Seeing AC/DC in Concert

August 31st, 2009

I took the opportunity to allow myself to sleep in a little bit today. I didn’t actually get out of bed until almost ten o’clock this morning. That was when I was planning on leaving town. So I was behind schedule out the door. I got my stuff packed trying not to forget anything that I was going to need for my time away from Pullman.

Then I had to get some stuff out of my rig. But finally I had unpacked old stuff and packed my traveling stuff and was on my way to Seattle. On the way I found a group of two other cars. We were cruising along very nicely along twenty-six on our way to Vantage. We were making good time because the traffic was light. When I got to the top of Vantage hill I made a pitstop and they kept moving.

I made it to Bellevue just under four hours after I left. I went to my brothers house only to find he was still golfing. So I didn’t need to bother being in that big of a hurry. I went home and to my surprise my step-brother was there. I have not seen him in years. Him and I took different paths. I was college-bound and believe in law and order. He went the other way, high-school drop out and doing drugs. He were are years later and he is not looking great. He has gained a ton of weight and lost lots of teeth as well as has spent a lot of time in jail. Now I have spent time in jail as well, but we were on the opposite side of the bars. I was free to leave.

I put my stuff in my bedroom and waited for Jon to call me. We were going to see AC/DC tonight. I had mixed feelings about going. I wasn’t sure how much pot smoking would be going on, but I really didn’t feel like breathing in other peoples’ smoke. But I thought it would be fun to see the concert.

My two nephews were also going. There were a lot of younger kids there as well as older adults. It had a pretty good mix. There were people who looked like rockers and some who looked very run of the mill. One young man sitting two seats over from mine appeared to be have come with his father. The son looked all of eighteen. As the show went on he sang along to some of the songs, but from his outward appearance you would not have guessed he was a big rocker.

There was also several college-aged guys behind me. They were really getting into the show. One guy in particular was huge into the show. He seemed to know the words to all the songs. He was loving the show.

They band came out and had a good mix of both old and newer stuff. There was good audience participation. We even had an exposure of someone on the big screen. She was waiting for her chance because as soon as she saw they put her on the big screen, down came her top. It showed everything. The crowd went wild.

They ended the night with For Those About To Rock, We Salute You. Was a great ending song. My ears were ringing after the show. I had forgotten my earplugs like I had planned on using.

Second Place In First Annual Garden Tournament

August 30th, 2009

Today was my second day of softball. We had ten guys on the nose. I started by pitching, but I was having a hard time pitching a strike. As I tried more I kept getting worse. Finally after walking the bases loaded I changed pitchers and went to play first base. I stayed there the rest of the day. My ankle was hurting pretty bad. It never got better like it normally does so I was really a gimp out there.

I was doing okay at the plate. I was hitting the ball well and taking some walks when it mattered. We won the first game beating the team we lost to last night. We destroyed them. Then we played Sports Page. We were close at first, but they took a seven run lead into the seventh inning. We were sucking it up at the plate. Then the hitting just clicked. We scored eight runs and took a one run lead into the bottom of the seventh. We held them scoreless and won the first game. So we had to play them a second time.

The second game we hit poorly again. He did have one big inning scoring around nine runs. But it wasn’t enough to take the lead. Then we gave up a big inning. We were down by eleven. We had one more chance. We scored four runs and lost the game. It was fun to come back, but it just wasn’t enough.

I went home and relaxed and worked on getting some work done around the house. I went to Cougar Country with BKoe for dinner. We sat there and chatted about stuff. Rhonda came over and talked to us for a while. Then I went to the fire station for weekly rig checks. I went to the fuel pumps with Togs after rig checks to fuel up the engine. I am going to see about getting him to be an engineer, but I don’t know if he will be around long enough to make it worth while.

I got my timecards done and went home to go to bed. I am planning on going to Seattle in the morning for my vacation.

First Show in Years

August 29th, 2009

This morning I had to be up early. With the number of calls and when we got them I was running on just over three hours of sleep. I went to Pullman for the first softball game. As it turned out we had four games. The first three were round-robin. When those were done we started the double-elim tournament. The first few games were pretty ugly for us. We were not hitting the ball very well. We lost several of the games by a pretty big margin. We had a two hour break. I went to Cougar Country for some hamburgers and then drove to Moscow for our first double-elim game. We were playing a team that we should have no problem beating.

But it was not to be. We had a battle back and forth. We would score and they would answer. A couple runs at a time. Finally we had a one run lead. The other team hit a three-run shot and went up by two. We ended up losing the game. That put us in the loser bracket and playing at nine in the morning tomorrow.

I hurried back to Pullman and got my fire department uniform on. I was working the event at Beasley. It was a play, the same one I went to last night. I was working with Walker. We spent most of the time chatting about testing for different fire departments. Then I put on Transformers. We got about half way through it when the play got over.

Then it was off to my place again to change for the drag show in Moscow. I am not into drag at all. It is not my thing. But the show is sort of a gay get together. I don’t really know many gay people in the area, but I thought I would go and see what it is like. I got cleaned up and went to pick up Gunnar.

We went to the show and they were in the middle of a set. When it was done we went into the main room and sat down at a table. We spent a lot of time people-watching. There was a group of ten-six-seven’s dancing with their shirts off. It is a time for them to show off their stuff. So the scenery was good, but I had a boy there with me so I didn’t really want to not pay attention to the hotties dancing. I haven’t been to a show in many years. It was when Russel and Scotty were still in the area. It was a little different because of the venue.

We watched and talked about the various people we saw there. Some faster songs came on so he went out to dance a little bit. I watched him do that. When he got done it was very hot inside the place and he wanted to get some cool air.

We went outside and walked towards my rig. It was near the end of the show anyway so we headed home.

I went to his place to drop him off. We sat outside for about ten minutes talking about stuff. We had dated a little back in December. He wants to get back with me. So we talked about getting together again. I went home and got some dinner before I went to bed. I was pretty tired and I had to get to bed for our softball games in the morning.

I Don’t Like Musicals

August 28th, 2009

I was scheduled to work the event at Beasley tonight. I also picked up the next banners for the reserve recruitment. I went to Kinko’s to get them and I went to station one and set one up on the sandwich boards. I put it out in front of the station. I also got my stuff ready for the show tonight.

I went to station two and checked on the equipment there. Then I went home and got some of my computer work taken care of.

When it gets closer to the time to go to the event I went to the station and put the events stuff together. Young comes to get me and we drive to Beasley. I watched most of the play, but it was a musical. I am not a fan of musicals at all. So I got bored of it and went into watch some TV.

After the play I was working on Rescue. It was a slow night for the most part. We had three calls spaced out enough that caused me to hardly get any sleep on the night. I have a softball tournament to play in the morning so I was going to be very tired.

Monthly Coroner Meeting

August 27th, 2009

This evening was the monthly Coroner’s meeting. I was going to the fire extinguisher class, but I ended up doing a transfer to Spokane. We went to pizza at Rocky Racoco’s. Ryan and Anna met us there. I got a chance to hold Zoey for a while. They asked me to be the godfather. That was great!

After we ate we went back to Pullman. I cleaned the ambulance and got ready to head to Colfax. We had pizza for dinner and talked about some cases. After everyone left Pete and I talked about my future with the Coroner’s office and the chances of me being the next Coroner.

Fall Co-ed Season is Under Way

August 24th, 2009

After the second straight night of going to bed late I woke up around ten o’clock. The big plan of the day was to go a movie with BKoe. I got the photos for the photo board at the Deuce cropped and ready to go. I took a motorcycle and drove down to the Deuce. I updated the photo board at the station and then went to station one. I met up with Heston and showed him I printouts for the possible reserve recruitment sign.

I was at station one for while talking with Heston and Brown. I let Brown know that I would not be able to be at training tonight because something going on over Moscow. He asked what I was going to be doing, but I didn’t tell him because I did not think he would understand that I want to play softball.

After I left the station I went to the bank to deposit my coroner’s check. I got ten dollars cash back. I went to the Man Shop to get my hair cut. I got my normal short haircut and I was able to get a razor shave on the back of my neck. I wish it was a standard at most barbershops but it’s not.

On the way out of the barbershop I saw Joseph from the Thunder football team. He asked me if I would be the announcer for next year’s team. I told him that I would do it. I told him that I was too busy this year to make any games.

I got ready to go see the movie with BKoe. I took my motorcycle to Safeway to get some pop and pretzels for the movie and then I drove to the theater. BKoe got to the movie theater just as I was getting there we walked in together and went into the theater. Matt and CBass were supposed to go to the movie with us but they were not able to make it.

After the movie was over I got home and got my uniform for the softball game. I headed over to Moscow and met up with the rest of the team. While at the field I could see some smoke in the distance coming from a grain bin. I watched it for a while and it did appear that there could have been a fire in the grain bin. I finally called Whitcom and talked to a dispatcher. Moscow fire was advised but they found it was actually dust from farming operations and not a fire.

The game started and I was an extra hitter but I got to play first base after the second inning. The shortstop for the other team was a ten-six-seven. I spent part of the game watching him play his position. The one thing I noticed is his throws to first always seem to loft over there. In the sixth inning he was coaching first base and grabbed a bag of Redman chew and took a plug of dip.

The final out of the sixth inning was a ball hit up the first baseline. I charged the ball and hit off my mitt but it stayed on the ground right below me. I picked up the ball and tossed it to Joe who was covering first base from pitcher and we make the out. In the seventh inning I wrote the pine. We won the game and a group of us headed to the Sports Page tavern in Pullman. I got something to read and we sat around talking sports. I left the bar around ten o’clock. I got home and started working on the speech recognition on my laptop. It seems right down to take the longer to write anything however as soon as I learn how to use speech recognition better this should really be cool.

Paperwork is the Hangover of Police Work

August 23rd, 2009

This afternoon I went to the SO to work on my paperwork for the tickets I wrote and my DUI that I got. I was down at the SO for a couple hours getting all the paperwork filled out for the DUI. The tickets didn’t take as long, but I had several that I had to write up.

I left there around ten o’clock to head home. It was a pretty lax day overall.

Going Out with a Structure Fire

August 19th, 2009

As I was waking up this morning I wasn’t sure how my final couple hours would end. I was thinking that I should have ended the night of the Staley fire so I could end on a fire. Before seven o’clock rolled around the tones go off for a structure fire. We could see the smoke from the station.

We got on scene in the ambulance and were made into the backup team. We went to the attic where the seat of the fire was. Eric, who was on his first day back, was on the nozzle and put the fire out. It was still pretty small, but growing. It was lucky that we got there when we did and that the fire was not in the wee hours of the morning when it could have really taken off. I ended up putting in an hour and a half of overtime. So my full-time tally was one year, one month, four days and one and a half hours. It has been a good run.

I got back to the station and got the last remaining items from the station cleared out and headed to Tam’s Place for breakfast with Chia, Keeton, Young, and Pritchett. I left after I was done eating so I could get a couple things done before meeting up with the guys to go to the river. I dropped off my turn outs at the station and went home. I got a couple things taken care of at home and packed my stuff to go to the river.

I went to Pritchett’s place. We were meeting up there. From there Keeton, Pritchett, and I rode together to the river. We got there and made our way to the beach. It is a long haul from the parking lot. I didn’t know how long it was because I had never gone there without being on a boat.

We set up our area. I put on some suntan lotion and we went into the water. We played fetch with Chia’s and Pritchett’s dogs. We were there for hours watching as more and more people showed up. As the college students started to arrive the scenery was great. You couldn’t look somewhere without finding a couple ten-six-sevens. I really enjoyed the scenery while playing with the dogs.

Brown showed up with his boat. We hung out for a while near his boat and then went for some tubing. I hit the water and the rope on the tube was really long, so I was getting whipped around pretty good. I had a couple good wrecks along the way. Including one where I went about twenty feet sliding on the water before rolling.

It was getting close to five so we started to pack up and make our way back home. It was a good afternoon on the water.

I got cleaned up. I waited from BKoe to show up but as seven o’clock was rolling around he was no where to be found. I texted him and he was in Moscow. He forgot he was going to give me a ride to the bar. So I called Pritchett and he gave me a ride down to the bar.

We got there just after seven o’clock. Guys filtered in over the next two hours. It was a going away party for me from the career ranks. It was very nice to see some of these people stop by and wish me well and let me know they enjoyed working with me.

I had a couple guys over the last few months let me know that at first they were not sure what to think about me coming on at first. But they said that I have been a great addition. They really have enjoyed working with me and think that I am a pretty darn good guy.

One guy and I talked for a while about stuff. I remember when we would go on calls together I didn’t know what to think. We talked and all was good. But when we were on shift together at first I think there was the feeling that we didn’t know each other. And as time went on he warmed up to me and got to know me and the same of me towards him. I really think he a good person and I really enjoy talking with him.

As the night rolled on I got some beer purchased for me and we sat around talking, playing pool and darts. When it was nearly eleven o’clock we made our way to TBag. Pritchett was already there. I was given a couple shots of hard-A. I wasn’t really wanting to have them, but I cowboyed up and drank them. We played pool and sat around talking.

Then one guy came up and said the words that I know will lead us to a specific conversation. It was, something along the lines of “It doesn’t matter to me, you’re a good guy, so it really will not make a difference, but…” That is the start of someone wanting to know if I am gay.

With the guy who was asking, I wasn’t sure if he knew or not. But he has been around for a long time so I had to assume that he had heard through the grapevine. He said he had heard some stuff, but he didn’t believe it until he heard for himself. I told him that I hit for the other team. I told him that I don’t really tell people because I don’t want them to act differently around me. I told him I like the fact that when I have been around him for all this time he wasn’t afraid to say things and not worry about offending me. I told him I wanted him to remain feeling that way. He is one of those guys who always says “That is gay” or things like that. He said he sort of knew that something was probably up because I am not interested in the hot girls as everyone else is. He could tell so he figured something was up. I am glad that he asked and now I know that he knows.

I had asked Chia a while back if others on the shift knew. He said he didn’t know. He said that no one would care. I believe that is true, but I wanted to know. I would like to think they all knew and still were the way they were around me. Which would show they are comfortable with me. I just feel like if I walk into a room and people feel like they have to watch what they say, that it would be a strain to be around me and they would just choose not to be around me. I don’t want that. I really don’t care what people say, because I believe you have to choose to be offended. I choose not to be offended by that kind of stuff.

The other Blake came up to me and started to say the same thing. I thought it would all be coming out that night. But before I confirmed anything I had to know exactly what he was asking. As it turned out with him he was talking about something totally different. So I don’t know if he knows. I guess thinking about it now, I am not sure if I just want to come out to those guys and that way I know that they know and I can just get on with things, or continue to play the game I have been playing. I am not sure if I want the reserves to know. I know that some do know, but I always hate it when the new reserves find out about me because it is always something that someone else brings up. Over the years I have had a couple guys ask me straight up. I always will confirm it if they ask. I like it when they ask, because if they are willing to ask they will typically not make a big deal about it at all.

Two Days To Go

August 16th, 2009

This is the start of the second day of my set and the second to last day as a full-time firefighter. We went to College Hill and did some walk abouts of the area apartments to become more familiar with the area. We also did a walk through of the new residence hall on Olympia Ave.

We had a nice meal together for a brunch. It was eggs, sausage, and pancakes. It was pretty good. We had some time in the afternoon. I was going to take a nap, but that never happened.

In the evening we made sloppy joes for dinner. Just as we were completing dinner we had a call for a fire alarm at the place we have been running to for the last couple weeks nearly daily. It is getting old.

Chia’s wife came and we all watched the new Fast and Furious movie. It was fun to watch and with Paul Walker in it, the movie is juts that much better.

After the movie I was starting to think about bed. But then we got a transfer. No one called in, so Tony and I had to take it. We went code-three to Spokane. We had a really fast turn around at both hospitals, so it was a pretty quick trip, but it still sucked to lose all that sleep.

Rosalia Motorcycle Show

August 15th, 2009

This morning I headed up to Rosalia to work the motorcycle show. I was working it with one other reserve. I started by getting a patrol car from the office and getting some equipment loaded into it. I got to Rosalia and met up with the guy I was working with. He had come out of Spokane and just wanted to meet there. We staged at the fire station. We got the Rhino and drove down to the park.

I parked the car there in a visible location. Then we rode around the park in the Rhino. We chatted with some people along the way. We would wave and smile at everyone as we passed. It was very friendly policing.

We spent time going from the rodeo grounds through the camping area. Down to the fire station and then to the park. We would walk around the park and check in the beer garden. Some Goldwings were part of a drill team. The performed first on the main drag through town.

We watched that show from across from the fire station. The next thing was the motorcycle rodeo. When we got there we found our self a spot for parking. There were a lot of big burly motorcycle riders. Men of all sorts of different ages. At a distance I saw a potential ten-six-seven. He was a younger blond and he caught my attention. Unlike everyone else there he stuck out both because of the fact he was ten-six-seven, but also because he didn’t look like the others. He didn’t wear blue jeans and leather chaps. He was free of obvious tattoos. He was like the guy next door. He also did very well at handling his motorcycle. So for the rodeo I had something worth watching, other than the show itself. The rodeo lasted several hours. When it was done we went back to the main park.

We continued to make our rounds and talk with people and interface with people. While at the main park there was one more show of people on crotchrockets were doing stunts. They lasted a while. It was done inside of a small basketball court that was fenced. I guess the helped make those watching the show stay safe.

While sitting there I was surprised with another ten-six-seven. He came over in a group of other guys to watch the stunt show. He was a short haired blond with blue eyes. I wasn’t able to enjoy the scenery as long, but it was just as good as the first one.

The rest of the evening was pretty much the same. We did get called to a motorcycle accident, but it turned out to be minor. We cleared it and went back to the park. I was there until just after nine o’clock. It was pretty quiet most of the day. We didn’t have any problems the whole night. We had lots questions about wearing helmets, alcohol laws, and whatnot.

I went to the SO after clearing Rosalia. I got my tickets from two days ago written up and turned in. Then I went home and got ready for bed.

The Begining of the End

August 14th, 2009

Today is the first day of my final set. Once I work these three days I will be back to reserve status. I am excited about it, but at the same time I will miss working with the guys. It has been very great getting to know them and hanging out with them all the time. I am going to miss the lifestyle. But I am going to use this time away to get back into the groove for working out daily and getting my weight loss underway again. It is something I need to do.

The day involved a walk about in the CCS and CCN are as well as North Campus Heights, which is now called Terre View Crossing. The walk about took a while to get done. When we got back to the station we needed to work on getting the engines checked so we could do walk abouts during our Sunday shift.

We ran a couple calls plus we got a free dinner from Erickson because he was working a twenty-four hour OT. We also got a lot of desserts today. With Heston’s birthday on Saturday and Wehrung’s mom bring in some pie, we pretty much had stuff to eat all day long.

Slow Night on the Road

August 13th, 2009

The big thing today was to do a ride with Brown, a fellow reserve, and the reserve meeting. I got my uniform on around three and headed to Colfax. I had to get a new battery for my motorcycle. I stopped in at Napa down in Colfax.

I went to the SO following that. I got the meeting minutes from the last meeting typed up and sent out. I also got the reserve hours printed out and turned in to Cooper.

We had our meeting. It was short. The training was going over the accident report forms. We all had to fill them out for a fake accident that we “investigated”.

Then I hit the road with Brown. The first stop I had was for fifteen over. I was going to write then I saw it was his birthday. So I gave him a huge break. I made one more stop before it was time for lunch. We went to Zips with the other guys.

We then went to help two guys with a case in Oakesdale. We interviewed everyone involved. There was no crime so we cleared. I ran traffic until midnight then we called it a night. It was a pretty slow night. I am pretty much a call killer like I am when I am at Colfax Fire.

I got home and worked on my battery. I had to pour in the acid. Then I hooked it to the battery charger and went to bed.

Bought the Motorcycle

August 12th, 2009

It has been a process looking for the bike, but I finally found one that I could ride around and I decided to purchase it.

First I went to DOL today to take the written test for a motorcycle license. I had to get a photo. But I was not expecting that. I haven’t shaved for several days. So I will look like a total slob.

I went to Colfax and got the bike and started to ride. I spent about an hour cruising around the streets of Colfax. I was liking the bike. It doesn’t have a ton of power, but it will get me around the streets of Pullman just fine. Plus if I need to make a trip to Moscow I could do it.

I loaded it up in the truck and headed to the Courthouse to pay for the license. It was more than two hundred for the sales tax plus the license and a new plate. I went to the SO and hung out there for a while. I remembered that I had purchased some cookie dough from McNannay. I paid for it and picked it up.

I headed back to Pullman and had BKoe help me unload the bike. I took it out for a ride around the streets of Pullman. It was fun. I put about ten miles on it here in Pullman.

In the evening I just hung out at the house getting some stuff caught up on. I also went to buy a frozen pizza for dinner tonight. With my job at the fire department quickly coming to an end I am going to be able to get on top of things I let slide. I have some tasks that I have been needed to complete for more than fifty-five weeks. I will try to do those plus I need to clean my den. It is horrible. I have a stack of mail that is about fourteen inches high. Argh!

Back at Colfax Fire Training

August 11th, 2009

With the reserve academy and working at the fire department as well as Men’s softball, I haven’t been able to make it to a training in Colfax for ages.

I went to Colfax early so I could go look at the Suzuki. I had the money and I was ready to buy it. First I bought a helmet at the Honda dealership. But while in Colfax there were some issues with the bike. It took a while but we worked through them and got the bike going. The guy who was selling me the bike had his son helping us out. He is probably in his early twenties. A rugged ten-six-seven. I didn’t mind that the motorcycle was having problems because it allowed me to spend more time trying to fix it with the ten-six-seven’s help.

When the bike finally started to work I rode it around Colfax for a little bit, but I had to hurry because of fire training. I went back and told the guy that I was interested but I wanted to have more drive time with it when I am dressed for riding the bike. I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt on Airport road doing fifty. I was thinking about what my arms and legs would look like after a crash.

Tonight at Colfax Fire it was the monthly board and business meeting. Those don’t typically last too long. When it was over I went back to Pullman. I was tired when I watched Rescue Me and missed the second half. So I went up stairs to my computer. And I watched it on TV next to my computer while I was doing some web surfing.

A Real “Vacation”

August 10th, 2009

After getting off work this morning I went home and dealt with what was waiting for me at the computer job. There wasn’t much. I had wanted to go patrolling tonight, but I decided to skip it and just enjoy the day.

I went to Chris’ house to meet up with him. I had hopped to catch a ride down with him to the river. Blake and Blake were also meeting us there. We loaded up our stuff and headed down to the river. It was a nice trip down to Boyer Park. Once there it was pretty warm. We got the boat launched and headed to the Dunes. Once we anchored we got out and enjoyed the warm thigh-level water. I had some pop and the others had their drink of choice. We just hung out in the water talking. It was a nice time. It was relaxing. John and his boys showed up. Jon also came down for a while. The Chia’s and their dog made it down.

We had a football and threw it around for a while. I was taking photos during some of the action. I was able to get some very nice shots of everyone having fun.

We hung out most of the afternoon in the water throwing the ball around, playing with Chia’s dog and then finally we did some tubing when the wind died down a little bit. Blake went on it first. He took several strolls around the river. Then him and I went for a ride. Finally I did a couple rides myself. But before we were done we looked up at the shore and the other Blake had been escorted away. It turns out they frown upon glass bottles being used at the river. So he got scolded for using one.

We went back to shore and made fun of him. Then we started to say our goodbyes. Chia, the Blakes, and I were going to have some dinner together in Pullman. At first we were going to go to Cougar Country. Chris was going to Rancho for his son’s twenty-first birthday. We joked about crashing the party.

On the way home I drove. Chris asked if I would drive so he could have a couple beers. I had no problem with that. Before we got home we saw John and Chia’s rigs pulled over. John’s hood was open. They were having a problem with the hose on the radiator. It came off spraying a lot of fluid around. We worked on it for a while before finally getting it put back into place. They we used some of our water to refill the radiator. We were finally back on our way.

When we got to Pullman it was decided that we would go to Rancho with Chris. We met up with Denise and some of Chris’ family plus the guys who went to the river. It was a good time. We had cake and bought Chris’ son all sorts of drinks.

When the night was done Chris picked up the whole tab. That was certainly unexpected. I hit the road and went to the Sheriff’s Office. I had to complete a report and two tickets that I had issued while patrolling. I got those completed and turned in. Then I came home and watched some TV before making my way to bed.

Today was so fun. It was like back when I went to the river all the time. It was relaxing. It was the first time I really had a real vacation day all summer. It was great!

Back to Back Nighst with Three Hours of Sleep

August 9th, 2009

It was way too early to be waking up. I was tired from only three plus hours of sleep for the second straight night.

We started by doing some walk abouts on campus looking at alarm systems in the gyms. When we got back I made breakfast for everyone with the help of the other guys.

I was going to try to get some sleep in the afternoon, but when I did finally get to lay down the tones went off three times. I had to go on the third thing that was toned out.

By the time we got back it was too close to having to start to make dinner, so I stayed up and started dinner for everyone.

After dinner I had some stuff I wanted to do. So I still didn’t get to bed right away. I did go to bed around ten o’clock. but we got woken up about every three hours for a bogus fire alarm. It was a bad night of sleep.

First Night Out with Another Second Class Reserve

August 8th, 2009

I was very excited about going out to work this evening with the County. It is the first time that I will be on the road with one other second class reserve. After I got off work I went to Reaney park with the fire department for a wellness fair. Various groups had booths. As people went to each booth they had to do something to earn a sticker. Once they got their “passport” filled with stars they would get a prize. I was helping to run the PFD booth. We had a two and a half inch hose for the young kids to roll. We also had a high rise bundle for people who were a little older. Our booth went over really well. It was the first wellness fair and it wasn’t too well advertised, but I hope that as time goes on it will be more popular.

After that I went home with the hope of getting some sleep before I had to get ready to hit the road. But I was not able to get a great amount of sleep. I only had a couple hours last night due to the EMS calls that we had. So I had hoped to get a good nap in. During the time I was laying down, it felt like I had a thousand things running through my mind all at one time. I was so excited about going out tonight and I had random thoughts running through my mind.

Before I knew it I had no sleep to speak of and I was getting ready for my time on the road. I cranked up some tunes and got my uniform on. I headed down to Colfax for my shift with Rich.

We started by getting a car ready. I had planned on going to Lamont as well as work down towards the river. I was told to stay up top because there were very few people on duty.

We were heading towards Wawawai road when we got a report of a dog that was running around. It looked like a stray dog with its fur all matted down and it looked like it had not been eating. We started to head towards Pullman where the dog was seen. At first we were going to take Staley road into Johnson road where the RP said the dog was, but those roads don’t even cross. As we were getting to Staley road a second RP said the dog was at Sand road and Johnson Road. We turned around and went to Pullman and drove out Johnson road to Sand Road. The second RP was waiting there. He showed us where the dog was located and and worked to get it to come out from his hiding spot in a huge bunch of bushes. We were not able to. I spoke with the OIC who said there was nothing we could do about the dog anyway. There is no ordinance in the county about dogs running loose.

We also had a call for a car that was erratically driving. I found the car as soon as it was put out and stopped it. We spoke to the driver and cleared it.

We had dinner with the OIC and one other Reserve at Quizno’s and talked about the two calls for service we had. We learned a lot from each of them about how to handle them. Those kinds of calls we really don’t talk about in the academy. We get on the job training for those. That is exactly what I received tonight.

After that we were running some traffic on Airport road. We stopped some fast cars and wrote a couple tickets. Then we went out Twenty-Seven towards Palouse. We went through Palouse and Garfield then we took Dry Creek to One-Ninety-Five. There was no traffic on Twenty-Seven to speak of. We went all the way to Rosalia and back. I was going to call it a night sort of early because I had to be at the FD in the morning. But a good song was on the radio and I thought I would drive until it was done. We were nearly in Pullman. So we continued in. I went through town and I was going to head to Airport road again via Valley Road. The OIC was at McDonald’s. He asked or us to come back and road side him.

Just as we were pulling in to McDonald’s he left going code. So did the other reserve. We were going to follow. As I was pulling out a Pullman Cop came down going code. We got in behind him. It was a burglar alarm at Rite Aid. We stood by for a while watching one side then we got cleared. I drove around Pullman until after two in the morning and then we headed back to Colfax via Albion. I didn’t get home until four in the morning.

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August 4th, 2009

This morning I was called into a coroners case in Pullman. I was listening to the beginnings of it on the scanner because the fire department had been dispatched to it. Anna and I went to do the investigation. She took the photos and I took the lead. It was an interesting case and we spent some extra time on scene trying to sort out everything we were finding in the apartment. I also spend nearly an hour making phone calls with various people trying to get information.

When I was done with the case I went to the fire department to do the Night Out in the Park up in Palouse. It is a year event. It brings in the Red Cross, the SO, the Posse, the PFD, Palouse fire, and some local high school kids’ bands.

I was manning the ambulance and talked to the kids who wanted to come by and look at it. It was a pretty easy gig compared to some of the events that we do.

Whitcom also had a booth there. One of the dispatchers said they her and one other dispatcher read my blog from time to time. She said one thing they didn’t know was what I meant when I write ten-six-seven. I got that question a couple weeks ago by a friend who saw it on my blog too.

At first I wouldn’t tell her what it meant. Later I let her in on it. She was hoping it was going to be more exciting than it was, but now she knows. When I have a friend or someone I work with tell me they found my blog I always ask how they found it. I don’t have links to it from anything I have. You have to be told where it is, or find it via a random search. I also wonder how much of it they have read. I don’t write about being gay a lot, but enough that if they read enough of it they will find out that I am gay. It is one of those things I don’t advertise. I never ask if they know, just in case they didn’t see the posts that include that information, but I am guessing they know. I got that impression when she asked how the ten-six-seven related to hot guys. So, yeah.

I have been writing this blog since ought-three. It is pretty interesting to go back through some of my old posts. There has been a lot of stuff that has happened to me over those years. Job changes, boyfriends, new vehicles, and becoming more comfortable with being gay and letting more of my friends in on it.