hose Testing

June 9th, 2008

We are scheduled to test the hose on our engine every year. Today it was time to test the hose. We have to pull off all the hose and then reload it. That takes several hours to do.

I helped with the reloading of all the hose. The first time through one of the new guys was putting the one hundred foot markers in the hose, but he didn’t do it correctly. They has nearly eight hundred feet of hose on the vehicle but the markings only showed six hundred feet. So they had to pull most of it back off and start over again. That is when I started to help.

Before that I was on the detail of pulling the hose and hooking it up to the testing machine. But I was needed elsewhere.

A Day of Losses

June 8th, 2008

Started out with the single elimination tournament. We played Jake and Nick’s team again. But this time we could not get the basehits. We could not score when needed. So we lost that game. We went to the losers bracket and played another game. That was against the Bomb Squad. We lost that game too. We ended up in fourth place. That doesn’t sound bad… unless you know there were only four teams playing.

After the game we went to Pete’s. Several players from other teams were there. I had some nachos and hung out for a while, but I was tired and I headed out after about one hour.

I had some time to wait until the coed game was to start. We were playing against the Zeppoz team. We needed to win this game to remain in a tie for first place. But we lost the game. It was close at the end as we mounted a comeback, but it wasn’t good enough. Because Matt was late getting there I started at Short Stop. I had one play where a ball was smoked my way. I made a play on it and recorded the out.

After the game Mike invited me to his place for some elk burgers. It was very good elk. I had two burgers and watched some basketball while I was there. I also had a slice of pie before I left. It was a good dinner.

Softball Tournament in Pullman

June 7th, 2008

The morning wasn’t looking great for a softball tournament. I was a little worried about a rainout. We started to play and the rain went away, then it came back and went away again. By the afternoon the weather was decent.

We lost the first game to the Bomb Squad. Then it was off to play a team from Lewiston. We did really well and hit around on them a lot. We beat them. Later we played the team that Jake and Nick put together. We were losing, but we were the home team.

We ended up beating them in the bottom of the seventh inning. We had a little rally and just went up on the with a big hit. That was fun to do the come back victory.

After the game we went to Pete’s Bar and Grill. I got some dinner and hung out with most of the team for about two hours. Almost everyone was heading out to Dan and Michele’s for Tory’s graduation party. It was for Tory and the adult friends of the family.

Most of the softball players were there. I went around and talked with different people and chatted with them. I had some food there before going home around ten in the evening. I got some stuff done around the house before going to bed.

New Door Panels on the Truck

June 6th, 2008

I had an appointment to see the doctor about my finger that was hurt during batting practice about two months ago. It took a while to be seen, but finally when he looked he referred me to a specialist in Lewiston. I am not sure what will come of that meeting, but I hope we can figure out how to make it better.

I went home and started to work on the door panels for my truck. I got one pulled out and started to use it for the pattern. I cut out the pattern in the wood. Then I pulled out the staples. I patched the holes in the fabric and re-stapled it to the new wood. I did that same thing for the other side.

I had gone into my house and heard something on the scanner that got me listening even closer. I came to realize quickly that we were going to probably have a coroner call out. I called Pete and told him I was interested in going to help out. I continued to work on the door as I listened to the scanner.

Soon they needed to coroner so I headed out to the scene and met up with Pete there. It was for an attempted-murder/suicide. It was out near Winona. It took an hour or two on scene and more time at the funeral home.

When I cleared there I went back to my house. I wash my uniform and got ready to respond on fire calls. We did get called out to the Greystone Apartments for a sprinkler water flow. We spent around two and a half hours using the shop vacs to clean up the standing water in many of the apartments.

Spending Spree

June 5th, 2008

As much as I hate spending a lot of money, it can be fun, when you have it to spend. Today was the purchase of wants. First I want a heater/AC unit for the garage. I would like to keep it cool in the summer and warm in the winter. I am going to have to buy some more insulation for the garage door, but I found a unit that I ordered.

Then it was off to Pullman Building Supply. I purchased some wood and other materials for making the new door panels for my truck. I am replacing the wood that has gone bad.

I stopped at Palouse Audio for their sale. I was able to purchase two radios, one for the Bumblebee and one for the motorhome. I got a CD changer that does MP3s for the motorhome too.

At Shopko I bought some shorts and a new pair of shoes. I was there for some book ends. I almost bought some DVD’s but I put those back. I couldn’t find the book ends, but I bought some new pair of shorts that had a belt built in, so I hope as I lose more weight I can just keep tightening the belt.

We finally got to play softball! It started to get ugly as it was getting closer to game time with some raindrops falling. But we were able to play the game. The bad part was that we lost the game to the Bomb Squad. We just did not look very good out there. The month off for some of the guys we very evident.

Following the game Peter and I went to My Office to have some beverages and watch some TV. We talked about friendship and religion. I didn’t know Peter is a religious guy who, when back home, goes to church weekly.

Started on the Book Shelves

June 4th, 2008

I went to Moscow with Russell to drop off the motorhome to have a new door get installed. Russell has a hybrid car. I think that is the first time I have been in one. Russell and I hung out for a short period of time, but he was accepted to college in the Seattle area and will be leaving the area in about a month.

I needed to work on my book shelves for a long time and finally got it going. That felt good to get something going. The shelves are looking a lot better. I am happy that I have space to put stuff up and that the shelves are cleaned up.

Parrish and I went out to do some drive time in Engine Thirty-Three. We first went to the tower and practiced the physical agility test. I was able to pass it with time to spare. That was a good feeling.

As we were finishing the drive time we were called to a fire alarm. We got on scene first, but that also meant it was my report to write.

A Record Number of Rainouts

June 3rd, 2008

We have yet to play a regular season softball game. We are the only A-league team to not have played a regular season game. We were rained out again today. I am interested in playing softball. I hope one of these days we will get to actually do that. I have a feeling we will either extend the season, cut it short (with refunds I hope) or we will have a lot of double-headers with games on Wednesday’s as well.

That made it so I could go to Colfax Fire training tonight. It was OTEP training in Steptoe. We were doing patient assessment. The training took a couple hours total. I was able to be an evaluator. Since becoming an EMS Evaluator I have had a chance to use those skills. That is pretty fun.

I also decided I need to get my den and garage cleaned up. I broke it down in to multiple tasks. I assigned each task for one week. It will take a month and a half to get it all done, but I figured if I do it in steps rather than all at once it will be more manageable. I will probably even get to those tasks because they are more manageable.

Computer Issues Most of Today

June 2nd, 2008

A fan is starting to squeak a little bit on my computer. So I was testing the different fans to see what one causes the squeak. I had done a reboot of the computer. But I wanted it to stay shut down. So as it was loading I hit the power button. I knew that was probably a bad idea. Before I know it the computer is in bad shape. A file was missing and the computer would not boot. Oh great!

I tried to use Windows Home Server to fix it. But each image I used did not fix it. So I figured a reformat of the hard drive was in order. I used my Windows XP CD and formatted the harddrive. Then I used Windows Home Server and put the latest image back on. The computer worked! Thank goodness. But that ate up part of the day.

Once it was up and running I was able to get work done. Tonight I was on duty and we have training. We went to the tower and ran a water evolution. As always there is something added in. We had a MayDay in the middle of it. But it wasn’t over the top.

When training was done I got home and I went to g.com. I check it out from time to time but I rarely chat with anyone. But I found someone who was “Way Right”. So I started a conversation with him. We talked for a while. Seems like we are pretty much like minded for the most part. It was nice to have a conversation.

First Coed Regular Season Win

June 1st, 2008

This morning while I was working on doing some organization of my den I heard Pullman get dispatched to a call where the person didn’t sound good. Within a couple minutes of getting on scene they asked for the coroner. I responded out there and talked with them. Then I did the investigation. That took a couple hours to complete.

I went home and finished up the one project in the den and also getting my clothes washed. There had been some question about whether we would play or not, but it turned out the sun started to shine and things were looking up.

Within an hour of getting my clothes washed I was putting on my uniform heading out to the City Playfields. We were playing against a fellow A-shift reserve. I was excited to play against him.

But it was pretty lopsided. We went on to crush the other team. I was two for three. I lead the team in batting average. I was pitching and I was having my delivery problems again. But instead of pulling myself out. I kept fighting and trying. Soon I figured out my problem and fixed my approach. I had stopped bending my knee like I use to. It had been so long since I pitched that I sort of forgot how.

Now that I have it figured out I went on to pitch two more scoreless innings. It felt great to get the problem ironed out.

A couple of us from the team went to Cougar Country after the game. I got my normal Sunday dinner has been a Rhonda Chicken sandwich, large onion rings, and a Reece’s Peanut butter Cup Cyclone. While there we talked softball and other related things.

Steve was going to order some stuff for his dad and dad’s friend. But a big line formed. So I suggested he call it in. He did. When he went to pick up the order the girl there said something and he started to get embarrassed. We saw that and were laughing so hard. Which made him more embarrassed.

Following dinner I went home and started to work on the report for my coroner’s case I worked this morning.