Long Day for One Case

January 31st, 2010

Melcher and I started our shift with a plan to do follow up on a case he is working. But instead we got into a call for a man with a gun in Colfax. We were about one block away and watched the scene from a distance. When we saw another police car there we went in. We helped with back up until the scene was cleared. Then I got a case that started out as something that it wasn’t. When I talked to the RP it was something a lot more than someone getting beat up.

So I contacted our supervisor and he helped Melcher and I with interviews, collecting evidence, and writing a search warrant. I learned a ton doing this case. Many of these things were newer to me in a larger case. The supervisor took the lead but he included us in all the steps along the way.

We worked the case until two in the morning and then we were to come back at ten o’clock the next day to continue the investigation. Melcher and I both were thankful for all the instruction we received from the supervisor. In all we spend nine hours on the case today.

Non-Structure Fire Event

January 30th, 2010

I slept in until around eleven. That is the norm for me these days. I have been going to bed around four in the morning and getting up around eleven. I got into this habit when I got the new computer and I was working on getting it set up and I have been this way for about a week and a half. I need to get back to getting to bed earlier.

I worked with Derek on his engineer stuff. We drove around for a while and I had him getting into tighter areas. We also did some stuff with pumping. As we were cleaning up the area around the tower we ended up getting a call for a structure fire. I drove to the scene. It turned out to be a small oven fire that was out and smoked the place up pretty good.

I work on the SR website a little bit. I got some of the client-side error scripting take care of. It was a slower day over all. I was on engine and we didn’t get any calls for the engine to roll on.

Great, Wonderful Mood

January 29th, 2010

After getting up this morning I was in great and wonderful mood. I don’t know what it was, but I wasn’t tired. And I also felt so great. So happy. Just in a good mood. I ran some errands around town including meeting with a PPD officer about a stop I was involved with recently. He asked me to do a report on it. I went to the fire station and spoke with Heston for a little bit while I was there.

I was working for Peter tonight on Rescue. I went to the fire station to get on Spillman to get some of the work completed that I needed to do. While I was getting things done I was asked if I would go help out at the basketball game because only one person was available. I said I would. I had to run home and get ready. I went straight to Beasley. The Coug women lost to the Huskies. It was a good game. They went to overtime.

After that was done I went home and got a couple things done on the computer before I went to the station. When I was there I got the things completed on Spillman and went to the dayroom where Pritch and Mully were watching TV. I sat down to watch with them. While there we were dispatched to a call. When it was done I went home.

I was there for a while when we got another call. While on the way to the hospital we were toned to a person down. We knew the call was coming in because of listening to the police. We were first on scene because we were about a block away when the tones actually hit. I took patient care to start the call. It turned out to be a release.

We got another call at the PD before we were done. Then we went to the hospital and picked up Mully. When we got back to the station that was going to be it for the night for us. It was after three in the morning. I stayed up until five watching some videos on YouTube.

No First Class Board

January 28th, 2010

This afternoon I went to the fire station and met with the new station committee about getting some plans created for a new fire station. We talked about the things we needed and sizes they need to be. There is a student from WSU who is going to help us with the plan.

I went home and got my uniform on. I went to the SO. I was going to work with Ross tonight. I also had a coroner’s meeting and the plan was to have the first class board. The coroner’s meeting was shorter than normal. We covered our on call schedule. We also covered some stuff with the chaplain.

I went to the report writing room and waited for Cooper to show up for the oral board. But he was dealing with other issues on the road. While waiting a call for service came in. I was told to go handle it by the sergeant. It was a transport from the hospital to the person’s home. I took care of that.

When I got back to the station Cooper asked if I was done for the night. I said no. He said then get Ross and go get him an arrested. He said if I had to go to Pullman to get an MIP to do it. We headed into Pullman and ran around looking for something. We were not able to find anything. We made a lot of stops, but there was not a lot of people moving around.

We ended the night with a stop. I could smell intoxicants. We ended up doing SFST’s and the person did fine. I cut the person loose and we left Pullman. We tried hard, but were not able to find anything.

Melcher and I on the Road Again

January 27th, 2010

Melcher and I hit the road again tonight. I really like working with him. He will make a very good full-time cop when he gets hired on.

We did some traffic and he got a couple stops and tickets. Plus he got an arrest for a suspended driver. I took over driving. We went to Hooper and Hay. Then back towards Uniontown. We were working on serving papers. We had one down there and one in Pullman. Then we went to dinner. I called Lambley to invite her. We also had the other full-time guys join us. When dinner was done we worked a juvenile problem.

Then we went to a possible violation of a no-contact order. We were not able to get enough information while investigating that. We also couldn’t find the suspect. So that was left open.

That was the end of our night. We went back to the SO and then I gave him a ride home.

Fun Night of Poker

January 26th, 2010

This evening I was in Colfax for training. It was EVAP refresher. With being on two departments many times I get the same training from both departments. That is just the way it is. I have considered reducing my weekly requirements by leaving Colfax Fire. But as of right now I am not going to do that.

After training we had a great night playing poker. We had a full table and a ton of laughs. We had some new blood as well as the regulars. I was only able to stay until around nine-thirty because I had to be back in Pullman because I was on call tonight as well. I am only on engine and we didn’t have any calls for the engine.

Bowling with the Fire Guys.

January 25th, 2010

I got some good work completed on the signup process for the SR website. But because of what happened this weekend I am still not a happy camper. I was able to get everything wired up and running. The sign up process is roughly done. I want to work on client side error checking next.

We had training tonight at the fire station. It was EMS training. It was pretty short and sweet. Following training a group of us went to Zeppoz. I didn’t get there until later because I worked on getting the photoboard updated and completed.

When I got there I talked with Chapman about some engineering stuff. People were drinking and having a great time. About eight of them decided to go bowling. I did bowl, but I hung out and took photos with Tim’s camera. I ended up taking about two hundred shots all together. I got some really funny candid shots. I would like to see some of them at some point.

Relaxing

January 24th, 2010

I worked with Derek on his engineer stuff for a while this afternoon. That was a bigger part of the day. When I was done doing that I didn’t do a whole bunch. It was a lazy day for me.

Getting Caught Up!

January 23rd, 2010

I went to bed, then I got up only a few short hours later to be an BLS evaluator for the First Responder class that just got done. I got my pop along the way. I got to the station and my area was bleeding and shock control. Everyone did an okay job over all. I didn’t see any real issues. But the bleeding and shock is pretty easy. Cover the blood. Use pressure and elevation. Put on more bandages of needed and finally use pressure points. Then for shock. Lay down, elevate the lags, regulate body temperature with a blanket, and throw on some oxygen. That is the thing about trauma. If it bleeds cover it, if it is broken splint it. It is pretty straight forward.

I went home and started to work on my case report for the theft. I got about two and a half pages typed up and I have some way to go. But I have a lot done. This is my biggest case so far.

I worked on my computer programming job as well. I was doing the evaluations when I got a call from Tim. I didn’t have my phone so I missed the call. A little bit later there was an E-mail from Tim that CCed several others about getting a hold of me. I was mad. He was complaining that he couldn’t get a hold of me very easily after hours. I didn’t take kindly to it. I fired back pretty much saying that I am free Monday through Friday and that I am busy on the nights and weekends. I said if it would be a problem that we should re-evaluate my contract.

I called him and left a message. He called me later and said in reference to my E-mail that it wasn’t necessary that I was free all the time in the evenings, but we should try to find one night a week we can work together. We went through some of the code samples he sent to me to work with his web services. I tied all the fields together and put on some client side Javascript to make sure the data we are getting is correct. Everything pretty much fell into place. There is still some work to go, but I got a lot of it done.

I also got the photos of the new reserves edited and the photos for the board at The Deuce created for all the career guys and reserves. I was pretty busy on the computer getting things caught up.

I also responded to an e-mail from the editor of the Daily Evergreen. He wrote a piece saying that he wanted to work on focusing on more international issues in order to make those who are comfortable less so. He also made multiple references to race. I wrote a letter to the editor. He responded to it in an E-mail to me. I finally got a chance to read it and respond to him. I think he is off base on several things. I said so in my E-mail to him. It felt good to get some of these things completed.

Another Friday Night with Melcher

January 22nd, 2010

I have been going to bed really late and as a consequence I have been getting up late. I contacted Melcher about hitting the road. He was up to doing it. I was happy because it had been a week since I was last out.

We started by working Albion for an hour. I sent a text to the other guys about getting dinner around six thirty at Subway. They came and so did the troopers. This time I put together a dinner I was able to make it to, unlike the last time I did that and I missed it because we were dealing with a call in Endicott.

Melcher didn’t want to drive so I drove the whole night. We patrolled the North part of Whitman County. We went to St. John and Lamont. We also hit Rosalia and Tekoa. We made several stops along the way. One of the stops was on Rock Lake Road. The guy who we stopped said “What are you guys doing out here?” I don’t think he expected to see a cop out there.

At the end of the night we stood by a car in the ditch for Cooper who arrested the driver for drunk driving. I went back to the office and wrote up my ticket before heading home. It was a little after four when I got to bed.

Meeting with a Lawyer

January 21st, 2010

I have never had to meet with a lawyer for the fire department in the past. This is my first time in a decade. We are being questioned for something involving the police. We are just witnesses. The problem it was a year ago and I don’t remember the incident very well, so I was careful only to say things that I remember happening for sure. I didn’t want to say anything I wasn’t sure about. But that being the case there wasn’t much I really remembered about the whole thing. I did the best I could.

When that meeting was done I went to Keegan’s house and hung out until two in the morning. We watched a couple episodes of Being Human. Then we chatted about unemployment as well as living in Pullman.

I got home and stayed up until around four in the morning getting some stuff done on the computer. I have been working hard to getting my computer going and set up just the way I like it. So far I found I am not a fan of this keyboard because of the way it is set up and the feel of the buttons. My scanner doesn’t work either. I would like to get that taken care of as well.

LETS Training

January 20th, 2010

This afternoon I was scheduled to use the law enforcement training simulator. It is where I am presented with videos and I react how I would. I am recorded and I can see how I did in reference to shooting or not quickly. I did okay. I learned to recognize threats faster. It was a good training.

I got home and got my column for the Daily News completed and turned in. Then I spent several hours working on installing software onto my computer trying to get it completed. I finally quit doing that around four in the morning and went to bed. I still have about ten things to install tomorrow.

Game Night

January 19th, 2010

I sat around my house waiting for my computer to show up. Around noon it came. I unpacked it and imaged it with Windows Home Server. Then I started the process of reinstalling Windows Seven Ultimate. Then I worked on installing software. I did that until near six o’clock.

Then people started to come over and we played games. We played Apples to Apples and some Mexican Train. Victor, Keegan, Matt, Melissa, BKoe, and Eric all came over. We played games until after midnight. Then some people left and that is when Mexican Training was broken out. We had some very good laughs with Apples to Apples.

When they left I worked a little more on my computer. It is really fast. I love it so far. The keyboard is disappointing. I can’t use my old one, and the new one doesn’t have the set up that I like. It is more compact than I like.

Double Autopsy Day

January 18th, 2010

I went to the funeral home for an autopsy at two. After ours was done I sat in on one from Latah County. So I had a chance to see two. One was a natural death then other was a GSW. It is always good to see those to learn. We get so few that every chance to see one is good.

When I was done with the autopsy I went home and started to work on making some Lean Mean Chili. It was very good. I think I seasoned it perfectly. I added some garlic and Johnny’s this time around.

I spent the evening watching some TV and surfing the net looking for motherboards for my old computer.

New Computer Purchased

January 17th, 2010

Jon went to Frys today to get my HPE-170f model computer. It should be pretty cool. He is going to ship it out tomorrow. I am excited about getting it.

I went to the SO to write up my ticket I wrote the other day. I also got the hours for the reserves for ought-nine updated. I talked to Cooper about setting up a board for moving to first class. He at first said that until the gas prices go down he isn’t going to do it. I said that I would like to get first class so I am eligible for some of the paid things. I think he was messing with me. Then he said “we will get it done”.

Later he said that I probably wont pass my first time through. I said I understood that, but I figured that if I had one I would know what I need to work on to improve.

I left the SO and went to the rig checks. We went to station one to get some tarps that were missing from Rescue from when we were having the pipe breaks. We ran a couple calls tonight. It was another night where we had some calls in the wee-hours in the morning. I decided to stay up late after we got back from the last call. I was up until six in the morning. I got into an E-mail conversation with Kuhrt during this time.

Teaching First Aid

January 16th, 2010

This morning I worked with Darren from the WSU PD to teach first aid to the police interns. We started at seven in the morning. I went with Darren to get him some coffee. Then we were getting the room ready. I moved the table and knocked his coffee onto the ground. That sucked. I didn’t mean to do that and I felt really bad.

The first part of the class was bad because everyone was so tired they were not really into it and they all had blank looks. But as we got closer to lunch and after lunch they were really getting into it. Darren and I traded off with some of the sections giving examples and talking about some of the key points. As the class was coming to an end an echo response came out on the radio.

I helped Darren clean up the classroom. We went to the WSU PD station where I got a copy of the class roster. I went home and started to look up information about a new computer. I’ve spent the last couple days trying to find a new computer and I’m having a hard time because of all the information I’m finding on the Internet.

I got a call from Richards. He wanted to know if I wanted to go see a movie with him. I said that I would. We went to see the Book of Eli. It was interesting. I didn’t know what to expect with it. It was an interesting movie. I was thinking in some ways it reminded me of Mad Max. But it had a different plot. It kept me entertained through out.

I went home and spent some more time looking for the computer. I decided that I would get the Gateway model I found on their site, but I couldn’t find it anywhere online. I finally called Fry’s and I learned it was discontinued. But Fry’s had a brand new HP with the nearly identical specs. It was an Intel Core i7 with nine gig of RAM. It has a one-TB HD with Windows Seven. It has one-point-eight gig of video memory with two DVI plugs. It has a DVD burner with LightScribe. It is a pretty sweet system. I asked Jon if he would get it for me and send it to me. He is going to get it tomorrow for me.

John came over and we started to play cards. We tried to get a game going but only Richards was able to come over. We played until three in the morning. We played Acey-Deucy. Blake got hose four times when he said “Pot It”. I was laughing so hard.

At the end of the night I was up about two or three bucks. It had been a while since we last played cards.

Follow Up in the Valley

January 15th, 2010

Because my computer crashed on me I didn’t have work to do and I wanted to do some follow up. I contacted Melcher about going out and doing the follow up. I went to the SO and made some phone calls and set up one interview.

We went down and did some interviews. We looked up information while we were down there trying to find evidence. We also hit Panda Express for dinner again. This case has been interesting because it our first we have been able to investigate with people to interview and leads to run down.

On the way back I saw a car going pretty fast. Turned out it was fifteen over in a forty-five. I stopped and had a chat with the driver. Then we got back to the station and I headed home because it was nearly eleven and I had to get up early for the first aid class tomorrow.

Solo Patrol

January 14th, 2010

I got up this morning to deal with my computer problem. I went to get a new IDE hard drive. But those are not as easy to find as they use to be. I had to go to Cactus Computer to get one. I put it into the computer. But the machine wouldn’t go. The fans fired up, but the green light showing the computer is on wouldn’t light up. I worked on it for a while, but it wouldn’t work. I finally unplugged everything and started with pretty much just the base computer but that still wasn’t working.

After talking to Cactus Computer I found it that the socket nine-three-nine motherboards were made when there were bad capacitors. It turned out nearly all them were bowed out. I was told that was the reason it was bad. So I went to R-Tech because he had some new motherboards that would work for my computer, but they didn’t have the right video card slot. So I didn’t get one. I speced out a computer there. But it would run about five hundred and I am not sure that is the best way to go. So I thought I would look at some new quad cores.

I went home and started to look up new computers. But it was information overload. There are so many different models and I don’t want to get a no-name computer.

I left to go to the SO for our meeting. When it was done we did our training. Then I went out on the road with M. Brown. We went north on one-ninety-five then south on twenty-seven. He was feeling bad. He got permission for me to continue the night by myself. I was so stoked to be in my own car. I did an hour in Albion then hit two-seventy. I made a stop and wrote a ticket. On the way to the station I got one more. Both were double-digits over.

I wrote up my tickets and it was nearly three in the morning. I called the Nez Perce jail about listening to some phone calls that the jail records. I was told to see a specific person on dayshift. So my plan it to go tomorrow.

Starting a Theft Case

January 13th, 2010

Because I didn’t have the direction I needed to get work done today I called Melcher about hitting the road. He said he was good to do it. I picked him up and we went to the county. We went north and west in the county. While in St. John we got a call for a theft in the Port of Wilma. We responded and got a signed report. Then we started the investigation. It was pretty neat. We worked with a cop down in Lewiston. We did a couple interviews of people.

On the way back Melcher and I spent time chatting with each other. We both enjoyed the day and where the investigation was going. We spent nearly six hours doing that in the valley. It was a great time. I have more work to do on it, but I am looking forward to the challenge.

A Busy Night on Call

January 12th, 2010

I went to Keegan’s and we both filled out the application for Whitcom. We turned it in and then went to Winco together. He was doing some grocery shopping for dinner. I had to be on call tonight so I had to leave, but we were talking and I just didn’t want to get out of there. Finally it was close to six and I had to run. He gave me a hug and I was on my way.

This evening we were supposed to have HazMat training. But instead we ran out on some calls. It turned out to be a busy night where we got a call. Then we had to wash the rig. We got home for about an hour and a half and then we were back out on the road. It happened until nearly four in the morning that way.

Starting a New Body for Life Run

January 11th, 2010

This morning I started a new body for life challenge. But I didn’t make it to the gym. But I am making sure I stay with the eating portion. I am eating six times a day with smaller portions and less calories. But I need to get to the rec center and get some swimming done at the very least.

I spent most of the mid-morning and afternoon working on the UI for the S.R. contract. It felt good to get done what I got done, but now I have to do the hard part. That is hooking it up to the database to save data.

I had training at the fire department tonight. We were covering the SCBA quarterlies as well as some practice with the RIT pack. It took a while to get everyone through the training.

When the class was done I went home and messed around on the computer for a while before I went off to bed.

SO then FD

January 10th, 2010

So there I was. Working the road with Rich. We worked a dog complaint first thing. Then we went north to help take a runaway case. After that was done we started to run traffic on SR Twenty-Six.

We didn’t have a lot of luck early on. It was pretty slow going. There was a lot of traffic of people coming back from Christmas Break. But they were not flying so much.

After it got dark we went worked the fifty-five mile per hour area. We got a few stops through that area. Rich had to be gone at six o’clock for something else. That was okay because I had to go to the fire station for weekly rig checks.

I helped finish up the check on rescue and then put the rigs back after the bays were washed out. We got a call before we left. Then we had one more in the wee-hours of the morning. It was a pretty tame night over all. But Christmas Break is over and I suppose we are going to get a lot of calls again.

Keegan the Dispatcher?

January 9th, 2010

I was doing work on the maps for Pullman Fire for while and I also got the photos edited and ready to print. But I need a couple more photos.

Then I went to Whitcom for about an hour with Keegan to show him around the dispatch center. When we parted ways and I headed home.

I went to the fire station to put the maps and some photos from the badge pinning on the computer. I didn’t stay up too late because I was working the road tomorrow with Rich.

More Hanging with Keegan

January 8th, 2010

Keegan and I got together this afternoon and headed down to Clarkston to do some shopping at Costco. After we got back we went to his place and sat around chatting. He is a good looking guy. I would love to do something more than just be friends with him, but I am not going to move it to the next level. I am going to let him make that decision. I don’t want to push it if that is not where he would like to go with things.

I went to the fire station and we did our daily rig checks as well as listened to a police chase that was happening. They caught the guy which was good.

We got a couple calls this evening as I worked to redo the map tests for Pullman. It took several hours to update the maps. I was going to redo the whole entire thing but I realised quickly that it would take way too much time to do that with little gain. So I just retrofitted the old tests with new streets.

Watching the Championship with the Guys

January 7th, 2010

I got up and went to the doctor for my follow up for my ankle surgery. I went to the Three Pigs to have lunch with Jon, Terry, and Jim. After that was done I hit the road to get back to Pullman. It wasn’t a bad trip. I made pretty good time. When I got to Pullman I went to TBAG to meet up with Blake, Blake, Chia, Chris, and their wives for the BCS championship game. We had some beer while watching the game. I have Keegan come down and hang out. It was nice to get him there. He fit in well with them and they told me they likes him. I just wish he was more than just a friend.

When it was done Pitch and I went to Zeppoz to play some cards. Chia came along as well. We played poker until nearly one in the morning. I was up and down most of the evening, but I ended up losing it all in the end.

Keegan and I spent more time texting back and forth for a while as I was getting ready to go to bed.

Movie with Peterman

January 6th, 2010

I got my column completed and turned in for the newspaper. Then I hit the road I had to be in Renton by five for an online meeting. But as I was en route I got an E-mail saying it was cancelled. So I ended up going to the Eagles for dinner instead. First I got my mom’s new TV set up. Then I drove her to the Eagles. We had dinner.

I then it the road and went to the movie theatre to watch Law Abiding Citizen with Peter. I invited him down and I wasn’t sure if we would have our talk or not. We ended up not having it and he didn’t bring it up. I told him I wanted to talk to him about something, but I am having a hard time bring it up. One of these days I just need to bring it up.

The movie itself was very good. It had a lot of twists and turns I didn’t expect. I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect and I was not disappointed.

When it was done I went home and chatting with Keegan online for a short time before going to bed.

A Crazy Busy Day

January 5th, 2010

It turned out my trip to Seattle today was delayed until tomorrow. I was going to get going in the morning, but due to the fact I really didn’t get my day started until after the noon hour I was behind the eight-ball. I started with a phone call for my new contract web job. It was clear that I should have read the e-mails. But from the ones I had read I was under a different impression. There are still issues with exactly what I need to get done. I guess I will get the UI work underway and work on hooking stuff up later on.

I went to Sprint to have my phone looked at. The year of some of my texts are coming back as twenty-sixteen. That was fixed by doing an update that was sent to my phone. I also considered updating my phone plan which will reduce my overall cost by about twenty bucks a month.

I went to the fire station to get some parts for a manikin for training tonight. I also talked to Ryan about getting the new maps made up for the map tests. I spoke with the chief about getting the career timesheets set up to work like the reserve timesheets I did. While I was showing the chief how it worked I found an error in a formula. The cells that I was looking for only covered about an eighth of what they should have covered. That meant I had a couple hours of work to update all the timesheets. That sucked. So when I got home I worked on that. It took me until nearly six to get done. But it is complete and I was able to update the server with the new timesheets.

I went to Colfax for fire training. We went over the King Airway. After practicing that I went to the SO to work on my supplemental report from the DUI from the other day. I also got my ticket written up and turned in.

When I got home I got a hold of Keegan on the computer. We went to Rico’s and sat there talking for about two hours. It was good to chat with him. He is a good looking guy. But he is just looking for friends, so I am not going to cross any lines. After we were done I went to shake his hand and he preferred to hug. So I gave him a hug.

Happy Birthday Partner.

January 4th, 2010

Melcher and I went out to work the road today. We went to Albion to try to arrest someone on a warrant. We were not able to get the person, but we thought the person was there, just we couldn’t get him. We did an hour of time in Albion. Then we went to serve some papers. I was starting to feel horrible. I got some pain killers and my headache was not going away.

We went to McDonald’s for dinner. As we sat there for about an hour I started to feel much better. We ran some traffic on Twenty-Six. We found a guy doing twenty-five over and was failing to yield at first. Finally he stopped. Melcher wrote him.

When we were done we went to My Office. I bought Melcher a couple beers for his birthday. As we sat there I saw this guy shooting pool. Looking at him I was thinking he was barely twenty-one. After a while of shooting he came over and asked me if I had a dip. He didn’t see me having any, I think it was just an off chance that I would have one. I gave him a dip and then he sat down with his friend. Both were ten-six-seven. The guy who got a dip from me was blonde and looked like he was muscular. We were talking about what they were studying at WSU and what not. When they asked what we did, I told them I am a computer programmer. Melcher said he worked for a local company as an advisor.

All four of us stayed talking until the bar closed.

A New Friend

January 3rd, 2010

This evening we had weekly rig checks. It was only Parrish and I on duty tonight. We had a couple guys coming down to help us to the weekly rig checks. That was nice to have. It only took about two hours. Parrish and I had to go to the main station to get a couple things fixed before we went home.

I spent a while chatting online with a guy, Keegan, on g.com. We ended up having a great long conversation. He invited me to go have a coffee with him. He is only looking for friends. That is cool by me. He seems like a very nice guy.

I am a WSU Cop… For the day-ish

January 2nd, 2010

This afternoon I patrolled with Melcher. The only plans we had were to have break with Matt and Shane in Pullman around nine-thirty PM. Melcher started out as the driver. We went West a little bit, then we went North. There was a lot of traffic coming from Pullman because of the basketball game, but they were all doing a little under the speed limit over all. I started to drive after about two and a half hours. I took us on the Oakesdale Road. Then we went on Hume Road. My plan was to hit Dry Creek and sort of zigzag between One-Ninety-Five and Twenty-Seven on our way to Pullman for break.

But before we got off Hume road a traffic offense came out in Endicott. Jimmy answered up for us. So we started to head off that way. It was about someone who was drunk and driving. When we got to Endicott saw the car and stopped it. Melcher took the lead and did his first SFST’s in the field. He made the arrest. So when it was all said and done it was too late to have break with everyone else and we headed to Pullman to get ourselves some food.

Due to the fact it was after eleven o’clock and it is Christmas Break nothing was open but the grocery stores. We grabbed a sandwich. I drove out Two-Seventy and then back in on Airport Road. The frost was getting really bad on the roadways. It was so thick it looked like it had snowed. The roads were getting pretty slick. The major roads were not as bad because they were getting driven on.

I was getting ready to leave Pullman by driving up Davis way when we heard the Pullman cops asking for help looking for a vehicle involved in a burglary that just occurred. We stuck around and went out to the places they told us to look. We spent about an hour and a half looking.

It was getting late and everyone else was starting to do other things so we headed out and back to Colfax. It was getting close to three when we had to check-out of service. En route the radio traffic from Pullman was pretty broken but we heard some references to the deputies and then reserves. But nothing more. We fueled the car and got to the county shop to put it away. We opened the gate as the dispatchers requested all the county units to landline dispatch.

Melcher and I were asked to work WSU while all the local police were dealing with the burglary. So we returned to Pullman and went to the campus. We drove around looking at parking lots and various buildings. We hit pretty much every part of campus and their apartment buildings. We spent about two hours driving around checking stuff out. Then we were asked to do a transport of someone to jail. We completed that and returned to campus. Within a few minutes we were told we could clear as the others have been cleared as well. So then we went back to Colfax… again. And this time we were able to check out of service.

I went to the SO and did my paperwork for the evening. I was able to crawl into bed at seven o’clock in the morning.

Happy New Year “Oh-Ten”

January 1st, 2010

I went to the fire station and put the timesheets I created for the reserves into their folders on the computer. I also had some scans for my Pullman Fire History archive that I placed onto the computer as well.

I worked on my annual review of the year. It is where I look at all my posts for the whole month and choose one to use as a highlight. Some months it is easy while some months have multiple options and I have a hard time choosing. It usually takes and hour or so to go through everything. It was clear being a reserve deputy was a major part of my year last year.

At around six I went to the fire station and did rig checks. Scott and I hung out there for several hours watching some bowl games on TV and talking. Before we left we got an EMS call. We transported and Rescue went to the hospital as well.

When we returned to the station we cleaned the rig and called it a night. That happened to be the only call we received for the evening.

Ought-Nine in Review

January 1st, 2010

JanMr. President – I wanted to be the class president. There were two possible candidates that most likely would have been voted for. Myself and one other guy who works in the jail right now. He also would have been a very fine pic. But it is something I want to do. The vote was held by Ross putting out the ballots. When the counting was done it was nearly unanimous. I am now the Ought-Eight Reserve class President.

FebFinal Mock Scenes – Today was going to be a long day. I was expecting to be done around three or four in the afternoon, but today was the day I was going to prove I could do the job, or I would prove I need more work, or that I am just not cut out for being a cop. I have spent sixteen hours a week for nearly the last five months

MarFirst Day on Patrol – Following the swearing, Jimmy was doing a couple things at the SO before we left to hit the road. We went north on One-Ninety-Five looking for speeders. We pulled over one car, my first as a reserve deputy. I was the cover officer. I went to the car and the passenger was talking with me. The person was given a warning.

AprMy Latest Oil Change – I have lifetime powertrain and bumper-to-bumper warranties. It has a DVD player built into the radio. I have a rearview camera and backup sensors. It has the Hemi with MDS so it shuts down some of the cylinders when they are not needed to help save fuel. It seems to have some get-up and go. It feel great to drive it. Plus it has the newer traction control system so I feel better about driving it on the bad roadways.

MayFirst Code Run – we got to the first address we needed to go to Endicott for a call to back up the others there. We were going code and just passed some cars on SR One-Ninety-Five. After we got past the Albion road a burglary in progress was put out in Albion. So I had to turn around and go back to Albion. So I went code past the cars I had just passed.

JunContract with MH Terminated – Since April of Ought-Four I have been working as a software engineer for NetUpdate and then I was moved to MostHome when they bought out NU. I worked with them until I got notice today that my contract was going be terminated. The application that I worked on since I started with NU was a mortgage application. That was then sold to a competitor a couple months ago. I told MH that I wanted to remain on with them. But as it turned out the project I was put on just got sold off. So they are cutting their ties with me.

JulSecond Class Reserve – I was told I was moved up to second class. They shook my hand and said they had great expectations for me. They all believe that I will do a fine job. That was great. Now, I just need to start to set up times to ride so I can work my way to first class.

AugFinal Shift as a PFD Temp – 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.

SeptBushwood Golfs Again – I was hot on my short game. The problem is that we would use after we all hit a drive we would pick one. From that point each person hit his own ball to the hole. I didn’t do too poorly. I was able to keep up in score. In fact my putting made me lead some of the holes. I had some very nice putts including two there were around thirty footers for birdies. It felt great.

OctIM Championship Bound – I hit the ball well, as did the team. Our defense was very good. We went on to win and go to the Semi-finals. We were playing a team that had been using an illegal bat. Once they were called on it, in the previous game, they couldn’t hardly score. It turned out we shut them out. We scored nine runs. We didn’t hit the ball as well as I would have hoped, but we won. Ryan said it best, this is the most worried I have felt in a shut out. We never had a big enough lead that put me at ease. Not until we scored the ninth run and the other team no longer had a chance to win because of the eight-run limit.

NovGay Firefighter – Then I was asked a question about how I feel I am treated being a gay in the fire department. I said since I have been outed to everyone I don’t feel that I have ever been treated poorly due to being gay. Chris let me know that he has known for years. He said that pretty much everyone on the fire department on the career side knows. He said there are probably only a couple people who don’t really know. He said that they probably have been told, but think that people are screwing with them. It is without a doubt that the information is told to everyone. I am not sure who actually tells the others but the information is freely available. But once again no one treats me differently.

DecSearch for Missing Hunter – I was teamed up with three young men. It turned out it was the son of the missing man and his friends. They wanted to put a member of the SO with each team going out searching. We were sent down the road a ways to start our search. The son was leading the way as he knew the area well. We made our way along some level ground. There was about four inches of new snow. It was covering rocks on the ground so we had to be careful where we stepped.

This years review shows many things that were related to being a reserve Deputy. I guess that is the major thing that has happened to me over this last year. I am now a sworn reserve law enforcement officer. Many of the writings I had through out the year dealt with the class or going out to patrol. I also had an unusual suicide where I was able to trace the night leading up to the death of a young man. It was very unusual and probably affected me more than any other death I investigated. It didn’t make the list this year because the fact that I am a gay man who is a firefighter is something I am always thinking about. When it was finally brought up with some people I have never talked to about it before it was a big conversation to me. It was nice to hear his perspective. Ought-Nine was a good year overall. I had some frustrations at the fire department, but they were overall small in the grand scheme of life. I am jobless, but I do have a new contract where I will finally start to bring in some money again. It has been a year that I am happy with.