Huge Feeling of Accomplishment

Because I came home last night I knew I had to work on the garage today. I did just that. I went out there and started to take everything out of the garage and put it into the driveway. I tried to sort it a little bit as I took it outside. Then I started to put away my tools first.

I swept the floor and then worked to bring more things in. I had to find a place to put things that made sense and did not waste the space I had. I also had a ton of stuff that I had to throw away. I knew that I had some big boxes taking up a lot of room and making my garage look more cluttered that it really was. I ended up filling the back of my truck with trash and made my way to the dump.

When I got done I sat looking around my garage with a feeling of accomplishment. I could see I have more to go, but to see how much I have done.

I was getting close to going to take a shower before working Pullman fire. But at five-fifteen we got a call. Bien and I went on that. When we got back it was time to go to the Pullman High football game. Pullman went on to beat Riverside.

After the game Bien and I played Ghost Recon for a little bit. He decided to leave. Within three minutes of him leaving we got our one and only call of the night. It was a nothing call.

Heading Back Early

Mom called and said she would be getting back from her trip around eleven o’clock PM. After getting my work done today I spent time just hanging around work trying to get in my hours. I played some ping pong with Vijay.

When I finally went home I realized that it would be a good idea to go home early because I could spend more time working on the garage. I figured otherwise I would waste tomorrow between driving and messing around the house.

I went to a muffler shop today to talk to them about getting a new muffler on my truck. I was thinking about getting a Flowmaster. It is going to run around half a grand.

The trip over was uneventful. I stopped in Ellensburg for some pop.

Cancelled Poker Game

I was looking forward to a poker game tonight when I got done working, but instead, the host cancelled the game. That was a bummer on the day. So instead of having something to look forward to and something to do, I had nothing.

Later when I was home I spent some time sending text messages back for forth with Gary. It has been a long time since I last contacted him. I haven’t talked to him since his mom died. I told him I would like to see him.

Needing a hair cut

I had planned on getting a hair cut today, but I didn’t leave work to do it. Diane saw me and said I look different. For one I was not wearing a hat and secondly my hair is about an inch long. Which for me is really long. When I comb it forward it hides my widows peak.

I was reading about a plane full of skydivers that crashed this weekend. Everyone on board died. While looking at on of the MySpace profiles I saw this message left by one person to one who died. But the message was left before the plane crash.

“i’ve already informed landon that you guys all suck for going on the boogie while i’m stuck in b’ham. let me know how horriable it was when you get back (it’ll probably suck almost as much as when you were walking to class the other day looking, well how can I say it… a bit damp) :)”

This person wanted to go, and was giving someone who went on the trip a hard time. Looks like the guy who left the message is probably happy he didn’t make the flight.

Getting Amber from the Vet

After work today I stopped by the vet to get Amber from her bording. I saw Greg from the marine patrol. He was dropping off his dog. I said hello to him then went in to get Amber.

I took her home. I partially rolled down her window. Then she stopped using it. I was close to home. But when I rolled it up she started to whine. It was like a little kid, when you take something they don’t want, they all of a sudden want it again.

Champions!!!

Started out this morning going to Pete’s Bar and Grill with Ryan to meet up with Moe and Russell. But only Moe was there. Russell was going to come after half time. We had some chow and watched the Seahawks. They were struggling against the Steelers. At half time Moe got Russell and came back to watch the game with us.

After the game was done, we went to the Emerald to get some lunch. Moe and the girl with him had to head back to the West side so they left from there. Ryan and I took Russell back to his place.

Ryan and I watched some more football before getting ready to play some softball. We had our championship game in both Co-ed and Men’s. The first game was co-ed. We had a good turn out with some of our best women. We went out there and easily went on to a victory. After scoring runs and playing good defense we just did not have to look back. When the game was done we were champions. We did not scream and yell with lots of cheering because it wasn’t even a close game.

We went to Smith Gym to get our t-shirts and a photo for the website. We had less than an hour to get there and back in time for the men’s game. We had twelve guys, but I batted ten. It was a hard fought game. A see-saw battle back and forth with the scored going back and forth. In the final inning we were down by a couple runs. We started to get a rally going. We had one guy on, Bruce at the plate, and Phil on deck. We were down by three. Bruce hit a hard linedrive going over the second baseman, but he made a leap and came down with it for the third out. What could have been.

But those guys hit the crud out of the ball. The bat they had was hot, even the bad hitters were crushing it to the fence or over it. The final score was twenty-two to twenty-five. It sucked to not win the game. We had a very good chance to do it, but came up short. Number two again. Waiting for our first number one with Mens.

When the game was done Ryan and I went to Cougar Country before he had to head back to Spokane. I went home and started to do my packing for my trip to Bellevue tomorrow. I am watching the pets all week.

All of us hangiong out with Russell

The Cougar game was a one o’clock PM starting time. I got to the station early for lunch with the other guys. I was working North One for today’s game. We got up to the stadium. I went into the North booking room. BKoe was in there. I said hello to him.

We went to our spot over the tunnel. Arizona State was ranked number eighteen and the Cougs looked good today. But as the game wore on ASU started to work towards taking a lead on us. We had a chance to tie it up with a field goal, but missed it with only seconds on the clock.

We waited around for thirty minutes after the game. When I got back to the station I helped to take the chief’s car back to his house. I ordered some Cougar Country. I took it home and ate it while getting ready to meet up with Russell, Ryan, and Moe.

Ryan and I took Moe on a drive around Pullman to see some of the changes that have happened since he was last here. We went all over town in a span of about thirty minutes.

We went back and picked up Russell to take him to Zeppoz for work. We hung out there for a while. Ryan was in town on Saturday because Moe came to town to be with Russell to show support to him.

Ryan and I sat down at a table Russell was dealing on. I was going down at first. But then I started to win some. By the time Russell left the table everyone at the table had almost cleaned him out of one dollar chips. But the next dealer won many of them back. Ryan lost his twenty bucks, but I started to win money back.

Finally when I decided to quit I was up twenty bucks and I had given some tips away to the dealers. So it was a good night at Mr. Z’s for me. Moe, Ryan, and I went out to the bar area. They ordered some dinner. I was getting late and I was getting tired so Ryan and I called it a night and Ryan came over to my place. He was spending the night here.

Mike D Homecoming Poker Tournament

I set up a poker tournament for Mike D’s return to Pullman. It was scheduled to start after the bon fire on campus. We were taking the engine up there to man it. I got everything set up before going up there. It was a good thing because the bon fire went late. I ended up calling Mike to have him run it until my return.

The bon fire was pretty cool. They had many people from the sports teams. Elson Floyd was there. He thanked us for coming up there. I recognized him and then when he was done shaking our hands I looked at Bien and asked if he knew who that guy was. He said no. I told him who it was and he got a look on his face like he was surprised as to who it was.

We hung around until it was over. The heat from the fire was pretty hot. At one point you could see the whole crowed move away from the fire. We used the water from the engine to put out the fire.

When I got home the game was already underway with ten guys playing. Soon one more person showed up and we made two six man tables. One was a Omaha table and one was Texas. We play for a while, but I could not win an Omaha hand. I switched tables. That is when I started to make a comeback. I was up a little bit of money. Then I started to lose it again.

A couple more people showed up as some left. Pretty soon we went back to one table. It appeared that everyone was going to break up at midnight. But at eleven-thirty I got a fire alarm call. I was hoping it would go fast. But instead I spent the next three and a half hours running from call to call. Some medical and some fire. One was actually a fire in a dumpster. We were at the station. I asked if we could come along. Turpin said we could.

We got to the scene and a dumpster at CCN was on fire. We got it put out and the rig put back together I got home around three in the morning. I put my house back together and went to bed.

A Bunch of Do or Die Softball

I got Heston to come out and play with us for softball tonight because I knew we were going to be short of guys. We had a double header for men’s, assuming we won the first game. Plus we had a co-ed game.

It started off with the men’s game. Mike pitched well and we all hit really well. We were building a lead each inning and we were not looking back. On defense we were killing them as well.

The game was supposed to go six innings no matter what, however after four innings the other team gave up. They honestly did not have a chance, but it was possible assuming we had a collapse and they went to town. But we walked away with a victory and only one more game to play before the finals.

In that game, it was on the same field. We again had no difficulty beating the other team. We went out there we good defense and good hitting. It was simple to beat them.

We went to the co-ed game and it was the semi-finals. We won this game we were in the championship. But we had one of the worst teams we fielded all season. We were playing against a bad team, but it was going to be a game. We only had one real outfielder. I was going to rely on Peter a lot for the game. We ended up using on girl who was wearing designer boots to play.

Dan and Denise had been there since the start of the men’s games. They also bailed me out every game this season, so I felt like we had to play them. We put Dan at first, Ryan at short, and Bruce in the outfield, with Erik pitching.

We scored a couple runs, but then the batting went to hell. They had a couple good innings and we up on us by four runs. We got one back in the fourth inning. We had to take Dan out of the game because we had to move our positions around. We got Ryan at first and Bruce in the infield. We put Taj in the outfield. That helped the defense and that did not allow them any more runs.

We went out in the fifth inning and got a rally started, but it fizzled without any runs scoring. Even one run would have helped. So it was into the sixth inning. Ryan put me in for him. We started to hit and make things happen. I was on first. Peter hit a pop-up that the shortstop camped under for the third out. But he dropped the ball. That allowed Peter to get on base. He was the tying run. Jackie got a big hit scoring Peter and I. Now we were tied. We tacked on three runs. Up by three we went into the bottom of the sixth inning. They were not in their best spot in their line up.

We were able to make good plays and ended up coming from behind to beat them. It felt so good, but after the win we did not celebrate because we knew how lucky we were to win the game.

Ryan and I picked up Russell and took him to the casino. We hung out with Russell for a little bit, but he had to work, so Ryan and I got some pizza and went to my place to eat it.

Another Co-ed Victory

Tonight we were playing against Kevin’s softball team. I was excited to play them. We were going to have an extra woman, but only five guys. I had to call Nick to be there because we were short on guys.

I played shortstop again. I had one fun play where I had to go right, make a back handed stop, then fire the ball across to first base for the out. It was fun. We went on to beat Kevin’s team by eight runs, but we only got three innings to hit.

One of my hits was right now the right field line and Kevin missed it, he was playing first base. I also had a play where people were running. The runner on second was going to third. I was going to second. But turns out the guy on third did not go. So the runner from second went back. Then I saw that and started to go back to first. The throw was made. I slid in and was safe. Kevin said I was out, but that is the way Kevin saw it. I knew I was safe.

After the game I was on call. We got a couple calls for fire alarms around the midnight hour. Andrew is the only one who has noticed that I have a new truck so far, but when he said something I sort of played dumb for a minute. Then someone said something to Andrew and the topic never went back to my truck.

Typical Tuesday

I made my way to Colfax around the same time on Tuesday evening for fire training. Today it was OTEP in Steptoe. While up there I found out Zach was going to be leaving and heading to the South. That got me thinking about Kentucky Fried Chicken. So I messaged Peter about going to Taco Bell in Moscow. He said he was up for it.

I had to get done with training. It was geriatrics. Not a fun subject unless you want to hear about how you will slowly die over the next thirty years. The scenario was good and I thought I did okay. I could have done better in my interviewing techniques. I should have dug deeper into his history. But I did recognize the need for the BLS things I was able to do.

I got back to Pullman where I got Peter and Danny. We went to Taco Bell, but they were closed so we had to go through the drive thru. We took the food back to Peters and started to watch Harold and Kumar go to White Castle.

I left before the movie was up to get back home and take care of stuff here.

Spokane Transfer

I got a call this morning from Reiber asking if I want to do a transfer to Spokane. I got ready to go to Spokane and went to the station. Then it was off to Spokane. Because of when we needed to get the patient there we ended up having to go code for part of it. We dropped of the patient and then had lunch at Shari’s.

We got a call about a second transfer. But I had softball so I could not do it. We got the ambulance fueled and back in service. I went home and got some computer work completed.

I also was working on getting people set up for softball. I had to work hard to find people for playing. It was less than thirty minutes before the game and I wasn’t sure about having enough women. I went to the field and waited for people to show up.

Denise called someone she worked with two minutes before game time. I also found someone on the free agent list. The other team gave us ten minutes. I wasn’t expecting that. But just as the ten minutes were up we were going to have to forfeit when we saw the person we were waiting for. We were going to get started when some of the women had nose rings they would not take out.

But two women did take them out. That allowed us to have four women. We played with five guys, so we were going to have an automatic out each time at the end of the order.

I was playing first base and Eric pitched. They were no match for us. We quickly started to score runs and did not look back. Even with some women who didn’t really know how to play we were scoring runs. We also were holding them to no runs.

It was the final inning they got one run on an over throw at third base. We went on to win that game.

I went straight to the fire station to do the hose testing we had to do. We were supposed to get through everything except for the five inch hose. But we got everything else done so quickly we went on to the five inch. We were still done by nine-thirty.

We had one length of five inch hose fully charged and could not get the cap off. So we ended up having to put a hole in the hose to get the pressure out. Then we recoupled the hose and it was retested and put back in service.

Playoffs Day One

The plan was to include spending time on my garage. But instead I was on the phone with Russell. He invited me to go to coffee with Jason. I accepted the invite. Russell told me that Nick and he broke up. That was a surprise to me. They have been together for a bunch of years. In gay years, it has been like twenty years.

Due to the trip to Cafe Moro I decided I only had time to wash my truck. I got it washed up and then went to get Russell. He noticed that I washed my truck. Then he quickly noticed it looked longer. Once he got in, he knew it was a different truck.

We met Jason down at Cafe Moro. I got a hot cocoa and they got some coffee. I told them the story about buying my truck. When we were done they it was off to Blockbuster to get a movie to watch.

We got Wild Hogs and watched it at Jason’s on his projection TV. It was a pretty funny movie. We were done around four in the afternoon. I took Russell home and went home myself.

I got ready for softball tonight. We had a men’s game in the first round of the playoffs. We were playing the Bash Brothers. We hit the ball well. I was pitching because Dave was out of town. I was enjoying pitching. During the first batter my first three pitches were balls, then I came back with a good pitch. After that I did very well pitching. They were not very patient. No one walked and many people hit some pretty awful pitches.

We went on to win pretty easily. I was two for three with a walk. One well hit ball to deep right field but the guy was able to track it down at catch it. We went on to win.

Ryan and I went to the KZUU meeting. It lasted about thirty-five minutes. We went to Cougar Country and got some dinner. I was trying to relax, but I knew I had a big softball game on Monday. I didn’t know if I had enough women for it. We went to Russell’s to give him a ride to work.

Russell was able to talk a little bit about his situation. Earlier in the day we talked about it. He said he was thankful to have me around to talk to about it.

Palousitics Party

I was only asleep for two hours when I got a call from Avalon about giving someone a ride to the hospital for getting a blood draw. I told them I would do it. I was able to get one more hour of sleep before the time I had to be there.

I got up an hour later and got ready to take the person on the ride. It took about an hour total. I went home and was doing some stuff online when I got a call about another transfer. I had planned on going to Dodge about getting floor mats for the truck before going out to the Paloustics party.

I did the transport. Then I went to the Dodge dealer. I found out the floor mats would cost me around a hundred bucks. I thought that was more than I wanted to spend so I decided to go and find if I could get them online cheaper.

I went out to Sunshine road to do the shooting. I met up with Tom and the other Paloustics people. I had my Glock, Ruger, and ten-twenty-two. I put nearly a hundred rounds through the guns. I was wearing safety glasses. One of the shells from the Glock landed between my glasses and my eye. It started to burn I ripped off my glasses. That hurt a little bit.

While we were getting close to being done I got a call from the hospital to take the guy back to Avalon. I did his transfer. I went to Dissmore’s and got a couple things for the rest of the Palousitics get together. I went to Paul’s house on Valley Road. The others were already there. I had some beer and chips for the party. I had a couple beers and some chips plus other food that other people supplied.

I was there for a couple hours with everyone. It was fun to chat about various politics. I left around eight-thirty. I watched the remainder of the Cougar football game, but the Cougs were getting blown out by Arizona. They ended up losing the game. I got to bed pretty early tonight because I was really tired after getting so little sleep.

Got a New Truck

Got up early and got my stuff put into the truck and picked up the boat trailer. I went to Jon’s and picked him up. We went to pull his boat out of the water. I took it back to his place and backed it into his driveway. He followed me to the Dodge dealership. The guy wanted to know if I wanted it. I went back to the whole issue about not having the radio controls on the steering wheel.

The guy asked why don’t I look at a new truck. He had me write down some of the things that are important and did some searching. He found one or two trucks with a gas engine and the steering wheel controls but did not find the color I liked. He had me go to the lot and see the other colors. I wanted a blue truck. Plus we were adding nearly ten grand. I didn’t want to do that. I made it clear if I were to get a new vehicle it would be one-hundred percent of what I want. The junior car dealer was trying to tell me I could not get one-hundred percent. I told him that I could. I said that if I were to get a new truck it would not be today. I realized that this deal was either the used truck or no truck.

The sales manager came over to assist. I made it clear that I was apprehensive over getting this vehicle because of the missing audio controls. Plus the additional debt load. The sales manage asked if I would do it for twenty-one-five. I thought about it, sort of waiting for a reaction from Jon. Jon finally spoke up saying that if I was taking so long to accept the deal then obviously it was not exactly right.

We left and Jon said to me outside he thought he was going to have to grab me by the back of the coat to get me out of there. I told him I was waiting for his reaction. I made a plan for what I was going to do.

I told the dealer I was going to look into a couple of things and then get back to him. After lunch I called him and said I would do the deal for twenty-three-five with a one-hundred-thousand mile warranty included. He called me back and said he could not do that. The warranties were out of his hands. I asked to speak to the finance division to find out what a warranty would cost. He called me back later and said twenty-four out the door with a lifetime drivetrain warranty. I told him I would think about it.

I told Jon and Jon thought the drivetrain warranty was not enough. I agreed. I called BECU to find out what their warranties would cost. I got a price of eighteen-hundred-and fifty. I called the dealer back and said I would do the deal for twenty-one-five out the door. He said that offer was not on the table. I said it was earlier. He said the sales manager was trying to see if I was worried about debt or the audio controls. That was not a real offer. I said to find out if it was and call me back.

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

I went to the dealer and moved all the stuff from my truck to the new one. I then started to sign all the paperwork. I thought I was almost done, but I had more negotiating to do for the warranty. They wanted twenty-four hundred. I said I could get the one through BECU for eighteen-five. He trying to tell me that the dealer warranty is better. I did want to get the dealer warranty, but I did not want to pay twenty-four hundred.

After some negotiations I got it for twenty-two hundred and a fifty dollar deductible rather than a one-hundred dollar deductible. I left in my new truck.

I went back to the office and got my stuff. By this time it was nearly nine at night. Because it was so late I decided to go to Jon’s neighborhood poker game for a while. I told Jon about the latest dealings. Then a tournament was being organized from the cash game that was going on. I got in on the tournament. There were sixteen players. They were paying the top four. I was on the bubble, but I was way behind. I ended up going out on the bubble.

I then hit the road at about eleven o’clock at night.

Should I get a new truck?

I had lunch this afternoon with Jon and the other guys. When we were done eating I went to Dodge of Bellevue. I knew that it would not be good to go there, but I did anyway. I wanted to see what kind of low mileage trucks they had available for sale. They didn’t have the exact same program as the Ford dealer in Moscow had, but they had a couple on the lot.

I wanted the twenty-five-hundred. I wanted to get a truck that would be full size to hold a camper. There was one that was the same color as my truck, two years newer and more than seventy-thousand less miles. They wanted me to ride in it. They wanted nearly twenty-nine thousand bucks for it. I told them I had to leave but I would be back. But I was not sure that I would want to take on that much debt.

When I came back I went for a ride. The saleman was still annoying me. I tuned it to the radio station wanted to listen to and then he turned the station to something else. He was pointing out things about this truck that I already know about because my truck is nearly identical. When we got back to the dealership they went into over-drive trying to get me to buy the truck. They kept on trying to get me to look at the monthly payment. I told him it was not about the monthly payment I cared about the bottom line. I wanted to stay out of deep debt.

I figure I am going to be paying for another eight months on my truck, but I don’t want to do more than twenty-four total. That would add on sixteen months to the total payment. I am okay with that.

But they were not budging a whole bunch. They would put an offer on the board and I would be very indecisive about it. So then they would work on another amount that was lower. But I would still be unwilling to say yes to it.

Finally he asked what I wanted to pay. I told him that I would like to get it for twenty-two thousand out the door. The guy said he would talk to the sales manager to see if he could get that. I told him I wanted to talk to my brother. I went to my truck to call him. I could not get him but I got ahold of John to talk to him about my situation. I ran everything by him and he said I should not buy it tonight, but wait until tomorrow.

I went back inside and they were getting close to closing time. The guy said they were close. He said twenty-three-five out the door. I said, yeah, you’re close, but not there yet. He said what if we split the difference. I said no. Then the sales manager asked what I wanted. I said twenty-two out the door. He said “done.” I then said I still want to think about it over night. I told them I would come back tomorrow.

They told me I should take the truck home. I told them I needed to haul a boat. They said that was okay. He told me it is made to haul stuff and that if the truck cold not haul something that I should let them know.

So I got ahold of Jon and he said to come by. We spent time on the computer looking over the deal and other vehicles. We decided that deal was not bad, but it was not a screaming deal either. I came to the conculsion I wanted to get it for twenty-one-five out the door.

When I got home I told my mom I got a new truck. She looked outside and said “no, you just washed your truck.” I laughed and said it is a different truck.

Hanging with Peter

After I got off work today I went over to Peters. We just had some pizza and sat there talking about the new board game, politics, work, and life. It was nice tyo just sit around talking with him. I was there until around ten o’clock.

Trip one in two weeks

I am back in Bellevue for working Marine Patrol tomorrow. I am also working out of the office today and for the rest of the week. Turns out this week is code complete, so it was a good time to be here.

I got to Bellevue in normal time. We had our meeting. I got assigned a bug that I worked on and got completed pretty quickly.

I did get a call saying Marine Patrol is cancelled tomorrow so I will be going into the office.

I went home around six in the afternoon. I got to play with Jen and Amber plus spend time on the computer. I was debating on taking tomorrow off, but that is not something I will probably do, as it would be a waste of a day.

Cancelled game due to FFT

I had fire training tonight, it is extrication training, but I found out it is mainly classroom training. I was going to be running one of the groups. But I also found out that I was going to be needed for softball at ten o’clock pm. I got out of training early to go to the softball fields.

But when I got there the game was cancelled because the other team did not have enough guys. I was disappointed because I was hoping to get some softball action in. I figured that I got my uniform on and got to Moscow, now I want to play. Originally with training and getting up early in the morning I wasn’t going to play. But they needed me to play.

Another New Position the Season

I was working on my shelves when Erik called me about coming to My Office to watch the Seahawks game. We were once again struggling to find some women to play with us, but we did end up getting some who would play. We had five on the nose. Yet again, nothing too great, but we would go on to win. In one game we won by one run. The other game it was a much different story. He just crushed the other team.

In one of the games I started at short stop. That was fun to do. I made a couple plays and no errors.

So far this year playing softball for my various teams I have been at first, second, third, short, pitcher, catcher, and right-center field. I just need three more positions to round out the season.

We went on to play men’s. I wanted to win both to make sure we were not in the rec bracket. We went one and one. We had a bad second game where we did not hit the ball until the fourth inning. But we had the trying run on third base. With our best hitter, Jared, coming to the plate. But he hit a long flyout. We lost by one run.

After the games Ryan came over and we had some pizza and pop while watching some TV.

First Wildland Fire in Pullman

It was going to be a long day today with CPR class and Cougar Football, but I got a couple more things packed in. I stayed up later than I wanted to, so I was tired this morning when I did get up. I get dressed and was off to CPR class at the hospital.

I thought it was an all day class, but it only went five hours, which was an hour longer than it was supposed to go. After the class the reviews from people were good. I got some very positive reviews from the students about my attitude and humor.

I went home to start on my shredding party all on my own. Dearth wanted to respond on calls today if we got any. I told him I would go on them once I was done with CPR class. So shortly after I started the shredding a delta response for a wildland fire went out. It was up by North Campus Heights. I got the station fast so we could take the Rescue. When Foster saw me come in he told me to take the rescue and
he was going to take the engine.

Dearth and Gribbon showed up. We went en route and were told to come in off of Northwood Drive. We went into Aspen Village. It was huge. A couple acres involved. We were told to start to attack. I got the guys going with some hoses and water. I then started to hook to the hydrant. But I also was trying to deal with the requests of the guys on the line. Monte with WSU fire also helped me get set up on the hydrant. I also made Dearth’s line three hundred feet long only to find we needed more. So I told him we had to shut down long enough to add line. He did and I got the new hose on there.

We had D-Twelve come out as well as more Pullman units. It was pretty intense for a while with a lot of people watching in. When the fire was finally over with we started to clean up. I was told to take Rescue on a sweep around the fire taking care of the hot spots. So I got to go in four-wheel drive and use the ground sweeps and walk and roll attack. Pretty cool.

We went to the main station and washed all the hose we used and got it all reloaded on the rescue. It was back in service around seven o’clock that night.

The football game had already started. At first it was close, then USC started to run away with it. But the time I left the fire station USC was in control. I went home to watch it from there and continue to finish my shredding.

I got all the shredding done, filling up three big garbage bags. The Cougs lost.

Jailer

I got called a couple days ago asking if I would come into the jail and work because they were running low on people for Friday. I told Poffenroth that I would. I got down there after the daily call-in meeting. I worked until four o’clock. It was pretty dead for a Friday.

I went to Colfax Fire and talked with Jenny and Rick for a bit. Rick was washing his truck. Ken stopped by. He had to go to the Coroner’s office to get some stuff. I accompanied him down there. We spent about twenty minutes talking about a case we were both familiar with. I got my new ID card.

I went to Russell’s place following getting my uniform off and we went to Moscow to get him a ankle brace for his ankle. We started at Big-Five. But they did not have the greatest selection of sizes. We went to the sports store in the mall and he got what he needed.

He also called Nick and we planned to meet up at Apple Bee’s for dinner. We got over there and it was packed. It was Dad’s weekend at U of I. After eating we went over to the mall to Bed, Bath, and Beyond and Old Navy. They were getting ready to close. A couple of the people there got some stuff and then we left.

I took Russell home and went home myself. I had to be up early and I wanted to get a good nights sleep. But instead I started to watch the Pullman High football game on TV. It was in the final three minutes. Pullman tied it up and they went into OT. Pullman won it in the OT period.

Poker Night at Dan’s

I spent much of the day working on my shelf project. I was actually assembling the wood framing and getting everything screwed together. Towards the end of the night of my work I got a phone call from John. He asked if I wanted to play some poker tonight. I told him that I would like to play cards.

Around eight o’clock I went to Dan’s house and we started to play. Dan had a bunch of Diet Pepsi for me and he got some M&Ms; for everyone. He paid us our money from last time and we started to play.

I was hot again like the other night. I was winning and winning money. When someone would buy more chips I would take three black chips (one dollar chips) and exchange them out of my stack because my stacks were so big. We were doing five dollar buyins. I was up twelve bucks alone in black chips. Plus all my winnings in the other chips. I ended up walking out about twenty bucks richer. Dan also won back some of his money that he had lost before.

I think my biggest loss all night was a buck-ninety-five.

Getting a Start at Third Base

I did the final work on my shelf in the garage today. Now that it was done I started to put some boxes up on the upper shelf. I was able to get a space on the floor cleaned up, but I still have a way to go. A lot of the things still out are tools. I think that what needs to happen is this weekend I will pull everything out of the garage and onto the driveway. Then put things away as I bring them in.

We had early softball games today. One sign summer is over is the fact that by the middle of the game it was dark and cold. But I got the start at third base today. That was pretty fun. I made a couple throwing plays to first for outs. Plus I made an out at my bag. But I also had an error when the ball got under my mitt. That sucked.

I hit the ball well getting a double in my first at bat. Then in my next at bat I had a ton of space in right field. The first pitch was inside, I was looking for one outside. It was a strike all the same. The next pitch was lower than I wanted and strike two was quickly called. One guy from my team said “Can you see that yellow thing?” In reference to the ball and the fact I watched two decent pitched go by.

The next pitch I expected a really bad pitch because I had no balls. Typically a pitcher will throw something bad on that count and hope you go for it. But I am always ready incase it is a good pitch. The ball was coming in a little high, but I knew it would be called a strike. So I swung at it. There were two people on base.

Everyone on my bench area started cheering and making noise. At first I thought I hit a high fly ball that was warning track power, at best. But instead it flew out of the park in center field. The pitcher came out towards second as I was rounding it and gave me a high five.

When I got back to the bench people were joking about how I let the good pitches go by and hit the high one. It felt good to belt out the homerun. The rest of the night went well. I got another double.

When I got home I took a super fast shower and went to the Deuce to catch up with the other guys. We were going to do a fire drill at Rogers and Orton. The drill and safety talk afterwards took about thirty minutes. We went to the top of Rogers hall to see the cable system that runs the elevators there. Most of them are hydraulic systems. This one actually is run by cables.

Poker Night at Peter’s

I was supposed to go to Colfax for fire training, but I just couldn’t get up the energy to go. I was too into my garage and the building I had going on out there. I was building away when I got a call from Peter about playing poker over at his place.

I went there and just won hand after hand. I slowly built up my stacks. I only lost a couple big hands. But I won way more than I lost. I left up about fifteen bucks. That is good for Peter’s place because buy-ins are only five bucks.

Still a No-Go on the Association

I made my big shopping trip that I have had to make for some time. I stopped at the fire station to drop off some ice cream bars for tonight. Then I went home and put all my stuff away.

I was on duty tonight. We got Rescue washed and down to the station for OTEP training and the Reserve Association meeting. We were supposed to have a yes or no vote. But it turned out too many people did not understand what was going on, so I ended up spending time telling people more about it. It did not sound like we had a lot of support. I think some of the people who were trying to scare the reserves before still have them scared. So the vote was postponed again.

We started our training, but kept getting called out. We had three calls tonight and each one was a long walk from where we parked to where the scene was. One was in Martin Stadium at the fifty yard line. Another was in Perham hall. It was a long stroll from the parking to the far end of the hall through a ton of doors. Finally we had one at CCN deep in the complex. We parked on the street because the scene was at the end of a dead end driveway.

Dropping the Ball In Softball

We didn’t have a ton of calls, but they were all spaced out. I got home about a quarter of six. I waited until six before going to bed. Then I had three hours to sleep before getting to the station for reserve testing.

We got to the tower to set up the course and work people through it. That only took about two and a half hours. I didn’t go to bed I started to try to get people set up for playing softball, but many of them were gone or going out of town. I only got two women and three guys there. I dropped the ball on it. So we had to FFT the co-ed games.

The men’s teams was oh and two. We needed to win some of the games. We went out there like a well oiled machine and started to beat up on the other teams. One game we scored twenty runs and just crushed the other team. In the other game it was twelve to six. But I was two for three with a triple and four RBI. That was a good game.

Ryan and I got something to eat together and chatted for a while before he had to run off.

Cougar Football Saturday!

It is that time of year again… COUGAR FOOTBALL SATURDAY! I have a busy day planned for me. I am working with someone on the engine. I am working the football game. I am on call for the fire department.

I started out crawling out of bed in time to get to the station to do drive time with Wilson on Engine Thirty-One. The plan was to drive for four hours. But one other crew leader wanted to get out with one of his guys, so we took the engine back early. Wilson and did the normal things I did with the guys. I quizzed him on roads and some locations of buildings. He did well driving. I had to work with him on the hills and making sure he downshifted some more using the engine to slow him down and not just the brakes.

When we were done I hung out at the station for a while until it was time to head to station one for the lunch and briefing. Following those things it was off to the new location with Rescue. We are parking closer to the IT building.

The game was against the UI. We got called out a couple times for people who were unresponsive here and there around the campus. We also had a situation where someone was waving us down to his area. Turned out to be a police call, so Stewart who was coming down behind me, took the lead and I went back to my position. Turned out they had to eject a fan for disorderly conduct. The crowd cheered when the guy was taken out.

On one call, near the end of the game we were getting out on Stadium Way. A lot of people were walking on it because they now close off part of Stadium Way around the stadium except to emergency vehicles and buses.

Andrew hit the siren really fast and all of a sudden the crowd parted like the Red Sea. It was funny to watch. On one response we going code and one guy saw us and decided to cross the street anyway. He did not try to go fast. He slowly walked across the street. I hit the siren and horn. He just stared at me like I should have come to a complete stop for him, because afterall the world revolves around him.

After the game we only got a couple minor calls. It was a pretty tame night over all. The Cougs went on to beat the Vandals.

Shelf Construction

I was restless about my shelf construction and decided to go to get the wood and other needed parts to start my garage cleanup projects. I was at Pullman Building Supply when Wilson called to see if I was going to come down on the call. There was someone who needed help. I got to the station, but we were cancelled before we really got going.

I went back to PBS and got my wood and other items to build the shelves and storage areas for the garage. I got home and got going on those things. I used the tailgate of my truck as a work bench and started to make the necessary measurements to cut the wood. I started with the two shelves that will sit above the garage door. I had to make twelve boards sixteen inches long. Then I connected the five-inch L-brackets. I realized I only had enough brackets for half of the project so I was going to have to go back to PBS.

I got another call and called up Wilson. We went on it, and it turned out to be nothing. We fueled up Rescue and I picked up what I needed from PBS. When we got back to the station we saw D-twelve go by the station going code. Then they were on scene just after going past our station. About two minutes later we were getting toned out to their call, as it turned out to be ours. It was a big gaspipe that got hit with a backhoe. Engine thirty-two went to the scene and took command. They had us go to the nearest hydrant with Engine thirty-one, which was in front of the Auto Body Supercenter. Wilson and I spent time talking about engineer calculations and engineer stuff waiting for our call to duty. But the pipe was fixed before any major catastrophe happened.

We went back to the station and had some pizza that Blanks got for everyone. I took Wilson to Beasley and then went home. I got more work done on my shelf project. I got all the cuts made for the wood and started to assemble everything. I got one of them hung in the garage. I then put some stuff away. It felt good to get that done.

I talked to Juan. He was not feeling well at all so he decided to stay home for the night. But I spent time on g.com chatting with people. I actually got to sleep at nearly four in the morning. I had to be up less than six hours later to take Wilson out doing some drive time in the engine.

Helping out some friends

This afternoon I went on a tour of the stadium with the fire department to learn where things are located. It looks pretty nice, but there is more work to do.

Russell asked me to give him a ride, Peter called asking if I could help him haul trash to the dump. Both guys needed my help at four o’clock PM. I told Peter that I would help him second and f the dump closed before I got to him I would help him tomorrow.

Russell and I went to the lawyer to talk about his recent string of bad luck. It really didn’t amount to much in that meeting. Then I rushed to Peter’s and we picked him up. Went to the dump made it by five minutes.

Then back to Peter’s to get his roommate. We went to Taco Bell for dinner over in Moscow. Then I gave everyone a ride home while listening to Chris Rock on the radio.

I make some more measurements in my garage fr the shelving. I also found a resource online that wrote about another idea I will be doing. I am going to get a fair amount of storage. I will work on building those things over the weekend when I have time.

I spent some time on g.com chatting. I found Juan out there. He is going to come over tomorrow night. We are planning on watching a movie and hanging out. But I also found out there is a show in Moscow. I will see if he wants to go to that. I am not sure if I want to go for sure, but it would get me out of the house, and I would have someone to go with.

Good night at the plate

Though I am one of the best hitters on the team I always end up hitting last for the order of guys. I am not sure why. Maybe it is prejudice that causes me to hit low. People who put batting line ups together do have a difficult job. No one wants to hit last, me included. But at the same time, if you do not hit well, then you will be hitting last.

Typically you want someone who is both very fast and has a high on base average (OBA) to hit lead off. Following that another faster person with a high OBA. For me once I get to my third, fourth, and fifth batters I want people who both have power, meaning a high slugging percentage, and good batting average. My number four hitter is usually the guy with the most power. The goal is to get the bases loaded or runners in scoring position, then your number four hits them all in. I have my number five hitter have power as well because he can do additional clean up if necessary.

My number six batter in softball usually is slower but has a high batting average. After that it is sort of up in the air. I will have slow and fast guys hitting around each other. It is not the best situation to do that because the slow guys will keep the fast guys from getting extra bases, but when I am at the bottom of the order I make the assumption that they will only be getting one hit a game.

So in my situation on this team is that I have a good stick with some power. I should probably hit around number five or six. But I am hitting last. Behind people who are not getting on base. With my batting average and speed I should be scoring a lot of RBI. But I don’t.

Also, one thing that goes into line ups are the intangibles. Sometimes when a batting order is hot, you don’t mess with it. The last thing I want to do is to move someone and have them have a different mindset going into the batters box. I have noticed over the last year that when I am hitting dead-last I bat terribly. I am actually batting second to last on this team, but last in terms of guys, as it is a co-ed team. I think this year so far when I am hitting dead-last I am about five for twenty or something horrible like that.

Anyway, tonight at the plate I hit the ball very well. I was on every time except for once. I had a double and a triple as well. We went on to lose the game. It was a close one. We were actually in a big hole to start with, but chipped away coming back to take the lead in the middle innings. But the other team started to hit well and retook the lead. Then in the final inning added four runs to be up by six. We went out there deflated and our hitting showed it. We ended up losing.

I went over to Russell’s place. We had some breakfast for dinner stuff. It was very yummy. We sat round chatting and chowing for a while before the majority of the group had to head off.

HazMat Training Day

After not having been at HazMat training for several months I was able to make it to training today. Softball season is bad for Colfax Fire training and HazMat training. Both are Tuesday nights. I always have to make a choice. Softball will always win that one.

Tonight’s training was mainly watching a video about setting up and using decon in different situations.

I also took time to get the photoboard updated for the shift changes. When I was done and put the board away, Bob pointed out I had a couple names in the wrong spot. So I had to update those. It is a big pain in the rear to maintain the photoboard.

BKoe called me up and asked if I wanted to go see Joe at Pete’s. We went down there had some pop and nachos. We talked with Joe for a while. We spent most of the time talking shop.

Yay! More Softball

I went to the fire station to go on the Martin Stadium tour only to find out it was cancelled until this evening. I was hanging out there until a call came in. I stood by and Bien showed up. So we were going to go en route, but got cancelled. So we were writing our time in the books when another call came out. We went on that one. But there was no transport so we went back in server.

After I got home, I was working on a database change. Ricky was waiting for me to finish it up. I got it done and checked in about three minutes before a call for a car accident went out. Bien and I went on that call.

When we were done with that it was nearly five-thirty. The guys took the rig to training and I went home to get ready for softball. We had a co-ed game in Moscow. I ended up playing EH for the whole game.

I got a couple at bats. I started with a solid double. Then I got a solid single. My hitting was good. We were not scoring and we were playing good defense. So the score was three to two in the sixth inning. That is when I got my single to get on base. There was one hitter in front of me. We both scored and one more scored behind us. We were up five to three. That is how the score ended.

I got home and I was on Rescue for the rest of the night. I made a late dinner and ate that. I worked on some stuff for work. It was sort of slow going. We kept getting called out. About every hour and a half we were toned out. That happened up until three-thirty in the morning. I finally got home and in bed at five in the morning.

IM Softball is Back in Action

I got up this morning in Renton having to be in Colfax at the fairgrounds by noon. I was there at eleven-thirty in the morning. Just as I was getting there I saw a guy on a horse and he was having problems. Someone was trying to control the horse and he was falling off next to a car. I was thinking I was going to have my first patient. He did not fall off, but the car got dented by the horse hitting it.

I went to the EMS booth and got my shirt for this year. I have pretty much every shirts since I started to work the fair in two-thousand. It was a pretty slow day in the EMS room as usual. We gave out a couple band aids while I was there but that was about it.

I spent most of the time I was there working on finding women to play IM softball tonight. I had no girls who were going to be there. I was on the phone with everyone I knew trying to get women. Ryan had left Spokane around two to be in Pullman by three-thirty. Shortly after two I got confirmation of the fifth girl. A couple of the women I got I didn’t even know.

They were all saying they were not any good. I told them as long as they had a pulse that was fine. We would lose the games without them. At least we would have a fighting chance.

I left my shift a little early at the urging of the people I was working with. They said it was slow so I should go play softball. I got to the field a couple innings into the first game. I was subbed in to play two innings in the outfield! I had two balls go my way and I made the catch of one and played the other one in front of me because I was unsure if I would get to it. We went on to win that game.

In game two I started. I hit a triple and an inside the park homerun. It was pretty easy. The two teams we played were very bad. We beat the second team hands down. I played in the outfield some more. We were done with that game very early.

We went to the next field where we were going to play KStew’s team. We only had nine guys because Nick and his friends did not make it. So we played short handed and it was not the game to do that. They had a couple big innings and put us away because we couldn’t hit. Kelly did have his right fielder play me in a long way. I was very shocked so I crushed it over his head and got a triple. Kelly was playing shortstop. He have me a high five as I was running to third base.

He said he should have given me more respect, but he expected me to bloop it in. If the outfielder played me in, I will just hit it over his head. Otherwise I will bloop it in. I was catching and made a play at home. The ball was thrown from Michael B to home. It bounced before the plate. It went off my inner thigh and into my mitt where I held on to it for an out.

The next game we were in a defensive battle. Peter made a diving catch in the outfield. That was the play of the game. But the other team had a big inning and scored seven runs. We put one run up in the top of the sixth inning, but it was not enough.

Ryan and I went to my place and had a pizza and pop. We watched some videos on thatvideosite.com.

Gridiron Classic

Peter and I hooked up around noon to head down to Seattle for Cougar Football. We got to the big parking lot just North of the stadium. We were told no tailgating. And unlike years past, this year they meant it. The parking lot was pretty empty.

We walked around for a while then made a lap around the stadium, up to an upper street and back around by King Street station. Then we stood up there for a while just chatting.

We walked down to the stadium and we just people watched. I got a hold of Hawkes as well. We met up with him. On the way there we found where the big tail gate party was. It looked like CCN. It was packed full of people and it was a huge area. We got to Hawkes with only a couple minutes to spare before we had to leave to the game.

We got way up to our seats. I think we chose the row with the most people who had to come and go through out the game. The game was good over all. For a while the defense showed signs of weakness. Sort of what it looked like against Wisconsin last week. They are really going to have to gel and grow rapidly if we want to compete with some of these good teams.

We went on to a pretty easy victory.

We went off to Peter’s. We got dinner on the way and ate it at his house. While we were there we were talking about a new board game called “Welfare”. It would have some basic Monopoly-like ideas, but would reflect today’s society with gas prices, lawyers, sports teams, political clout, and other things that living in today’s world at times messed up. We spent about two hours talking about ideas and rules for the game.