Bought a Vending Machine

After my workout this morning I went to the surplus sale. I needed to buy a computer for running Windows Home Server. I read about vending machines they had. I looked them up online but didn’t find anything about these models. I had no idea how expensive it would be. I talked to someone ahead of time to figure out how the auction worked. What I found out was that I could get one item rather than all six of them. I looked them over several times. I found one I liked.

Finally they got to that part in the auction. The auctioneer started at fifty bucks for all of them. Then he came down in price. Soon he said how about “by choice”. He then started at ten bucks. Then five bucks. He then asked “is anyone even interested?” I raised my hand. He said “how much do you want to pay?” I knew the lowest price allowed is two-fifty. But I said five bucks is fine. Someone said, right afterwards, I should have said that I would take it for two-fifty.

I also bought a new file cabinet. It is a nice Steelcase model. Very solid. I have been waiting to buy one for a long time. Finally I pulled the trigger.

I went home and cleared a spot in the garage for the vending machine. I got a couple people online with me to get the vending machine. I picked up Dearth and Bien. We went to the surplus stores and loaded it and the file cabinet in my garage.

I spent some time messing around with it. I found that it is in working order. I am going to talk to the people at Colfax Fire to see if we have a spot for one. I was thinking about one down at the Deuce, but I don’t know if we have room for one down there.

I finished up my report of my coroner’s case from yesterday. I had to go to Colfax to turn that in and meet with Ken. He was trying to find out what it would take to record his sermons directly to the computer. I checked everything out and it will be pretty easy for him to do. I dropped off my stuff at the coroner’s office and it was back to Pullman for me.

BKoe and I were going to hang out tonight. We decided that we would watch a movie or play a game. He came over to my place and we played a game he recently purchased. It was pretty fun. We played it for several hours. It was great to get a chance to hang out with him.

No CPR Teaching

I got a call this afternoon as I was eating lunch from Pete about a case in Pullman. He asked if I would take it. I went ahead and took it. It was several hours to get the whole thing investigated and find the information around the place that was needed to complete the investigation.

I had enough time to scarf down dinner and meet Bien at the fire station for a CPR class. It turned out that the class had no one sign up for it. So we just cleared and went back to The Deuce to work down there.

We did rig checks with Parrish. We spent some time talking about training issues. We only got one call while I was on duty and it was a fire call. I was hoping for something that would allow me to do EMS stuff. But no such luck.

Poker Night at Dan’s

The plan was to get together earlier than normal to play poker at Dan’s. John and Denise played as well. Denise did well with it. I also left up around ten bucks. We played dealer choice like normal. It was pretty amazing that we saw two hands with quads and one hand that was a straight flush in Texas Hold’em or Omaha. John and Dan didn’t do too well however.

I got my battery for the quad. I installed it and used it to plow what was left on my driveway. I also hit the sidewalk down my side of the road to the mailboxes. I need to do the other way as well. We are supposed to get snow soon. I will do it after it snows next.

Playing on Rescue

I picked up my glass for the project I am working on for the fire department. I also tried to get a new batter for the Quad, but Pullman Honda was closed. So I was on my way home. I realized that I did my measurements correctly and added correctly… for one side of the frame! Not both sides. So I am off in the glass size. That is a problem because now the glass will not fit snugly like I had hoped. So I am going to either have to spend about thirty-five bucks fixing it, or I am going to have to figure out a way to refit the wood. I think I have come up with an idea. It should work. We shall see. But I am going to have to trim down the posterboard a little bit.

Without training tonight, and with A. Wilcox’s vehicle being out of service, I decided that I would run Rescue calls with the other guys until the other crew got here. I was able to respond on one call.

Cougs Roll On

There was some drama today when two reserves took a transfer. Several people are up in arms over it. They are mad because that could set a precedent for the future. I was at the station when a couple guys were talking about it.

Later I went to Beasley with the other guys to work the Cougar Basketball game. It started out slowly for the Cougs. Oregon was scoring and the Cougs couldn’t. Oregon held on the lead most of the game. But the Cougs chipped away at it.

In the final minutes of the game the Cougs were even with the Ducks. Then it went to a shot made by the Cougs putting us up with less then forty-five seconds to go. The Ducks took a shot and missed. The Cougs rebounded. The crowd which was already very loud, got very very loud. The Ducks fouled the Cougs. And from there we just kept adding points as we would make the free-throws and get rebounds off of the Ducks’ misses. It was great to see the Cougar victory.

The Whole Day on the Clock

I was teaching a first aid class with Bien. We only had two people in the class. So it gave for a lot of one on one time with everyone. But it was harder than most classes because they opened up and asked a lot of questions. That was a good thing though.

Because we got done with class so quickly we decided to do some engine drive time with Bien. We spent about two hours in the engine. The roads were so dirty that the engine was terribly dirty. We washed it up and made it look nice.

Russell and Nick needed a ride to SEL for the band banquet. I had enough time to give them a ride there before the time I needed to be at the fire station for our training tonight.

We did the rig checks at the station and then spent a couple hours covering the new SOP’s that cover several different subjects. We went into more depth on the SOP covering the Passport system.

We had a ton of calls, but only ended up getting one engine call. A. Wilcox was the command on that one. He had to do the report, so I helped him fill it out on the computer. He did a very good job on the radio. Parrish and I both commented about it.

Met the New CEO

I met the CEO of the new company. I am a little more worried about everything. I need to write a skills sheet. I am not sure if it is only going to be used like the CEO said, or whether he will be using it against us when it comes to negotiating wages.

I started out the day by picking up my quad from Renton Honda.

We went out to lunch and met up with Chris. We went to the Crossroads Mall. Because the new CEO was in the office and because we had to do some things I ended up not leaving too early.

The trip to Pullman wasn’t bad at all. While I was driving Mitzel called me about giving the softball team over to me! I have waited for this opportunity for a long time. It has gone from JT to Mitz and now me.

I contacted KStew about playing on the team. He said he would think about it. He is planning on possibly putting a team together again. I let him know that there is room on the team for him and Jake as well as some others.

Lunch at the Pigs

Today was the normal lunch at the Three Pigs with Jon and the crew. Noah and Ricky came along as well. We got there around eleven-thirty to make sure we got a big enough table for everyone to sit at. I was able to make a trade with someone who had a larger table.

We all had our meals and talked about the status of NU and the possible upcoming changes. The all joked about me being the eternal optimist. It was pretty clear that everyone knew that about it.

I don’t think there is anything wrong with being an optimist.

The Day After Failure

After failing to get a workout completed and eating way more than I should have, I needed to buckle down today. I had to shake off my failure and rebuild my confidence in the fact I can succeed at doing this.

Because of this I decided that I would get both a workout completed and I also did a session of cardio. That caught me up to my missed items. That was a good step in the correct direction.

Running Around

I had to meet with the doctor this morning about the CPAP machine and see how things were going. I also needed to go to Apria to get a new mask. I also talked to them about a new machine. I wanted to have two of them. One would stay in Renton and one in Pullman. I wouldn’t have to travel with one anymore. It will be that much less packing. I did get one. It was smaller than my old one. It also had some newer features that the old one didn’t. One will recognize if I am breathing and the machine is not on. It will turn on. One also lowers the air pressure when I breath out to make it easier.

After work I had to run a mattress to someone who bought it from my mom. I helped to get it upstairs in the buyers’ house. I got paid ten bucks for my trouble. Bill and I picked up some pizza from Papa Murphys on the way back.

That killed my plan for the day. I ate way more than I should have. I felt bad when I was done eating. I just love pizza. I love it while it is first cooked and warm. I just can’t let it sit there. So I kept eating, and ended up finishing off four slices. I should have only had two. Plus I didn’t get into the workout today because of the morning doctor appointment and the evening of doing the work for my mom.

The Darkness of the Unknown

With the whole unknown about what is happening with the company taking us over, we have had some interesting conversations. One of the first things Ricky told me is that I should start looking for a new job. He said he has been. I know that Noah has pretty much not been asked back, so he is out and about looking for a job.

I am not sure how to take it all. I would like to stay here keeping everything going as is. I am hoping that when they come down to work with us that they offer some nice pay and we retain the people we have.

I made it into the East Highlands Fitness to do my workout tonight. There was one group of guys who were working out together. One younger guy, who was ten-six-seven, had ripped arms. Very well defined. But his legs weren’t overly defined like is arms. When I see that I always wonder if these guys only work on their arms to make them look good, but let the rest of the body just go to heck. I am sure he does some stuff for legs, but compared to his arms, they looked weak.

Speaking of ten-six-seven, the TV show Kyle XY is back on the air. I started to follow the show last season. Now I am pretty much hooked and I keep watching it. I like it, and the main character is very ten-six-seven.

Leisurely Seattle Trips

One of those days where I am not in a real big hurry. It was a free day from my workout routine. I was able to sleep in a little more than normal. I had some breakfast. I wasn’t going to splurge because I spent a week getting here. Why ruin it in one day.

I worked on getting packed. Got a couple things completed on the computer. Then it was off to get some gas. I went to Safeway for that because I had a big fuel discount coming my way.

I hit the road. It was strange because there were no Seahawks to take me across the state. There was nothing to listen to sports-wise. I tried to listen to my music in the car, but it was coming out mono. That really sucked.

Now it was off to Othello. I planned on getting a six inch Subway sandwich from there. I got one of the lower calorie sandwiches they offered. There was one group in front of me. We got there about the same time, but they were ordering a ton of sandwiches. Rather than offering to let me go first, they let me sit there for the ten minutes it took to get their stuff done. I hit the road again.

When I got back to Renton I stopped at the store to get some food for breakfast. I planned on making my meal plan very simple and straight forward. I am pretty much going to have the same breakfast all week. It was the easiest way for me to do anything.

At home I spent some of the time finding something to eat around the house for dinner that was good. I put my stuff in my room and called it a night. I just watched some TV, but the Sunday night shows I like to watch were not all on.

First Case of Ought-Eight

After my final workout of the week today I planned on doing several things. Such as working on the frame, going to the women’s basketball game, watching the men’s basketball game, watching the Seahawks game, doing some work on the computer. I really only ended up being double booked.

I found I was on call for the coroner. But it is rare for a call. I had to go to Beasley just before noon for the women’s basketball game. But before eleven I got a call from Pete. Someone died in St. John. Normally he would take the case, but he wasn’t there. So I had to go up there. That meant I was going to miss part of the game and be late getting there.

I hit the road and started to head to St John. I went as quickly as possible with the road conditions as they were. I also got to listen to the Cougs. But they were not able to do anything against the Bruins. It was ugly.

I did my investigation the scene and went back to the funeral home to finish up the investigation. By this time the Cougs had made a run at winning, but were not able to pull it out of the fire. They were down by double-digits most of the game. But they came back to within three.

The Seahawks came on. I was expecting a lot when they went up by two quick touchdowns within the first few minutes. But that is as far as it would go. The Packers just kept scoring and scoring.

I was able to watch the last part of the game on TV at Beasley. I had made it home and back to Beasley at half time. I was able to put in my time there and watch the Seahawks. But it was ugly as well.

A. Wilcox is a Packers fan so I told him if they win he is sitting in the back of the engine for the rest of the year.

We were having a meeting when the tones went out for a structure fire. Turned out to be nothing. Later in the night we got toned out for another structure fire. That one also turned out to be nothing. In both cases they appeared to have been smoke detectors set off by cooking.

A Job Offer

I lost some sleep last night over what E-mail I got from the marine patrol. I was angry over the whole thing. It feels like we are going to be tested on something, but we don’t know the standards. I am told that everyone should be able to do it, yet we were all given warning to prepare for it. So what is it, should we be able to do it without preparation? Should we have to do some workouts to get ready. All this was floating in my head.

That is when I decided that it shouldn’t be causing me any stress at all. I do that for the fun of it. Something to do to keep busy. I got to the point that if that is how he felt, I would just turn in my stuff. I don’t need a “fun” job cause me any kind of stress like that. So I finally felt good about the whole thing, because I put it in perspective. I got to the point where I was willing to just let it go. I got to the point where I am ready to walk away if that is what is needed. I am relaxed.

I got a call today from the CEO of the company that is buying mine. He said I should be getting an e-mail with an intent to offer me a position with the new company. There wasn’t a lot of questions that I had, that I wanted to ask at that juncture, but I have a lot of questions. I am not sure what this will mean to my work-from-home status. I don’t know about pay, benefits, stocks, etc. I am sort of excited to do some negotiations.

I made some rounds today, getting some stuff done that I needed to complete. Including getting the glass ordered for my picture frame. I got my checks dropped off at the bank. I exchanged the shirt Jon got for Lisa for a larger size. I also picked up some new windshield wipers for the truck.

Most of the day was pretty quiet. I spent a fair amount of it on the computer. I also responded on a couple daytime calls. I had planned on working on the frame, but without the glass I don’t want to make any cuts or holes until I know how the glass will fit into it.

A Difference of Opinion

A while back I was sent an E-mail from the Sgt in charge of the marine patrol. The marine patrol techs were told that we needed to do a swim test coming up. We were told that we should start to get ready for it. This was some cause for concern as I wasn’t sure what it would include in the test. Normally you practice for a test to make sure you’re going to pass it.

I wanted to know what events would be needed, but I never really got a good response from the Sgt. So I started swimming and doing some stuff to get ready for the test. It had been scheduled last week. So I knew it was going to be in the middle of February. That meant that I was down to crunch time.

So I wanted to see how much more I needed to do in order to pass the test. I sent an E-mail to the Sgt. I really wish I hadn’t done that. He responded to it saying that he is concerned over my concern about the test. He went on to explain what is expected out of the MPA’s. I don’t know how you can expect someone to be at a certain level, then warn them to “get in shape” for the upcoming test and not tell them what the test is. Then when I ask about it, I become a concern. He wanted to meet with me again. I am not sure what he wants to meet about, but he asked when I was next coming to town.

It caused me some stress, but I responded to the E-mail. I re-read and changed it around until I only had about three lines in the E-mail back to him. I much told him I believe I can do the things required of me, that I wont fail. I also told him when I would be back there. That was a bummer for sure.

I was on duty for Pullman tonight. I went down early for rig checks. I got two of the guys’ SCBA quarterlies completed. We went down to Station One for the fire critiques from the Earthtone apartment fires. That took about two hours total.

I took two guys out to the bay there and got them through the SCBA Quarterlies.

Then we went back to Station Two. I had one more person to get through the SCBA Quarterlies. I got that knocked out. I spent some time with the new guy, Clark, to go over the response codes and when to show up and when not to show up.

Movie Night at Russells

After working out I spent some time taking photos and cleaning off my driveway of snow. I also cut away some of the tree limbs from the tress that cover my walkway. It is nice and clear for walking through that area now.

From NE Terre View Drive on the way back from my workout

The Bumblebee Before cleaning off its snow

The Bumblebee filled with *some* of the snow in the driveway

Russell, Nick, and I met up tonight to watch Another Gay Movie. It is more or less a spoof of American Pie. With some parts of other movies. It had some very funny parts. I agreed with Nick when the part where one of the gay guys came out to him mom.

He always wore lipstick, fingernail polish. He was very feminine, and just girl-like. But he thought he mom was clueless. So finally he came out to his mom, she looked at him with some surprise, then said “Well, Duh!”

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.

First day on Body for Life

Today I got up very early in the morning for me. I made myself some breakfast and went to the rec center. I did my complete workout. I was a little sore afterwards. When I completed that I came home to clean up. I took a short nap because I was very tired.

This afternoon we had fire training. It was the SCBA quarterlies. We only had to put them on and then we did a search in the bay looking for a sounding PASS alarm. Two different teams went at once in a race to find the item. The training was quick overall.

Ken is Senior Pastor

Being as tired as I was I hard a hard time getting out of bed for getting to Colfax for Church. I got cleaned up, dressed up, and drove to Colfax. When I got to the church I shook the hands of the greeters and found my place near the back.

Joy saw me and gave me a hug. I also saw Tim, both chiefs, and Milt. Ken also saw me and came over. The church service was nice. They played a couple modern Christian songs. During that time everyone stood up. Some people sang along. They would raise their hands. Some of the songs were good ones. I guess I should say they were all good. But a couple got me tapping along with it.

Then they did a ceremony for accepting Ken as the pastor of the church. Following that Ken did a sermon on Time. There were some good points that he brought up. What is interesting to me is that this blog is called “Shorter of Breath”. Which is part of a line from the Pink Floyd song “Time”. I have included the whole verse in my blog description. It is big to me.

There was a period of time where I feel like I wasted my life. I spent my early twenties working every evening. I missed out on a bunch of things that my other college friends did. Maybe it was all for the best, but I still had the feeling of lost time. But I look back over my life and I feel like there is more that I could do.

I don’t know if that is really the case. Maybe I can work harder and filling my day with less down time. But I don’t think it is about quantity of things done, but the quality of the time I spent doing it. I have a blog from several years ago when I was with the old softball group. We ended at Lester’s house. While there it just felt like we were having a high class party.

I find many times I have the best and most memorable time when I am out of my element. When I leave my comfort zone. But many time I have a lot of fun while in my comfort zone as well. I should sit in a corner and dwell on what makes it so I have a good time and work on trying to fulfill that.

When church was done it was back home. I went with Russell to pick up Nick from the Flag lane. He was coming in on the bus. We drove down to Cougar Country for lunch. Then I took Russell and Nick to Russell’s place. We looked at some photos from a party they were at.

After I got home, I worked on the photo board project for the fire station. I got my list ready of things I needed to buy at the store. I went to play poker at Zeppoz. I came in ninth place. That is a drop of two places from times past.

I stopped at Safeway and did my big shopping. I purchased a lot of fruit and vegetables. Plus many other things I was going to need to start my Body for Life twelve week program. This is something I can continue to do, over and over. To me each start and ending point will be a nice goal period. I get my weekly goals. With each Sunday is a “free” day. One were I can relax and not stay so regimented with the food I eat. Can you say Pizza?!

Also at the end of the twelve week period I will hopefully see a change in my health, weight, stamina, strength, and softball power hitting abilities. My first twelve weeks will be done at the end of March. I will be nearing the end when Softball season is going. I hope that I will see some positive improvement by then.

I started to work on my meal plan for tomorrow. They have the first week plotted out for you. I am going with that, and making minor changes along the one.

Tomorrow is the start of a new path. Since moving into my house I have done things to be cleaner. I have always been bad at leaving things laying where I last used them. I always had a clean kitchen, but my bedroom is always covered in clothes and other things that just never found a home. I have worked hard to keep the house clean. I wash my truck weekly. With the snow and ice I haven’t washed it lately. But keeping a clean truck is important.

I have kept that up longer than anyone in my family thought I could. Longer than I thought I could. I also have kept my budget tracking going the whole time too. I think I am ready for anther change in my life where this is not a fly-by-night one time work out. This is going to be a change in my life. I am trying to ease into it rather and shocking the system too much. So for the last week I have been eating less and more healthy on my own.

I thought about going to bed a little earlier. Then I will take a power nap after my work out to get a little more sleep before starting my day.

Purchased More Tools

I stopped at Pullman Building Supply to pick up some more tools for my project. I have new saw blades, router bits, clamps, and more. I am excited to get to use them.

I went out to the garage to start to use these new tools. How nice is that? I made my cuts on the frames to make them have angled corners after I “measured twice, and cut once”.

I also got the Cougar basketball game on the radio as I was working on the frames. I was getting places. The Cougs were playing the Huskies and were trailing for much of the game. I put a pizza in the oven.

With four minutes to go on the pizza, the tones went off. There was around two minutes to go in the basketball game. I had to turn off the oven. We ended up going code to the scene so we were not able to hear the end of the game while driving there.

But due to the cramped conditions inside the house we were told to stay at our vehicle. That allowed us to listen in as the Cougs won the game. We were cleared shortly thereafter. I figured I would get warm pizza. But instead we were quickly called to another location.

We were first on scene and transported. Following the transport, I got my pizza. It was cold. I heated it up a little bit, but it is never as good the second time around.

We got a couple more calls on the night, but nothing major.

Body for Life

I have been planning for a while to make my way to the swimming pool to start to get ready for the testing that I am going to have to do soon, but I haven’t done it yet. I also had my first Town Crier column. That started the challenge for me to count down the pounds. I have a goal that I archaically stated in my column. No one really knows what it means except for me. I am going to write down what the next value is. It will keep counting down until my last Town Crier, which should be two years from now. I hope by that time I will have make major strides into what I am doing.

I was paying a great deal of attention to eating smaller, lighter meals. So I was trying to figure out how many calories are in a Cougar Super Basket. I really don’t know if I want to know. But I would guess somewhere around a Big Mac meal at McDonald’s.

While I was researching that I hit upon (I should say hit BACK upon) the Body for Life site. I am going to give their twelve week program a try that combines weight training, cardio, and nutrition into a program that lasts twelve week. That is eighty-four days. What is nice about this program is that Sunday’s are rest days. You get to eat what you want. But I am sure that as you work hard for six straight days, people don’t tend to go nuts. But to know there is a day of the week you can have a bowl of ice cream or a candy bar is nice. Rather than not allowing for the occasional candy, you can have it.

I would say that is my biggest downfall. I don’t think I eat more than many other people. It is just the choices I make when I do eat. When I am hungry, rather than filling up on something more healthy, I tend to get less than healthy things to fill up on. For instance in the past, I was hungry and ate Oreo’s. I just kept chowing as I was hungry. What I needed to do was eat something else to satisfy the hunger and than have a couple Oreo’s as a treat. It is about access and taste. I think the biggest thing the could help me is if there was a way for me to all of a sudden like lots of foods I don’t like. Such as vegetables. That would make life a whole bunch easier.

It is going to be hard to stay on this strictly when I am back at my mom’s in Seattle, but I will do what I can during that time. Maybe the local gym would be willing to see a one week pass or something like that.

Other than that, how are things? They are well. I worked the women’s basketball game with Bien. I spent most of my time in the first aid room watching TV and working on new phone. Getting contacts set up. I was trying to get the recordings created so I could use my voice activated dialing. So far that has not worked out too well. Many times I tell it to dial one thing, and it really dials something else.

There is more work to be done on that.

Playing with the New Phone

I got my HTC Sixty-Eight-hundred yesterday. I started to set it up. Today I got the phone on the Sprint network. That was pretty quick to do. Once on the network I was able to make some phone calls. I tested my headset and the headset that came with the phone. Both worked. I was able to get the mini-sd card filled with music. I am going to sync my new eight gig card I bought today when it comes in. I will probably leave a couple hundred meg free for other purposes.

I went down to the Deuce around six to start rig checks. Bien and Williams were working with me. We got to talking. Pretty soon it has been nearly two hours. The Bumblebee was running the whole time in the parking lot. We got called out to a fire alarm. That didn’t amount to very much. So we cleared pretty quickly.

Beer Pong

I got my new cell phone today. I unpackaged it and started to work on getting it set up with my settings and figuring out how it works.

Nick and I decided we would decide to go on Rescue calls today. But when we got one. It was a fire alarm. We responded on that one. That was all we got for the rest of the night. I went to the station around five to meet up with Nick to wash Rescue. Michael was down there so we started to chat about a couple things.

I got a text message from Peter about beer pong at his place. It was starting at one in the morning. When I got there several people were there. A group of people would play beer pong as the others sat on the coach playing video games or watching TV. I never played beer pong, but I enjoyed watching the others play.

I was there until around three in the morning. I got home and worked on my computer, but the network was running poorly. I finally went to bed at four in the morning.

Town Crier III – First Column

My first Town Crier Column has appears in the Daily News:

TOWN CRIER III: Help make 2008 the ‘Year of the People’
By Scotty Anderson
Wednesday, January 2, 2008

I host a local weekly talk radio show called The PES. Looking back to the year 2002 when I hosted my first show, the community has never been as divided as it is now.

I was looking over the summaries of some of my old radio shows and the subjects included the proposal for a national ID card, gun control and gun rights, gay rights, racial profiling, crime, the city of Pullman budget woes, Pullman Transit, zero tolerance rules, President George W. Bush, the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Enron, and the United Nations. I prefer to talk about local political issues, but there were no long-lasting hot-button issues.

That is until Wal-Mart, big-box stores, water rights, and the corridor development made the front pages of this very newspaper. Those issues have driven a wedge between families, friends, neighbors and cities. The battle lines have been drawn and for the past couple of years, those topics have dominated a large part of my radio show.

I believe everything that could be said about the Wal-Mart issue already has been argued – nothing new is being brought forth. It is time to stop the constant bickering.

A new year has just been thrust upon us. This is our chance to start a new focus on the people of the Palouse. Let’s make 2008 the “Year of the People of the Palouse.”

Allow me, if you will, to take you back one week into the past. I was driving to Pullman from Renton, Wash., after spending Christmas with my family. I exited I-90 at Tinkham Road. I was driving up a roadway that was narrow and covered with snow.

There was a four-wheel drive pickup truck in front of me. There was a small passenger car in front of the pickup truck. We were making our way up the hill into the woods. The farther we went, the deeper the snow got.

Soon the car was starting to get stuck. The driver of the car got out and walked back to the pickup truck driver and me. I noted he was wearing a grey sweatshirt with the symbol of the Oregon Ducks. He told us he was getting stuck and he would have to reverse his course.

The reality of the situation was that we would have to back all the way out to the main road. There was no place to turn around because of the amount of snow on the sides of the road. We didn’t argue with the man from the car. We didn’t get mad at him. We did what we had to do to help him get out of there.

As we were backing out, my vehicle got stuck in deep snow. Even in four-wheel drive, I was not getting enough traction to get out of the snow. Without asking any questions, without worrying about what university I was from, without being asked, the people from the car and the pickup truck came to my aid.

They got a shovel and started to dig my truck out of the snow. Once we got enough of the snow dug out, several people got into the back of my truck to add weight to the rear axle.

Three other people who were snowshoeing came to my aid, also, without being asked. The people on the snow shoes pushed from the front of the truck. One of them was wearing a purple Husky hat. Again, it didn’t matter to him that I am a Coug.

I got unstuck and continued to back down the narrow snow covered road. That was the true idea of neighbor helping neighbor. Cougar-Husky-Duck at that time we were neighbors, not competitors.

I am sharing this story about my experience on the snowy road to hopefully give incentive for you to find as many chances as possible to help out your fellow Palouse residents. With your dedication to this principle, we can make 2008 the Year of the People of the Palouse!

With the last couple words I have been granted to write in this column, I would like to ask the readers to keep track with me: T minus 148.

Scotty Anderson is a computer programmer who enjoys serving the community through various community-oriented service jobs. You can reach Scotty at crier@cityofpullman.com.

Looking Back on the Last Year

Jan – Joining the CISD Team – I started the evening off going to Colfax for a CISD team meeting. They were looking for new members, so I thought I would see what it is about. Now it seems that I am on the team and they are looking at having a training class come in soon to get the new people trained.

Feb – How Many Really Know? – When I got home I wrote back and forth with Matt and Monte about the call from yesterday. I told Matt that I was not offended and that he could not offend me. I asked both to keep the information secret. I also asked Monte how Tom knew about it. It was Tom who told Monte. Monte said he heard about it several years about and it was a non-issue to him. I was surprised to hear that Tom has known about it for three or four years. Monte said “remember it is a small world”.

Mar – The Start of What was to Date my Best Softball Year – Then there was another play where I had to go hard to my right, more or less a dive and scoop a ball. When I came up with it I looked down at home where someone was running, but I did not think I would be able to make the play, so I held on it the ball. We were playing A Bunch of Old Guys, which use to be Don’t Care. We lost to them by three runs. It sucked.

Apr – My First Shift Patrolling with the Marine Patrol – Then we went to the boat. We went through some things about the boat and then we were underway. We made a couple stops of people who were breaking the wake zones. I saw him do an inspection. Then on the next stop I did the inspection. We spent some time driving along the shore line of Medina, Hunts Point, and we were working our way to Yarrow Point.

May – A Police Officers’ Funeral – At about 10:00 AM the procession started. It was long enough that as my vehicle was pulling into the parking of the Kibbie Dome the last cars were leaving Tidyman’s. Along the route people were standing on the sides of the streets and police officers on Motorcycles where blocking intersections. There were people who had their hand over their heart, American Flags, signs of support, and cub scout troops along the way.

Jun – An Incredibly Fun Softball Tournament in Waitsburg – But we had an eight run lead going into the seventh inning. They were the home team because they were undefeated. In the bottom of the seventh all we had to do was to get three outs and go to the second game. But they started to hit the ball. I knew our team was hurting when after the inning the jumping back slaps that Kelly and some of the other would do turned into just back slaps. The jumping was over with. In my second to last at bat, there were two outs and I was on first base. My quads were sore and I did not want to run. But I brought up my positive mental attitude by thinking about the fact that I want this. That I had gone this far and I just have to do it.

Jul – Final Men’s Game is a FFT – Tonight the records were supposed to fall, however, when the other team could not come up with enough players to fill the team, we would end up getting a FFT. That sucked because Michael B, Bill, and I were all up for records to be broken. I needed one walk to tie Skyler. That was my goal. I did not want to beat the record because it has been around for so long.

Aug – Ryan Gamble Get Married – Once that was done we were back at the hotel, the time was counting down for the wedding to start. People started to file into the Davenport hotel. The wedding started and it lasted around thirty minutes total. I was the best man and stood next to Ryan. It was neat to see the whole thing.

Sept – Bought a Lightly Used Truck – By this time in the day I realized that I did want to get the truck, but only if I got it for twenty-one-five. A while later the sales manager called back and said I could get it for twenty-one-seven, plus a full tank of fuel. I said I would do it.

Oct – Introducing the Next Coroner of Whitman County? – Pete said he was happy to hear that I would like to do it. He said he plans on not running in twenty-twelve. So that would be when I would need to run. By then some of the other guys would be a lot more trained and may want to run as well. So I figured I would talk to Pete right away and have him start to groom me to be the next coroner.

Nov – A Night of Arson’s in Pullman – On our arrival to the scene I could see a five inch across Spring Street. We parked in such a way to protect the hose. We walked up to the scene. While walking up the road a man asked us if the smoke coming from his garage was a normal amount. Because he was a neighbor of the fire, he figured some of the smoke was from the fire. But it was pouring out, and I could tell it was not from the other fire.

Dec – Ankle Operation Part Two – I walked into a room with a table for me to lay on. I got up there and the anaesthesiologist started to prepare me to go under. Before I knew it I was asleep. Later I woke up not feeling well. I was being wheeled out to the recovery room. I heard one of the nurses talking to someone else, saying “you’ll have to break it to him.” I still don’t know what they meant by that.

It is always hard to put this list together. There was the day at the jail when I found out that Poff and Capt, as well as everyone else, has known about me for years. Or November when the boys made their first trip to Pullman to see Cougar Football and Basketball. There are many other examples. As usual. If I were to do this another day I am sure some of these choices would be different, but some of them would be the same for sure.

Most of today I responded on calls at the station. But most of the time no one was showing up to go with me. So I stood by on most of them. One of the calls Gecas showed up and we went on the call.

We also got a couple calls during the evening hours. I couldn’t find my pager. I looked around the house for it, I looked around the station, I checked my truck as well. I couldn’t find it. I am a little worried that I lost it on the call I went on with Gecas.

I worked on getting my E-mail inbox cleaned out. It took a while to go through all the messages. I really should go through everything again and reorganize it some more. But I am probably not going to.

Another Year in the Books

Wilson and I were planning on responding on calls today. When one came out, the Rescue was out of service, so we didn’t get to go anyway. The Rescue came back in service around five in the evening. So I didn’t get to play today.

I worked on my table saw. I want to get a new blade for it. So I was going to have to get the old one off of it. I got some stuff to help loose the bolt because when I looked at it, it appeared to be pretty gunked up. I worked on the bolt for about twenty minutes before I was able to get it off. It turned out that Pullman Building Supply was closed. I wasn’t able to get a new blade anyway.

I spent part of the day messing around on the computer. Some of the day was spent watching some TV shows. I feel like there are a lot of things I want to get done. I am at a point where I wanted to work on my big project involving the reserve website but the problem is I didn’t want to waste this day away just doing that.

The new years eve parties only come once a year and I wanted to partake in at least one. Doug said he was working at The Zuu. So I decided to go there. Mark was there and we spent most of the time I was there talking. Peter showed up for a while. He blind sided me with a new years kiss on the cheek. I saw Catlin there. His girl is the one who I always buy my pop from down at the Tesoro.

While at The Zuu I noticed the DJ. He was a ten-six-seven. I watched him for a while. Then I found out that Peter knew him, so I asked Peter what his name was. I also saw this other ten-six-seven. He was an all around hottie. He had the ski-jump style nose, a nice trimmed patch of hair under his chin. He was the boy next door type. I just enjoyed the view as I was standing there talking to people.

I left around one in the morning.

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.

Playing Pool with BKoe

I met up with Russell this afternoon. I wanted him to read my Town Crier III column. He read it and really liked it. So I was pretty happy about that. I wasn’t sure if it was going to make sense or be worth printing. It is sort of a fluffy crappy one, but it is the first one of the new year and I don’t want to do anything too outlandish yet.

Russell and I decided to go see Charlie Wilson’s War. We both liked the movie. Russell always gets more philosophical and tries to relate thing they are doing in the movie to real life. I prefer to leave it as a story. I don’t try to find the hidden messages.

When it was done I gave Russell a ride to someones condo. I texted Brandon and we decided to go to The Zuu. We played some pool with Kevin who was already up there. Peter was up there as well. I also saw Doug.

There was talk about setting up a poker game at my place, but that fell through quiet rapidly. Brandon and I stayed there until the bar was closed and we were kicked out. We were talking about his chances of being a police officer. We were also talking about guns and concealed carry issues. It was a nice conversation with Brandon. It was great to get a chance to just hang out with him.

Hanging with Mike D

Today was the final day of the men’s basketball pre-Pac-Ten games. It was a pretty easy victory for the men. I worked it with Nick. I spent a fair amount of the time talking to the WSU cops. We first talked about a recent death that took place on campus. It was a pretty tragic thing.

Later on I was just chatting with a couple other ones about Colfax PD. One of them was a Colfax cop for a while.

Towards the end of the game the Cougar starters were all on the bench to make way for the young guys to get play time. They got a lot of it today.

I got a text message from Mike D. He was in town for the basketball game. He asked if I was interested in going to Pete’s for Wiley’s. I was on call for the Coroner so I could not drink, but I wanted to see Mike. It has been a while. He now lives in Montana.

I drove down there in the Bumblebee when I saw that Pete’s was closed. Soon I saw three people walking down the road including Mike. He had two girls with him and that all had Wiley glasses. We ended up going to Rico’s. I saw Johnson there. I gave him a howdy.

Then I was introduced to a guy named Nick. He was blue eyed and ten-six-seven. I also got some non-weedeater-owning vibes from him. Mike, the girls, and I went up stairs and played some pool. Soon Nick and the girl he was with joined us. At first I was thinking that he was her boyfriend. Later I found out he is not her boyfriend.

Peter and Kevin showed up. We were messing around texting each other. We were making some sort-of inside jokes about Nick being gay. Or really we were insinuating that he was gay. The thing about him was he was flamboyant and he was cocky at the same time. He was beating me in pool and we were really crap talking each other. I was doing it all in fun.

As the night was winding down and we were getting ready to go he was asking me some honest questions about buying or renting houses. I was trying to give him some good information. But with his intoxication level I was thinking at best he was going getting sound bites. He did let me know where he worked. I might poke my head in there someday. I am going to not write it in here as I don’t want to give away who I am talking about here.

Coroner Christmas Party

This afternoon we had our Coroner’s Christmas Party. We had a normal meeting but Pete brought in food for us to chow on during the meeting. I brought in the large car crash collage that I was putting together some time ago. While it sat in my room I got so use to it, that when I took it out of here coming into my office, there was a huge missing item. The wall looks so white in that area now.

Pete and the others really liked it. I was happy about that. Everyone looked at it, and we talked about all the cases involved with each one.

We just spent time talking about random stuff and make our schedules. It was a good time there. When it was over with I went back to Pullman. I was on call tonight, but turned out to be dead again tonight. It has been really quiet during the evenings here.

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.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

I spent a fair amount of time sending out messages to friends on MySpace and via text messages wishing people a Merry Christmas.

When I got up my Mom had breakfast ready to go. We ate then went in to open presents. I made out really well. I got pretty much everything that I asked for on my list. I got a power router (the tool not network device), a chainsaw to go with the Ryobi tool set I have, some three ring binders and dividers, a Jeff Foxworthy Redneck calendar, an ought-seven proof set with the presidential coins, and a WSU t-shirt.

I started to look into the proof sets I have. I didn’t get them for a couple years. So I went online to re-order the missing sets. I also found out one set I have is worth about one-hundred and seventy five buck. I am not sure what makes it so valuable, but it is at a crazy level.

Bill went to pick up his dad to bring him back for Christmas Dinner. While he was gone it started to snow. We had a brief white Christmas. The weather reporter earlier had reported that there have been about five white Christmases in the last one hundred years. So they are rare. It snowed enough to cover the ground, but the roads were left untouched for the most part.

It was a nice Christmas with the family.

Christmas Eve with the Extended Family

The commute in today was fantastic. I was able to fly in. It was to the point I could have gotten a speeding ticket. I made it to work in record time. We were told we could cut out two hour early today. But I planned on being there until after five because that is when the party at Jon’s started.

When I left work I went to Safeway and got a HomeDepot card for Bill. I looked at the GPS units at Staple’s one more time. Then I went to fuel up the truck at Safeway.

I hit the road and went to Jon’s. Dinner was served shortly after I arrived. It was Chinese food this year. I ate at the table with all the young kids. I had fun as there was a Husky fan with the rest of us Cougar fans.

When it came time to open presents, Jon gave me my birthday presents. I got Windows Home Server and a WSU T-shirt. Jon was showing me Windows Home Server and how it works. I am excited to get it set up at my place. Now I just need another P-IV computer.

Online Comments

I got an e-mail today from someone who was a professor of mine. I related a story about something that happened several year ago. However, he doesn’t remember it happening at all. So he got very upset about the comments that I made. I wasn’t trying to degrade him.

During the course of our e-mail exchanges I pointed out that I never referred to him as being homosexual, one of the charges he leveled at me. After he re-read what I wrote he saw that was the case. Then I also tried to talk to him about the other incident. He swears that it didn’t happen about gay marriage. That event in question took place about gun rights.

I asked him if he remembered the paper I wrote about gay marriage and the photos he found objectionable. He said he didn’t remember that. So not remember that, it is possible for him to not remember that we also had a discussion. I am not going to push the issue. He has threatened to sue me for slander. I have no idea what the level of his burden is to prove that it happened nor what my level of burden is to prove it didn’t happen. But I would think that it would be easier for him to prove that I harmed him. I don’t have a specific date that I can point to. No witnesses were present that I know of. So it is my word against his.

The bottom line it is that it was not a big deal to me, but others are seeming to make it into a big deal. Due to that, I just want it to go away. I meant no harm in the comments that have come from them. So I sent him an apology.

Maybe some time down the road when this is water under the bridge I can show him my paper and talk to him again. It may jog his memory. I just wish he would remember that event.

In other news I did the last Christmas Cruise of the year. We went to Lake Union. One stop was Gasworks Park. One more was just out of the Mountlake Cut. That was so packed with boats and the wind was blowing enough that no one was able to sit still. Boats were constantly moving about. The second show at Gasworks was much better as far as elbow room went. We really didn’t do a while bunch other than help clear the way for the ship as it moved about.

National Treasure Part two

I went to see National Treasure down in Renton on the East Valley Highway. I have been going to that theatre since it opened. For a while I have had some really rude experiences at the hands of other customers. Many times I would hear people talking through out the movie. I would hear cell phones ring. On top of the ring, the person would answer the phone and talk on it. When did people become so self-centered that they could careless about anyone around them. Now movies have to play reminders on the screen to turn off the cell phones.

The movie itself pretty much was the same as the first one. Using tricks and high-tech gadgets to get information to find the treasure. In this movie like the last one, the bad guy would get there at the end demanding to have the treasure, and then something would happen where he would not get the treasure. But it was still a fun journey to get the treasure.

After the movie I went to the Silver Dollar casino. I didn’t do very well at all. I pretty much raked one pot, and it was only the blinds after everyone else folded. I tried some four card poker, Paigow, and Spanish Twenty-One. Nothing worked for me tonight.

I couldn’t get a hand while playing Texas. I did get pocket Queens. I raised, and I kept betting. The big blind played along. He had four-five off suit. He called six bucks to see a flop and kept calling to get his straight. I lost a lot of money there on someone who was just calling and calling. That is how my night went.

This same guy when I sat at the table really caused me to be confused about his background. He was a white guy around twenty-four years old. He had a well groomed beard. He wore a baseball hat with a very curved bill and it was on straight. He had well manicured fingernails. He had on a designer-looking denium coat. He voice sounded like he thought he was a G. Sort of like Eminem. But as the night wore on, I was starting to think it was more of a gay voice that gangsta. Soon that drifted into thinking he sounded southern. Maybe a gay southern. I was not sure.