The Ladders Were Switched

This afternoon I went to the fire department and did the walk-throughs of a couple buildings around campus. As we were going from building to building I got a chance to drive the PL. I need to get ten hours of drive time. I was able to knock out another half-hour of it. It was fun to get a chance to drive it.

After that training I went to Colfax and Tim was working. I asked him what rigs had a twenty-four foot ladder. He said only the ladder truck. I asked if we could pull it out. He asked why. I wouldn’t tell him, but I said it would be worth it.

When we got it out, I said that we were looking for a one-inch long piece of black tape. Sure enough it was on there. The twenty-four footer from our PL and Colfax’s ladder truck got mixed up sometime last year during the Whitman County fire academy. We had a good laugh about that.

I went to the reserve training afterwards. Cooper is teaching now. We are learning patrol procedures. This is where things start to get more fun. More hands on.

A Quiet Day at Colfax Fire

I spent most of the day at the fire station in Colfax, but as is the case when I am around, we didn’t have any calls come in. So I spent most of the time talking with Tim and waiting for my reserve training to start.

I also talked with Bill from the PD. We were talking guns and he offered his up for sale. I asked how much. Sounds like I will be the proud owner of a new gun. It will be the first time I have bought a new one in about a decade. It is a forty-five. If it fits in my holster, I may see if I can carry it instead of a forty for being a reserve.

The class was good. Waltz has been doing a great job with the teaching. I think most of the people in the class have been happy with his teaching style.

Getting Errands Completed

I had a lot of appointments set up for today. I had to do a post-exposure meeting. I got poked with a needle. It wasn’t very bad, but I wanted to make sure I followed all the precautions.

I also had the washing machine looked at today. It is having some problems. What I found out was that it is not something that can be repaired without a fair amount of money. It is at the point it would be better off for me to buy a new one. The one I have is pretty old. Now I can get a front loader, which is what I wanted anyway.

I had to make a bank run to deposit money as well as get some cash for the dinners. I went to the rec center to get my workout completed. The back thing was that I wasn’t able to do it yesterday at work.

I went to my training in Colfax. We were doing evidence law. The class was pretty quick over all. We went to the SO and looked at the evidence lockers and that was about it.

I went to Colfax Fire when the class was done. They were just getting done with training. Jessie was with me for a while. I got to talking with Carl, Jim, and Tim. We were joking around and having fun.

Working Hard at Jail

After getting off work at the fire station I decided I would go to Colfax and work at the jail. I had my fire pager with me but Colfax didn’t have any calls while I was there. It was a busy day in the jail as normal. I helped do some rounds, a booking, and run the control room. I worked there from around eleven to six in the evening. I was getting ready to go get some dinner.

I was at Main street and saw Carl drive by. Went I went by the fire station I saw Ken’s truck. I decided to swing by and see Ken. They were going to work the Colfax High football game. I was asked if I wanted to come. I said I did. I grabbed my turnout coat and went to the game.

Colfax dominated the game. It didn’t even look like a game until Colfax put many of their freshmen into the game. I saw several people from Colfax Police and McNanny from the SO there. We talked briefly about the upcoming academy.

When the game was done I went to Ken’s to get his computer for me to work on. I am going to scrub it and reinstall everything for him. I got home and pretty much went to bed. I had to get up early tomorrow to stop by the Deuce to work on their photoboard.

Mock Train Crash

This morning when I got off work at the fire department I went to Colfax for a mock scene. It started out with a train vs car crash with alcohol involved. It was for the Colfax High students. We started with an assembly. Then to the scene. I was on the ambulance. During the scenario we got a real patient. I was the attendant. That took me out of the rest of the mock scene.

Following my call we went back to the scene. It was cleaned up. We all had lunch and prepared for the hazmat portion of the event. I set up the computer items and walked the Colfax people through how the system worked. We went to a train car to see how some of the tools we have work on the train car. That was nice to get a chance to see how the tools worked. We cleaned up and headed back to Pullman.

I was meeting up with Brandon and Kevin. We went to see a movie in Pullman. We saw Eagle Eye. It was an alright movie. When it was done we went to my place and played some games that Brandon had before Kevin had to leave. I went to bed a little while later because I had to work in the morning.

Ladders and Ventilation

This morning came sort of early, but I had a busy day ahead of me. I was going to be doing some training in the heat of the day today. I was looking forward to getting it done with, but I wasn’t sure I was going to be a fan of the heat. When I got to work I found out that we were going to go up earlier in the day to get it done to keep cooler. I was also getting engine drive time. I still need more time on the engine, but I am getting closer.

We had a call to start off with. Then it was off to station one until the ambulance was back in service. Once in service we went to the tower. I had to throw some ladders and do some ventilation. It was a good training. I had a chance to learn some techniques for vertical ventilation I hadn’t done before. I also learned a way to help get someone down from an upper floor if I were by myself. I did some tandem horizontal ventilation before we were done. It was a good training day in all.

I worked on the engineer book in the afternoon. It was pretty quiet at far as calls went. I was planning on going down to Colfax after the day working. I stopped at the station first to get my backpack with my computer. I talked to the guys I use to work with for a little over an hour before heading to Colfax.

I got to Colfax and went into the SO to drop off my paperwork from the coroner’s case from the other day. I went to the fire station after that. I hung out there for a couple hours but nothing came in. We had a city cop ask us to help with the removal of a dead deer. That was about all we did, that and watch a movie.

What a Great Day

I started out this morning watching Hang ‘Em High, but I wasn’t able to finish it because I had to go to Spokane to hang out with Ryan. His birthday was on Wednesday and we were planning on going to see the X-Files and have lunch.

We started with Pizza at Rocky’s. I bought a large. We had some leftovers for Anna. We spent a fair amount of time talking about what names that could be used for naming a baby. We were joking about making sure the kid is named something cool and not doing the dumb things some parents do. Such as naming their kid a normal name but spelling it different.

We walked down to the mall to watch the X-Files. It was like watching a long episode. I guess you wouldn’t expect anything different though. When the movie was done we got some ice cream from Ben and Jerry’s. We did some people watching and we saw two people walking around with their kids on a leash. I told Ryan I would kick his ass if he ever did that to his kid. He laughed and said he wouldn’t.

I left and went down to Colfax. I hung out at the fire station for about an hour with Tim. Then we went to Jamie and Brett’s wedding together. It was a nice service. The jail Captain did the service. He did a very good job. There were some good laughs. After the service we went in to the banquet. I had some food and spent time talking to everyone up there. I had a chance to congratulate the newly weds and talk to many people I have worked with over the years.

I also spoke to Myers a while about being a reserve. I told him about about the situation that I am in and that I have been working hard to be a reserve. He said we will do something to make it work. I still need to make sure I get enough time off of work to make it work out correctly. I am going to have to talk to Dan and John and some of the other guys to see if they are willing to help me out as much as possible about covering some of my shifts so I can make the training.

After the reception I went back to the fire station with Tim. We went to let his dog inside at his house. While there he was showing me around the house. While there we got toned out on a call. We went to the scene and waited for the ambulance. When it was done I helped restock the Brush trucks’ EMS supplies and then I headed home.

First Morning Structure Fire

This morning the tones woke me up shortly before four in the morning. They were calling a second alarm. I went to the fire station after having driven through the downtown area. I would smell smoke. When I got to the fire station they didn’t need us to go to the scene, so I stood by. For a couple hours.

When the rigs got back I helped put them in service. I went to the store and bought some donuts for everyone. I got my books from home and came back to work. I pretty much worked there from four in the morning until five in the evening.

I decided to go down to Colfax tonight. I hung out with Ralph for a couple hours waiting for a call to come in. While I was there we sat outside talking about fire services and more. It was getting to be around ten o’clock and I was getting a bit tired so I was getting ready to head out when a call did come in. It was a transfer. I took it. It was only from Colfax to Pullman so it wasn’t a big deal, but I did get to go code on the way.

Wildland Field Driver Training

Started off today doing the daily rig checks and chores. We went to the CUB for a tour. I was underwhelmed by the new look. The colors make you question “why?” As we were completing the tour we got a call. I was in the ambulance and we went to the scene. It was my first ambulance call with them.

Later we went to the tower to work on evolutions to sign off Chuck and I on items in our rookie book. Today we were pulling the pre-connects and spraying water.

After work I went to Colfax for training. We went to Steptoe to do some field driving in the rural rigs. It was the first time I drove them off road. I was nervous at first, but I got a little use to it after doing some driving.

They pretty much knew I got the temp position with Pullman. They congratulated me and asked me some questions about how it worked.

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.

A Record Number of Rainouts

We have yet to play a regular season softball game. We are the only A-league team to not have played a regular season game. We were rained out again today. I am interested in playing softball. I hope one of these days we will get to actually do that. I have a feeling we will either extend the season, cut it short (with refunds I hope) or we will have a lot of double-headers with games on Wednesday’s as well.

That made it so I could go to Colfax Fire training tonight. It was OTEP training in Steptoe. We were doing patient assessment. The training took a couple hours total. I was able to be an evaluator. Since becoming an EMS Evaluator I have had a chance to use those skills. That is pretty fun.

I also decided I need to get my den and garage cleaned up. I broke it down in to multiple tasks. I assigned each task for one week. It will take a month and a half to get it all done, but I figured if I do it in steps rather than all at once it will be more manageable. I will probably even get to those tasks because they are more manageable.

Another Shot in the Ankle

I started the day by having lunch with Jon, Jim, and Terry at Three Pigs. After the lunch I went across the street to the doctor’s office for another talk with the doc about the ankle. He looked over the MRI shots once more and then gave me a shot in a different spot than the one before. It was very painful going in. I was fighting the pain off.

I hit the road to come back to Pullman after that. I actually stopped in Colfax to hang out at the fire department for a while. Shortly after I got there we got called out to a car accident, but it turned into nothing major. We were cancelled within a tiny bit.

I hung out for a while longer, but nothing new cam out. I did find out from Pete, when I saw him when I first got there, that Brandon was fired from IS. Well it was more of his position being eliminated. But that was interested. After I left the FD, I ran into Dan, who I use to work with at IS with Brandon. He gave me some more information about the whole thing. Brandon had been with the county for ten years.

Working at Colfax Fire

I went to Colfax Fire today and I was planning on working at the jail, but I ended up staying at the fire station. While I was there we got called out on a fire alarm at the school. It turned out to be burnt food.

Later on Tim and I got a pizza while waiting for the meeting to start. We learned about the plans for the new radio system and the fact that once everything is in scanner-land will die as they will not be able to scan us. That is sucky in my book.

After the training we played poker for a couple hours. Jim and I got into a laughing fit again. We seem to feed off each other. Something will happen that will crack us up. Then we start to feed off each other laughing harder and harder. That usually will go on for a couple minutes.

Wiring the Church

I told Ken I would help him wire his church up for Internet. He has DSL there and we needed to lay the wires to install the Internet into his office, the visiting pastor’s office and the sound board man. We only got two of the offices completed.

I also helped him to get Total Recorder to start to record his services. Now he can have them saved directly to an audio format. He is happy about the improvements we made.

I went to the fire department after that. Tim talked to me about working as a part-timer down there. I told him I was interested. So we started to talk about it and talk about the things the part-timers need to do and need to know about working there. I spent some time helping him fix a part on the pump of one of the rural trucks.

We worked on there for a couple hours. Then we went to the dayroom when we were done to watch some TV and have dinner. We ordered some pizza.

I hung out there until about eleven o’clock without a single call coming in while I was there. But that is almost always how it is while I am there.

Shook in the Jail

Before fire training I went to Colfax a little early. I was in the jail for a while. We ended up having to do a shack down in one of the units looking for a missing item. When it was done we ended up locking down the whole unit for various reasons.

When it was time for training I went to the fire station across the street. We were dealing with fire alarms and water protection devices. It was a good training.

When I got home I was going to go to The Zzu, but I have had a hard time waking up so I decided it would be best if I went to bed early to make sure I got up at a good time.

It was God’s Will

After my workout today I was going to turn to go home from the Rec Center. I was in the turn lane and had my left hand blinker on, but something made me go right. (Not that going right is ever a bad thing).

I turned onto Stadium Way and saw someone near Troy Road was hitchhiking. I thought that was odd to see in general. But it was a younger looking lady. When I saw the size and stature of the person walking along, plus the coat and scarf, I thought I might know her. As I passed her up, I knew who it was.

She is someone who is a fellow DJ on KZUU. She is a very nice person and I felt like I had to go back and pick her up. I was worried about her hitchhiking, even though “it is only Pullman”. So I turned around, but I had to go all the way down to Stephenson to turn around because of the median in the road. Finally, I got back to her and she was happy for the ride.

As it turned out she had to get across town and get her computer for a class presentation. I told her I would give her a ride back to campus as well because she would have to take the bus back otherwise. The part of town she lived it would require a transfer to another bus.

While we were driving along I found out that she also has a radio show on a local Christian station and I started to think it could have been God’s will that brought me to her.

As my reward for giving her the ride, when I drove down Main Street in Pullman, I saw my barber walking across the street to open his barbershop. I had planned on getting my haircut, so that worked out perfectly. Had I got straight there without stopping to help this lady, then he still would have been closed.

I went down to a couple calls at the fire station, but as normal I only stood by. But Rich and I had a chance to play a game for a bit while he was on his break. That is always fun to have something to do while I am standing by.

Rich also had asked if I could help him with a computer problem. He had some nasty malware application on his computer and none of the major applications were finding it and cleaning it. I did some research on it and found out how to clean it out of the computer. That took about an hour total to get it done and help make sure the computer was good to go.

I had just enough time to get down to the fire station in Colfax for training. There were only about ten people there for the Building Construction lecture. It only took about an hour for that.

Brandon and I were going to meet up at The Zzu for Taco Tuesday. I think things were still going good for me at this point. I started to play pool against Brandon. I was playing my normal game. I was able to sink a lot of balls, but I also missed a lot. But what was interesting is we played five games.

In those five games Brandon had not been beaten once yet I had four wins. He had one. He was on the Eight ball on four separate occasions. He was missing very easy shots. When he would make a shot, he would also sink the cue ball for a loss. Or he would sink the Eight ball in the wrong pocket. I think I had an unbeatable force on my side today.

EMT Class Final Practicals

I went to Colfax fire in the morning before the practicals started. A couple of the people in the class were there. Steve had brought some donuts. I had one on my way out the door.

It was my first time being an evaluator on the check offs for the EMT practicals. I was nervous because it was my first time. I had a lot of questions for some of the other who had done this before. After the first couple groups I felt more relaxed.

It took the whole morning and into the afternoon for everyone to get through the testing.

I went to Colfax fire and hung out for a while. We watched some movies and talked about the EMT class. Around five I had to head back to Pullman. Just as I was walking out the door they got toned out to a car accident. So I didn’t get to go.

On the way home Pullman got toned out to an alarm. A. Wilcox called and asked if we go. I said I was planning on going to the station. So he said he would come down. I had to make my way from Albion Road and One-Ninety-Five.

It turned out that we just stood by the station for the call.

The evening was sort of slow, but we had three calls. They were spread out so I saw almost every hour until four in the morning. One call I slept through the tones and only woke up when the Ambulance went en route.

Seeing an Old Friend

After my workout I went to George’s office in the IT building on campus. We spent a couple hours catching up on the latest changes around campus. One of which is the restructuring of SCS. George has been moved from SCS and is no longer in charge of it. That is a sad day. SCS is what it is today because of the years of work George has done. It is not clear what is next on George’s plate.

I also went to the Carothers Road structure fire critique. We talked about what happened and how things could have gone better and how things went well. It was a productive meeting.

Final Day in Wildland Class

Today was the final day in Wildland training. I have been doing it all week in Colfax. We did our final sections, then did our written test and shelter deployment test.

After the class I went to help C-Shift with their weekly rig checks. While at rig checks I got a call about going bowling. I had not been bowling in years. Due to my ankle I have not been able to bowl very well.

Kevin, BKoe, and I went to Zeppoz. I was able to bowl pain free. We ended up bowling four games. My first game was around a one-fifty-two. Pretty good for not having bowled in a long time. Brandon is a good bowler and I was only able to beat him once.

After bowling we went to Brandon’s place and we played poker. We were there until nearly four in the morning. We were playing dealers choice. That was fun. It was all low stakes.

Wildland Class Day Two

Today was Wildland class. I was a little tired due to staying out a little late last night. We had a full day in the wildland class. We covered a lot of the sections in the book. It was a fun class over all. The chairs after a while was being a pain in the rear end.

I was on call for the fire department in the evening, but it turned out to be a quiet night with no calls. I was able to sleep through the night.

BKoe the Cop

BKoe invited me to his swearing in at the police station. I showed up to see him become a sworn police officer. I also had a chance to see several of Pullman’s finest and say hello to them all.

After the swearing in I went home to get ready for the Wildland fire class being held in Colfax all weekend. I wasn’t looking forward to the early hours, but I needed to get the class done and out of the way. I figured doing it in Colfax I would be able to skip the Pullman class coming up.

When I got back I went to Rico’s for Andy’s engagement party. Mike had come out from Montana and he was there for the party and they all planned on going to the Cougar Basketball game tomorrow.

I hung out chatting with Andy about his student teaching and his responsibilities that he has coming up following his completion of school. It was great to see Mike as well.

SSDD – Same Stuff Different Day

I went to the fire station this morning to give everyone their worksheets for last nights training. I also spoke with Turpin about a couple shift related things. Nothing major.

I went to Colfax for fire training. It was OTEP in Steptoe. I went up there in the ambulance with several other people. The training was pretty uneventful.

When I got home I worked on my schedule for tomorrow before hitting the hay.

EMT Class Help

Started the day driving to Steptoe for the EMT class. I was doing more medical assessments. My roll was mainly to help people with doing a medical incident. I made up some scenarios and run the groups through it. I did that for most of the time there. I also helped with some check-offs on using the long bone splint for a femur fracture.

For lunch a group of us went to Colfax fire for some pizza and watched the Cougar game. Well we watched the tip-off and the first points scored by the Cougs. We were back at the school until around four in the afternoon.

When I returned I went to the Dodge dealership to look at their trucks. I found one fifteen hundred. But with what I would get for my truck and what they wanted on that truck I would not be making a good switch. I want to reduce the overall amount owed on the truck. I would have only reduced what I owe by about two grand and I would have added about forty-five thousand miles to the rig. Not a good trade off.

I will keep looking until I find the perfect truck and the perfect deal for me.

I went to the Rec center and did a cardio workout. Then I swam five laps. My legs were tired and I was really not swimming super well. But I chalked that up to having just done twenty minutes of cardio.

After the Rec center I went to the casino and played with about forty bucks. That didn’t last forever. Russell was there. He was looking at getting off pretty soon. I was going to give him a ride. But I got a call from Avalon about transporting a person from the hospital. When I was done it was after three in the morning. I went back to the casino wearing a polo shirt and slacks. At first Russell glanced at me thinking I was someone else.

He got off and I gave him a ride to Nick’s apartment. I went home and called it a night.

Colfax Responded to a Structure Fire

I wanted to get my truck washed today because it was pretty dirty. While washing it I was trying to think about what I would do tonight. I figured a trip to the car dealer to see about getting a fifteen-hundred truck would be a good idea.

I upgraded to a twenty-five-hundred because I figured that I would get a camper for my truck. I needed a bigger truck. But with my decision to buy my parents’ motorhome I don’t need a camper at this time and paying off a huge truck payment is probably not necessary.

But before I was completely finished cleaning my truck a call went out for a structure fire for D-twelve. Soon I heard it was a two story house that was fully involved. Calls started to come in for Albion, Colfax, D-Fourteen, and Steptoe.

When Colfax was asked for I called the fire station and asked them to bring my gear so I could help with the fire cause.

Photo By: Hillary Hamm/Daily News

When I arrived I saw what was in the photo above. I helped with the water shuttle. I helped to get a couple of the Colfax rigs filled with water and then helped to fill the dumptanks. I was on scene for around four hours of the night.

Bought a Pop Machine

I did some shopping at Safeway and stopped by Al’s Auto Body to look at the pop machines. I found one that I liked. It was branded as a Coke machine, but I figured the features it had it was worth dealing with that. It has up to nine selections. It holds a lot of pop. Plus I can vary the prices depending on whether I have pop, beer, or some other beverage in the machine.

I had to run home for a bit then I went back to pick it up. I helped to do some cleaning on it and replaced the locking mechanism on it. Then the guy delivered it to my house.

I set it up in the garage. Next to the other vending machine.

I went to Colfax for fire training. We were doing our Confined Space refresher course. That went pretty quick. Carl, Jim, Tim, and I play poker. I had to get some cash from the store. While I was there I saw they had a good deal on some kinds of candy. So I bought thirty bars for the vending machine.

I didn’t do great at cards, but I ended winning a couple hands late and walked away with about fifty cents.

EMT Extrication class

Started the day with Extrication class in Colfax. I got my turnouts from Colfax. My role was at photographer and as a trainer on some of the scenarios. I would set someone up in the car and help people with how to take them out of the car. Later on when we were cutting I mainly was taking the photos of everything. I ended up with more that four-hundred photos on the day.

I worked the Cougar Basketball game. We need to be able to beat Arizona, but we were not able to do it. I don’t know why we are having some of the problems this season that we didn’t last year.

It sucked to lose to them. That sort of put a damper on the day.

Transaction Completed

I met with the crew leaders and the Lt’s about some issues and where we stand in the whole order of things. I went to Colfax a little bit later to complete the transaction for the boat. I met up with Eric at the Auditors office. I signed over the boat to him. He paid me the final portion of the bill.

I went to the fire station and stayed there until they were back from the call they were on. I talked to Ralph about getting into the Red Card class they were going to have coming up. I also got information about the CISD training. There is a class coming up in April. I am thinking about signing up for that. But the class will be in the Seattle area.

I spent some time with Bien on the engine. Once I am satisfied with his knowledge of the engine he is able to get checked off with it. We went down to HazMat training. It was fairly short. I spoke with Chapman about the meeting we had this morning as well as some of the issues we have had with some of the guys.

Another Cancelled Colfax Training

The snow hit hard this afternoon. I was watching it pile up when I heard D-Twelve get toned out to a car accident. Soon I heard it had three cars involved. They asked for Pullman Ambulance and Rescue to get toned out. I knocked on Tyson’s door and went off on the call. McPherson came down as well.

We got to the scene with three cars. We did pop a door on one car, but that was about it as far a rescue went. It was a long scene as we called for an ambulance from Lewiston because we didn’t have career guys to run the other two ambulances in Pullman.

As we were clearing the hospital I heard Colfax get an information tone about the fact that training was cancelled today. That made my life easier. I wouldn’t have to drive down there.

When we were back at the station we cleaned Rescue and I stuck around to chat with the other guys for a little bit before going home. I had some dinner. Plowed the driveway and watched House before going to bed.

Super Bowl Party

Today’s Super Bowl party was held at Bryce’s house in Colfax. I purchased some peanut butter cups, chips, and dip. I brought that down with my pop. I got there around the same time Carl did. He brought his beans stuff. Jim and Connie brought their taquito’s. Everyone had their thing there.

We started by playing some poker. But I was not doing very well. I sort of just bled out money most of the night. We were rooting for the Giants to beat Patriots to ruin their attempt at a perfect season. We stopped playing cards at the start of the game. We were not very impressed with the commercials this year. They were not very funny nor ground breaking.

At half time we played cards until there was about five minutes left in the game. After that we went back to watch the final part of the game. That was probably the best part of the game as well.

We played a tiny bit more cards before calling it a night. I went home and watched the end of House.

Lost the Cable Modem

Last night my internet stopped working. I figured it was due to the snow we had been getting. This morning when I still didn’t have connectivity I called work and let them know what was going on. Then I went off to Colfax.

I contacted TimeWarner about the problem. There were not outages, so to me that meant the modem went bad. An appointment was set up for me for tomorrow.

I decided to work in the jail followed by a trip to Colfax Fire for training. When I got to the fire station I hung out for a little bit. I helped Hickman chain up his car. He didn’t quite know how to use the chains that he had. I had them both on in about five minutes.

I told them I would be responding on call from the jail. I was told there was no training tonight. So I have not been to a training all year due to them either being cancelled or me being gone.

I went over to the jail. The snow had been falling and things were getting bad. The county sent people home for the day. Roads were getting closed. We were getting calls from people asking about the roads. I didn’t get to book anyone today, but I did get a couple teletype warrants sent out.

I worked eight hours in the jail and left shortly after dinner. As I was walking out the tones went off for an unknown injury rollover accident. I made the ambulance. We went en route, but firefighters who got on scene before us said that it was non-injury. So we cancelled and went back to the station.

A day of lots of snow

We got a call today that Wilcox and I went down on. While en route it turned to an echo call. We ended up doing CPR. When we got to the hospital it turned out to be a save. I did compressions at the scene, in the ambulance, and in the hospital. When the call was done we went to the fuel pumps.

I was running late getting to Colfax. I was meeting up with Ken at the Church to go over some computer and networking things before training tonight. I covered the questions he had as well as looked around the area where the equipment would be set up.

As it turned out fire training was cancelled tonight. It was going to be OTEP. With it cancelled I went home and had some of my final meals for the day. I got a call from Russell asking if I would like to watch a movie with him and Nick. I said I would like to, but I needed to get up early.

I have been working on going to bed earlier than normal so I could get up earlier. I don’t know if that will last. I like to be up late. But I don’t know what I am getting out of it. I know what I am losing. My early morning exercise time.

The End of an Era

Ken the Fireman M is no longer. He has taken a job as a pastor at his church. He is giving up firefighting as a full-time career. He said he knees just cannot take it anymore. So, as he said, God has shown him the light to his new career.

I wanted to hang out with Ken on his last day. I have spent many hours in the last five years sitting at the fire station with Ken. I was at home when I heard Ken tone out a transfer. I called him and let him know that I was going to come down there and if there was not a crew that showed up, that I would be there shortly.

As it turned out I was needed. So I met up with the ambulance on scene. It turned out to be a mental patient. So that added a bunch of fun as I had to deal with someone who was not very happy that I was around. The mental health worker was able to help us out.

While I was writing my report at the hospital, David, one of the EMT’s had to get his wife. So he got a ride to my truck and drove my truck to the fire station. He then got his car and picked up his wife.

The hospital staff got what they needed and said we could take her back. So we called David and he came back to the hospital to help us give her a ride back to her residence.

Following the transfers it was time to go back to the station. I said hello to Ken and then went to Rosauers. I was going to get a cake for us to have. I was going to have it say “Happy Birthday Ken 3.0”. That was in relation to the fact he was military, then fire, and now a pastor. So this is his third iteration of a career path. He thought that was cool.

But do to the transfer call I wasn’t able to get the cake. Instead I got him and I some ice cream to share. I stayed at the fire station until around nine o’clock PM. We didn’t get any other calls while I was at the fire station.

We watched some football on TV and I worked on getting my reports completed from the transfers.

Take the long way home

The only real plans for the day was to head back to Pullman. I got my stuff packed and loaded into my truck. I had to make a couple phone calls about the insurance coverage from my surgery as well, but that was something I would do on my way to Pullman.

I hit the road. I knew they pass conditions where not great, but not bad either. I was told that the state patrol was holding up traffic near mile post forty-seven to check for chains or four-wheel drive vehicle. That caused nearly a SIX MILE BACKUP! It was stop and go for a great length of time.

Well the urge to relieve myself of liquids was great. I saw mile post forty-two coming up and Tinkham road was there. I worked my way over and took the exit. I was dismayed when I saw the exit was crawling with people participating in recreational activities.

I went up this road. I was pretty sure it would end at I-Ninety near the police road block. That would cut out about five miles of traffic. I also figured I would find a place to go pee. The problem that I ran into was that the snow was really deep on the side of the road. There were two tracks where peoples’ tires drive.

In front of me was a car and a truck. The car was starting to have problems. The guy stopped and came back to talk with me and the guy in the truck. Finally it was decided that he could not continue up the hill. So without a place to move out of the way, we would have to back out of there. I wasn’t worried about that. But I wanted to go forward not backwards, and I still needed to go to the bathroom.

After backing a short period of time I thought I saw a spot I could pull over. But what happened was instead I got stuck in deep snow. I was mad because I was stuck. I was also worried because I was stuck. The people above me could not get around me either. So they stopped and assisted me in getting un-stuck.

While we were digging the truck out, I said, “just a second, I need to go look at something”. I jumped a small stream and ran up a hill. I was finally able to relieve myself. I got back a little more relaxed. It took a bit more digging to actually get the truck out. I had some people in the back to give more weight over the back axle.

We continued down, but now vehicles were partly in the roadway. That caused me to move wide, and I got stuck again. After I got stuck, one of the guys came down from where he was and moved his truck, that didn’t do me any good. But some people helped me get out.

I got back on I-ninety and continued my slow process of getting over the mountain. Once across the mountain, it had been nearly three hours to get from Seattle to Ellensburg. Some of that was the time getting stuck.

The roads were now bare and dry. I was able to fly. I made up for lost time. When I got to Whitman county the roads looked wet. I was not sure if it was icy, or if it was the chemical that is put on the road to stop from freezing. I drove with caution.

But around milepost one-twenty-six on SR Twenty-Six the roads were icy. I slowed down. A truck I had been following all the way in lost control on a corner. She swerved back and forth across both lanes. She was lucky no one was coming. She lost control because as we rounded a corner someone else had gone off into a ditch.

She hit her brakes and started to lose control. I thought she was going to hit the other vehicle. But instead she missed it and just went on to the opposite shoulder of the road. No injuries in either situation. I continued on. I saw one other vehicle that had gone off the road. I called in both on my radio. I let Whitcom know that we had three cars off the road within one mile. I said the road conditions were really bad.

I went to Colfax fire and hung out there. But no calls came in while I was there. I was hoping for something. Tim was working and Bryson was on for the police. They gave me a hard time about not stopping to take care of the slide offs. I laughed and said that had I done that I would have probably be run over due to the bad road conditions and the fact I had no warning devices to allow the other drivers to know of the danger.

Calls Getting in the Way of Driving

I just couldn’t get out of town today. It started in Pullman. I was up and getting cleaned up. I was thinking about the things I needed to pack to take with me. While doing that a call came in for someone who had fallen at Kamiak Park. I had never been there before so I was actually looking forward to heading there. I got a call from Dearth who also wanted to go, with some of the same feelings that I had about going to the park.

While en route it sounded like they didn’t know exactly where we needed to go. The call was a relay from Latah County Sheriff. We were one of the last units to get on scene. We helped to get the equipment loaded onto a John Deere Gator that was being taken up a trail. The first units on scene split up on the trail where it forked. One crew found the person and we were sending the Gator in. We were told to get the ambulance ready by turning it around and heating up the back.

We went into the hospital with the person and then Dearth and I went back to the station. I had said that I am not responding on any additional calls. It was around noon when that one came in. It was nearly a two hour call. So I was getting behind the eight-ball in terms of getting home during the daylight hours.

I started to pack my stuff. I got everything prepared for me to be gone for almost three weeks. I loaded my truck. Dearth had asked me if I had chains for my truck. I am glad he said something. That helped me remember there were not in the truck. I put them in the truck and took out my Coroner’s stuff.

I hit the road. There was a bit of snow on the roadway and it was snowing. It was slow going to Colfax. One truck decided to take his sweet time driving down there. But like I say, there is a reason for everything. I drove past Island street and looked down the road to the fire station. I thought that a call would have to pretty much come out right now for me to be able to go. Colfax had actually been out on a couple car accidents already.

Just as I was going to turn into the Rosauers parking lot we got dispatched to a roll-over car accident on Airport Road. The car was fully engulfed in flames. I went through the parking lot and got to the station. I put on my turn outs and hopped on Engine One.

We went to the scene. As we were getting to Airport road I didn’t see a column of smoke. I said that outloud to Carl and Jenny. Shortly thereafter Carl said “Hey Scotty, there is your column.” I could see a big column of brown-black smoke. We got on scene. I was packed up and ready to go. I grabbed a blitz line and went into the field where the car was burning.

It was about one hundred feet into the field. I called for water. Approached the car from a corner and started to spray the water. I got the fire on the ground put out. Then worked my way up. One thing I had to be aware of was that we had no hydrant. Only tank water, so I couldn’t be wasteful. I got the passenger compartment of the car put out. Carl opened the hood of the car so I could put all that fire out as well.

I was able to get the whole thing extinguished on tank water. That was a good thing. Really this was my first real car fire that I started, attacked, and put out without anyone else doing anything.

After we got back to the station I helped to clean up everything. I went to Rosauers. I got some stuff for dinner. I hit the road. The Cougs were playing basketball. I was able to listen to the game on the way back. The roads had snow on them causing some slow going at times. Actually the pass and into Issaquah were the best parts of the drive. I was able to cruise along at a good clip most of the way anyhow. The Cougs won and I got home safely.

A Night on the Town

I got up late this morning, allowing myself to sleep in. I got on the computer and worked on a couple bugs for work before I went to Colfax. I was there for only about four hours. But I got three bookings and releases done. It was the guys who were busted for the frat fight last month.

I went to Colfax for training. We were doing cardiac emergencies. Before the training started we went on a ambulance call for a cardiac emergency. The class went from seven until almost nine-thirty. I was put in charge a group doing CPR.

Following training it was back to Pullman. I was going to meet up with some of the guys from the FD at Pete’s for Wiley night. I got down there and it was packed. The line to get anything was long and thick. It took about forty minutes to get to the front of the line. Dearth and Wilcox were in front of me. Anton, Bien’s friend, was also with them. We spent the time talking about various things. I finally got my pitcher of beer and went to the table. I saw Grim and Andy from poker playing fame. A. Wilcox was there so was Pritchett. Blake was on his way out the door. A. Wilcox came up to hang out with us. I finished off the beer and we headed up to the Zuu.

I was in the very back of Dearth’s blazer. I left my truck at Pete’s. On the way I farted. I didn’t think it was bad, it people started to make a huge deal about the smell. Bien was pretty drunk, so I was able to get everyone to blame him.

When we were going in the Zuu Bien’s girlfriend, Megan was texting him. I took over his phone and started to respond to her. She wanted to pick him up. We were able to keep him until midnight.

At the Zuu I saw Peter as well as Loren. Doug, Denise, and Neils were there as well. I had another pitcher of beer as we sang a couple songs on karaoke. We closed out the bar. Dearth was really drunk and left. Wilcox also left because he was drunk. So it was just Anton, Bien, and I left. I got a ride home, and I was feeling the alcohol.

I drank a lot of water before finally going to bed.