Russell got drunk

I started off trying to get some things done on the fire application that I started to develop last night. Before long I needed to head to the Moose to watch some football with Ron, Heather, Dan, Michele, and CBass. I watched about a quarter before Russell called to get a ride from the airport. We were going to go to Jason’s and play some poker when he got back.

I picked him up from the airport and he had a couple glasses of wine while on the plane. Then we were off to Jason’s. When I got there Peter was there playing. It was six handed poker for a while. Then one guy finally lost his money and left. Russell was drinking more while we were there.

The game broke up because everyone wanted to go to Zeppoz for the free roll. I had to be on call and do weekly rig checks so I couldn’t go.

I went home and got ready for the rig checks. Then it was off to the station. The rig checks went pretty quick over all. The Rescue kept getting called out. We were done around nine o’clock. I went home and watched Shark and had some dinner.

I worked on my application for a little while before going to bed. But before morning would hit we got dispatched for a structure fire. I ended up standing by the engine for the whole incident. It turned out to be more of a situation where we spent most of the time getting people in and out of the retirement community as well as clearing the smoke from the hallways.

We got done around six-thirty in the morning. I went back home and went to sleep for a while.

Jumping in with both feet

I finally decided it was time to jump into my new web site with both feet. I was not getting anything done because I was afraid to go in a direction that I could not recover from. I decided that I would work one part at a time and it the thing completed. That is exactly what I decided to do today. In some ways I was worried that I was going to waste the day and not get outside. That pretty much happened, but I did enjoy getting a big start on my project.

It is the Pullman Fire Reserve Portal. Soon it will house the calendar for the reserves for duty nights and the events. My goal is to make it something that guys could post requests for coverage as well.

But right now I am focusing on being able to add and update firefighters, add and update rigs, add and update what rig someone is working on, add and update the specific events for the crew for the night. I think that will be my first deliverable.

New Job on the Horizon?

I had the normal Scrum meeting today then we had a company meeting and finally another meeting. Following the last meeting an e-mail went out to everyone to discuss what we had talked about in the meeting. Sounds like the Scrums are still on the scope. Ricky is in charge of technical issues, and Wil is more or less the project manager. I am not doing anything because of my work from home schedule.

I responded to a couple calls at the fire station but no one else showed up as normal. It is so frustrating that people don’t want to go on daytime calls. So many of the guys are adrenaline junkies and if the call is not high level they will not go. Some guys don’t even listen to the pager during the day at all.

I spent part of the day working on getting my ThePES.com site updated with all the audio from all my past shows that I have available. That took a while as many times I had to listen to parts of the show to give a couple topics in the post with the audio file.

I was cruising the WSU HR website and I also looked at the SEL website. I found a job opening with SEL. Tom works in the same department. It doesn’t have a lot of information about the position, pay scale, and whatnot. But the requirements are right down my alley. Tom said he would push my resume to the hiring manager. I don’t think SEL will pay nearly enough nor offer the kind of freedoms that a normal coding job has. But you should always be willing to listen to what people have to offer.

It has nothing to do with me being dissatisfied with my pay right now. I am being paid fairly. It is the new system we are using, the Agile process with the daily scrums, the sprints, and whatnot. I really preferred that we get work handed to us and I get to code on it. I guess that would be something that I would need to know about at SEL. If they are big into Agile, then I don’t know if it would be a good fit for me.

Full Circle

This morning my pager was going off for a echo response for a CPR in progress outside of Pullman. Bien and I went to the scene. I assisted in doing chest compressions for a while on scene plus in the back of the ambulance to the hospital. I did more chest compressions at the hospital. After more than an hour since the incident starting the doctor called it in the hospital. This is the second time in Pullman since I started when I have been there in the hospital when it was called. I had the same reaction. Sadness. I was hopping we could keep fighting until we won. But we didn’t.

I went back to the station when Pete called me about it. I started to do the investigation with the help of one of the new deputy coroners, Bill. We did a full investigation. When I went back to the hospital the respirator therapist gave me a look like he was surprised to see me back. I looked at him and said, matter of factly, “My brother works for the fire department.” Later on when I was in the nurses area he was looking real hard at me. Later a nurse told me the respirator therapist was amazed how much me and my “brother” looked. He couldn’t tell us apart.

When the case was done I went to the radio station to do my show. I had a guest coming in to talk with me about an article he wrote for the Evergreen where he supported Thompson for president. I spent nearly the whole time talking to him on the radio. At two o’clock PM the guy who was supposed to replace me never showed up. I stayed for a little bit, but I finally had to leave.

While at home I responded on more calls. One was a fire alarm. One was a car accident. One was a motorcycle accident, and finally someone who fell. I got back in time to get ready for training for tonight.

We were doing airway for OTEP tonight. It was the same class I had last month in Colfax. When the lecture was done I was able to do some evaluations on people doing their skills. It was my first time to do that since taking the EMS Evaluator class.

George thanked me for taking the role seriously and doing a good job evaluating people. When we went over the test I knew two answers we had from the Colfax class was different from what everyone agreed to in Pullman. So I looked up the answers and pointed them out to George. He said he would update everyone on the correct answers.

Sunday Rig Checks

It was my day to just relax. I was able to watch some football and I did do some unpacking of a box with some stuff in it. I only have two boxes with stuff that needs to be unpacked and put away. I also got the wood from outside put into the garage. I have to figure out a place for the four-five-six table. After that the garage will be done. I will be able to put my boat inside.

Around six I went to the fire station. We worked on getting the rig checks completed. We had to fuel the engine. When I got home Tyson was back. I asked if he wanted to work Rescue for the rest of the night. He said he would.

The night was quiet over all.

The Ankle Doesn’t Hurt

Ever since I got my shot in my ankle the pain has been gone. My ankle appears to have full range of motion again. After standing up for a couple hours last night at the football game, this morning I woke up pain free.

I spoke to Heston and I am going to help out with the Physical Agility test for the paramedic list. Turns out it was a good thing I helped out because several other guys ended up not coming because they ended up going to the PHTLS class. The test went well even though we were down on the number of helpers. We only had four people to test.

I washed my truck and listened into the Cougar football game. Jon asked that I send him updates, but Oregon was scoring left and right. I was a little worried that the Cougs were going to get shut out, but we got one touchdown.

Russell and I met up. I took him and his bike to the bike store downtown Pullman. We went to Safeway where I picked up some groceries. I also got a pizza for us to have later on.

I took Russell home for him to get a nap before we watched the movie and had dinner. I put in the pizza. We ate pizza and watched Thank You for Smoking. After dinner I gave Russell a ride to work.

Huge Feeling of Accomplishment

Because I came home last night I knew I had to work on the garage today. I did just that. I went out there and started to take everything out of the garage and put it into the driveway. I tried to sort it a little bit as I took it outside. Then I started to put away my tools first.

I swept the floor and then worked to bring more things in. I had to find a place to put things that made sense and did not waste the space I had. I also had a ton of stuff that I had to throw away. I knew that I had some big boxes taking up a lot of room and making my garage look more cluttered that it really was. I ended up filling the back of my truck with trash and made my way to the dump.

When I got done I sat looking around my garage with a feeling of accomplishment. I could see I have more to go, but to see how much I have done.

I was getting close to going to take a shower before working Pullman fire. But at five-fifteen we got a call. Bien and I went on that. When we got back it was time to go to the Pullman High football game. Pullman went on to beat Riverside.

After the game Bien and I played Ghost Recon for a little bit. He decided to leave. Within three minutes of him leaving we got our one and only call of the night. It was a nothing call.

All of us hangiong out with Russell

The Cougar game was a one o’clock PM starting time. I got to the station early for lunch with the other guys. I was working North One for today’s game. We got up to the stadium. I went into the North booking room. BKoe was in there. I said hello to him.

We went to our spot over the tunnel. Arizona State was ranked number eighteen and the Cougs looked good today. But as the game wore on ASU started to work towards taking a lead on us. We had a chance to tie it up with a field goal, but missed it with only seconds on the clock.

We waited around for thirty minutes after the game. When I got back to the station I helped to take the chief’s car back to his house. I ordered some Cougar Country. I took it home and ate it while getting ready to meet up with Russell, Ryan, and Moe.

Ryan and I took Moe on a drive around Pullman to see some of the changes that have happened since he was last here. We went all over town in a span of about thirty minutes.

We went back and picked up Russell to take him to Zeppoz for work. We hung out there for a while. Ryan was in town on Saturday because Moe came to town to be with Russell to show support to him.

Ryan and I sat down at a table Russell was dealing on. I was going down at first. But then I started to win some. By the time Russell left the table everyone at the table had almost cleaned him out of one dollar chips. But the next dealer won many of them back. Ryan lost his twenty bucks, but I started to win money back.

Finally when I decided to quit I was up twenty bucks and I had given some tips away to the dealers. So it was a good night at Mr. Z’s for me. Moe, Ryan, and I went out to the bar area. They ordered some dinner. I was getting late and I was getting tired so Ryan and I called it a night and Ryan came over to my place. He was spending the night here.

Mike D Homecoming Poker Tournament

I set up a poker tournament for Mike D’s return to Pullman. It was scheduled to start after the bon fire on campus. We were taking the engine up there to man it. I got everything set up before going up there. It was a good thing because the bon fire went late. I ended up calling Mike to have him run it until my return.

The bon fire was pretty cool. They had many people from the sports teams. Elson Floyd was there. He thanked us for coming up there. I recognized him and then when he was done shaking our hands I looked at Bien and asked if he knew who that guy was. He said no. I told him who it was and he got a look on his face like he was surprised as to who it was.

We hung around until it was over. The heat from the fire was pretty hot. At one point you could see the whole crowed move away from the fire. We used the water from the engine to put out the fire.

When I got home the game was already underway with ten guys playing. Soon one more person showed up and we made two six man tables. One was a Omaha table and one was Texas. We play for a while, but I could not win an Omaha hand. I switched tables. That is when I started to make a comeback. I was up a little bit of money. Then I started to lose it again.

A couple more people showed up as some left. Pretty soon we went back to one table. It appeared that everyone was going to break up at midnight. But at eleven-thirty I got a fire alarm call. I was hoping it would go fast. But instead I spent the next three and a half hours running from call to call. Some medical and some fire. One was actually a fire in a dumpster. We were at the station. I asked if we could come along. Turpin said we could.

We got to the scene and a dumpster at CCN was on fire. We got it put out and the rig put back together I got home around three in the morning. I put my house back together and went to bed.

Another Co-ed Victory

Tonight we were playing against Kevin’s softball team. I was excited to play them. We were going to have an extra woman, but only five guys. I had to call Nick to be there because we were short on guys.

I played shortstop again. I had one fun play where I had to go right, make a back handed stop, then fire the ball across to first base for the out. It was fun. We went on to beat Kevin’s team by eight runs, but we only got three innings to hit.

One of my hits was right now the right field line and Kevin missed it, he was playing first base. I also had a play where people were running. The runner on second was going to third. I was going to second. But turns out the guy on third did not go. So the runner from second went back. Then I saw that and started to go back to first. The throw was made. I slid in and was safe. Kevin said I was out, but that is the way Kevin saw it. I knew I was safe.

After the game I was on call. We got a couple calls for fire alarms around the midnight hour. Andrew is the only one who has noticed that I have a new truck so far, but when he said something I sort of played dumb for a minute. Then someone said something to Andrew and the topic never went back to my truck.

Spokane Transfer

I got a call this morning from Reiber asking if I want to do a transfer to Spokane. I got ready to go to Spokane and went to the station. Then it was off to Spokane. Because of when we needed to get the patient there we ended up having to go code for part of it. We dropped of the patient and then had lunch at Shari’s.

We got a call about a second transfer. But I had softball so I could not do it. We got the ambulance fueled and back in service. I went home and got some computer work completed.

I also was working on getting people set up for softball. I had to work hard to find people for playing. It was less than thirty minutes before the game and I wasn’t sure about having enough women. I went to the field and waited for people to show up.

Denise called someone she worked with two minutes before game time. I also found someone on the free agent list. The other team gave us ten minutes. I wasn’t expecting that. But just as the ten minutes were up we were going to have to forfeit when we saw the person we were waiting for. We were going to get started when some of the women had nose rings they would not take out.

But two women did take them out. That allowed us to have four women. We played with five guys, so we were going to have an automatic out each time at the end of the order.

I was playing first base and Eric pitched. They were no match for us. We quickly started to score runs and did not look back. Even with some women who didn’t really know how to play we were scoring runs. We also were holding them to no runs.

It was the final inning they got one run on an over throw at third base. We went on to win that game.

I went straight to the fire station to do the hose testing we had to do. We were supposed to get through everything except for the five inch hose. But we got everything else done so quickly we went on to the five inch. We were still done by nine-thirty.

We had one length of five inch hose fully charged and could not get the cap off. So we ended up having to put a hole in the hose to get the pressure out. Then we recoupled the hose and it was retested and put back in service.

Cancelled game due to FFT

I had fire training tonight, it is extrication training, but I found out it is mainly classroom training. I was going to be running one of the groups. But I also found out that I was going to be needed for softball at ten o’clock pm. I got out of training early to go to the softball fields.

But when I got there the game was cancelled because the other team did not have enough guys. I was disappointed because I was hoping to get some softball action in. I figured that I got my uniform on and got to Moscow, now I want to play. Originally with training and getting up early in the morning I wasn’t going to play. But they needed me to play.

First Wildland Fire in Pullman

It was going to be a long day today with CPR class and Cougar Football, but I got a couple more things packed in. I stayed up later than I wanted to, so I was tired this morning when I did get up. I get dressed and was off to CPR class at the hospital.

I thought it was an all day class, but it only went five hours, which was an hour longer than it was supposed to go. After the class the reviews from people were good. I got some very positive reviews from the students about my attitude and humor.

I went home to start on my shredding party all on my own. Dearth wanted to respond on calls today if we got any. I told him I would go on them once I was done with CPR class. So shortly after I started the shredding a delta response for a wildland fire went out. It was up by North Campus Heights. I got the station fast so we could take the Rescue. When Foster saw me come in he told me to take the rescue and
he was going to take the engine.

Dearth and Gribbon showed up. We went en route and were told to come in off of Northwood Drive. We went into Aspen Village. It was huge. A couple acres involved. We were told to start to attack. I got the guys going with some hoses and water. I then started to hook to the hydrant. But I also was trying to deal with the requests of the guys on the line. Monte with WSU fire also helped me get set up on the hydrant. I also made Dearth’s line three hundred feet long only to find we needed more. So I told him we had to shut down long enough to add line. He did and I got the new hose on there.

We had D-Twelve come out as well as more Pullman units. It was pretty intense for a while with a lot of people watching in. When the fire was finally over with we started to clean up. I was told to take Rescue on a sweep around the fire taking care of the hot spots. So I got to go in four-wheel drive and use the ground sweeps and walk and roll attack. Pretty cool.

We went to the main station and washed all the hose we used and got it all reloaded on the rescue. It was back in service around seven o’clock that night.

The football game had already started. At first it was close, then USC started to run away with it. But the time I left the fire station USC was in control. I went home to watch it from there and continue to finish my shredding.

I got all the shredding done, filling up three big garbage bags. The Cougs lost.

Getting a Start at Third Base

I did the final work on my shelf in the garage today. Now that it was done I started to put some boxes up on the upper shelf. I was able to get a space on the floor cleaned up, but I still have a way to go. A lot of the things still out are tools. I think that what needs to happen is this weekend I will pull everything out of the garage and onto the driveway. Then put things away as I bring them in.

We had early softball games today. One sign summer is over is the fact that by the middle of the game it was dark and cold. But I got the start at third base today. That was pretty fun. I made a couple throwing plays to first for outs. Plus I made an out at my bag. But I also had an error when the ball got under my mitt. That sucked.

I hit the ball well getting a double in my first at bat. Then in my next at bat I had a ton of space in right field. The first pitch was inside, I was looking for one outside. It was a strike all the same. The next pitch was lower than I wanted and strike two was quickly called. One guy from my team said “Can you see that yellow thing?” In reference to the ball and the fact I watched two decent pitched go by.

The next pitch I expected a really bad pitch because I had no balls. Typically a pitcher will throw something bad on that count and hope you go for it. But I am always ready incase it is a good pitch. The ball was coming in a little high, but I knew it would be called a strike. So I swung at it. There were two people on base.

Everyone on my bench area started cheering and making noise. At first I thought I hit a high fly ball that was warning track power, at best. But instead it flew out of the park in center field. The pitcher came out towards second as I was rounding it and gave me a high five.

When I got back to the bench people were joking about how I let the good pitches go by and hit the high one. It felt good to belt out the homerun. The rest of the night went well. I got another double.

When I got home I took a super fast shower and went to the Deuce to catch up with the other guys. We were going to do a fire drill at Rogers and Orton. The drill and safety talk afterwards took about thirty minutes. We went to the top of Rogers hall to see the cable system that runs the elevators there. Most of them are hydraulic systems. This one actually is run by cables.

Still a No-Go on the Association

I made my big shopping trip that I have had to make for some time. I stopped at the fire station to drop off some ice cream bars for tonight. Then I went home and put all my stuff away.

I was on duty tonight. We got Rescue washed and down to the station for OTEP training and the Reserve Association meeting. We were supposed to have a yes or no vote. But it turned out too many people did not understand what was going on, so I ended up spending time telling people more about it. It did not sound like we had a lot of support. I think some of the people who were trying to scare the reserves before still have them scared. So the vote was postponed again.

We started our training, but kept getting called out. We had three calls tonight and each one was a long walk from where we parked to where the scene was. One was in Martin Stadium at the fifty yard line. Another was in Perham hall. It was a long stroll from the parking to the far end of the hall through a ton of doors. Finally we had one at CCN deep in the complex. We parked on the street because the scene was at the end of a dead end driveway.

Dropping the Ball In Softball

We didn’t have a ton of calls, but they were all spaced out. I got home about a quarter of six. I waited until six before going to bed. Then I had three hours to sleep before getting to the station for reserve testing.

We got to the tower to set up the course and work people through it. That only took about two and a half hours. I didn’t go to bed I started to try to get people set up for playing softball, but many of them were gone or going out of town. I only got two women and three guys there. I dropped the ball on it. So we had to FFT the co-ed games.

The men’s teams was oh and two. We needed to win some of the games. We went out there like a well oiled machine and started to beat up on the other teams. One game we scored twenty runs and just crushed the other team. In the other game it was twelve to six. But I was two for three with a triple and four RBI. That was a good game.

Ryan and I got something to eat together and chatted for a while before he had to run off.

Cougar Football Saturday!

It is that time of year again… COUGAR FOOTBALL SATURDAY! I have a busy day planned for me. I am working with someone on the engine. I am working the football game. I am on call for the fire department.

I started out crawling out of bed in time to get to the station to do drive time with Wilson on Engine Thirty-One. The plan was to drive for four hours. But one other crew leader wanted to get out with one of his guys, so we took the engine back early. Wilson and did the normal things I did with the guys. I quizzed him on roads and some locations of buildings. He did well driving. I had to work with him on the hills and making sure he downshifted some more using the engine to slow him down and not just the brakes.

When we were done I hung out at the station for a while until it was time to head to station one for the lunch and briefing. Following those things it was off to the new location with Rescue. We are parking closer to the IT building.

The game was against the UI. We got called out a couple times for people who were unresponsive here and there around the campus. We also had a situation where someone was waving us down to his area. Turned out to be a police call, so Stewart who was coming down behind me, took the lead and I went back to my position. Turned out they had to eject a fan for disorderly conduct. The crowd cheered when the guy was taken out.

On one call, near the end of the game we were getting out on Stadium Way. A lot of people were walking on it because they now close off part of Stadium Way around the stadium except to emergency vehicles and buses.

Andrew hit the siren really fast and all of a sudden the crowd parted like the Red Sea. It was funny to watch. On one response we going code and one guy saw us and decided to cross the street anyway. He did not try to go fast. He slowly walked across the street. I hit the siren and horn. He just stared at me like I should have come to a complete stop for him, because afterall the world revolves around him.

After the game we only got a couple minor calls. It was a pretty tame night over all. The Cougs went on to beat the Vandals.

Shelf Construction

I was restless about my shelf construction and decided to go to get the wood and other needed parts to start my garage cleanup projects. I was at Pullman Building Supply when Wilson called to see if I was going to come down on the call. There was someone who needed help. I got to the station, but we were cancelled before we really got going.

I went back to PBS and got my wood and other items to build the shelves and storage areas for the garage. I got home and got going on those things. I used the tailgate of my truck as a work bench and started to make the necessary measurements to cut the wood. I started with the two shelves that will sit above the garage door. I had to make twelve boards sixteen inches long. Then I connected the five-inch L-brackets. I realized I only had enough brackets for half of the project so I was going to have to go back to PBS.

I got another call and called up Wilson. We went on it, and it turned out to be nothing. We fueled up Rescue and I picked up what I needed from PBS. When we got back to the station we saw D-twelve go by the station going code. Then they were on scene just after going past our station. About two minutes later we were getting toned out to their call, as it turned out to be ours. It was a big gaspipe that got hit with a backhoe. Engine thirty-two went to the scene and took command. They had us go to the nearest hydrant with Engine thirty-one, which was in front of the Auto Body Supercenter. Wilson and I spent time talking about engineer calculations and engineer stuff waiting for our call to duty. But the pipe was fixed before any major catastrophe happened.

We went back to the station and had some pizza that Blanks got for everyone. I took Wilson to Beasley and then went home. I got more work done on my shelf project. I got all the cuts made for the wood and started to assemble everything. I got one of them hung in the garage. I then put some stuff away. It felt good to get that done.

I talked to Juan. He was not feeling well at all so he decided to stay home for the night. But I spent time on g.com chatting with people. I actually got to sleep at nearly four in the morning. I had to be up less than six hours later to take Wilson out doing some drive time in the engine.

Helping out some friends

This afternoon I went on a tour of the stadium with the fire department to learn where things are located. It looks pretty nice, but there is more work to do.

Russell asked me to give him a ride, Peter called asking if I could help him haul trash to the dump. Both guys needed my help at four o’clock PM. I told Peter that I would help him second and f the dump closed before I got to him I would help him tomorrow.

Russell and I went to the lawyer to talk about his recent string of bad luck. It really didn’t amount to much in that meeting. Then I rushed to Peter’s and we picked him up. Went to the dump made it by five minutes.

Then back to Peter’s to get his roommate. We went to Taco Bell for dinner over in Moscow. Then I gave everyone a ride home while listening to Chris Rock on the radio.

I make some more measurements in my garage fr the shelving. I also found a resource online that wrote about another idea I will be doing. I am going to get a fair amount of storage. I will work on building those things over the weekend when I have time.

I spent some time on g.com chatting. I found Juan out there. He is going to come over tomorrow night. We are planning on watching a movie and hanging out. But I also found out there is a show in Moscow. I will see if he wants to go to that. I am not sure if I want to go for sure, but it would get me out of the house, and I would have someone to go with.

HazMat Training Day

After not having been at HazMat training for several months I was able to make it to training today. Softball season is bad for Colfax Fire training and HazMat training. Both are Tuesday nights. I always have to make a choice. Softball will always win that one.

Tonight’s training was mainly watching a video about setting up and using decon in different situations.

I also took time to get the photoboard updated for the shift changes. When I was done and put the board away, Bob pointed out I had a couple names in the wrong spot. So I had to update those. It is a big pain in the rear to maintain the photoboard.

BKoe called me up and asked if I wanted to go see Joe at Pete’s. We went down there had some pop and nachos. We talked with Joe for a while. We spent most of the time talking shop.

Yay! More Softball

I went to the fire station to go on the Martin Stadium tour only to find out it was cancelled until this evening. I was hanging out there until a call came in. I stood by and Bien showed up. So we were going to go en route, but got cancelled. So we were writing our time in the books when another call came out. We went on that one. But there was no transport so we went back in server.

After I got home, I was working on a database change. Ricky was waiting for me to finish it up. I got it done and checked in about three minutes before a call for a car accident went out. Bien and I went on that call.

When we were done with that it was nearly five-thirty. The guys took the rig to training and I went home to get ready for softball. We had a co-ed game in Moscow. I ended up playing EH for the whole game.

I got a couple at bats. I started with a solid double. Then I got a solid single. My hitting was good. We were not scoring and we were playing good defense. So the score was three to two in the sixth inning. That is when I got my single to get on base. There was one hitter in front of me. We both scored and one more scored behind us. We were up five to three. That is how the score ended.

I got home and I was on Rescue for the rest of the night. I made a late dinner and ate that. I worked on some stuff for work. It was sort of slow going. We kept getting called out. About every hour and a half we were toned out. That happened up until three-thirty in the morning. I finally got home and in bed at five in the morning.

A Day to myself

I decided to allow myself to sleep in today. I did get woken up by my phone vibrating with a text message. I sent some text messages back and forth with BKoe for a while before going back to bed. I finally got up around one in the afternoon.

I went to Pizza Pipeline for some lunch. When I got into my truck I heard an update for an EMS call. I then got a call from Dearth asking if I was going to come down. I said I was on the way. We went on the call and helped to transport to the hospital.

When the call was done I went home and finished watching the Kyle XY marathon as well as making come measurements in the garage for rearranging my garage to fit the boat inside. I am going to build some shelves to put things away. That will free up floor space.

While I was making the measurements I got a call from Russell. He said Nick was in a bad accident and was taken to the hospital. But it sounds like he wasn’t baddly hurt. Just mainly for precautionary reasons. That made me feel good. I hope there was nothing found in the hospital.

The rest of the evening was spent between doing stuff on the computer, watching TV, and planning updates for a website. I also got the papers ready to turn in tomorrow for softball.

Engineer Training at the Tower

I was tired after being up so late last night, but I got to the fire station at ten this morning to work with Gribbon on his evolutions. We did several different lays, including a dwelling lay, standpipe, crosslay, and a street pipe. He did a good job. We were running later than I wanted to run. It took about an hour to reload all the hose we unloaded with only three people doing it.

We stopped and got some pizza and pop from Little Caesers and watched the Cougar Football game. They were winning for a while, but Wisconsin started to come back and then they took a lead and extended the lead as our defense looked out matched. I would say that will be our big question mark this season.

I was on call tonight, but it was pretty quiet for the most part. We got a couple calls where we got to play and I had the first drunk of the school year for me. We also spent time watching a movie at the station. But over all it was a quiet night because it was Labor Day weekend and a lot of people left town.

Engineer Calculations Work

This evening I planned on meeting up with Gribbon to work on the engineering calulations. We got the clipboard from the engine and started to go through different calculatons. A big storm was moving in at the same time.

Soon thunder, lightning, and rain were all around us. The lightning was striking all around us. A small fire was started just outside the city that D-twelve went on. Gribbon had to leave on a fire alarm. But he was back in no time. But later the FD was getting called to down lines and fire alarms all over the place.

Gribbon left again, and I waited at the station for him. But I got a call from Foster. He asked if I could find another reserve to help me guard one of the down lines. I got Bien and we went to the scene in Utility.

We were on Ruby making sure people did not go through the scene. But a lot of people had to be stopped because they did not pay attention to the barrier tape all over the place. Many people would walk up to the tape and then walk under it. We would stop them and make them go around. One guy was starting to walk around the tape, then decided to run under the tape. He went running down the road. He was right under the powerlines. It was a stupid move on his part.

The house we were in front of has having a party. So people kept coming out to chat with us. This went on for hours. We were there until nearly one-thirty in the morning. When I got back to the station Gribbon was there. We went through the final calculations I had created for him to do. I didn’t get home unti two-thirty in the morning.

Fall Co-ed Softball

I was going to meet up with Nick to have him read through some stuff I wrote for the Town Crier III. I am going to apply for a position to write for the Daily News. It is a weekly column called the Town Crier. There are thirteen people, so you end up writing four times a year. I went to Avery hall thinking the writing lab was there. But it was moved. So I got some lunch while I was up there.

I got home and Tyson was around the house from school today. I asked if he was going to go on calls. He said if they were higher level calls. I was going to head to the writing lab, but an Echo call came out. Tyson and I went on it. We ended up doing CPR. It turned out the person did not make it, so Pete had me do some coroner related stuff with it. I needed to find out if the doctor would be willing to sign off on the death. He was, so we did not take jurisdiction.

We got called from the hospital to another call. We got on scene and helped to package the patient then we were cleared.

I got home and ended up spending over an hour on a conference call. We were estimating time on the things we need to do for the next release. Finally just after five we broke the meeting and said we would continue it tomorrow.

I sat around waiting for the softball game. I was looking forward to playing. The game was at ten o’clock in Moscow. I was the starting second baseman. I missed one ball I should have gotten. My first at bat was ugly as well. But then after that I did a little better. I felt a little more at ease up to hit, but I still did not feel one hundred percent.

We were winning until the final inning. We had a six run lead. But a severely bad call at second base cost us an out that would have ended the game. That allowed them to extend their inning and make the necessary hits to come back and beat us. That really sucked.

Evolutions at the Tower

Tonight for training we were going to do engineer classroom training, but we ended up going to the tower to do some basic stuff including SCBA drills, we went through the collapse course as well as pulling lines off the engine and reloading them. It was mainly because so many people were out of town and we had a chance to get those guys to get reacquainted with the hose loads and the SCBA.

FFL Live Draft

This morning I scheduled to work with James on driving the engine and pumping on it. We planned to put in a total of four hours including one hour pumping. We first went to the tower to pump on the engine. We talked about how the pump works and how to run it for various hose lines. Then we went driving. I started on the bigger less crowded streets.

As the time flew by we went all over town. I also got him to think about roads and go onto road he didn’t know very well. We got a couple fire alarms. We responded to both of them. But both times we pretty much got called off for one reason or another.

Around one o’clock I spoke to Chapman about keeping the engine one extra hour. That caused us to get two more calls. One of them was weird. The guy was running away from us even though he should have been seen. I explained to him that it wouldn’t cost anything to take a look. He still ran off. Then a few minutes later it became clear there were other issues. There was also a verbal domestic going on at the same time with him and someone else.

I got the police down there and we clear as a no patient found. While on that a second call for a guy who fell from an apartment building came out. We went along on that. We did the transport. So, it was after three and I was a little worried that Chapman was going to be upset about us still having the engine out and about.

I also had my FFL draft at four o’clock. The last two years the coroners office has had calls right at draft time. I was hoping that would not happen this year. Turns out it didn’t, but the EMS call almost made me miss part of it.

After the hospital we had to fuel up the rig. Then it was off to the FFL draft. That took about four hours. I got Farve like I do every year.

Following the draft I went to Dan and Denise’s to play poker. John was over there as well. We played nickle, dime, quarter stuff until the three o’clock in the morning. It was a long day at the end of a long weekend for me. I couldn’t wait to get to bed.

More Women’s Volleyball

I spent this morning in Moscow getting my new cell phone. I have been needing to do something about mine. It is getting into real bad shape and as of the last week the END button has not been working for me.

I had to go get the phone from the mall and have my contact list moved to the new phone. It took a while to get that done. There were people in front of me in line. When I was done with the phone I went to my truck and got some of the settings taken care of. With the new phone I had to search my way through things to see where they were located.

I went home and talked to Peter on the phone for a while about law school and the tests. I got a phone call from Nick at the volleyball game. James had gotten there early and they were leaving early. So I had to get up there quicker than I had planned. That was okay, however, because I didn’t have much going on anyway.

I watched the final game, but it was more than an hour away. Andrew and I spent time just talking about EMT class, being a firefighter and whatnot. Once the game got going we spent time watching the game. Mosebar, a trombone player from the band, saw me and came over to say hello.

Then a guy who was working the event came over to ask help for someone stuck in the handicap wheelchair lift. The thing had gone up two inches and stopped. I was able to get the guy free from the lift.

When the game was done, a different Peter had invited me to come to his place and play some poker. When I got there it turned out there were not games to speak of. So I hung out until I got an EMS call.

When the call was done John, Gecas, and I played a couple games of cribbage. We got one call in the middle of the cribbage playing, but the night over all was a fizzle as far as calls went.

Day off to work

I took the day off from NU in order to put in a bunch of hours at Pullman Fire. We had a volleyball tournament at Bohler Gym. We had to be up there around eleven in the morning. We worked there until nearly nine-thirty at night.

Nothing happened during the game that we had to deal with, but we did get a chance to see some volleyball. It was ten hours of pay for working there.

EMS Evaluator

This evening was I asked to cover for Blanks because he was sick. I went to do rig checks followed by the EMS Evaluator class. When I went inside I found several people who were not from Pullman. One was a pretty boy-like ten-six-seven. Not my normal kind of eye-catching guy, but something about him made me want to see more – a lighter brown skinned white guy with brown eyes and brown hair.

When the class was done I helped George look through a list of computer spec that his son is looking at getting as a laptop.

Tweleve Hours Plus of PFD Action

The plan for the day was to do engineer training with the fire department. I went to the station around ten-thirty. Bien was also doing engineer training. I went with Turpin in Engine Thirty-two. We did some drive time and talked a little bit about the control on the engine.

We were out and about until about twelve-thirty. Bien and I continued to do drive time in Engine Thirty-one for him. We started by getting lunch at Cougar Country. We then drove around the town. We went from street to street, hill to hill. The plan was to stop at five to get dinner so we had time to eat and be back at the station for rig checks at six o’clock.

While we were on Pioneer hill we heard the police talking about someone who was unconscious on College hill. We decided to make our way that way in case we got a call. It took a while to drive that way. When it sounded like they were not going to want us, I heard the cops ask for us. We were right there, less than a block away.

We drove to a nice parking location and the tone were getting started. By the time they finished the tones I was on the radio walking towards the scene letting dispatch know we were on location.

After dealing with that call we went to get fuel. Following fuel we were on our way to Dissmores to get a sandwich. We were behind schedule because of the call and getting fuel. Bien did go into Dissmores from the Grand Ave driveway. He had forgotten about turning in. But we got into the turn lane. To go in off the Stadium Way side. That is when the tones went off for a fire alarm at Avalon. We were less than three blocks away.

By the time the tones were done sounding we were one block from that one. I took command and did a arrival report. We found no alarm nor reason for the alarm. We cleared and went to Dissmores finally. We got some food. While in the store the tones went off again for a pole on fire. We were just behind Engine Thirty-two. They were going code, but we did not. As we arrived on scene we were put back in service and told to stand by for the next call. No other call came in.

We were finally able to get the rig checks under way. I had the guys who did engine last week switch sides. Bien and I did rig checks on Engine Thirty-two. We did not get out of there until nearly ten o’clock at night because we did not get started until real late due to the calls.

It Felt Like I Should Be Working

Today was a day that felt weird that I had nothing going on after I got off work. I worked on getting bugs solved. I did respond on a car accident that turned out to be nothing. I did spend a couple hours working on the department website. I got the photos for the last two fires we had as well as the physical agility test photos posted.

When I was done doing all of that I went downstairs to make myself some dinner and watched some TV. It felt good to not worry about having to do anything in the evening. But it also felt weird as I thought I should be doing something.

A Day Off Where I Work For Hours

Today I had a teaching first aid class to Pullman Transit. The class started at nine o’clock AM at City Hall. I was running late and when I got to the classroom the TV and DVD player were missing. I found a TV and VCR and hook it up in the classroom where running about fifteen minutes late. Finally we got teaching and watching the video. The class was a lot of fun everybody seemed to enjoy learning first aid.

I kept getting phone calls from work as they did not realize I taken the day off. I think I got a total of four phone calls or five phone calls as I was trying to teach the class.

After lunch we finished up the rest of the class, the video, and doing the test. When the class is over with one of the participants asked me a question about internal bleeding. He was asking about symptoms that you can look for to see if internal bleeding was taking place. I was telling him that about a case I had a while back or somebody had internal bleeding. He said he knew who I was talking about. I asked him some questions in the answered them correctly and I found out it was his mom and I was talking about. He told me the whole story about what happened that night. We spent about another thirty minutes talking.

I went back to station one to sanitized and mannequins. While I was sanitizing the mannequins the tones went off asking for reserves to call the station for a transfer to Spokane. I ran into the captain’s office to let him know that I was available. I was able to do the transfer with one of the brand new paramedics Blake. We picked up or patient from the hospital and drove to Spokane. It took a little over an hour and half to get to Spokane. We drop the patient off and then went to dinner the A&W; Rootbeer restaurant. I grabbed some chew.

On the way back to Pullman we talked about career vs. reserves, firefighter training, EMS levels, as well as a couple other issues. I had a good time talking with Blake. When we got back to Pullman we went to fuel up. While you’re driving down guy street Blake tried to get a hold of the dispatch center. He accepted two times with no contact. I jokingly said they would probably answer for me so he gave me the radio. I called for the dispatch center and they quickly answered me. I told them we are back in the city and in service. After getting fuel we went to the hospital to make up the cot.

I went home and checked my e-mail. I saw that Joe bought Pete’s Bar and Grill. He invited all of us down to help him celebrate. He is working on getting the bugs out before the real opening. I got down there hours after the e-mail went out, but Dan and Michele were still down there. I talked to them and congratulated Joe.

I just wonder what will happen next season when it comes to softball. I would like to see us stay My Office because we have been that way for a long time, but who knows what will happen. Maybe a My Office/Pete’s Team.

Engineer Training

Our Monday night training was engineer training. It was not just vehicle placement, but additional things that didn’t have as much to do with vehicle placement. After the training I told Brown I would like to see the class deal more with principles behind vehicle placement and less with what the class dealt with.

Long Weekend Nearly Over

I was on call for the corner’s office today, but it was really quite as it normally is. We don’t get a lot of calls each month. Usually on average one or two that we investigate.

I had spoken to Chapman about the fact that it seemed like our rig checks on A-shift did not go very well. Many times I felt like people were skimming through things. We would get done when I wasn’t there in record times. So I knew a good job was not being done. He said he gives people sheets. When they are done with the sheet they had to sign the sheet that they did it. That was later on if something was missed I could go to the person involved and talk to him about it. Doing that made the rig checks take longer than normal for our shift. It seemed like everyone did really well and we got stuff taken care of.