Last Full Shift

Today was the last full shift on Rescue. I am going to be on Rescue again on Saturday, but I am also going to be playing golf late on that night.

Tonight we had several calls and I got a chance to drive Rescue code several times including saying my catch phrase “Whitcom Rescue-Thirty-Two”.

I am going to really miss running Rescue with the guys.

Starting On the Last Couple Shifts

Tonight was the night to beat up on another softball team. We were playing K&K; again. The first couple games were close games that we won. Today it was a run away for My Office. We had no problems beating up on the other team.

After the game I was on call for the fire department. I am starting the final couple shifts as a reserve. I am sad about the end of the run of being a reserve Crew Leader. I am going to miss working with the guys and I am going to miss having a position with some responsibility.

I feel like there are things that I have not done yet, so I don’t feel like I am ready to move along. But that is the way it is. I am not going to be able to stay and make the changes to the reserve program that will make it stronger.

Palousitics Lunch with Guest

Today for lunch we had our Palousitics lunch with a guest. It was the editor of the Daily News, Steve. We talked with him about the newspaper industry and about politics in the area and how the Daily News covers it.

We had a softball double-header tonight. We were playing Bomb Squad. We went on to beat them pretty easily tonight. It was the first time we beat them all season. Up until now we would not beat them for what ever reason. We took an early lead and then went on to win.

Then we played against Coor’s Light. But it was the opposite story. They crushed us. We couldn’t get the timely hitting, unlike we did in the first game. With that loss we are going to have to battle for second place.

The New Temp

I went to the fire station this morning to update a couple photos on the photoboard. I was asked by Wilkins if I would be there after I was done. I told him I needed to go to the rec center but I could come back later on. I had a feeling that he wanted to talk to me about the temp job.

I went to the rec center and did the LE physical agility test. I am still not there on situps. I also made the mile and a half in about the same about of time. I need to shave about one minute off that time in order to get forty points.

I came home and cleaned up. I called the station and I set up an appointment to meet with the Chiefs at three o’clock PM. In the mean time I talked with Jon a little about the upcoming decision that I have to make. I guess I am sort of in the drivers seat, because I don’t need to take the position. I sort of feel like I need to take it however.

I went to the fire station and I met up with the chiefs. I was offered the temp positions. It was said that I would not be guaranteed a job due to this, but it could help if I do a good job while working as a temp. I was given some time to think about it. They said they would work with me due to my other job. I told them I couldn’t give up my other job knowing that there may not be a position when this is all done because they want to change it to a paramedic position. They said they would work with me in reference to my other job.

I left and called Jon. We talked about it some more. He pointed out that this temp period is a good thing for a couple reasons. One is that if I don’t work out, then I still have a job to go it. If I don’t take this, and wait until a fulltime position comes open. Then I take it and don’t work out, I am out two jobs. Plus with them working with me I should be able to do both for a while. I am very nervous about saying yes, but I went back to the station to take it.

I went to Heston’s office and said I that I am going to take it. He shook my hand and we scheduled my first day to be Monday of next week. I am going to only have three more shifts as a reserve. I am sad about that. I am going to miss working with those guys. I am now in a little bit of a haze as this is a big event in my life and I have a lot to think about now.

I got a call from Gollnick. I thought he already knew. He was calling about playing poker. I figured I would tell him in person.

I asked Heston to hold off on the e-mail until as late as he can so I can tell my guys in person. It was going to work out because everyone was coming down for rig checks early, and A. Wilcox and I had to be there to clean the bay. As I got to the station I got another call from Gollnick. He had been at the station and heard some rumors. He called me to ask me about it. I told him what was going on. I told him that I was going to tell him while playing poker. For my guys, I waited until everyone was there.

I told them that I was offered and accepted the temporary position. They congratulated me. But I am sad. The E-mail had gone out and by the end of my softball game I had a couple texts from people congratulating me.

We played against Tubbs. My head was not fully in the game as I was thinking about the change in my life. I had a good night. I pitched the whole game and didn’t walk anyone on accident. One guy we walked on purpose a couple times. I also hit the ball pretty well. We won the game in the bottom of the seventh. It was great to win that one. We let up eight runs in the first, but came back to win.

After the game I went home and Gollnick came over. We played poker at my place until almost two in the morning. We spent a lot of time talking about the things I should do while I am at the fire station. What I should do on my first couple days. I had a pretty good idea having been around the fire services as long as I had been. The one I didn’t know is to make sure there is coffee always ready.

I lost some money playing poker, but it could have been worse. I was only down nine bucks on the night, but at one point I was down to two bucks left.

Today is one of those days, I was expecting the offer for the temp position, but I am still not mentally prepared to leave the reserves. Though I have spent a lot of time thinking about that in the last couple months. I also realize my dreams of getting back on the sheriff’s reserves will probably not be fulfilled. I am disappointed about that because I was really starting to think about how nice it would be to get that under my belt. It seems like everything went so fast.

Working in the Office

I went into the office today to put up my new computers. While I was there I talked to Barb a little bit about the future of the company. There is a chance they are going to sell us off. That would leave me somewhere that I don’t know. This uncertainty has been going on for several months now. I am still not sure what the next day or the next week has in store.

I went to lunch with Ricky. He is leaving the company and going to a new place because of everything that has been happening. That means it is only me after he is gone. I invited Noah and Chris to come eat with us. We went to Crossroads.

After lunch I headed back to Pullman. I had Monday Night training. We were doing a critique of the structure fire that we had last month at the Clarke Terrace apartments.

It lasted about two hours. I then went off to my house. I had to get caught up on the things I wasn’t able to do at the end of last week because of the softball tournament and being out of town.

It’s Time To Relax

Without softball today I was able to just kickback and relax. I did need to make a trip to Jon’s to get my computers to take back to work with me tomorrow. I was waiting until he got home from camping in order to collect them.

I watched a movie on TV while I waited for him. When I got his text message I drove down there and picked it up. That is when I talked to him about the fire job. I think that because we are down a temp. firefighter and that I am number one on the list that they will offer the job to me. I bounced some stuff off him about how to approach my current company. I would like to keep programming, but I guarantee to them I will be available each and every day now. So we will have to work something out. This is one of those times where things can get pretty nerve racking.

I just mainly sat around the house today. It was nice to not have anything to do, but it would have been nice to hang out with some of my friends over here I don’t see often.

Bremerton Tournament

After getting only one hour of sleep it was getting closer to nine o’clock AM. I started to get my uniform on and waited for the others to show up. We were planning on doing some batting practice before our first game.

We were playing in the E division instead of the D division that we originally signed up for. The competition level was closer to that of our play. The first game we won, I didn’t hit great, but the rest of the team did and we went on to win by several runs. We had an hour break before our next game.

But it sucked because I was hitting better, but the team overall didn’t hit well and we ended up losing that game. That put us in the losers bracket. That also meant that we would have several more games to play in order to win the whole thing. The team we played when we lost wasn’t that great, but they found a way to get the hits they needed to get in order to beat us.

We had a couple hour break before our next game. Several of us went to Dairy Queen for some food. We hung out there for around an hour and then went back to the field. We now need to win or go home. There were two games today we had to win in order to move on to Sunday.

The first game we did good. My hitting through out the tournament was sub-par. But we went out and won that game. We had one more game to play in order to make it to Sunday now. We were playing against a team that was able to put runs up on the board. But we were able to do that as well.

We went out and had a great first inning scoring a lot of runs, but then we couldn’t get anything going after that. We had left the bases loaded twice later in the game. We gave up one big inning to them and they took a lead. We lost the game and got sent home. That was okay to me I guess because I didn’t have to pay to rent a hotel room. But I would have enjoyed playing a lot of softball on Sunday.

So I headed back to Renton. I hadn’t slept much in the past forty-eight hours, but I wasn’t really all that tired. I made it home and got myself some dinner. I stayed up pretty late watching TV and relaxing around the house.

Happy Birthday America!

I wanted to sleep in as much as I could because I was going to be making a trip to Bremerton tonight after the fireworks show. It didn’t work as well as I would have hoped. I woke up early. I tried to go back to sleep and I wasn’t able to. I think I did get one more hour.

I was getting ready to go to the fireworks show. I set up my cooler with some stuff to eat and drink up there. Then I went to station two and got the fire engine and drove down to station one. I picked up some supplies and it was up to Sunnyside park. I had forgotten my camera and used the Chief’s rig to go get it.

We helped to get everything set up. Heston and I got dinner and then went back to the fire apparatus. We showed it off to people and I took photos as that happened. Finally it was starting to get dark and it was close to the time for the show.

We got everything put away. I went on top of the fire engine to watch the show. It was a nice show and I got some photos of the fireworks going off. We waited at the park for about thirty minutes for everyone to clear out. Then we drove back to the station. We got the stuff put away and I drove home. I ordered a pizza to go and headed to Bremerton.

I was hoping to make it to Vantage before I had to take a nap, but the roads were clear and I was moving along very well. When I went through Vantage I wasn’t tired so I kept on moving. Soon I was in the Pass. Then I was on Highway Eighteen. Then I got on I-Five. Then I was crossing the Tacoma Narrows bridge. It wasn’t a lot longer before I got to the field. I found a place to park and tried to sleep. It was around five-thirty in the morning. I tossed and turned a lot. I couldn’t get very comfortable. I think I was able to manage one hour of sleep.

Fires

This afternoon I went to the Cougar Kids Camp to show the kids the Rescue and to talk to them about the fire department as well as answering questions. Then we let them play with the hose and spray water. They all were playing under the water stream getting wet. They had a really good time.

Later on we were going to be doing fireworks patrols around the city. Pretty much we were just being visible. We hit all four hills a couple times each. We were doing it four five hours. After two and a half hours it had been quiet. Then we got an EMS call. While waiting on that a delta – structure fire was dispatched. We were cleared by the PD from the medical call as there was no medical situation.

We went to the scene. It turned out to be a brush fire in front of the apartment building. Parrish got to pump Engine Thirty-One on that fire. It was his first fire. Williams also was command and that was his first time. I got Rescue there and we pumped that as well. Rescue mainly was just used for mop up.

We took a few minutes to get back in service and drove around some more. I had planned on staying on College Hill, but with the Engine driving there I said we would go to Pioneer Hill. I stopped at the gas station on Bishop just off of Main Street. I mentioned to A. Wilcox the last time I was there in a department vehicle we had a structure fire that night. We drove around and stopped in a couple areas briefly to chat with people lighting off fireworks.

It was getting to be past ten o’clock PM. We were going to call it a night at eleven. Just as we went up Whitman on College Hill we got dispatched to a delta response for a fire near a building. We lit up the lights and started to head that way.

Engine was on scene within seconds of the dispatch. They had seen the smoke and started that way to investigate. They were turning onto Deane where the call was. They saw the flames and then heard the dispatch. We spent more than an hour on the scene putting out the fire and overhaul. Which meant we cut away a ton of the shrubs and tree limbs to get into the fire area.

As it turned out Parrish pumped again, Williams was command again, and I pumped Rescue while there. Heston showed up on that one and just watched for the most part. He congratulated me on my position on the list. He asked if I would accept the position. I told him that if one was offered that I would take it.

It took about another hour to clean up and get both Engine and Rescue back in service and fueled up after the call. We got the Rescue washed and went home. I wasn’t home very long when we got toned out for another delta response for a wildland fire. This one turned out to be an illegal burn in a fire pit. We did go and put it out using Rescue to pump.

It was one heck of a long night.

Number One!!!

I just opened the letter I got from Pullman Human Resources with the information about my application and testing. I scored the highest of everyone and I am number one on the hiring list!

That means that I will get an interview when the first job opening come up. I still have to beat out two other people in the Chief’s interview, but I am that much closer.

I also think they will be trying to get someone to work as a temp for the next five months or so. I am not sure if they will do that. If they do I am not sure if I will be asked to do so, but if they do I will have some big decisions to make.

I was very excited when I saw that I was number one.

Double Header

I did my first workout for the physical agility test for the SO. I need to shave time off the mile and a half run. I need to shave about one minute. I also need to add more situps. The pushups and the sprint I am doing okay. I have about one month in which to get up to where I need to be.

We had a double header in softball today. Some of the guys were giving me a hard time about the fact that I have a moustache. Someone was saying we haven’t won since I started to grow it. I said it wasn’t true, but if we were to lose both games I would shave it off.

I started pitching, but I was struggling and I had Jake come in and pitch for me. I didn’t do well hitting in the first game either. I went oh-for. We had a small lead, but ended up giving up six runs in the sixth inning which allowed them to take the lead. That just sucked.

The second game I started to hit better. I went three for three with a triple. Jake also got me to pitch the final two innings of the game. I went through those two innings without much for problems. We had an early lead and never gave that one up. So we split the double-header and my moustache stays.

Town Crier III – Plastic Bags

Though I am thankful the Supreme Court reaffirmed the right to keep and bear arms, I am disappointed that it even had to go to the Supreme Court. There have been many laws that have assaulted the right to keep and bear arms. Many of the laws are advocated by people exercising their first amendment rights to trample on second amendment rights, when it is because of the second amendment rights we have been able to secure the first amendment rights.

When someone thinks back to the times when America was getting organized and people were fighting and dying to make this country work, you can’t help to realize some of the issues we face today pale in comparison.

One such issue is a Seattle-like mandatory twenty-cent tax added to each and every plastic bag someone uses when shopping at a Pullman-area store. To think that people have enough time on their hands to petition the government to tax its citizens even more, is embarrassing when compared to the founding of a nation.

On the other hand, there is a group of individuals who wear a pager day and night ready to drop what they’re doing to help someone in need. Sometimes at three o’clock in the morning these volunteer firefighters are needed to clean up somebody else’s tragedy.

Several times a year I see people standing outside of local grocery stores volunteering their time to collect food for the food bank. Others volunteer hundreds of man-hours to putting together the 4th of July Celebration at Sunnyside Park.

In their own way all these people are giving up something of their own in order to make our community a better place. In all cases what they give up is time. In some cases these volunteers also give up their own money to help pay of materials or gas to get around. They give up a good nights sleep, and when asked to do it again, they do.

In their own way each of the volunteers are helping to make our community safer, more comfortable, and more fun. Our community is a better place because of these people.

Those petitioning the Pullman City Council to make grocers charge twenty-cents per plastic bag used at the store probably think they’re helping to make our community a better place.

A recent article in the Daily News mentioned someone seeing 22 plastic bags on College Hill, but there was no mention of an effort to clean them up.

It was suggested that residents start to carry reusable bags and use those instead of plastic bags. No one, however, has volunteered to hand out these shopping bags.

It is argued that we shouldn’t view the proposal as elitist, instead we are showing respect and care for our community. But no one is standing in front of the stores to educate people.

It is suggested that we can use the new tax to donate the money to the local food bank or help pay for community improvements.

I would like to see this group of people go to the community and try to change their habits through education. Educating people is better than forcing the government to tax its citizens.

Some people see a need and they volunteer their time, their sleep, and their money to the cause. Others see a need and they want to use strong arm of the government regulation to further the cause.

Why stop at charging for plastic bags? Maybe there should be a tax on glass bottles, aluminum cans, and even “keg” cups. That tax could be used to clean up the broken glass, empty aluminum cans, and keg cups that litter some of the streets in Pullman. This may seem farfetched, but I would wager targeting plastic bottles is the next item on the list.

Is this group of citizen using Seattle as inspiration? If so, the city of Seattle is no longer buying plastic water bottles, how long until that is proposed in Pullman?

Final thoughts: Don Pelton – PARD is done holding Pullman hostage and Wal-Mart’s coming, I wish you were here to see it. T-85 goes the countdown.

Full Day in Jail

I worked in the jail today. I saw Myers about something that he needed done. It was some printing stuff. Plus I talked to him about being a Reserve. He said I needed to fill out an application. Then I would go through the testing. If I made it the academy would start in September and go for a couple months. They are condensing the academy as much as possible. I am going to have to train for the physical agility test.

While working I had a couple guys working on doing the floors, windows, and doors. It was in need of being done, but no one was doing it.

We had a softball game against Coor’s Light. Unfortunately, we couldn’t hit when we needed to. We had a lead over them for most of the game. But in one inning we allowed them a free out. From that point on they scored five and took a lead. That was a hard loss to take.

After the game I was on call for the fire department. We had a couple minor calls.

Large House Hunting

I got my workout done and finished off my town crier column completed and turned in. It will print on Wednesday.

Pam and I were going to look at houses today. One has been on the market for a long time and I have wanted to go look at it, but I just never have. So with the price reduction I went to look. It was a house on Lower drive. It is over forty-eight hundred square feet. There are a lot of large rooms through out the house. The upstairs is very nice and updated. Downstairs is a little dated. But as a bachelor pad it would be great. There is no place to park the motorhome there but it is nice and close to campus which would make walking to events and the rec center more doable.

I also looked at one on Upper drive. It was a large house as well, but it appeared to be a little more dated through out and not as large feeling. It is nice, but not really for me.

We had hose testing tonight I figured I would get Engine Thirty-One because no one else would think about it. That was the case. So I drove it to Station One so we could test the five-inch hose on it. It didn’t take a lot of time for us to the hose test.

I spent some of the time talking to my mom. She said that Amber and Jen have new homes. That they are living with people who can care for them and love them and will be around for them. I also told her about the houses I looked at.

Incredibly Hot

It was a long day in the heat of the hottest day of the summer. It got in the upper nineties today.

I started out with batting practice at the city playfields. Jake needed to work on pitching a little bit for an upcoming tournament. I was hitting the ball well in the batting practice.

I went to the fire station to pick up an ambulance after the BP. It needed to go to station two to get waxed along with the Utility. I was there from around eleven until after four doing the waxing and rig checks. It was a long day doing that, plus it was still really hot, even in the bay.

After the work I took the ambulance back to station one and drove to the city playfields. We had a double header. But the first game we had to FFT because we didn’t have enough women to start the game. So we did a practice game against Zeppoz. Then it was on to the second game.

We had enough women for that game. I hit the ball very well. I had three stand-up triples and one single. It was great. After the game Heston and I went to Cougar Country for some dinner. I was very hungry because I didn’t have much of anything to eat while I was working all day.

Pullman Fire Test

Started the morning off with the written test for the fire department. There were several people there wearing shirts from other fire department. Pritch calls them “Shirt Testers”. He agrees with me that they are tools. I didn’t feel like I nailed it like I have felt in the past.

When it was done we were going to have to go to the training tower to find out what our score was. If we didn’t do well enough we would have to leave. I didn’t want to do the walk-of-shame if I didn’t pass, so I waited outside the high school for the test administrator to come out. I was told I passed and I was off to the physical agility test. That made me feel better.

They did the test in alphabetical order. So I was one of the first to go. I bested my last time by about one minute. After I tested I spent the rest of the time helping with the other tests. I was resetting the dummy drag and the hose drag. It was hot and I drank as much water as I could.

I went home and showered. I hung around my house for a while. I was going to put together a poker game, but there wasn’t enough people. I decided that I would go to Zeppoz to talk to Loren about putting on some games at my house.

While I was there I played some Spanish Twenty-One. I won two bucks when I cashed in and tipped it to Loren. I talked to him about poker. I saw Gilbertson from Colfax Fire. He was playing Spanish Twenty-One. He had a moment where he was able to double down. He got a very small card, so I suggested a double-double down. The dealer had an ace showing. Gilbertson double-doubled and got a twenty. I said “Watch the dealer flip over a three and draw a seven for twenty-one.” The dealer flipped a three. Then an eight, then a nine for a total of twenty-one. Everyone was laughing at the table and it pretty much broke him.

I am Looking at Houses Again

The houses slump hasn’t really hit Pullman so much, but I have seen some houses come down in price a little bit. One place I looked at before I wanted to see again. It is cheaper in price, also I wanted to see it again so I can remember why I didn’t like it over all. After seeing it, I do remember what it was about the place I didn’t like all that much.

I was at home doing some stuff on the computer waiting for the time to head to Dan’s to play poker. It was John, Dan, and I. We did ten dollar buy-ins. I wasn’t doing too well. I wasn’t going to stay really late because of the test for the fire department. But I lost my money and bought in one more time.

It didn’t take as long for me to lose all that money too. So I dropped about twenty bucks playing cards with them.

I got home and Brandon was here. He was here because he was going camping tomorrow by the Snake River and he was in town doing some laundry and waiting to go off. I talked with him really briefly because he has a girl with him.

I called it a night shortly after I got home.

A Day in Colfax

I spent most of the afternoon and early evening working in the jail. I did a couple rounds along the way. I also ran control a fair amount of time. It was the first time I really had a chance to run it for a length of time.

Captain saw for the first time I was losing weight. Up until now he didn’t even notice. He is probably the only one who hasn’t noticed. I needed a new belt and Tom suggested that I could use his old belt. He gave it to me, but it is still a little bit too small for me. In another couple week I suppose I should be able to fit into it.

Closer to seven I went to the jail to attend the coroner’s meeting. We went over a couple cases and signed up for on-call days.

Not Quite the Run Output

We played the same team tonight that we played last week and scored a record thirty-one runs. But this game was very different. We couldn’t get any kind of rally going. But neither could the other team. We scored more in one inning last week than we did in the whole game this week. But we did get some timely hitting by some of our bigger sticks.

I have been coming around with my batting average now above five-hundred. I just need to start to hit my extra-base hits. That is probably the biggest difference between my game this year and last year.

A Painful Loss

I went to Moscow to get some business card paper to re-print the dollar off coupons for Cougar Country because the last ones I did had Country spelled County. That sucked.

I stopped in at a scooter place to look at the scooter they had for sale. I looked around and it turns out the ones they sale are Chinese scooters. So they are not great quality, but they are inexpensive and work. But I am still not sure that is what I want to do.

I hung out there for a while talking to Roger from Green’s Cleaners. It has been a while since I have really seen him. We talked softball, music, and more. It was a nice conversation.

Later on I had a softball game. It was against Bomb Squad. It was a close game all the way through it, but we were not able to pull it out. We let them score several runs in the top of the seventh inning. We had a chance, but left the bases loaded. I was so disappointed that we didn’t pull that one out. We had a chance.

I also was on call for the fire department. We got toned out around one in the morning and ran two calls. But the second one we didn’t go to the hospital, so that made for a shorter call.

Reserves that Don’t Like to Work

This morning I made sure to get in and do my legs workout. Because of the physical agility test on Saturday and the fact that I don’t want tired legs going into it I will not do another legs workout this week.

After the workout I did some work on the reserve time log. We are going to standardize the time log to be more like the career OT time log. I wanted to have my input used in making it.

I also was asked to help out with some videos for training tonight. I was trying to help Wehrung download some, but that was no use, so I just had him link to them using favorites.

We had our training. It was firefighter standdown week. So we spent time going over safety information and looking over our protective equipment to get it repaired if there are any problems with it.

After the meeting Brown, Chapman, and I started to talk about training. Soon that went into a discussion about the reserves and their lack of willingness to do anything more than the minimum. They don’t like to pick up events nor extra shifts. They don’t come down on daytime calls and they don’t usually have their pagers on at night in case of a second alarm. It is pretty pathetic at times the turn out we get from the reserves when a second alarm hits. That is one of the big reasons why we exist. If we don’t start to show our worth they may decide they don’t need us.

I was on call running the engine with Chapman. We had one fire alarm call come in around midnight. Just before the call came out I got an e-mail from one of my guys asking for a night off because there is a streak where four out of five nights we will be doing something. That was an eyebrow raising request in light of the conversation we just had. I told Chapman about it because the timing of the e-mail was incredible.

Small Reserve BBQ

Due to the busy week I missed two work out dates, so I went to the rec center today to make both of them up. I was there for about an hour doing that. Then I shot hoops with Matt for a while. We played some one on one and HORSE. I lost both of those games.

I went to the store afterwards and did some shopping. I was getting low on some food items I need. The trip took about an hour in all.

I had some time to get ready for the small BBQ we were doing at the station with Andrew and Clark. We were having the package of brauts left over from camping last weekend. I cooked those up and we had those plus some potato salad and ice cream that Clark brought in.

We went on to rig checks. There were only three of us so it took a while to get through everything.

Steptoe vs Colfax Fire Softball

Colfax and Steptoe Fire had the second annual softball game for bragging rights and a traveling trophy. I had an okay day at the plate, I did get an inside the park homerun driving in the go-ahead runs. But before we knew it the Steptoe team went to work in the sixth inning and they came back for the victory. At one point Scott was at bat. A pitch came towards him. He didn’t move and let it go right off the top of his head. It cracked everyone up.

I got in Albion’s Ambulance with Jessie and Ben in St. John to go to the Sprint Boat Races. We hung out with the Rosalia ambulance crew and watched the races for the next five hours. It was a lot of fun.

A boat racing in the slough

This boat hit the side hard and ended up flipping

Some of the boats left some big rooster tails

The Jeeps that were used to launch the boats

The one thing that was nice was the weather, at least for the first part of the race. That caused a lot of ten-six-sevens to remove the shirts giving all the more eye candy to enjoy as I was there.

I got back to Colfax and was dropping off some paperwork for some coroner’s cases when Heston called about setting up some huge tents for Cougar High School Football Camp. We had to get two of them set up. That took us a couple hours. A. Wilcox was helping… Yet another ten-six-seven.

I went to the fire station and did some Excel work for Rudy to help me consolidate hours for overtime so they could use it during the upcoming negotiations.

Pump Time with Gribbon

I spent time with Gribbon and Rose doing pump time on the Engine. He is working on being an engineer and Rose was there to help me with spraying water and reloading the hose.

Rich and I played some Xbox for a while. We were playing Las Vegas for a while getting through a couple of the missions before calling it a night.

It was a pretty quiet night tonight having one call come out around one o’clock in the morning. We didn’t do much on that one. In fact we were cancelled en route. But we had to fill up the rig.

Jersey Night Lives On!

I spent a couple hours with Ben driving in Engine Thirty-One going around looking at FDC locations. It started with an EMS call coming in. We went to the scene with Rescue. Then it was off to the engine. No calls came in while we were using the Engine.

I went to the WSU Surplus said with Bruce. We found him some pants to wear but as it turned out the whole box was sold in the auction and we were not able to get the pants. That sucked for him.

We were going to be playing against his team this evening in softball. It wasn’t quite a run away like the others games for us. My first at bat was a triple and that felt good to hit it. It was my first extra-base hit in the regular season for men’s softball.

We ended up being tied at fourteen each. We went into the eighth inning. We shut down Tubbs. On our at bat we went to work. Warren hit a double. Peter got walked and Kelly hit the game winning double. It was a nice victory. We are starting to click as a team.

After the game Joe invited me to go to Pete’s to meet up with his team, Tubbs. I said I would come down, but I needed to say Happy Birthday to Heather first. I went to the Moose. I said happy birthday to her and said hello to many of the others who are part of that group.

Then I went to Pete’s. I was only going to drink pop, but it was Jersey Night. Jessie and Craig from Colfax fire were there. I sat with them for a while and we talked. Craig and I started a text messaging game on accident. We had to text message a single word to the other person that has something to do with the word that was texted to you. We went on with that for a long time.

Joe came over with a shot for everyone. I had one. Then another shot. Then some beer. Then it was over with for me. I got my vehicle home and back for more beer. Then we went to ValHalla. Loren was there and he was drunk. He gave me two Long Island Ice teas that he couldn’t finish. Plus I got another drink there.

The next stop was Mike’s. We had more to drink there. Plus the guys from Tubbs were being crazy. A couple of them were in the dancing cage having fun. Then it was off to Thai Ginger, which use to be Shermers. On the way Chambers, from Tubbs, wanted to run to the bar. We were taking a taxi. He went off sprinting. A couple Pullman cops were in the area and almost had to jump out of his way. They were wondering what the heck was going on.

He beat us to the bar. We had more to drink there. We played some darts and other games. Then it was across the street to My Office. That was the final stop of the night. We closed out My Office. I spent time talking with Jake and Mac from Tubbs. I think both of them are ten-six-sevens. It was a very fun night. I got a ride home in a taxi. I stayed up for a while drinking water before going to bed. It was going to be a short night because I have to get up on the early side tomorrow.

A Big Day Scoring Runs

This morning I was very tired getting up after only a couple hours of sleep. I went to the station and met up with Gecas. We took Engine Thirty-One out to do drive and pump time. We spent a couple hours driving and about thirty minutes pumping.

I got done in time to rush down to Lewiston to see the doctor about my finger. He said the injury I have usually takes nine months to heal. He said I should buddy-splint my finger. He gave me a couple buddy splints. He suggested using tape when I am playing softball. It was good to know it will heal on its own, but it will take a long time.

I got back and started to get ready for my softball game. It was being played over in Moscow. We were playing a team we have never played because they are a new team. We scored eleven runs in the first inning and just kept hitting away. We scored a total of thirty-one runs in the game. That is a record for the softball team.

After the game I went to the Zzu to meet up with Michele and Heather and the other girls from the softball team. We hung out there until around midnight. I had some nachos and pop as we sat around talking about softball and random other things. It was a fun night out.

Staff Meeting

I went to the first full staff meeting representing the reserves because Chapman was unable to go. It was a pretty short meeting only lasting about two hours. We covered some updated SOPs and other department information. I got home and typed up the parts that dealt with the reserves and E-mailed them to Chapman and McPherson.

I did my workout at the rec center. I didn’t get up there until later than normal because of the staff meeting.

The softball game tonight was a late game. We were playing the team at the top of the standings. I didn’t know that going into the game. We had eleven guys and we played very well. I used a different line-up than we had been using. We hit the ball very well. We went on to win with twelve runs. It was a good game for us.

I went out to My Office after the game and had some pop and talked with Joe who was there after his game.

I got home and out of my uniform when I got a call from Whitcom about a death. I talked to the ambulance crew and went to the scene. I did my investigation and that lasted until around three-thirty in the morning. I went to bed right when I got home because I was going to have to get up early to do drive time with Ben on the engine.

Day Time Call with Ben

I was working on a problem on the phone for a couple hours with the guys from the office. It was a three-way call. Soon a couple calls came out from the fire department. Then I heard someone “Standing by with one”. So I went down and we went out on the call.

Later on we had training at the station. I brought my binder down, because it was OTEP training. We were doing CPR and AED training. Because I am a CPR instructor I helped to run people through a scenario. When I was done with that I became the student with Brown putting me through the ropes.

Another Tough Loss in Softball

After getting up and starting my morning I went to the camp site where everyone else was. I brought out my muffins as we started to cook breakfast. I did the eggs. Carl cooked the hashbrowns and Jim cooked the bacon. We sat down to eat breakfast then people started to pack up.

I got my motorhome taken care of then I helped Jim and Carl with their camp areas. We left there around eleven in the morning. I got back to Pullman and got cleaned up.

I went down to the station and started with the rig checks. I got the bay cleaned out first and the pump test done. Then the others started to show up and we checked the rigs. That took a couple hours in all. I was done in time for me to be at the coed game.

We only had five guys and five girls show up. That was good because everyone got to play the whole game, but we were hurting at the left side of the infield. We gave up some outs we would not normally give up with our normal starters.

It was a close game, but we were not able to get the timely hits. That has been a problem with all my teams lately. We cannot get a hit when it matters. We ended up losing the game by four runs, but again we had a chance and with our starters there I think we could have won this one.

After the game we went to Cougar Country. I got a Cyclone and we sat around talking before breaking up a little after eight. I went home and I was on call for the rest of the night. We got one call that came in around three in the morning and that was about it for the night.

Camping at Central Ferry

After sleeping in a little bit due to my late night I was still up around eight in the morning. I got the final things into the motorhome and headed to the store. I got some food for the meals we were going to have and headed out. I got some fuel in Colfax and made my way to the park.

I got my motorhome set up pretty quickly and joined the others sitting around talking and joking. After a couple hours I went back to the motorhome to get some sleep. Everyone else went off to walk their dogs or do something like that.

I was sleeping for about two hours when Carl got me up and we started to play cards. I was on fire. I was winning stacks of coins from the other guys. We played until it was time to start dinner. We had brauts and hamburgers. Dinner took a couple hours in total between starting it, cooking, eating and cleaning up.

Once we were all cleaned up we started to play a Texas Hold’em tournament. I went all in on the first hand with pocket eights. I won against Connie who called me with pocket threes. I had a big chip lead, but that went away over time as I wasn’t able to get much going. I did hit on one four-outer. But that was about the best of what I could do.

I went out third and watched the rest of the game. It only took about thirty more minutes then it was done. It was not terribly late, but everyone made their way to bed.

An Evening on Rescue

Today we had a couple calls starting with a call where it looked like CPR was going to take place, but we didn’t need to do that, but soon we were running from call to call for a couple hours. Once that was done we headed back to the station and called it good for the day time because the guys I was with wanted to get some lunch.

Later that evening I was on call on Rescue. Parrish was on Rescue with Chipper. We got our first call just after midnight. On the way back to the station Parrish and I broke in Chipper with our rendition of Convoy. That was good time. But we soon got called out on a couple more calls. We were up until three in the morning on calls.

I had to get up early in the morning for my trip to Central Ferry park. I got the motorhome ready for the trip today between running calls and doing rig checks.

Regular Season Game Two

We got to play softball again tonight even though the weather was not that great. I had to call in a sub because we had people who were not going to be there. But the problem was I didn’t remember about Taj. We ended up playing with only nine players. That probably cost us in the outfield.

We were playing against a team that was nearly unstoppable for several years. But this season they have not been as strong. We held tight with them the whole way, but we were not able to get the timely hitting necessary to win the game. We went down and that sucked.

I spent time hanging out at My Office with some people from the fire department as it was Greg’s retirement get together. We spent time talking about the old times and telling stories with each other.

A Bad Mood Today

I started off by seeing an E-mail saying that we left the Rescue in bad shape after the fire and that it was unfair to the other to make them clean it up. That we had no regard for Rescue. Then I got an E-mail from my Lt asking why it was left like that.

So I was boiling over everything. This same person who was complaining had a situation two weeks ago where the same kind of thing was left for my shift. But we fixed the problems and I just notified the crew leader. I didn’t send anything off to the Lt’s. That is the part that made me the most upset.

I went to work out and that made me feel a little better as I started to forget about the E-mail. Then I went to the station and spoke to the Lt. I explained to him that we had washed it, but forgot about the inside. It was just an oversight. He said he understood and that I just need to pass along to everyone that we need to make sure to double check things.

I felt a lot better, but I still wanted to talk to the crew leader who sent the E-mail to begin with rather than just talking to me.

My softball games were rained out again tonight so I did drive time on the engine with Parrish. Before the drive time started I got another E-mail that included E-mails sent by one of the guys on my shift. I felt like he was hanging me out to dry. I was mad all over again.

I went to the station and the firefighter who sent the E-mail out. I took him to the bay and told him that I felt like his E-mail left me out to dry. He said he didn’t mean that. I told him, that is how the E-mail came across.

Parrish started our drive time. I called the other crew leader. I asked him why he didn’t talk to me like I did for him. He said his Lt wanted to have an E-mail about it. I wondered why he said anything to the Lt to begin with. So I said that if we want to always send problems to the Lt in the future that is fine, but I want to be on the same page, to make sure I send problems along to my Lt as well.

I told him I preferred if we would start by keeping it at our level and if nothing gets fixed, then to escalate it. But I would do what he is going to do. I am not going to be the nice guy and then turn around and get beefed by the Lt’s. I said that it would be better if we were to keep it at our level so we don’t get a bad reputation as a group.

I then read the E-mail that I got that I felt like I was hung out to dry. I didn’t say that was my feeling before I read it to Parrish. But as soon as I read it, Parrish’s comment was “Sounds like you were hung out to dry.” I said that I had the same feeling. I wasn’t the only one who saw it that way. I talked to Parrish about it for a while and I came to the conclusion that I am going to continue to report things the way I always have. I am just going to keep it local unless it is a problem that has been on going. I hope the other crew leader does the same for me.

The drive time went uneventful. We washed and fueled the engine we used for the drive time before calling it a night. It was a quiet night for us.

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.