Crazy and Busy Day

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

First Day of Hose Testing

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

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

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

New Door Panels on the Truck

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

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

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

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

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

Started on the Book Shelves

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

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

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

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

Computer Issues Most of Today

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

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

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

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

Two Second Alarm Days

This morning I woke up sort of early, but I wanted to be some more sleep so I was trying to get back to sleep when I heard my pager’s second alarm tone. I heard the dispatcher start by saying “Rescue Thirty-Two”. So I assumed they were going to say it was out of service, but soon the words “delta response for a car accident” came across. I jumped out of bed and went to the station. One other person showed up and we went on a t-bone accident. They were thinking extrication was going to be necessary. But as it turned out we didn’t need to cut at all.

I went home and planned my workout for the day. I was going to get my upper body workout done plus lower body. I was at the rec center for about an hour and a half doing both and some jogging. I am going to have to work on my jogging like I did the swimming I did.

After working out I went to Moscow with my motorhome to have the door measured. It is going to cost around four-hundred and fifty bucks to get that fixed. I fueled it up in Moscow and brought it back home.

I planned to meet up with Rhonda to work on the website. I need to get information from her. While there we got toned for a second alarm for a structure fire. I responded to the station, but no other reserves showed up. So I just stood by for almost two hours. When I cleared I went home for dinner, then back to Cougar Country to conclude my meeting with Rhonda. I got some guidance from Rhonda about what she wanted for the website.

structure fire

Golfing at Colfax

I set the alarm clock to wake me up in the morning only to wake up on my own. I got myself ready for golf and drove to Colfax. I did some putting while waiting for the tee-off time. Joe, Ron, Heather, Jonathan, Dan, and Michele were all there.

Once it was time to tee-off we had a group of seven golfers. We started our way around the course. I was doing okay overall. I shot way over my normal average, but I had some good drives. On the seventh hole I always have some issues with the small stream. I got up to it and only needed to chip over it. I hit a ball, it made it over the stream only to hit a tree and bounce back, landing in the water. Heather was laughing so hard.

The second round was a lot better for me. I came close to getting a birdie on one hole. But I missed my putt by several inches. I did get one chip from the fringe that hit someone else’s ball sending mine in to the hole.

After golfing we went to Ron and Heathers for dinner and poker. I was able to play one short tournament. I won twenty bucks in it.

I went to the fire station where we did some learning on the new EMS computers. We also went over a couple things on Rescue with Chipper and Williams. After washing it we all went home.

It was a quiet night until just after four in the morning. We got called to a dumpster fire. Rescue was on scene second and we helped put out the fire and do the overhaul. Loren was just getting home from the casino and was the RP on the fire.

We spent almost two hours between the fire and clean up of the equipment afterwords. I went home and went back to sleep.

Moving Crew

After waking up early I thought I would get to the rec center to worked out and swim. But the swimming pool wasn’t open. When I completed my upper body workout I went to the basketball court. I shot hoops for a while. Then I jogged up and down the floor doing lay ups when I go to the opposite end. I did that for several minutes as a work out.

Later on I met up with Bryce and we helped Bruce move. We were moving some of his bigger items from his house to his new place. That took a couple hours total.

I got home and worked on a couple things when I got a phone call to do a transfer. I went to the fire station. It was a transfer to Spokane. On the way I was talking to my passenger about softball and my ankle. He suggested that I do some physical therapy for it. He explained to me how that could help the ankle out. So I am going to look into it.

When I got home I did the things I needed to to the motorhome to get it ready for the trip to Moses Lake tomorrow. I loaded up Brandon’s stuff and some of my stuff. Tomorrow I will be ready to hit the road to Moses Lake with Bruce and Warren.

Fourth Rainout

I was looking forward to softball all day today. The weather wasn’t great, but it was nothing to worry about either. This morning I went to one of the elementary schools for EMS week. I showed the kids the outside of the ambulance. After we were done with all the kids we went to lunch with them and they, as usual, were full of stories.

Later on in the afternoon the rain started to come, but it wasn’t all that hard. Usually Moscow stays better than Pullman when it comes to field conditions. But today, just after I got my uniform on I call the rainout number to find the game was rained out. I was bummed. So I took the uniform off.

I used part of the night I had to go over my supplemental PFD questions. I checked my grammar and made sure I included everything I could think of. Once I was done looking at it on paper, I made my changes to the paper itself. I will leave it as is of several days before coming back to it.

Hanging with Andy

I went on a couple daytime calls with Nick today. It was fun to get out there and go on some calls. One was a gas leak report. We got there and helped search the building. Nothing was found.

I was going to play poker at Loren’s but he called and said only four people were going to be there so he cancelled. Before I knew it was cancelled, I spent time cleaning my den up while I was waiting for the poker game to start. I can see my carpet now. It is nice. I still need to organize it some more and go through more stuff. But I am pretty happy about it right now.

I got a call from Andy about going out. I thought he was gone from Pullman already. But he doesn’t leave until Friday. We went to ValHalla at first. We had some chips and beer there. But we decided to leave and head to Rico’s. He likes that place better. We were able to sit there and talk without yelling. It was a nice.

We hung out with his wife-to-be for about an hour or two talking about random things including his plans for the summer before he has to go off to the military. He told me to set aside his wedding date so I could go to it. I put it in my calendar already.

More Rainouts

The weather forecast for today is for rain. It started to rain early in the day and it went downhill from there. It rained harder and harder. It was pretty clear the games were going to get cancelled. Gollnick called about playing poker. So he will be coming over tonight. I invited many others to come over as well.

There were several calls that came out including a rollover car accident with injuries. But no other reserves showed up. I didn’t get to roll on it. I just stood by the station. Rich and I played some Ghost Recon as I was standing by.

I got home and started to work on my garage. I was going to set everything up out there for poker tonight. I got signs made for prices of stuff. I also lowered the prices in my pop machine. Gollnick got here and helped me move my poker table to the garage. That got set up and people started to show up. We has Kevin and Peter with us for a while. Then Dan and Denise showed up and we played until around eleven o’clock.

After everyone else left John and I played for a couple more hours. We did a twenty dollar winner takes all Texas Hold’Em game. It went both ways, but then I lost a lot on a hand that I should have gotten out of. Soon I was gone. I was down a little for the night. But it could have been worse.

More Poker at Loren’s

I decided to get my haircut today. I stopped in and got it cut nice and short. I feels good to get it taken care of. This evening we had training for extrication of people from cars. Not using tools, but just backboards and the such. I was in a group and we did a couple run throughs.

After training I was got to get to bed early, but I found a text message on my phone from Loren about a game tonight. So I made my way there and played cards until the game broke. I ended up winning some money. It was not a big night, but I won some more money. There is a plan for another game on Wednesday.

Moving the Motorhome

I was on call for the fire department, but it has been quiet for most of the last week or two on duty nights.

I spent time getting the motorhome prepared for tomorrow. I tried to get it leveled on some leveling blocks in the motorhome, but every time I was getting it to the highest points on the blocks they were breaking apart because the roadway didn’t have enough friction.

So I gave up and moved it to another spot up the road. That way it would be level over night and the fridge would run correctly.

Lost at Poker

This morning I hit the rec center got a workout and swimming in, but I was running late to the CPR class I was teaching this morning. I wasn’t late to the class, just late getting things set up. The class lasted until shortly before noon. I went home and changed.

I picked up Tom at SEL and went to the Hilltop for our monthly lunch. We were up there our about an hour eating and talking about local politics and other issues.

This evening Loren had his poker game. I went to it. But I didn’t last all that long. In the first hand I got A-K suited. I raised and then I was re-raised by Bryan. I was worried he had pocket Aces. But I threw that idea away and called him down. I was going to fold away my hand but there flop didn’t totally miss me. I called it to the river where he showed pocket-Aces. That crippled me for the rest of the evening.

I won a little pot here and there until I got a pocket pair. I raised it pretty good, but I was called and the flop hit a Queen. The guy who called me had a queen and crushed my pocket pair. I lost a lot of money there. I was down to four bucks and in the big blind. I got pocket-fives. The pot was raised to four bucks. I called and lost on the river. That was the end of my night.

Over the last three games at Loren’s I am up over all, but I lost money tonight.

Hickman Command

This afternoon we had a call-in meeting with the people from work. When it was all said and done the meeting lasted nearly four hours. I found out that a couple more people got laid-off. One developer also quit. There is not many left from NU anymore between layoffs and people quitting.

When the meeting was done I had to hurry up and get Nick so he could use my vehicle to drive to Spokane to get Russell. I let them use the Durango and I used the Bumblebee this evening.

I went to station one to attend training. We went over some water supply Powerpoints then it was off to the tower. I ended up being the officer on the first in engine. That put me in the role of Incident Command. I played that position for the whole training. The evolution at the tower lasted a couple hours in total between the training and clean up.

I kept on getting things thrown at me that I had to deal with. I had to call for more ambulances and more resources from outside agencies. We had a mayday situation and victims in the building. A wildland fire happened as well as the actual building on fire.

It made for an interesting command situation. When we were done we did a critique of the whole call. I was able to get some questions answered that I had. Chapman and Brown said I did good at being IC. Brown also said my arrival report was really good.

When training was done I had to get to the Daily Grind to meet up with Kelly. We were going to go over the line up for tomorrow’s softball game. We were deciding where to play people and what positions they should hit.

Russell and Nick got back after one in the morning. They topped off my tank of gas and I gave them a ride to Nick’s apartment.

Last Thunder Game of Season

This morning I helped Mike D’s little sister move her bed to her storage place. That didn’t take too long. I went to the fire station to meet up with Yean. We took the engine to Koppel Farms for an open house. We showed off the engine for a while, but I had to leave early because I had to get to Lapwai.

I hit the road getting there later than normal. But I was not too late. I got my computer set up and did my normal pregame activities such as getting photos of the players and confirming the names of the players on the other team.

We were going to not have the game clock again and it started out that way. But then the PA Announcer from the other team came across to run it. The Thunder held their own for a while, but after the second half started it went down hill. The Thunder allowed the game to slip away.

I ran off to Pullman. I started to work on my application for the fire department. I don’t know if I have a chance at being hired, but I figured it would be better to be on the list than it is to miss out on the list. So I figured I would test. I don’t know how I will do on the written portion, but there is only one way to find out.

I got a lot of the application filled out. The previous job portion took forever to do. They wanted a ten year history. I also got my three references set up.

No Calls

Chipper and I went out with Rescue to the tower area and worked on pumping and doing a pump and roll attack. He picked up on it very quickly. He did a good job while we were there. We finished with enough time to get dinner and get back to the station for daily rig checks.

The rig checks, when it was all said and done was nearly an hour and a half to fill some air bottles and wash the rig. The night however was dead. Not a single call.

Mayday Training on Cinco De Mayo

This evening the fire training was the Mayday training where we spent time learning about LUNAR acronym. Then we went out to practice that as well as other drills where we would get tangled in wires. We would have a lost firefighter and more. Each time we would have to call a Mayday then use the LUNAR acronym.

It was a good training where we were able to practice the things and not just watch them on a Powerpoint and go home.

I spent some time also working on the website for the Pullman Merchants.

Teaching CPR

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

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

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

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

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

Last Radio Show… Ever

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

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

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

Working with Chipper

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

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

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

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

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

Drive Time with Chipper

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

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

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

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

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

Playing Extra Innings

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The other guys had finished everything else.

Sir Elton Plays Pullman

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bien’s Going Away Dinner

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Old Rescue is Back

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

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

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

Freak Hail Storm

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

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

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

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

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

Working the Event

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

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

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

Better Weather for Softball

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

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

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

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

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

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

Full day of work

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

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

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

Renewing my CPL

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

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

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

Ladders Drill

Before the radio show I found a couple places I would need to go after the show. A couple guys on the team were over in Bohler Gym. During the radio show I talked about some articles I found about how banks look at every transaction looking for things to report to the government for investigation. It was interesting to read. It is how the New York Governor was discovered.

After the show I went to Bohler can got Ryan’s signatures and I also picked up some money from Josh. As I was leaving I could hear one of the football players who was in there say “drug deal?” and Josh said “Yeah.” That made me laugh.

Afterwards I went to a couple places where I had been two weeks earlier looking for donations. Neither of them are biting today. Though it did look good the day we were there.

I went home until it was time to head to the fire station for training. I started by getting some photos of two of the new guys. We took the engine down to station one for the classroom part. Then it was off to the tower. We threw ladders for the training. Practicing using the different sizes and setting them in the correct places.

Lots of Pullman Fire Activities

It started out with going to the fire station and talking to Drew about the training I had planned for the evening. Then I went to Kruegal park to take photos of the Easter Bunny that was delivered by the fire department.

I went home and started to build the website for displaying the photos that I took at the park and from the stair climb in Seattle. I got that close to being done when I had to run out to Pioneer Center for taking photos of the badge pinning ceremony.

After that I went home and started to watch the Cougs playing basketball against Notre Dame. Not a lot of people gave them much of a chance. After the first half I went to Kevin’s place where Brandon and Kendall were there. We watched it together. It was great. The Cougs went on to win by twenty points. They held ND to forty-one points. Their lowest point total of the season.

I had enough time to rush to the fire station for training. I went through all the objectives and safety items. Then we went to the tower. I got the fog machine going and did the final setting up of the scene.

Drew started the scene with his arrival report and walk around. Then I had units show up in an order like they would in a real call. Drew directed teams to do certain things. The only problem was the smoke machine ran out of smoke and the room cleared out really well, so one of the things I did to test them was obvious. I had put a baby in the hallway. I wanted them to do what they would do in a real situation depending on what they found. I put it there in such a way that they wouldn’t see it. The only way they would find it would be by accident. But with the lack of smoke it was easy to see. They did react just right however. So that was good.

After the event was done we went to the fourth floor of the building to clean up some bird droppings and remove the birds that had taken up residence. We put the rigs back in service and went back to the station.

Brandon and Kevin were waiting for me at the fire station. I was running really late. I wanted to be done by seven-thirty. We weren’t done until nearly eight-thirty.

They came back to my place. We had some lasagna and bread. We played several games until around two o’clock in the morning. It was a fun night with those guys.

Helping out in the Jail

I spent a little time getting the tower set up for the training I am putting tomorrow for my crew. After getting the room set up and getting the fog machine set up. I went to the station and wrote information the white board for the briefing.

Later in the afternoon I was working on the website for the reserves so they can input their own subs. I got that working to a point. I need to spend some more time to get the logic and the workings even better. It is sort of clunky right now. But it does work.

I went to the jail around eight in the evening to put in around six hours. I did a booking and did a couple rounds. It was a pretty slow night in the jail over all. I stayed until two in the morning.

The Palousitics Lunch

Today was the first of the new monthly lunches that we at Palousitics will be holding. Ten of us met up at the Hilltop Restaurant for a nice meal and good conversation. The turn out and the food was good and I think everyone had a good time getting together.

Later on I worked at Beasley. It was a musical performance. It lasted for a couple hours. The people who came seemed to enjoy the show.