Crushed with Calls

October 31st, 2008

I got my third swim in this week this morning. I swam five-hundred-and-fifty yards. That is a eleven laps total in about twenty minutes. So I had a fair amount of rest through out my time swimming.

Today at the fire department my plan was to work on my reserve academy studying and case law reports after five o’clock. During the day we did some hydrants and got one inspection review completed. We also had the day interupted by some calls. But it wasn’t until later when we would be running hard.

I started to work on my reserve work when it was five o’clock. But then I was getting interrupted by calls and dinner. I needed to go through three cases as well as cover all my notes. Due to how bad some people did on the test, they were re-administering it to everyone. So those of us who did well need to do even better. We also had three cases to do.

That was taking me hours to read through the case and work on the write up. That is partly due to the calls we were getting. The first one came out at eight o’clock PM. Then it just rolled. We were getting back to the station and then getting called out again. It took place like that all night long.

The only sleep I got was from three-thirty until six in the morning. We ran a total of thirteen calls on the day. I also had to stay up a little bit trying to study. I knew that I would be hating life tomorrow due to my lack of sleep tonight.

Brief Test Not So Well

October 30th, 2008

I did my teaching for the fire department. I got down there a little early to set up class. I got my information gathered. Then they started to arrive. I went through the whole process of filling out the timecards and time logs. It was well.

I high tailed it down to Colfax for my training there. I was missing the stuff of Miranda warnings. I sat in on the remainder of that class and then asked some questions.

All of a sudden I realized that we had a test and I had not fully studied. So I took five minutes to review the notes. Not nearly enough time in order to do awesome on the test.

It was worth eighty points. I actually did well, scoring the third best grade in the class. I was in the mid-eighties percentage-wise. There were other people who did really bad.

I got to questions I did not remember the full answer to, but I thought through it and I was able to come up with a lot of answers or partial answers.

But when the test was done and we graded them, it was clear some people did poorly. The instructors tore into the whole class about it. I think they may have lit a fire under some of these people. There were some who were not taking things seriously and they were not getting the work done. I hope this is the turning point.

Better Swimming This Time

October 29th, 2008

I did some more swimming. On Monday it didn’t go too well, but today I am happy with how well I did, when compared to Monday’s performance.

I spent some time today getting things set up for a training I will be doing for the new reserves on Thursday evening.

The day over all was pretty quiet. We got some hydrants taken care of. I also worked on some stuff in the evening hours on my own. Overall it was a quiet day.

My New Washing Machine

October 28th, 2008

After getting off work this morning at the fire department I used my new washer to start to wash some of my clothing now that I have a washing machine. It was pretty neat to have that. I like it. It is the front loading style.

Tonight at reserve training we went over frisking and arrest factors. We were told that we need to memorize the frisk factors and the misdemeanor exceptions for arrest. We would be tested on it during the next class period.

Swimming Again

October 27th, 2008

It has been a while since I have been swimming. I got up around five-thirty in the morning and I went to do my workout. Then I went to the swimming pool. I have lost a lot of what I worked to get, in terms of swimming. I could only do one lap at a time without having to stop to rest. Part of it could have been my cold that was causing me to not breathe all that well.

I got out in time to go to work. The ladies who were working as lifeguards said it was nice to see me back. I stopped to talk to them for a minute before getting cleaned up for work.

Today we were going to train with the reserves. We were at the training house. It was fun being there doing the training and being with the reserves. I helped to get the bottles refilled for Rescue and hung out with the reserves until the late hours of the night.

I finally went to bed around midnight. That is really late for me here.

Mother’s Cookies Search

October 26th, 2008

I wanted to go to the Rec Center and do something active. I ended up shooting hoops for a while. At first I couldn’t make a basket to save my life, but then I started to hit. It was nice to finally get to hit one. I was getting mad that I couldn’t make one no matter how hard I tried.

I did my shopping today. I had a list of things I wanted to pick up for both the house and fire station. I went to Safeway. After I picked everything up I decided that I need to get some Mother’s Cookies.

I specifically wanted to get the Circus Animal cookies. I went to Dissmore’s as well as Safeway. Plus I stopped by Shopko. I went to Moscow and hit WalMart, WinCo, Rosauers, and Safeway there. I bought some different kinds of Mother’s Cookies along the way. I was able to find some Halloween Circus Cookies and I got those, but none of the normal ones.

After completing the rounds tyring to find the Mother’s Cookies I was successful to a point. I had several packages of different kinds. I took them all home and took some photos of all the packages I got.

I was thinking it would be fun to hold a Mother’s Cookie party later in he year with milk and cookies. Everyone would come wearing suits. It is to be a high class thing.

Make Up of the Body

October 25th, 2008

This morning I went to Colfax. I got some breakfast and some donuts for the class. I dropped off my paperwork at the Coroner’s office. I went over to the public service building and helped set up the classroom for the class today.

We are doing criminal procedures. Around noon we broke fro lunch. We went down to Rosauers for hamburgers. Then it was back to class. It was a short day overall. We were done around four o’clock.

I went to the rec center to do some running. While running on the track I looked down on the basketball court. There is always a full-court shirts vs skins basketball game going. Last night, however, was a guy who had nearly perfect abs. It was incredible. What was funny was there was another guy who was standing near him.

Both were white guys with blonde hair. Nearly the same height and both were skinny. But the difference was one guy had great definition in all his back and well as frontal muscles. The other guy was just skinny. I guess being skinny is not enough. I would like to keep working on it and get to the point where my arms and legs have nice muscle definition. I would also like to be much more skinny than I am. I wish I could see how someone like that lives for a week and get an idea of things I can do differently to become better off.

A Mini-Golf Comback

October 24th, 2008

This morning’s plans were diverted when I got a call about an unattended death in Pullman. Pete asked if I could cover it. I told him that I was able to do it. I went to the scene and did the investigation. Between that and the time at the funeral home I spent several hours. I went to my house and cleaned up and then headed to the Rec Center to get a workout in. It was an upperbody day. I wanted to shoot some hoops but I had work ahead of me.

I got home and spoke with the doctor involved with the case and then Pete. After running stuff by Pete I was completing out my report. I got a call from Peter asking if I want to play Mini-Golf. I said that I did. I met up with him, Danny, and Kevin at the Mini-Golf course on Airport Road.

The first nine I wasn’t doing very well. I wasn’t in last place but I was about six strokes off the lead. But the back-nine I started to make a comeback. I had a hole-in-one and when it was over with I had completed the comeback and beat Peter, who had the lead at the turn. I won by one stroke. It was a good time to hang out.

After the golfing I came home and finished off the final touches of my report before printing it off. I didn’t have any plans for the rest of the evening, so I got some stuff done on the computer before heading off to bed.

Evidence Collecting

October 23rd, 2008

I tried to get going on stuff from work, but the server was down that I needed so I was unable to get anything going, that was very bad. I wasn’t to get a jump on what I needed to get done with the spec.

I had to get down to Colfax early for the Coroner’s meeting. We were meeting at four o’clock, but I got a call from Pete moving it back to five. That was okay by me. I got my uniform on and headed down to Colfax. The meeting went well.

I was able to ask Pete about a person who died that I had dealt with on an EMS call. I wanted to understand what happened in that situation, because the person didn’t seem too bad off when I saw them.

Then it was off to the academy class. We started with a run. Today we did about a mile and a half plus all the push ups along the way. We also ended up having to do eighty sit ups after the run was done. So we had a pretty good workout.

The class was on evidence packaging. Everyone was given an item and materials in order to package and label evidence correctly.

Training House ROAM Training

October 22nd, 2008

Today the big thing was ROAM training at the training house. We watched a webcast on ROAM which stands for Rules of Air Management. Pretty much explaining how in the past we use to wait way too long before exiting a building. Everyone was trained it was time to leave a building when the low
air alarm sounded. But what we need to do is already be exiting and walking out of the building just as the low air alarm sounded.

Then we went to our training house to do some training. We did some crawling around until we were running low of air, then we were going to get replaced by the next crew. During the crawling around we were searching for missing people and we were putting out pretend fire. We also had to keep track of our air and pay attention to how it is going.

I felt like I could have done a lot better. When it was all said and done I felt like I didn’t do a very good job inside of the house. I hope that with some more training I will feel better about my performance.

Getting Errands Completed

October 21st, 2008

I had a lot of appointments set up for today. I had to do a post-exposure meeting. I got poked with a needle. It wasn’t very bad, but I wanted to make sure I followed all the precautions.

I also had the washing machine looked at today. It is having some problems. What I found out was that it is not something that can be repaired without a fair amount of money. It is at the point it would be better off for me to buy a new one. The one I have is pretty old. Now I can get a front loader, which is what I wanted anyway.

I had to make a bank run to deposit money as well as get some cash for the dinners. I went to the rec center to get my workout completed. The back thing was that I wasn’t able to do it yesterday at work.

I went to my training in Colfax. We were doing evidence law. The class was pretty quick over all. We went to the SO and looked at the evidence lockers and that was about it.

I went to Colfax Fire when the class was done. They were just getting done with training. Jessie was with me for a while. I got to talking with Carl, Jim, and Tim. We were joking around and having fun.

Monday Night OTEP Training

October 20th, 2008

Today was pretty busy with training, work, calls, we didn’t have any down time before it was time for Monday Night Training. I was excited for training tonight because I was going to get to attend OTEP with the reserves. I still feel like I am part of the group, however, at the same time I don’t feel like I am part of them anymore.

I really don’t know where I stand with everything. I don’t know if I will be a reserve again or not. I don’t know. Part of me hopes that I get to be a reserve again for another month of two just to sort of have a time period where I know what is coming and I have a chance to say goodbye in a less abrupt way.

What would be interesting though is how the guys on my old shift would feel about me coming back. Specifically, the guys involved in that stuff I wrote about from about a month ago. I figure if I do come back I will go to each one of those guys and talk with them and let them know that if they would not be comfortable working on the crew anymore that I would understand and that I would help them get to a different crew. Or maybe I just wouldn’t be made a crew leader and it would all be a moot point.

But for anyone who knows me I am so forgiving, even when I have been greatly wronged by someone, that it probably will not be a problem. I think I am pretty good about keeping work and private life separated and that allows me to work with people who I sometimes have a problem with personally.

Study Group

October 19th, 2008

It has been a lot of years since I have participated in a study group like today, but several guys came over and we worked on our study guide. I got a fair amount of it done before people came over and the rest of it while they were here.

Then we went to the SO and met up with a couple others. Some of the deputies also helped us out answering questions and running questions by us. It was a good study period.

The first test is on Tuesday. I feel a little behind because I missed class on Saturday and that is eight hours worth of learning. So I am a little behind. But I have found that my previous experience is also starting to come back a little bit.

The End of an Era

October 18th, 2008

I started out this morning with doing the cooking for breakfast for the football game. I really was hoping that I would be the one working the game on the field. The Cougs are playing USC. As it turned out I was working the field. I was so excited about that fact.

After breakfast we had the briefing and then made our way to the field. It was neat to be down on the field. As the game went on it was clear the Cougs were in big trouble. It has been two-hundred-and-eighty games since the Cougs have been shut out. That goes back to the Eight-Four season. But the Cougs couldn’t get it across mid-field let alone coming close to scoring any points.

As the game went into the second half I was getting nervous abut the streak. By the time we were in the fourth quarter I was starting to think it wouldn’t happen. I was thinking the streak would be over. And sure enough, the Cougs were shutout. I was so mad. It was stupid to play a QB that was hurt to the point that you didn’t do anything that could possibly hurt him. If he is so hurt why put him in? We have a bad season. The only thing we had going was the shutout streak and that was let go. I am so mad about it. It is incredible.

I didn’t want to do much of anything for the rest of the night. We got one call that we took. It was a combative drunk. I had some fun with that. There was yet another fall from a high place tonight. But that was not a call that we took. It was the other station. The night over all was pretty quiet.

Worked for NU

October 17th, 2008

It has been a while since this last happened, but I got some work done for NU. I have a new spec that I have to work on. It is a big one. Plus I have a couple small ones to work on. I have until the end of the year. I am going to have to work hard over the next couple months because I have to overcome the short comings of our system as well as try to do development. This will be very difficult. But I let them know that.

My washing machine went down. I took my final load of laundry to the laundry mat and did it there. I spent the time that I was there going over my study guide for the academy. I was able to get through a lot of the questions that I had on my the guide.

I went to workout afterwards. I had to do a lower body workout. I was able to pound it out in about twenty minutes because of the exercises I chose. But I also shot hoops for a bit.

I am going out with Matt tonight. We decided we would go out and have a drink. He had a big week of midterms. We talked about his recent test for WSUPD as well as my new position with the Sheriff’s office.

We started at My Office. I had some pop and we both had some dinner. After My Office we went to Rico’s. We played several games of pool, but I won them all. I had some water while we were there. After Rico’s he headed out and I met up with Hanna, Jessie, Warren, Erik, and a couple others from the softball team. We were at Thai Ginger. I hung out there for about thirty minutes. I wanted to get home so I could get to bed because I needed to be up a little extra early for cooking breakfast at the fire department for the football game for tomorrow.

Coroner Work All Day

October 16th, 2008

I needed to get to the rec center and get my upper body workout from yesterday, but I got a call from Pete about an autopsy for the case that I missed part of from this weekend. I went to the funeral home to watch and learn from the autopsy.

After the autopsy I went to the rec center. I got my work out completed in about an hour. I shot some hoops. Then I went home. En route home I heard some radio traffic over Pullman’s frequency. They were talking about stuff that made me believe there was a death.

Sure enough within about ten minutes of getting home I was called to a place in Pullman. So I had a coroner’s case to deal with. That took some time to get there and go through everything.

I got home to complete the report and I didn’t have any time to get any studying done for the academy. That is bad because it put me a day behind where I wanted to be.

I got down to Colfax. The Sheriff was there and ran us the same path that we ran the other day. We ended up getting one-hundred and seventy push ups today plus our mile run and some sit ups. With my upper body workout the push ups were a little on the hard side.

When class was done I got home and started some laundry and worked on my criminal law study guide.

Boringly Normal

October 15th, 2008

This morning I was a little slow moving around, the after effect of the tequila was hitting me a bit. No headaches, but I just felt a little off. I had an appointment with the psychologist for the SO. I was going to get my results back and he was going to speak with me about any questions he had. If I pass this I will be good to go for completing the academy.

While in with the doctor I was being questions about some of the things that I wrote on my background packet. It was a packet that asked tons of questions about my history, my family, my upbringing, sexual history and more. I wrote that I chose not to enter the sexual questions. Something about putting some of that information on paper did not appeal to me. He said that was quite alright I did that. He didn’t asked anything more about that.

He then pulled out my test results. He pointed at one line. He said that all my points should be below it. Then it pointed at a second line and said that anything above it is reason for worry. I was not above any of the lines. He said my results show that I am “Boringly Normal”. He said coming from a psychologist that is a compliment. He congratulated me and said I should do just fine being a cop.

Today is the final game of the Ought-Eight softball season for me. The season started back on March Thirtieth. It snowed and I was having troubles hitting the ball. Tonight I hit a triple in my first at-bat. I had two at bats tonight and two hits. It was good. I walked off the field and tipped my hat to the rest of the team and thanked them for a good time. We ended up winning the game.

After the game most of the people on the co-ed team went to the Garden for some drinks. I opted to not drink, but I did drink water. I told BKoe that I was having Blue Dolphins. Which is a fancy way of saying water.

We were at the Garden for a couple hours talking softball and having a good time hanging out. By this time I was actually feeling good with no more effects of my tequila night.

Enough with the Tequila

October 14th, 2008

I had my training for the SO today. We were covering more criminal law stuff. The class has been going along swimmingly. A lot of it is stuff I knew at one time so I am not learning anything new, but it has been more than a decade since I studied it. So in someways I am learning it like it was new.

After class I went home and BKoe was getting ready to head to the Zuu. Kevin and Peter were already up there. I first ordered a pop. I got a pitcher of pop and a straw was put in it for me. So I just drank from there. Later on BKoe was saying that he drove so I could drink if I wanted. I had no plans on doing so, but then it happened. I ordered a tequila. Not just one, I ordered three.

I drank them down, shooting them one after another. A girl next to me looked on in amazement as I downed the final one without making a single facial expression. I went back to the table and told them I just had three tequilas. They did not believe so I was challenged to do it again. I went to the bar with Peter and got three more tequilas. I downed those just like the first ones.

Peter and I sang a song that I picked out from the book. We ended up doing One-Million Dollars by the Barenaked Ladies. Following that I got three more tequilas. I downed those are the bar. I quickly ordered three more. I took those back to the table. I did those in front of everyone. I had two-and-a-half beers as a chaser. I was gone, very gone. As I was walking out of the bar the bartender made sure I had a ride home. I did.

I went to the parking lot where BKoe car was. I was having a bit of a hard time standing up straight. I think it was hitting him pretty hard. BKoe gave me a ride home, but I really don’t remember much of the ride home.

Fire Training

October 13th, 2008

I spent a fair amount of the day doing fire training. During the day we went over some stuff with the PL and setting it up. Using it to get out the window and off the roof of buildings. There was some good information included in the training.

Later on back at the station I worked on my engineer training some more. I am rewriting all my questions in the form of sentences. I am going to then be able to review the questions like it was a book. I hope to use that to help me study and score very high on the test.

Following the work on the engineer stuff I decided to go to bed. I was pretty tired and it seemed like a good idea at the time.

Knocked Out of the Playoffs

October 12th, 2008

In this evenings softball game we gave the other team a lead, but then we came back and too the lead, only to give up seven runs in the last inning to lose the game. It really sucked.

During the game I was on third base. There was someone on first. A grounder was hit to the middle infield. I started to go down the line. I got near the commitment line thinking that it was going to be a double play, but it wasn’t. The ball was thrown to the catcher. He stepped on the plate, but I was safe. So I waited by the line he ran towards me. As soon as he got to me I stepped over the line. I was called safe right away. The umpire made the correct call. The other team was confused by the play. The umpire explained it to them. Some of the guys on my team knew what I was doing because I explained it to them, but some others didn’t. They thought it was funny when it was all said and done.

As we went to take the field following that inning I heard one of the guys on the other team say “the old man is crafty.” Ryan said I should bean their batter for that comment!

After the game I went to Cougar Country with the rest of the team. We got dinner and voted for team awards. We also had some fun talking about the season and looking forward to the upcoming season.

Criminal Law

October 11th, 2008

Today’s class was criminal law. This will be the subject over the next several classes. At first there was not a lot of discussion, but as we went through the class people started to talk more and got more discussions. We were done by around five o’clock.

I went back to Pullman. I started to work on my homework. It is a one-hundred and seventy-nine question workbook for criminal law stuff. The questions are full over very long answers. Very few fill in the blank.

I decided that I would go to Cougar Country for dinner making today my free day. I already had more than I should have for lunch. I talked with Rhonda while I was there and she congratulated me for getting on the reserves.

I was going to watch a TV show, but I fell asleep around eleven o’clock. Then about two in the morning I got a call from the hospital asking if I could do a transfer for Avalon. But I wasn’t able to because I was on duty for the coroner.

I found there were some missed calls on my phone and a couple messages. I found that there was a case that came in around midnight, but I never heard my phone. I was two hours late to the show. So I called Whitcom and then went to Colfax because I figured at the least I would meet up with Pete.

That is what happened at the funeral home. I explained to him what had happened. Then I followed the funeral home back to the Pullman funeral home to do some a couple of the things that we normally do at the funeral home.

I didn’t get home until around four in the morning.

Getting New Boots

October 10th, 2008

When I got up this morning I felt very rested. More rested than I have felt in weeks. I decided to send a text message to Brandon. He was working grave at the PD and he was up all night, so I thought I would tease him. He hit me back and suggested a breakfast at Tam’s. I said that would be good. We had an early morning fire alarm. We followed up the fire alarm with a second medical call. Due to the length of time we worked past eight o’clock, BKoe was too tired and went to bed. I was disappointed.

I decided that I would go to Spokane and get a pair of boots from one of the places up there. I called Ryan and we were going to meet up for lunch while I was up there. I called Reiber and got his advice about boots. He suggested that I go to Nicks.

I met up with Ryan at a place called David’s. We got some pizza and talked about web hosting and web sites. I went to Nick’s from there and tried on a couple different pairs of boots. I ordered some boots. They will be around five hundred bucks when it is all said and done.

On the way back to Pullman I called the station and I found out they were going to be doing a transfer to Spokane. I told VanNess that I would like to do it. He said he needs to get one more person to do it, that it may not happen. But I had to stop by the station anyway. So I stopped in and talked to the guys there. I found out we would not be doing the transfer. So I went home.

Later I got a call about another transfer and someone else had called in saying that he was available. So we ended up coming in. But do to mix ups on the other end we waited around for nearly two hours until it was settled. I was staying at the station to keep the staffing levels to the minimum. We ended up running two calls right at the end of my night. I ended up going for almost eight hours.

A Nice Little Run with the Sheriff

October 9th, 2008

I worked the ambulance today. We were doing hydrants for the afternoon when we got dispatched on a confirmed structure fire in the CUB. When we got there it was out, but there was water damage we dealt with. I also had to get to Colfax for training. On our way back to the station from this call we got toned out to Palouse. But the captain send a second ambulance because I had to get going.

We got back to the station and I headed to Colfax. It started with the Sheriff lining us up. He questioned us about different things that we went over on the first day. Anything we didn’t get correct we had to do push ups. After doing over fifty push ups we went on a run outside. The run outside included three stops along the way to do push ups. The run wasn’t too bad, but I was a little tired at times.

When that was done we had the chaplain talking to us about his side of things and what he does and how he helps. The class was done quickly that night and I was able to get back to the station at an early hour.

Ice Cold Softball

October 8th, 2008

This afternoon we had the Palousitics lunch at Pete’s Bar and Grill. Joe let us in to his place and opened it just for us. Normally he is not open for lunches. The food was good and it was nice to have the place to ourselves.

After lunch I got side tracked. I was going to work on winterizing my motorhome but I didn’t get it done during the daylight hours.

I went to the Valley Road Playfields to meet up with Ryan and the rest of the team. We had our first playoff game. We were playing against a team we already played and beat up on. But they had a different look to the team. We started off in a hole with a five run deficit. They had several players who kept hitting up the middle. I moved Jordan to play a fifth infield position when they would come up and it started to take away their hits.

In my final at bat I was looking at a pitch that was a little high. I swung at it and the ball was going right down the right-field line. I was expecting it to curve foul. But as it crossed over first base it was still fair. I thought I should drop my bat and run, but I was frozen there watching it. Soon it was getting near the fence. The ball was still going straight. Soon it went over the fence about two feet fair. It was a homerun. That felt great. We ended up winning the game and moving on in the playoffs.

Bruce and I went to Moscow to start the playoffs for our Co-ed team. There was frost on the grass in the outfield and the thermometer in Bruce’s vehicle said it was freezing. It surely was cold. We were playing against the team that last beat us in the regular season.

We went out hitting the ball well and then went cold, but started to get hits when it mattered and went on to win the game. We are a good team over all. We already have a tee-shirt for winning the league. I hope we earn one for winning the tournament as well.

When I got home I went to my motorhome and worked on draining all the water out it.

Back In the Academy

October 7th, 2008

After almost fourteen years I am back in the Whitman County Sheriff’s Reserves. I am excited about the whole thing, but I also found that the class was going to take nearly five months and not ten weeks like I was expecting. So I am going to have to work to get more time off from the fire department that I thought I would have to do. I am worried about that.

The first day of class I got a chance to meet up with some of the other students. We had the Sheriff tell us about ethics and what he expects from us. It was mainly a day of introductions and laying some of the groundwork of the academy. I am excited for the academy to get over with so I don’t have to worry about getting days off from work and then I can go out on the road and work on becoming First-Class solo patrol.

I got out my old belt and put it on. I found that it was loose on me. I may have to buy a new belt. Looking back I weighed more when I first got into the academy my first time through than I weigh now. It is weird because I just assumed that I would be bigger now than then when I was twenty-one. But that was not the case.

League Champs

October 6th, 2008

This morning I did my weigh in, I was down about seven pounds from last week. I had only lost one pound the previous week. I am under two-sixty for the first time in a very long time! I can’t wait until I am under two-fifty. It is very exciting. It is like when I got under three hundred for the first time. This is one of those little mile stones I didn’t really have in mind, but it felt so good when I saw it.

This evening we had softball. We were playing for the league championship. This is a make up game for the rain out from last week. It is lucky for me because I ended up working when the last game was supposed to be played, but because of the rain out it was moved to tonight.

I have been hitting the ball very well in this league, just as I have been hitting very well in the intramural league as well. I guess last IM season I was just rusty. It was the opening part of the season.

We went on to win the game with a come from behind win. It was very exciting and we are the league champs!

Brandon came out to the game with me and then we went to Apple Bees after the game. From there we went home and played some games before I had to get to bed.

A Time to Relax

October 5th, 2008

After the long night at the fire department I got up this morning to do our morning duties which included washing the rigs. After I got home I had some breakfast. I am not one for taking naps, but I decided to allow myself to do that today.

I got a nice couple hours of sleep in, waking up around noon. Then I spent some time on the computer getting caught up on a couple of things.

I had been needing to get to the store to buy some stuff. I ended up spending nearly two hundred bucks on some stuff. But it was things that I needed to pick up along the way.

I planned on having a turkey burger for dinner, but that changed to nachos so I could get rid of the rest of the chips that I had. Before I got dinner I took out the lawn mower and got the lawn taken care of. That was good. It looked great.

I spent the final evening hours watching some TV.

Long Busy Day and Night

October 4th, 2008

Working at the fire department today I expected that we would do our weekly rig checks on the ambulances, have a community breakfast, and then I would work on my engineer workbook. What really happened was much different. Due to calls everything got thrown around.

We started by having the guys from the Deuce come down. They brought some food. We did our morning chores and started to make breakfast. I helped with the apple pealing. We were really getting the cooking underway. It was looking good and I was hungry. But before we could sit down and eat I was called away on the ambulance for someone who was hurt.

By the time we were done breakfast was done and they were working on the ambulance checks. I restocked the ambulance and the medic and I went in to eat before we helped with the rig checks.

We were not done eating when we got called for something else. I had to get up and walk away from my breakfast/lunch by the time I was eating it. We dealt with the call and were at the hospital. As we were close to leaving we got called to an unknown injury accident. On the way we were upgraded to a delta injury accident on a residential street in Pullman. We got on scene and transported two of the people.

By the time we were done with those two calls I got back to restock the ambulance again and finish my breakfast. But now it was time to start to worry about getting dinner ready. My breakfast took about six hours to have from start to finish.

I took the medic to the Deuce to pick up a couple things he had there. We got some stuff for dinner to go with the meatloaf and went to the station. I started on the weekly rig checks on my ambulance. The others had been completed so it was the only one that needed to be done. As I got going others came out to help when they had dinner cooking. I was able to get it almost completed before dinner, but not quite.

I sat down for dinner with the other guys. It was very good. Mashed potatoes and gravy with meatloaf. Following dinner I cleaned up the plates and dishes. I turned on the Cougar game. They were in the game against UCLA. I was watching the game for a while. Then I went to the training room and turned on the game there. I also grabbed the photoboard to update it. We had a big change up with where everyone was working so I had to update the board to show those changes.

I went to the bay to turn off the lights and I saw the Ambulance Thirty-Five book. I was going to put it away when I realized I didn’t have a weekly check sheet completed for it. So I pulled one out and started to work through the engine fluid checks and filling out the form.

One of the reserves who was working the volleyball game came through to put away the equipment that he used. I stopped and talked to him for a few minutes. We talked about the other night that we went out as well as the Cougar volleyball game we worked. We are hoping we will get a chance to go out with the old reserves again on Apple Cup in a couple weeks.

I went back to my bedroom after that was done and continued to watch the Cougar game. But the Cougs were losing and they were not able to get more than a single fieldgoal. They ended up losing by twenty-five points. I watch some TV for a little bit then I decided to go to sleep.

It had been quiet more of the evening. But by a little after eleven we started to get called out and we ran eight calls over the next four five hours. We made it back to the station once. I was able to get restocked and started to make entries into the log book when we got called out for a second set of runs. It was a busy night. I finally got to bed for real around four in the morning.

Working Hard at Jail

October 3rd, 2008

After getting off work at the fire station I decided I would go to Colfax and work at the jail. I had my fire pager with me but Colfax didn’t have any calls while I was there. It was a busy day in the jail as normal. I helped do some rounds, a booking, and run the control room. I worked there from around eleven to six in the evening. I was getting ready to go get some dinner.

I was at Main street and saw Carl drive by. Went I went by the fire station I saw Ken’s truck. I decided to swing by and see Ken. They were going to work the Colfax High football game. I was asked if I wanted to come. I said I did. I grabbed my turnout coat and went to the game.

Colfax dominated the game. It didn’t even look like a game until Colfax put many of their freshmen into the game. I saw several people from Colfax Police and McNanny from the SO there. We talked briefly about the upcoming academy.

When the game was done I went to Ken’s to get his computer for me to work on. I am going to scrub it and reinstall everything for him. I got home and pretty much went to bed. I had to get up early tomorrow to stop by the Deuce to work on their photoboard.

Goodbye to Patti

October 2nd, 2008

Today was the last shift with the guys who had been on the shift since I started working it. We were having several people rotate. I am staying, but we lost two guys and are getting two other guys.

I finally completed teaching the CPR class to the guys. It had been delayed several times due to calls interrupting the scheduled class time.

As a last meal we went to the Deuce and had ribs for dinner. It was great. I then went to Colfax to have the coroner’s meeting and the going away dinner for Patti. We talked about some of the old times and got our schedule set up for next month. I am pretty much working every weekend day except for two of them.

Mock Train Crash

October 1st, 2008

This morning when I got off work at the fire department I went to Colfax for a mock scene. It started out with a train vs car crash with alcohol involved. It was for the Colfax High students. We started with an assembly. Then to the scene. I was on the ambulance. During the scenario we got a real patient. I was the attendant. That took me out of the rest of the mock scene.

Following my call we went back to the scene. It was cleaned up. We all had lunch and prepared for the hazmat portion of the event. I set up the computer items and walked the Colfax people through how the system worked. We went to a train car to see how some of the tools we have work on the train car. That was nice to get a chance to see how the tools worked. We cleaned up and headed back to Pullman.

I was meeting up with Brandon and Kevin. We went to see a movie in Pullman. We saw Eagle Eye. It was an alright movie. When it was done we went to my place and played some games that Brandon had before Kevin had to leave. I went to bed a little while later because I had to work in the morning.