Christmas Cruise

Tonight was the first time in a very long time I got to do something with the marine patrol. With summer over there is not a lot of stuff going on out there.

I got to work this morning after waking early. I knew I had the doctors appointment, plus marine patrol. With doing Shawn’s project I was going to have to get some stuff done while I was there incase I ran into some problems.

When I was in talking to Barb I told her what I want for Christmas is for Shawn to show up. He had been unreachable for more than two weeks. I went to the doctor. I was cleared to do stuff. I was given a prescription for Physical Therapy should I need it.

When I got back to work I saw Shawns rig there. I was so happy. The rest of the day was easy around the office. Did some meetings on some of the database stuff. Then it was off to Mercer Island.

We took the boat to Kirkland to meet up with the cruise ships. We helped them cruise to Bellevue. There were a lot of yacht’s that were following along. They all had decorations. It was pretty neat. It took about three hours total.

When we were done I went to Sharis in Fairwood to meet up with Dave. I haven’t seen him for quite some time. We talked about my job prospects. He talked about his work as well. It was great to see him.

Big Night at Poker

After work I met up with Jon to play some poker at Mike’s. He is one of the guys who puts on the games at Newport Shores. We got there around nine o’clock PM. There were six others already there. I was getting some good cards, but my community cards were really doing well.

As time went on I just kept winning. While I was there I only went to the showdown once and lost. I had a couple split pots. I had one situation that really burned me up.

I had a three-four offsuit. I was in an early position. I was only in due to being in the blind. A three-five-six rainbow came on the flop. So now I am one card from the straight and I have a pair. So I stick around for a little bit. A ten was on the turn. It was checked around. A three on the river. I had trips, but when the seven dollar bet was quickly raised to twenty-seven bucks. I felt that he had trips with a better kicker. So I threw it down. He let me know he had a ten. I told him that he made a good bed.

We played until one in the morning. When the card game was done I was up three-hundred and thirty-five bucks. Jon found some dice. We played some four-five-six. We only rolled a couple times. The first round Jon won with boxcars (trip sixes). Then I played again. He got a point of two. I rolled a four-five-six. I took bank. I got some bets and rolled a four-five-six again. I had sixty bucks now. Jon played sixty. I rolled trip-fives. I won again. I was on fire. Because of four-five-six, I ended up leaving with four hundred bucks.

While at work today we had our company Christmas Party. We were told we were being bought by a Canadian company. It was sort of a shock. Our future is known. My future is unknown. They want to be closed by the end of the year. So that means that by the second of January I will have a new boss. I spoke with my CEO to find out some more. She said that I have a great skill set. I can do all parts of the new code set, plus I can work on all of the old code. I am a valuable person.

Plus I proved to her that working from home is a viable thing. I proved to her that I do a good job without coming into the office. She said that our potential buyers has a president who works from home. So the new bosses are all for it. She pretty much told me I don’t have anything to worry about. I told Jon about that tonight while we were playing poker. He told me about a job opportunity at his company. I also told him I have yet to hear anything back from SEL. I don’t know how I am doing there. He told me that I could possibly get a job working for his company. I might look into that one way or another.

Following Suit

Today is Eddie’s birthday. For years I have always sent him an E-mail on his birthday. He was born one day after me. Him and I grew up together at times. It started with football. We both played Five-Star football. Then I moved on to the street where he lived. That is when I really got to know him and several other guys. I had known the Peery’s because they use to live in my old neighborhood. Now I had all these new friends and once again Eddie.

Over the years we would ride motorcycles, learn to drive, ride bikes, build camps, go camping, go to the river, the mountains. We went to school, movies, swimming, and sometimes we would have long talks.

Those times were while our younger brothers were playing basketball. We would go on the playground. We were around fifteen at the time. Eddie would sometimes dip. I didn’t dip at the time, but I would have some Skittles and get them chewy, then pack it in like I was dipping.

During these times we would talk about everything under the sun. We always talked about what we were going to be like at parents. How we were going to have kids. How we were going to raise them. We talked about many other things as well. I sometimes wonder if Eddie remembers any of those conversations.

It is funny calling him Eddie, because I am the only one who does that. That is the only way I knew him, but now I guess everyone else calls him Ed. But I am stuck on the old ways.

I have seen Eddie once in the last couple years. He was living in the highlands with his kids and wife. I believe now he lives in Redmond. He has been working for the same company for years. I can’t wait to hear back from him. I was thinking recently that he and I have never had a drink together… legally. I am not sure if he is a golfer either, but I would love to see him again.

Happy Birthday Scotty!

Well I got the normal phone calls and text messages from people wishing me a happy birthday. I got several on facebook and MySpace as well.

Reed McPherson wrote
Happy Birthday. Don’t mix too many of your drugs with your booze. Have a fun one

Andrew Wilcox wrote
Happy B-day man, hope your recovery doesn’t hinder you from partying tonight!

Sarah Daoud wrote
Happy Birthday Scotty!!! Hope you have a good one!!

Bryce Cuello wrote
Happy Birthday Man! Hope you have a good one!

Kristiné M. Reeves (Spokane, WA) wrote
Happy Birthday! Loved the photos as of late…you are looking stellar!

Denise Keeton wrote
Happy Happy Birthday Scotty!!

Dax Berven wrote
Happy early Birthday old man

When I got to work today there was a $10.00 gift certificate for me from NetUpdate. They also made cookies and put them in the break room.

I actually got a couple things productive done today and checked in. Then the rest of the day it was spending time in meetings and having lunch. We went to Crossroads mall. Ricky, Noah, and I met up with Chris a former employee.

While there I got a couple different styles of die for my board game. I got several styles so I can play with them and see what I like the best.

The traffic home was worse than normal, but probably normal for the time of day. It just seemed like everything was backed up. I don’t like to spend time in traffic on my birthday. I was thinking that they should just open up the roads and step aside for the birthday boy.

When I got home my special dinner was being cooked. It was fatback and potatoes. Following dinner I got a universal power supply for my computer from my mom for my birthday. She made a cake with pudding topping. It was very good.

Compared to last year it was a pretty tame birthday. That is okay though. Actually, this is the first birthday I have been here for a while. My last few birthdays have been spent with just a couple friends.

I am thinking if there is anything ground breaking to say right now. It is the one time a year I can reflect on the past year of my life and think about it. But I have not done that. Maybe I can do that tomorrow. Make a decision what letter grades I earned this year in many categories. I am not sure it was one I can look at as one of the best. That is a shame. Every year should be better than the one before it. That would be a sign of a good life.

Maybe that means it is time for me to uproot my life as it currently sits. Maybe it is time for me to move to some new random place and get a new job. Get new friends. Get new activities. Just do something different.

But then again, when I think about the car fire recently and how it was still a new experience to me, that leads me to believe I still have things I can do here.

I think if there is one thing I work on this year it is to be more active in my down time.

I have worked hard this year to keep on top of things. Like washing my clothes and new truck, not when I am out of clothes or I can’t see the paint on the truck, but on a regular schedule. I do things and put things away rather than leaving things out when I am done. It is the new more orderly self.

But what is a problem is that when my work is done, and there is nothing more to do, I need to get to the rec center. Go for a walk. Go for a bike ride. Do something that will keep me from sitting around the house watching TV. I really want to get into the swimming pool and get some swim time in. That is the goal.

I hope in one year from now I can read this and say that I did a good job keep up with that change I would like to make.

One thing that I have noticed about myself is that it seems more people know about my homosexuality than don’t know in terms of my daily interactions with people. I thought I had done a good job keeping it quiet at the jail. But that is not the case. Everyone seems to know and those who don’t are told by those who do. I don’t like it when people tell others. That is not their business to do that.

So really the people who don’t know are those over in Seattle. All my friends who I went to high school with other than Matt. He found out when I admitted it to him on the Rose Bowl trip.

Playing on a Tournament Team

I got a phone call from Jake. I told him that I was thinking about him today. I was thinking about the messages I would send to various people for Christmas. Jake said that he is with Kelly. They are talking about a tournament team. Kelly wanted me to send him a face shot because he is working on getting corporate sponsorship.

They are talking about only playing on a tournament team. I am thinking about seeing if they are interested in playing on the My Office team. If so I will let Mitz know they are available. They would both be a good addition to the team.

Getting the thing to work

Got up this morning pretty late. I watched some TV before heading downstairs. My plan is to take the Quad into the Honda dealership to get it worked on. I also thought about looking at campers, but I don’t think that is in the long term plans.

I got out to the shop to load it up, but it didn’t want to start. I used the pull cord on it several times, but that didn’t even come close to starting it.

I got the battery charger out and put it on the battery. I was able to get the quad to use the electric starter, but it still wasn’t starting.

Bill came out and I was ready to disconnect the batter charger and push it into the truck. However, he said to try it once more. It started just fine. I let it warm up for a short period of time before getting it into the truck. I was down to the crunch time before they closed.

I hit the road, and by some miracle I got every green light along the way. I hit one red light to get on to I-Four-Oh-Five and one when I got off of SR-One-Sixty-Seven. I was able to make it there in thirteen minutes total! That is one fast trip.

A Grand time at the Casino

The plan today was going to be going to some RV places and look at campers for my truck. The problem is that I didn’t make it out and about like I had planned to do.

I got together with Jon and Jim around nine o’clock PM. We ended up going to the Silver Dollar Casino on the West Valley Highway. It turned out to be a good move.

I have a bad head ache and I drank a lot of pop and took some Motrin to try to make it feel better. It wasn’t until nearly four in the morning that the pain was pretty much gone.

We started playing at a poker table with two others. I started out winning the first two hands. After that I did okay. I never really was down all night. Jon and Jim were also doing really well. Between the three of us we ended up almost a grand. I was only around one-hundred and fifty of that. Jon had the most. We were just winning a lot of hands. I really couldn’t lose.

We were there until nearly four in the morning. On the way out we got some of the free cards that they give away.

Pizza with Peter

After work today I met up with Peter at his place. We were going to watch Blade of Glory. It was a good movie. I have some good laughs. After that was over Peter and I watched a couple episodes of House.

Peter and I messed around like we use to where we could try to battle each other over silly stuff. He was trying to leave the room to go to the bathroom. But I wouldn’t let him. We battled until I won.

It was weird. I have been wanting to ask him about the thing that happened a long time ago, but I have yet to do it. But it was weird. I just didn’t feel like I wanted to be around him tonight. This was the first time I can think of that I had those feelings. I am sort of thinking I am going to not contact him again, and if he wants to get with me he will call.

Back at work

After having spent the last couple days doing some recovery from surgery I was on my way back to work. I haven’t slept very well lately so I was very tired at work today. I went to my truck and tried to nap for about ten minutes because I could not keep my eyes open.

I started to get to work on some stuff for the PDF’s. That work was going along fine until it was time to meet up with Peter.

I went to his place. We watched the Futurama movie as well as had some pizza. We made plans to get back together tomorrow as well.

Recovery Day Two

This is the second and final day of receovery with my leg in the air. I pretty much did the same stuff as yesterday. I got up every couple hours and went down stairs to eat and check my e-mail. Other than that I was in my room taking pain pills, trying to stay awake, and watching some TV.

Recovery Day One

I wasn’t sure what as in store for me today. I had my surgery yesterday. Today was going to be spent just laying around the house. I watched TV in my room. I would go down stairs every few hours to get something to eat or to check my e-mail. But for the most part I just keep my ankle elevated. I kept ice on it. I kept taking my pain pills.

Ankle Operation Part Two

I went in for the first ankle operation in February of ought-four. The operation was more involved. The ligament was repaired and the bone chip was removed. From the time of that surgery I was on crutches for four weeks and a walking boot for an additional two weeks.

The long term outcome of the surgery was that my ankle pain was not as bad when it came to recovery time. I went from a recovery of weeks down to a day or two. But would still have major problems when it was hurting. It was even at the point that I would sometimes crawl just so I didn’t have to deal with the pain. I knew I had to get something else done.

I went to a doctor in Seattle because I wanted to get a different opinion on everything and a different set of eyes looking at it. Over the next several months in the middle to late ought-seven, when I would visit Seattle I was seeing the doctor. I got X-rays, MRI, and an injection. The injection made the ankle pain go away.

Finally it was time to have another operation. Today was the big day for that. Jon picked me up from the house. I went to work for a couple hours before going to Overlake Hospital.

I got to the doctors surgical area. I went back and had them start to ask questions, and fit my with a surgical gown, slippers, and IV. Soon it was my turn to go for surgery.

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.

I sat in recovery for a while. I felt sick and tired. Jon showed up and talked to me a little bit. I was not in the mood to speak at all. I ate some apple sauce and a Popsicle. I took some pain meds. I was there for a while longer before Jon got his rig ready to take me home.

On the way home I felt horrible. He stopped to get my prescription filled, but they said it would be an hour. So we left it there and continued home. Jon swerved from something. I looked at him with the evil eye and asked if he was trying to make me puke. He laughed and said he wasn’t. That he was just swerving to miss something.

When I got home I made a straight line for my bedroom. I just wanted to lay down and relax my stomach. I thought I was going to puke for sure. After laying in my room for about two hours I started to feel better.

I made my way downstairs at one point to check my e-mail. The pain was never very bad. The worst part to me was the nauseous feeling.

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.

The PFD Christmas Party

This was put on for year by Chris and Nancy. But recently Dan and Denise have taken it over. The plan was to get to their place around six-thirty.

But with the time I had during the day I worked on finding some stuff for my project at home. I am working on a photoboard for the Deuce. It will be better than the one at station one for a couple reasons. One will be that it is easier to maintain. The one at station one is a pain in the rear to maintain. I started to get things layed out for it on the poster board. Got it lettered. Worked on resizing the photos and adding the person’s name and rank. I also printed them all out and cut them out. The only problem was the missing plastic sleeves to put them in. I found some online, after my search around town turned up nothing. I went to several stores in both Pullman and Moscow.

It was just after six-thirty. I went to the Keeton’s. I was the second one there. I grabbed my camera and spent much of the night taking photos of everyone.

This years’ party had a lot of people drinking and having a good time, but we didn’t have the token drunk that provided hours of entertainment like in years past. Really I was thinking that it is clear everyone is getting older here because the amount and length of drinking that was going on was greatly reduced. It was a good time. Chuck had come to the party. It was Blanks’ last night out on the town with a couple of the B-shift guys. They also stopped by. I was disappointed no other reserves showed up except for Parrish.

When it was done I went to my house and got the photos downloaded and posted on facebook.

Last Duty Night of the Month… Almost

I was responding on some daytime calls with Dearth. I also had to run over to Moscow to try to find some items for my photoboard project. I needed posterboard, plastic sleeves to store the photos, letters, and a glue stick. I went to Crimson and Grey. I found some of what I was looking for, but not everything. I was thinking Michael’s in Moscow would be my best bet.

I went to Moscow to go to Michael’s. I found a couple of the things I needed, but not the plastic sleeves. I was also going to try to find some dice for my boardgame. I went to the mall to go to the hobby store. But that was no longer there.

I was on my way to downtown Moscow when I heard the tones. They were looking for a reserve to do a transfer to Lewiston. I called in and said I could do it, but I had to be on duty at six. Heston said that would be fine. But as it turned out the timing was not working out perfectly. I did the transfer with Pritchett. The length of time it was taking to drive to Lewiston, plus the in hospital time was throwing off my time getting back to Pullman. I ended up getting back after seven. I wanted to be back by six.

I had a training down at the Deuce at seven o’clock. I was able to make it down, however, to the bulk of the training so that went well for me.

When that training was done I went home and worked on the board game. I was getting all the board pieces cut out and glued together. Then I put it on to a larger piece of poster board and glued it down. It is starting to take shape. I still need to the dice and the rest of the rules written up. I also need to get it mounted on a harder piece of board, like my poster board.

We did get a call for a fire alarm, but that was about it for the night for those of us on the engine.

First Aid Class Day Two

Spent a couple hours on the phone with Ricky about some bugs. We ended up trading a couple bugs.

Then I got to the station to meet up with Bien for day two of the first aid class at Pullman Heating and Electric. They invited us in for dinner. Last night was Pizza Hut, today it was Subway. We chowed down and then started in with the class.

We did the CPR and worked our way through the video tapes. It finally ended with me going over a lot of the topics we covered through the two days of videos.

During the class one guy asked me about protecting the scene with the vehicles. I told him that we would park in such a way to use the vehicle to keep other cars from hitting us. We would rather fix a damaged engine that get someone hurt or killed.

I said it easy to pull out dents or replace a door that got tore off… then I looked at Bien and smiled. He gave me a look back. And I continued to talk. It was a little inside joke with Bien.

First Aid Class

I talked to Bien about last night. Sounds like him and Megan were up dealing with his aftermath. He was pretty sick through out the night and all day today. We were teaching a first aid class together. He was sick going to the class.

It was up at Pullman Heating. They had pizza and invited us to have some with them. We went through a bunch of the stuff covering a lot of topics. Tomorrow we will be going back to cover the other topics.

I was also on duty tonight. I wanted to get to bed early because I was pretty tired. I went to bed around midnight, only to get woken up around two-thirty for a call. I stayed up until four in the morning.

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.

Last Show of the year

Today was my last show of the semester. I had Tom on the show, as a follow up to his appearance last week. We talked about the Republican debate. He had to leave at one. I had Forbes on the phone as well. We talked for nearly an hour about local politics.

I finished off my pop. I made a big noise crushing it and I was going to throw it in a garbage can that I saw just inside the door of a gym across from hall from the KZUU studio. But as I made all the noise and stepped inside the door, I had about twenty women looking at me. I was sort of self-conscious when I threw away the pop can and went down the stairs quickly.

I was going to have to walk a way to my truck parked out by Beasley. As I was heading out the door. There was a young lady standing there looking out the window at the snow and ice on the ground. I figured she was waiting for a ride. I thought I would be outgoing and I said “horrible time of year to be on crutches.” She then said, into the cell phone that I didn’t see that she had “I couldn’t hear what you just said, can you repeat it.” I just went out the door and chuckled to myself about those two events that took me by surprise.

Following the show I got home to get some of my work done before making my way to the station. We had the fire critiques from the night of the arson’s. It was a pretty tame night as far as critiques have gone in the past.

When it was done Irving and I sat at the station talking about the critique followed by looking over the fire engine hose lays. I was there until around two in the morning chatting with Irving.

More Zeppoz poker

After only about two hours of sleep I was woken up by a phone call from Pete. There was a call waiting in the wing. I had guessed it had to do with the call we had this morning. Later on in the morning I called Pete and it turned out to be what I was thinking it was. As it turned out I had transported the same person to Spokane about ten days prior. So I was familiar with him.

In the rest of the day Wilcox, Dearth, and I responded on EMS and fire calls. The first one was a pretty bad looking accident. Turned out it wasn’t much of anything when it was done. A lot of people stopped to help. I was talking to one person who was there. I got the vibes and the gaydar was going off. I found him on Facebook and sure enough he is family.

I was running really late for poker. Sign ups were at five-thirty, and it was almost that time when we got back to the station after our fourth call of the afternoon. With the heavy snow covering the road we had a long day. But now it is raining and the roads are getting all slushy.

I got to Zeppoz in time to get a seat at the table. Due to the weather, I believe, there was a limited number of players. We ended up having three full tables, but it took almost until six o’clock to get there.

A ten-six-seven who has been in all the tournaments since I started to play was there. He is not the normal blonde/blue but, he is still ten-six-seven.

Towards the end of the night I was knocked out in seventh place again. The ten-six-seven was in the final four. All of a sudden there was a small uproar at the table. I was playing a table game right next to the poker table. I turned around and saw the ten-six-seven with tears in his eyes. Someone said he would chop the pot with him. I didn’t know what had happened.

Later on I found out his dad had died and he was called about it during the game.

Busy day and night

Spent most of the day responding on fire and EMS calls during the daytime hours. We also took engine thirty-one to the High Street Mall to bring Santa to the Christmas tree lighting. I brought a camera to take some photos. We were there for about an hour before heading out.

It was covering for Chapman tonight. It was great. At first the night started out slow. I bought a couple movies including Death Wish and Transformers. I went to the station where we watched Death Wish. Then Irving and I started to play Ghost Recon. But soon we started to get some calls.

Before long we were running from call to call without making it back to the station. We were slammed for a while. I got Rescue first on scene on two different calls. That was pretty cool. I ended up taking one patient. It turned out to be a refusal, so I spent time doing the necessary paperwork.

I had said before the end of the night we would get a five-forty-five in the morning call. I was close. It was five-forty in the morning. While at the hospital I knew things were going to go bad.

By the time I got home and in bed it was around seven in the morning.

Spokane Trip

Got woken up by the pager asking for reserves to call the station about the transfer to Spokane. I said I could do it. It was not an emergency transfer so I was able to get a couple things done at work before leaving.

I went to the station and got Richards who was going with me. We picked up the patient and went to Spokane. As I was cleaning the cot in Spokane Richards started to ask what was wrong. He said he could tell something was wrong. I denied anything was wrong. He asked if he did something. I wasn’t telling him what the problem was.

I think it goes back to my last trip to Spokane I was making a joke about him and the other Blake having the same name but being different. I said how the other Blake’s wrist is as big as Richards’ bicep. I was not dogging on Richards, it is just the other Blake is a body builder.

Then he said well at least the other Blake and I have something in common, we can see our dicks when we go pee. It is funny I say that you have to choose to be offended. I wasn’t offended, but the comment cut deep. That seems to be one thing I don’t take well — fat jokes directed at me.

So I think I was feeling off because of the lingering effects of the joke, but I shouldn’t have let it bother me. The whole trip I was dead quiet. At a restaurant we stopped to eat at I was quiet there. The waitress even said something about me looking sad. I wanted to tell him, but I wasn’t sure how to say it. I figured it would be better to say nothing than open the can of worms.

When we got back to the station we washed the ambulance and I turned in my time card. Heston asked me to take the Santa suit to the Deuce. I dropped those off and went home.

I started to work hard on the work I missed out on today. I stopped for dinner and then went back to work. I was able to get the database issue fixed as well as one bug in my pipeline. I also got close on another one, but for some reason I am not sure why it doesn’t work. I got the example of how to do it directly from the source.

Chatting with Brandon

I started the morning out getting an oil change for my truck. I was at home making lunch when I got a call from Brandon. He is looking at buying a gun and he was out looking at some.

Later on when I was making dinner he called again. But I was on my way to Colfax for the coroner’s training. We talked about the guns he looked at. He is looking to getting a revolver.

When I was getting to Colfax the ambulance was getting ready to leave and a lot of people were showing up. I turned on my radio and heard it was a car wreck. I went to the station and watched the rescue leave. I was there for a little bit when a second ambulance was requested. I called Pete and told him what was going on. He said I could go.

It turned out that the second ambulance was needed. We were turned around, but we set up flares because we were nearly on the scene.

I got back for training in plenty of time. The training was good, we covered some recent cases. After the training was over with I went to Colfax Fire and hung out watching some TV shows with Ralph.

When CSI was over with I went home.

Training with D-Twelve

I was invited by Parrish to come out the extrication training with D-Twelve. It was out at station three. I got out there at seven o’clock. They went over some stuff outside with the tools and how they work.

Then we went to the cars and started to cut on them. I ended up having a group of people that I was working with. We spent time on one car. Then went to a Saturn. That was an all plastic car. It was interesting to see how to work on one of those cars. We don’t get them very often for extrication.

After the training was done Parrish and I spent some time chatting about the two fire department.

That was a big oops!

This morning I was woken up to an EMS call. I didn’t hear a lot of the traffic, but I heard Bien talk on the radio. I sent him a text to see if he was standing by. He was. So I went down to go on it with him. We helped to get the patient on the cot and went back to the station.

We washed the rig and planned on going on some more calls. I had just gotten home, but I didn’t have my pager on. I heard one of the medic units talking on the scanner when I walked in the house. I also got a call from Bien. I went back to the station to go on the call.

But Bien didn’t shut the overhead engineer side door. He started to pull out. I heard the noise that a door was open, but I was thinking it was that we were going code. Then I looked down and saw we were not. It was about that time the door was ripped off. Thankfully it was only a hinge that was damaged, but it still sucked.

We stopped our response and called up Heston to let him know what happened. He said that we needed to take the rig to the city shops to let them see it. We also had to fill out a form about the accident. It was not a fun time.

When the career guys got back to the station we let them know what happened. They gave Bien a hard time.

Later on in the day another call came out for a car accident. Tyson and I went on it. We got some crap from the people on scene about the door. It was not really much a wreck, but we were asked to set up some flares to shut down the road until the car was pulled out.

When the was done we washed the rig and headed home. OTEP was tonight instead of last night. Because of that I skipped Colfax training tonight. OTEP lasted less than an hour in total.

The Ron Paul Show

On today’s radio show I had a couple guests who were talking about Ron Paul as a candidate for president. One of the two guests was ten-six-seven. I didn’t know that he was going to be that way until he got to the show. I tried to do some research on the guys before they came on the show, but his facebook account was set up so you had to be a friend to see his photos.

Got my Shopping Done

I got up this morning and there was a response from the cop I knew on gay.com. He answered my question and pondered who I was. I didn’t tell him straight up, but I responded to his question of me.

I went to Safeway and did my shopping. I had been needing to go there for quite a while. While there I saw Bruce. We stopped and chatted for a while. Later I saw C-Bass. Coach Doba was there shopping. I also saw the Pullman Fire ambulance crew buying some stuff for dinner.

I got home and put everything away. I had some time before I had to go back to Zeppoz. I got the IM address of the guy who I know that is gay. I also responded to the cops’ message back to me.

Then it was off to Zeppoz for the tournament. There was a ten-six-seven there again. I have seen him the last three weeks that I was there. I finally found out who it was. He is a local. I always want to play on his table, but we get different tables.

In today’s game I decided that I would not do more than one re-buy. That is all I ended up needing. I made it longer that I had in previous tournament. I was out in the seventh place. They paid the top four, with more than two-hundred going to first place. I was the second lowest in chips on the final table. But I won a big hand. Only to lose it later on. Then I had only enough for one big blind. I only had three hands to get something to play. I got K-9 suited. I went all in. I got two-pair, but I lose to someone with trips. That was my night.

I played a table game. I lost nearly twenty bucks, but I changed tables. I won back my money and walked out of there even.

The One-Hundredth Apple Cup

Today was the one-hundredth Apple Cup. Ron invited me down to watch it at the Moose Lodge. I was excited about going down there. I put on my Cougar hat and shirt and made my way there just before kick off.

The Huskies ran it back for a quick score. Ron made a big deal about it. All the Cougs were thinking this was going to be a long day. The Huskies got a fieldgoal. Finally the Cougs were able to get on the board with a touchdown.

After a while everyone in the Moose was yellow “Woooooo” every time the Cougs did something well like Ron had been doing earlier.

We went into half time up by one point – twenty-one to twenty. Michele had a big spread of food there for a fundraiser. I had my fill of food.

The second half added to the excitement. The game was a sea-saw battle back and forth. The Cougs finally scored the tying touchdown. With only thirty seconds to go they scored the winning touchdown! The Cougs went on to win the game.

I went home fulfilled with the victory.

I went to gay.com and looked around on there to chat. While I was there I did a search of local people. I found someone that I recognized and I had no idea was gay. I finally purchased a premium account. I was able to look further at his profile. I was shocked to see he was gay. I want to talk with him because I also found out he use to be in the college Republicans.

I also found a former cop that I knew. I contacted him via a message. I finally went to bed in the wee-hours of the morning.

Spending the Day with Ken

I went to Colfax fire today because I had the day off of work and because I wanted to help Ken with his report and follow up from yesterday’s case. I advised Ken on things to write in his narrative and checked it when he was done writing it.

I was also hanging out waiting for a call to come in. Before I had to leave we did have a call come in. It was a low level call. We didn’t do a lot, but we did transport.

I had to head back to Pullman to work the WSU Volleyball game. It was the last game of the season. They were playing Oregon State. When we got to D street and Colorado I saw lights flashing inside Bohler Gym. I said it looked like a fire alarm. Reed said “they haven’t dispatched one.” Then it was dispatched. We investigated it. It was burnt popcorn. We helped to get everything reset and watched the matches.

The Cougs went on to win in five games. It was need to see.

Thanksgiving with Friends

This afternoon I met up with Russell, Denise, Beren, Sauce, and Mireum for Thanksgiving dinner. We had a great meal fixed by Denise. I was also on call for the coroner.

As it turned out I got a case around nine-thirty. I called up Ken and picked him up on my way to Endicott for the case. It was natural. This is my second case on a Thanksgiving. Last year I got one as well. Last years’ was a natural crash that turned into a car running off the road.

Tonights case took Ken and I into the wee hours of the morning to investigate the whole thing. This was Ken’s first real case where he was taking the lead. I had to help him out with certain parts along the way. But he did good overall.

After the case I went to Russells’ to get a piece of pie. I missed the rest of the night. They thought they would still be there. But as it turned out they all left about forty minutes before I got there. I ate the pie quickly and then went home.

Spokane Transfer with Suggs

I got up with a page for a transfer. In a little bit they asked for reserves. I called down and said I would do the transfer. I was doing it with Suggs. The transfer went off without a problem. It was my first trip to Sacred Heart on a transfer.

We stopped at A&W; on the way out of town. On the way back he was talking about playing hockey. He was talking about hockey skates. He said this one style looked faggy. Then he looked at me and said “no offense”. I am not sure if that is because he also knows or if he just thought I was offended. Which I wasn’t of course.

Later after we got back I was going to be on Rescue tonight. But I also needed to go to Dan and Michele’s anniversary. I went to the Moose at six o’clock pm. I saw Michael B there as well as some of the others. I got some chow and then went home. It was a pretty quiet night for a while.

Then about thirty until midnight an EMS call came out. We transported. We sat at the station chatting about the previous arson’s in Pullman. More specifically about the issues while on the fire ground.

Parrish said he was going to call it a night. He was already scheduled to get off early. But within about ten minutes of Parrish leaving we got a structure fire. I was out the door with Williams on Rescue. We got to the scene and were the second ones there. We pulled a crosslay and started to fight the fire.

It had already gotten through the roof and we put some water on it for a while. But soon we ran out and had to wait until the PL got us hooked up with the hydrant. We then had the blitz line, the masterstream, and our handline fighting the fire. Water was all over the place freezing. My turnouts were getting frozen solid.

We finally started to beat the fire back. It was in a twenty by thirty-five out building at Cougar Crest. Soon we were sent in closer with the blitz line with the other guys from ambulance. We got the remainder of the fire put out. Then we worked on a full bottle worth of overhaul.

We helped to clean up the hose. Rescue stayed to monitor the fire until some reserves got there with the utility. We ended up having to put some water on some fire that got going again. I was able to look around the structure for evidence of what caused the fire. I then spent time asking Rich if he agreed with my assessment of what I had found. He confirmed the things I was finding. I have to say this one was pretty easy. It is not like I am some incredible fire investigator, but it felt good to have an idea of what I was figuring out.

I went home and worked on the fire department application until six in the morning before I went to sleep.

Another Day in Jail

Another shift working in jail. I worked with a new person today. I helped him book someone in and did a round with him. I worked there until around six o’clock pm. It was pretty uneventful for the most part.

I went to training in Colfax. It was a pretty short one. We went over the cascade system in the rescue and in the station. We learned how to hook up bottles and how to hook the rescue to the in-house system to refill it.

When that was done Carl, Scott, Chris, and I played poker for a couple hours. I won the first hand of the night and couldn’t do anything after that.

Got Pulled Over

Today is Thanksgiving break at WSU so I did not have to do my radio show. But I was busy doing many other things. Today is Brandon’s birthday. I have known him for twelve years. He has always been such a good guy. I sent an e-mail message to him and attached a couple photos from his freshman year.

We didn’t have training tonight. Because of that I asked Bien if he wanted to do engine drive time. He said he did. We got the engine and went driving around. When we were on Greek Row it dead, as expected. We were in front of a Pullman cop. After about two blocks I see the blue lights. We were getting pulled over. We stopped and the cop came up. I was wondering what was going on. I knew it wasn’t for doing something wrong. He let us know our brake light was not working on our left side. But when I went back there it was. It is an intermittent problem.

When we got back to the station we washed the engine and I went to tell the captain about the brake light. That is when he said something about us getting pulled over. I asked how he knew. He said he was talking to the Lt at our station. Dragoo heard the police stopping a Pullman Engine. He said something to the Lt and the Lt said something to the Captain. It got around fast.

When we got to The Deuce the other reserves were giving us a hard time. The Lt asked what happened. It was all good. We just got a lot of ribbing.

Zeppoz Poker Tournament

This morning started out with breakfast. Then I spent time working on the application for work. Jon, Logan, and Justin were still here. They ate breakfast with me. Jon helped me with a problem that I had with something. It worked so I was able to get it checked in.

They decided to take off around noon. I spent time doing the dishes. Then I made some cookies.

It was off to Zeppoz’s for the poker tournament. I was doing okay at first, then I lost. I went to the three-six table. I went up pretty well and built a stack for a long time. Then I hit a wall. I was getting people sucking out on me. We you cannot chase someone off, they catch cards on you. That is why I hate playing low stakes poker. It is all about the cards you have and not how you play the game and how you bet.

I then played some high/low poker. It is a new card game. I did good at first, then I started to lose like crazy. It wasn’t very long before I lost all my money. I went from being up to losing it all in about an hour. I was there for almost five hours in all. Over all it was a good time. I am going to have to tighten up the poker playing for a bit though.

The Boys see Cougar Football in Pullman

Today is the first time that Justin and Logan got to see a Cougar Football game in Martin Stadium. I woke up in the morning, but I was still a little tire. Jon took the boys out to find some ponchos. I stayed at home.

Later on I got up and worked on stuff for NU. I had breakfast with the guys when they got back. We started to get ready for the game. We stopped at McDonald’s for lunch. We planned on parking in the old Sigma Chi parking lot. There was room so we did park there. We walked down to the fieldhouse. John called me and let me know Rob was in town.

I went to the ambulance that they were on. Rob was doing a ride along. I sat in the ambulance for a while talking and listening in on the stories. This is the first time I have seen Rob since he left the reserves to become a trooper. It was neat to see him. In someway it was just like the old days with him and John. Laughing and joking and having fun.

I went back to the fieldhouse to meet up with Jon, Logan, and Justin. We watched some of the UW vs Cal game. Cal was getting beat. It was close to time to head to our seats.

We made our way there. We were at the twenty-yard line, five rows back. While there I noticed a ten-six-seven. Blonde hair, blue eyes, with well defined arms. Number Thirty for OSU. He was on their special teams. He looked very ripped.

The game started with heavy rain. We all wore our ponchos to keep dry. The Beavers went out to a quick lead and never looked back. We turned over the ball so many times, seven interceptions and one fumble. It gave the Beavers short field all day long. The Cougs scored two touchdowns, but each time we scored the Beavers would quickly score. It was a horrible day for the Cougs.

After the game was done we left. The stadium was just over half full when the game started. It had maybe one-tenth the seating capacity filled when the game was done. With the poor showing and the bad weather a lot of people left early. But not us.

We went to Pizza Pipeline and got some dinner. Then back to my place to eat it. I went to my office after dinner to work on the NU Application some more. John, Rob, and I were going to go out, but they ended up bumming out.

I stayed at home doing work into the early morning hours.