The Boys are in Town

I volunteered to work a security shift at the burnt out building on True street. I was working it with Blanks. I brought my laptop and a couple movies to watch as the night went on. I was tired and was Blanks. We watched my movies which took us through the night. Blanks also went to Dissmore’s and got me some pop and himself some drink. We started our shift at three in the morning and worked until eight. I went to bed when I got home.

In less than three hours I was up talking on the phone call meeting. It was short. I then started to work on some bugs I had to complete. I didn’t have much time to do that because I was covering someone elses shift on KZUU. It was a noon to two o’clock shift. I talked a little bit about the fires, only things that were in the newspapers. I also played music. I had a couple callers who challenged some of the things I was saying about WalMart and building in Pullman.

I was working on stuff for work when Jon got here with the boys. I showed him around the house. The boys and I played some video games before going to Cougar Country to get some dinner. This is the boys’ first time to Pullman.

After dinner we went to watch Cougar Basketball. They were playing UI. The Cougs went on to an easy victory.

We went back to Cougar Country to get the boys some ice cream. Then it was back to my place. They watched Shrek III. I went to my office to get some work done that I needed to do during the day, but I had to put off because of the radio show and Jon getting to town.

Lots of Fires Today

I heard a faint knocking at my door. It made me more aware but didn’t totally wake me up. Soon I heard another knock on my door. I got up. My pager had not gone off, but I only had it on the second alarm tones. I opened the door. Tyson asked if I was going to go. I asked him what was going on. He said there was a structure fire with a couple cars involved.

I got up and went to the station. I didn’t make a first out rig because I wanted to go pee. When I got back to the bay they second alarmed it. I was going to call Bien, but I saw him roll into the station. Chapman also showed up. We took off in the ambulance.

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. I looked inside the door but could not see flames.

We went to command and let Thompson know we had a second fire a couple houses away. He sent some of us to staging to wait assignment. Van Ness was in charge of staging. We got called down to work overhaul on the first fire. While doing that another fire came out on Nye Street. A building was fully involved. A bunch of units broke free from our fires as they were out.

We also called in for Colfax, Moscow, and District Twelve. We stayed on the overhaul detail as the others fought the other fire. I listened to the radio traffic. It seemed like a bad fire. We all wanted to go to that one, but we had our assignments and worked it and got the overhaul done.

I could see the column of the smoke from across town. I could tell the fire was big. After we were done with our scene, we cleaned up the hose and went to the station to wash it and get the PL back in service. That took a while to do. We also had to fill out arrival reports. We sat at the station filling out our paper work and having some food. I was able to see the photos from the Nye street fire. It was really big.

After we helped to get Engine Thirty-Three back in service as well.

I went home and made my phonecall to the meeting that we have daily. I let them know what I was working on. I was pretty tired. I got up around four-thirty in the morning and had only three hours of sleep.

I also had the poker game at six o’clock tonight. I had about ten people in total show up. We only had about six people at any given time however. I had to rebuy once. But then I started to really kick some butt. I was winning some good hands including one where I had two people call an all-in. I had pocket aces. I had about eighteen bucks into the pot. Two people called it.

I was up fifty bucks when it was all said and done. I went to bed after I got the house put back together. I had to be at the Nye street fire location and work it from three in the morning until eight in the morning. It was going to be a long day.

Surgery Appointment Remake

I had to reset my appointment for my surgery. I called the people up, but I left a message. I heard back from them later on. We couldn’t come up with a day. But the lady said he would contact another group and see about getting me in during December before the twenty-first. With work for the marine patrol I have to be done and ready to work by the twenty-first. Plus in January I have to pay the full deductible again. That is five hundred extra dollars.

I stayed up until around one-thirty in the morning getting some stuff done on the computer. I was starting to get tired, so I decided to make my way to bed. I thought about setting up the house for tomorrows poker game, but I figured I would have enough time tomorrow to do it.

My Interview

I was scheduled for an interview at SEL today. It was for eight in the morning. I got up and dressed. I had to scrap my window. Then I got to SEL. I was taken to the interview room which was in a different building. I had three people asking me questions.

I think I did well with the questions that they asked. It took about two hours in total. They did not ask any specific coding questions, just things in general about my previous work. It sounds like there are two others who would be working in the same area as I would work. I would be working to get data from Access databases and move them to SQL server. Then I would build front ends for them in ASP.NET. I am not sure if they job will be a good fit, because I get the feeling they have the normal eight-to-five work schedule rather than the mentality of a development company that gives more flexibility to developers. They may worry about that too, because the main guy did ask me a question about the flexibility that I have.

When I was done with the Interview I got my jail uniform on and went to work in the jail. I had lunch first at the fire station in Colfax and then worked for the next six hours in the jail. I did a partial round, mainly worked as help on the floor doing fingerprints and some stuff with getting inmates to see the nurse.

When it was close to time to go to Colfax Fire a call came in looking for help to package a patient for sending on the helicopter. I went to help out. It was the patient that Colfax fire had transported earlier in the day. I hope everything turns out well for the patient.

I got some dinner and ate at the fire station in preparation for our board and business meeting. When the meeting was over Tim and I watched House before I came back to Pullman.

No Fire Training

Today was a holiday for most people, but not for us as we had to work as normal. I put in some work on a couple bugs and got them closed out.

When I was done working for the day I did some more on the duty calendar. Then I worked on cleaning up my room. I got the final boxes taken care of. So my room is finally done. It is nice to walk in there without having a lot of boxes laying around.

Now I need to clean up the den a little bit, and put a couple items on the shelves I built in the garage. I would like to have some of that done before Jon gets here.

The Poker Tournament

After bumming around this morning without a poker game at Jason’s I decided I would play in the Zeppoz tournament. I thought it started at four. It started at six. So I took the opportunity to go to Moscow and look for swimming trunks. I did not find any that I like so I went back to Zeppoz. I played some Texas Shootout. Loren was there as well. We played for a while and talked about playing poker.

We got in line for the tournament. I ended up sitting on a different table. During Texas Shootout I won about twenty bucks. I used that and some more in the tournament. I raked a couple pots, but I couldn’t catch cards when it mattered. I ended up going out shortly after the final buy in round.

I talked to Russell for a little bit while I plays some cards on his table.

I went home and watched some Sunday night TV shows and got a couple new things done with the duty calendar application.

A Cougar Football Victory

In the morning I made my way to the fire station for rig checks. When that was done we went to station one for brunch. It was pancakes, bacon, sausage, eggs, and hashbrowns. It was very good.

We took the rescue to the stadium. Williams and I worked together. We stood in the corner we normally stand. I made my way to the first aid room to get some hot cocoa. It was pretty windy and it was getting my nose to start to run.

Once the game got going the Cougs seemed to hold their own very well. We were playing Stanford. We were taking the lead and moving towards and easy victory when all of a sudden, they scored a TD. The following kick off lead to a turn over on the four yard-line. But the Cougar defense put up a good stand, keeping Stanford out of the endzone.

When the game was completed the engine crew was working the Doobie Brothers concert. I got Heston to send us there because no one else had signed up for it. We ordered a pizza and enjoyed the show. They were a lot of fun. The music was really good. A lot of songs that people knew. It was neat to look around the place and see people with grey hair and young students all singing along to the same stuff.

It was dead as far as engine calls went. We ended up getting nothing at all to run on, but that was okay with me.

Took the Day Off

Because of the basketball double-header I wanted to work it in Pullman. I decided to see if I could take the day off and head this way. It was okay with work. This morning I got up sort of early and got ready to head out.

As it turned out I was running later than I wanted to. I needed to be in Pullman by two-thirty in the afternoon. I got on the road, but I wasn’t able to do some of the things I wanted to do before I left.

I got home in time to get my uniform on and get the things ready to work the basketball game. Wilcox and I went to the station and got the equipment necessary to work the game.

We got in with a couple career guys and went to Beasley. The women’s game was pretty bad. They were getting crushed. Wilcox and I traded places from time to time working out on the concourse level.

After the women’s game the men played. That game was a lot better. The men went on to win pretty darn easily.

When we were done working I went home did some stuff around the house to get caught up on the things I needed to do while I was gone.

Hanging with Peterman Day Two

Today Peter called to see if I wanted to hang out again tonight. I told him that I would. We decided we would go see Saw IV. I went to his place to pick him up. We drove to the theatre and I paid for him to get in because he bought dinner last night and has a pizza for tonight.

It was my second time seeing Saw IV. I finally realized that it was not taking place in the future (after the end of Saw III), but instead at the exactly same time as Saw III is taking place. That helped explain a couple things I didn’t understand the first time through.

When it was done I went to Peter’s. He put in the pizza. We spent time talking, watching TV, and eating pizza. I still find I have a hard time looking him in the eye a lot of times. I am not sure why, but I am still uncomfortable around him.

Hanging with Peterman

The plan was to meet up with Peter when I got off work today. Jon and I went to lunch this afternoon. We talked about interviewing for jobs. I have one coming up next Wednesday. I am not sure how that will turn out. But I am not sure if I will like what I see in the company over all. I like working for NU and I like what I do, so I have no reason to leave. The only thing that this job would get me would be not needing to drive to Seattle every month.

After work I met up with Peter. We went to see American Gangster. It was a good movie over all. Not a ton of action, but it was entertaining. When that was done we went to Peter’s. He got a new gun he wanted to take some photos of so he could send them to his dad.

We stopped by Jack in the Box afterwards for some dinner before I went home for the night.

Strolling To Bellevue

I needed to head out to Renton today, but I didn’t have to hurry. So I took my sweet time this morning. I got my stuff packed and gathered everything I needed before I left to go to Colfax.

I started by going to the Auditors office to turn in my ballot. But Debbie was working out of the commissioners chambers. I walked down there. I turned in my ballot. Debbie and I talked about little about my radio show from yesterday talking about places to register to vote.

After I was done I went to the fire department. I decided to hang out there for a while and go on a call should one come out. But as I sat there it was quiet. We had nothing for the time that I was there.

I wanted to be back in time to see House, so I left Colfax around four in the afternoon. I got some dinner from Rosauser and drove to my mom’s place. Amber was happy to see me.

Callers on the Show

The radio show included the topics of NBC’s green week. Where they are sending crews around the world on jets, but they are doing the right thing and buying “Carbon Offsets”. Also the usage of a gas-powered mower and what it does to the environment. When checking with various websites I found that no one agreed on the amount of damage.

I ended the show talking about the upcoming election and voting. That lead to the topic of whether students who do not register to vote in Pullman should have a say in the city government. A couple people called up and gave their opinions on the subject. It was a good show.

I ended up getting out of training tonight because I needed to work the WSU Women’s Basketball game. I worked it with Bien. While there we talked about him becoming a crew leader. I asked him what he would do differently as a crew leader. He had a hard time answering the question. I was thinking there was something he wanted to say, but was afraid of saying it to me. He did say there was very little he would change about the way I do things.

Doing a Transfer

Shortly after I got up this morning I was in my den when I heard the tones for a transfer. I was waiting for the reserve tones when I got a phone call asking if I could do the transfer. I said I would.

I went to the station and we went to Spokane for the transfer. When it was done we went to Outback Steak House for lunch. On my way back I was in Colfax when I got a call about the men’s basketball game at Beasley. I said I could work it.

Heston was up there manning the first-aid room until I was able to get there. I called a lot of people and I was finally able to get Parrish to work it with me. We went to Beasly and signed in.

Heston stuck around until the game was over with. Parrish and I went back to the station and dropped off our stuff. The men’s team was playing LC State. They had no problem beating them.

After having been gone almost all day. I went home to watch Shark and Cold Case.

Work a small wildland fire

This morning Bien said he could not do the drive time so I decided that I would go to Colfax and hang out. I was hoping that I would get to go on a call. after a couple hours of watching movies with Ralph a call went out for Steptoe for a wildland fire. It was close to the Colfax/Steptoe line so we went out with one rig.

When we got there we got the pump started. I got into the catwalk and started to spray out the fire as Clark drove. I was getting the head of the fire extinguished as we drove up the field. I got a lot of fire put out.

Then we were sent to the barn that was starting to burn. I was able to get some water on it pretty quickly. We were able to stop the barn from burning. I helped to build a fire line around the barn and we put out some hot spots before leaving.

I did not have a lot of time before I had to be in Pullman to be on call. The Cougars are also on TV so I wanted to watch it. Bien, Dearth, and I were going to watch it at the station. We got some pizza and watched the game against Cal.

The Cougs did not look very good through out the first half. Then in the second half we started to do some scoring. The TV showed a stat that the Cougs have the fifth longest non-shut out streak in college football. It dates back to eight-four against Ohio State. After the Cal game it is at two-hundred and seventy games.

We went to the final seconds to of the game. We were within a field goal after a late touchdown, but we needed to get an onsides kick. But it was a poor attempt at the kick.

I went home and started to work on my web application. I was able to figure out how to get the calendar to display correctly. It felt good to get it done. Now I need to work on a portion of the web site where I need to add a couple of new tables. But I need to think through how that will work to make sure that I design things to work nicely. I am working on the training and check off reporting. I am not sure exactly how I want it to work, so I decided not to continue working on it until I think it through a bit more.

Saw IV

Russell and I got together this afternoon to watch Saw IV and have dinner. Saw IV was pretty good, but I was confused with one of the characters. I am not sure if it was the same character at the beginning and the end, or if it was a different person. It is clear Saw V will have to be made.

We went to Basillo’s for dinner. It was a nice change. I don’t go there often so it was a nice change of pace.

After dinner I took him home. Then I went home and started in on my web application. I was able to get the calendar part to get reworked. But I was unable to get it totally figured out. I asked Jon for some help, but it was getting late and he had to go to bed. I also needed to get up early, so I went to bed and I would continue work on the site once I hear back from Jon.

Forgot to Sign Timesheet

I went to the fire department because I forgot to sign my timesheet. While I was down there I was talking with Brenda about my night out on the town. I told her what I said in our conversation is a secret. Not a tightly guarded one, but one that I would like to keep.

Later that night while on the engine with Andrew we talked about what he did the night before. As it turned out he didn’t know what Russell was talking about when Russell told Andrew what my costume was. So I think that I am going to be able to go out next year with the same thing and no one will know who I am.

I got an “A”

This morning started with teaching two fire extinguisher classes up on campus. Each class takes about thirty minutes. Tim, one of the new reserves, and I took rescue up to the motorpool. The classes went off without a problem. It was the first time I had taught the class.

When we were done I had to hustle home in order to get changed and down to the dentist for my bi-yearly cleaning. Dr. Fairbanks gave me an A for having done a good job on my teeth since my last visit. I got a new toothbrush and floss following my visit.

I went to work and got one of my bugs completed and Will helped me with a problem with the javascript I had on another bug. So tomorrow will be time to start a new bug in the works.

At four I went to the station to get the minivan and Chris and I went to the Halloween event at Pioneer Center. We gave out a bunch of balloons to the kids who came. I saw Bruce and Taj from the softball team up there.

Following that I went home and changed into street clothes and went to Jason’s place for a movie. We watched “1408”. It is a horror movie about a writer who reviews places that are supposedly haunted. It was quite a trippy movie.

When it was done Russell and I went to Mike’s bar. I got my costume on and away we went. There were so many ten-six-sevens up there it wasn’t funny. A couple guys were dressed up as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. That consisted of long johns and green paint on their shirtless chest. They had a shell that was made out of some wood and paint on their back. Russell and I both enjoyed the view as they were both very well ripped. A couple others were dressed as Spartans. Those guys also were very good looking.

We were up there for several hours. I had some girls who were very afraid of my costume. I also messed with Jonno from the FD. He was dressed up as one of the American Gladiators. He had no idea it was me. Russell told Andrew from the FD that I was the one in the costume. I was upset about that because I had used the costume for a couple years and I wouldn’t tell anyone it was me, even after the time. It was my little secret.

When I was on the dance floor a couple girls started to grind on me. It was pretty strange to have that happen. I wasn’t sure how to grind totally and I didn’t want to do it wrong, so I sort of went along with what the girl was doing.

We left a little before two in the morning. I went out a door and sort of busted through it. When I got outside a couple cops were there. I put my hands up and tried to make it out that I was not a bad guy. I let them know my “knife” was only a prop. Which was obvious. I was just sort of having fun.

Phone Interview Complete

I had the phone interview for SEL. It lasted about twenty-five minutes. It pretty much was one that covered things in general about my experience with developing and supervising projects. It was all straight forward. I don’t know if I nailed it or not. I was told I should hear something in a week or two. So I have a while to wait.

I had gotten up at almost five this morning. I don’t know why I woke up so early, unless it was my mind racing about the interview. I did spend some time working on some of the work for my job in Bellevue even though today is a day off for me.

I went to the station for a call around nine-thirty. It turned out my time with Brown was moved around and changed. The guys from station two and I went to the tower with Engine Thirty-three. We worked on doing some pump stuff and covered a lot of the items on the engine. Then we got Brown up there.

I did my test and I aced it. I am now an engineer on Engine Thirty-Three. I drove it back to Station one and got a ride back to the Deuce with the ambulance.

I went home and worked on cleaning up my stuff from washing my truck on Sunday. The hose and washing stuff was still out. I put it all away.

I went to the station again around six o’clock. I helped with the rig checks. I spent the evening at home relaxing. Because I got up so early I was tired. I went to bed sort of early and almost slept through a call. I was woken up by a phone call for it and went to the station. It turned out we didn’t do anything on the call.

Two Fire Critiques

This afternoon I had my radio show. I spent the whole time playing heavy metal. I wasn’t broadcasting again, so I did not want to waste my material with a web-only broadcast.

In the evening we had two fire critiques where we talked about the grain elevator fire and the Spring street fire. They went pretty well, but the problem was those things happened so long ago, there wasn’t a ton that I got out of it.

Pretty much everything had been talked about so much that there wasn’t a lot of new information.

With my telephone interview tomorrow morning at eight in the morning I decided to go to bed early tonight.

Buying the Car Washing Stuff

With the new truck and my determination to keep it clean, unlike the old truck, I went to Schucks and bought some stuff for washing the truck, like a chamie, California Water Blade, and car washing soap.

I went home and got it washed. While I was washing it Jason called about getting together. He called Russell. I got my truck washed and dried. I picked up Russell and then we went to Jason’s. He got some pizza. We had pizza and watched Transformers.

That was a good movie. I really enjoyed it. I also found the main star of the movie was a ten-six-seven. I spent a lot of time watching him in the movie.

A Cougar Football Win

The day started by going to the fire station. It is Cougar Football Saturday. I took Heston to get the Chief’s car. I got some gas then went back to the fire station. We had some food and went over the job duties for the day. I was working North One. That is where I wanted to work.

It was pretty quiet for most of the day. We had one call where someone was sick due to alcohol. We only dealt with that for a little bit. The Cougs went on to beat UCLA. It was a close game so people stuck around until the very end of the game.

When it was done I went to get my coat out of the First Aid room. But it was locked. Khurt was there. He said he would get the keys for me and meet up with me later on to get me inside.

I talked to Pete in the morning about being on call. I was supposed to be on call so I told him I couldn’t cover for a while during the game. He got Patty to cover for me. And as it turned out we ended up having a CPR call in Pullman. The coroner got called.

I called Patti up and sarcastically ask “have things been quiet?” She laughed. I talked to Pete about something else when he called me. I told him he must have known something was going to happen. He didn’t know something was going on. So I filled him in with what I knew about it.

I called up Khurt and met up with him at the stadium. He let me inside to get my coat and then game me a ride back to my truck.

Poker at Dan’s

Tonight Dan, John, Denise, and Denise’s’ brother, Adam were playing poker at their place. We started around eight o’clock. But I had to do some parking lot patrols around nine o’clock. That lasted an hour so I missed some poker.

After getting back we played until around two o’clock in the morning. I won on the night but I gave Dan money to pay for all the snacks they have had for us the last couple times playing there.

Town Crier III

I got the position of Town Crier III. I went to the Daily News offices and got my photo taken as we went through a briefing of what we had to do. I found out the managing editor Steve plays for the Tax Dodgers. When I walked in he knew who I was and said it was nice to see me while not on the softball field. When we were nearly done I asked him what team he plays for. That is when I found out he is a Tax Dodger.

After the meeting I got my boat from Dale’s boat service. I was able to get it to the house and into the garage. Now I need to see about getting a space heater for the garage to help keep it warm in there plus to have the boat kept warmer and make it more comfortable to work in there. Now that I have the boat in there, I don’t have room from the quad and still have a partially functional garage.

The rest of the night I worked on some stuff for NU and on the website for the FD as well. I am getting very close to having it complete enough to post my first deliverable.

Saw Three

I took the boat over to Moscow to get it winterized. I now need to get the garage completed and put in order so I have usable space.

Russell and I got together to have dinner and a movie. We decided to watch Saw III. I bought some pizza from Pizza Pipeline.

Russell and I watch South Park as well. We spent some time talking about the presidential race and how Hillary will be bad for the Democrat party.

A Day Off

I was supposed to go out with George and do some stuff on Engine Thirty-Three. But it turned out that I over-slept and he was more busy than planned, so we pushed it to next week.

I did need to work on the photoboard. So I made my way there and got the photoboard fixed up. I also saved my extrication photos from last night to the O-Drive.

I responded on some day-time calls, but no one else showed up. Finally around five-thirty a call came in for a motorcycle accident. But we got some bad information. It turned out the guy was not hurt too bad, but the way it was described was not what happened.

After the call Wilcox and I went to the station with the rig. I decided to skip Colfax training. I called them and let them know. I went to Greek Row where we did a fire drill and fire extinguisher presentation for the girls in one house.

When that was done I went home and started to work on my application. I had changed course. I have gone through three different ideas about how to make the data display on the page. But I think I finally figured out the way I want it to work. I also got everyone set up on the new calendar for November. Now it is up to me to get it put onto the website as soon as I have a couple more things done. I could actually put it up now for display purposed and work on the rest of it later on.

I worked on that until around three in the morning. Once I get going on something like that I hate to stop.

Extrication Training

I went go on a call, and stood by, as normal for the day time. Rich and I were playing some Ghost Recon Two when a call came in for me. George wanted me to take the Rescue to the training tower and help them set up for the extrication training for tonight.

I went roll a car to its side. I showed them how our Junkyard Dogs worked. It took a couple hours for us to get everything set up.

I went home and got ready for the training. I went to the station where we started with signing up for football positions. I wanted North One. But Heston wanted us to sign up for a different position than we had before. The others positions suck other than East endzone, which Rescue goes to. I was going to work the North First Aid room. But no one had taken North One. So I “reluctantly” took it.

Then we went to the tower to start with the extrication training. We putted out the tools and started by cutting one car apart. A different group worked on stabilization. I used the combitools on a couple different car parts to see how they worked instead of the cutters. After cutting through the C-post in multiple cuts, the cutters went through the other C-post in five cuts. Thompson looked at what I had done, after I said I cut it through. He said it looks like I chewed through it. In reality that is pretty much what happened.

Later we did a final scenario. We had a car on its side. We had to stabilize it, then cut some people out. It was a pretty good scenario over all.

I helped get Rescue back in service and went home. I was going to work on the application tonight, but when I sat down at my computer I was so tired, I just wanted to get to sleep.

Russell got drunk

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jumping in with both feet

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

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

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

Ride Along with Heidi

I got an e-mail this afternoon from SEL. I thought it was going to be an actual test. I called Jon up to make sure if there was a question I was unsure of that he would be available to help me. As it turned out it was merely just making sure I agreed with the drug and smoking policy. Plus that I am a legal citizen. Then it asked if I had experience with SQL server and what not. I got it done and that was it.

It has been a long time in coming, but I finally got my ride along with Heidi. I got into my coroner’s office stuff. I met up with her around eight o’clock. We hit the road. It was a pretty slow night over all. We had a chance to talk about the fire services and work. We stopped one person from a possible DUI, but the driver did well enough on the tests that she was let go.

Around one in the morning Heidi was leaving and I was handed off to Heroff for the rest of the evening. We did a couple things, but it was a quiet night over all. The fire department did not get dispatched anywhere either.

When the ride was done BKoe was on a ride too. We were in the briefing room and we chatted for a while before I went home for the night.

New Job on the Horizon?

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

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

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

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

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

The Next Whitman County Coroner?

Russell needed a ride to the airport today so I had planned on giving him around there around eleven in the morning. We stopped by Sam Dial to get his watch then I dropped him off. He was thankful for the ride.

In the evening I headed to Colfax for the Coroners meeting. The softball game was cancelled tonight due to the rain, so I was able to get there on time. I was early so I was reading a book on forensics.

Everyone else showed up soon thereafter. The meeting got going. We reviewed a case that Pete is going to be going to court over. We also got our coverage set up for the next two months. I also went over the case I had on Monday.

After the meeting was over I was told Pete that I wanted to be the next coroner. I told him that I thought Patti would be the next one, but with her moving to Spokane soon and her leaving the office I figured I would like to get in to it.

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.

SCBA Quarterlies in Colfax

Today was the first of my string of Tuesday’s off. I am burning my vacation days one at a time rather than taking a week off. Around ten-thirty I got a phone call for the daily scrum. When I told them it was my day off they were going to have me get off the line, but I told them I wanted to hear what Lance had to say.

When Lance was done with his stuff it was nearly eleven o’clock. I had a meeting with George. I went to that, but the other guys did not show up. So I did the stuff George wanted all of us to do. I went home and worked on going through all the SOP’s and I gave him a list that I thought all the reserves should know.

It was around four that I went to Colfax for training and to hang out. While there we got a call. I went on it. I was the ambulance driver. It was a minor call. When I got back to the station I watched some TV until it was time for training. Due to the rain we decided to do something inside. That was our SCBA quarterlies. I got my first attempt in one minute exactly. That is the target time. So I passed the first time through.

After that I went to the SO to get my photo taken for the new Colfax Fire ID cards. I dropped off some photos from a previous case. As I was leaving Russell called and we decided to get together, have some pizza, and watch a movie. But he was a little tired, so we got a DVD of House TV show episodes. We watched a couple of them. He enjoyed that.

Full Circle

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sunday Rig Checks

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

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

The night was quiet over all.

The Ankle Doesn’t Hurt

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

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

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

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

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