St. Maries Softball

I got up at five in the morning and got ready for softball and then headed out. I got some pop and filled my truck. Our first game was at eight in the morning. I was still tender in the back area. I got to St. Maries after about an hour and fifteen minutes of driving. I was going fast.

We went to the field and I got a couple beers and then we played ball. I was not able to hit anything. I went oh-fer in the first game, but I did get on base once. We lost the first game which meant our next game was going to be at three-thirty in the afternoon. I was not looking forward to the long delay. I had some more beer and watched the women play a game. I also saw the coach of the Palouse Thunder there. He lives in the area and planned on seeing some of the guys on the team who were planning on playing in some of the games.

We had a guy on our team who we called K-Fed for Kevin Federline (Britney’s Husband). He was a ten-six-seven and a good player. He also happened to play for the Thunder for part of this last season.

I went back to camp and hung out for a while trying to relax my back. I made my trip to Serva Burger. It is like Cougar Country. They have some good food there. It was about an hour and a half before game time. I got some food and went back to the field.

We had our next game and I was hurting a little bit. I was playing catcher. We had some close plays at home and I got some action. We ended up losing that game as well. I went oh-fer in that game as well. I decided that I would try to make it back to be on call. I wanted to be on Rescue because it was the opening weekend before school and many times it is busy as heck there.

It turned out to be dead more or less. But I made good time to Pullman. I was able to drive from St. Maries to Pullman, shower, get my pop, and get to the station in about an hour and fifty minutes.

I went to the station and we got some calls. I was on rescue the whole night, but we only got four calls. Not what I was hoping for. But they came pretty close to a bunch. So five of us stayed at the station for most of the night. Keith and Tyson were in the bedroom with me and Chapman, Reed, and Brian stayed on the furniture in the dayroom. We did not get any additional calls. I got up around three in the morning and went to my apartment and slept for the rest of the night.

I Got My Modem Finally

I started the day off with a trip to Colfax. I sent in the order for sunglasses. I also signed some paperwork for my house sale. We needed to allow the closing agency to pay off my final debts for the house. I got the paperwork for the case from yesterday done and printed out.

My modem was supposed to have arrived yesterday, but they sent it two-day instead. I was not very happy about that. I hooked it up and it did not fix anything. I talked with FSR. We did all the things they thought we should test out. Then they decided to send out a guy to do some stuff on site. He said it was a bad modem and I needed a new one.

So I got on the phone with the people from Verizon and spent a fair amount of time until I talked to someone and a new modem was on the way. I told them the problem with the first shipment. They said they would send this one out nextday.

Peter and I met up for dinner at the Emerald. We were there for nearly four hours. We talked about the PES and other things. I saw the new Rescue and engine go by. I knew they were now in service. I went to the station and took a look at them. I saw where the equipment was put and talked with Chapman for a while. There was also a problem with the engine smoking, it looked like a small electrical fire was happening. Eric from the main station came down and looked at it. They determined something with the charging system went bad and caused the smoking.

I wanted to get to bed sort of early because I had softball in St. Maries in the morning and I had to get up early to get there. Because I went to the station I did not get an early bedtime like I had hoped for.

Non-Stop Working

The day started with a call from Pete at seven in the morning. I forgot that I was on call, but I had been up late and I was tired. I answered it and he said there was a case in Rosalia. I called Whitcom and got more information. It turned out to be a twenty-six year old found in a car. But they had the bike rally starting up that day and wanted to take care of everything as quick as possible. I got going and raced to Rosalia. I also called Patti and Pete and let them know what was going on. I invited Patti to come out and work the scene as well.

I arrived about ten minutes before Patti. The guy was found in his car and CPR was started, but it was not successful. He was pronounced dead at the scene by MedStar. I started to do my investigation. Patti showed up and helped me with everything. We got the funeral home there and they took the body to Kimball’s in Pullman was we finished up the scene. I got all sorts of photos and talked to the family. Pete showed up and helped talk to the family. Patti and the Rosalia Town Marshall went to the dad’s house and interviewed him. It was looking like an OD.

I left and went to Kimballs. Pete wanted me to get blood and urine to send to the state. I also took temperatures.

I went to Taco Time and got some work done then I went back to my office and got my paperwork completed. Pete called and asked if I could go to the Autopsy. I said I could. I planned on getting my clothes on for that but then I got another call telling me that it was ready to start and I had to get there right away because Pete was not in the area and it was starting early.

I got to Kimballs and watched the autopsy. It was interesting. I was able to see inside the Abdominal Aorta. It was full of really rough substances due to age. It was like feeling sand paper. Pete showed up at the end of the autopsy and we talked about it all.

I was on call tonight. While at the station Tony called to see if Rescue could help with the First Responder class. We had Drew coming to do more with the Rescue training. We worked on it and was mostly done when we got called away to a medical incident. When it was done we went to the station and started to do check offs. But we got two calls in the process of the check off’s. We had all our calls when we wanted to get other things done, but by the time we were done doing our work the calls also stopped coming in.

I was supposed to have gotten my Modem from Verizon, but it had not arrived. I called

New Engine Training

Because we are going to get the old WSU engine for the reserves I need drive time in it. Erik and I went out in it for about three hours. We drove all around town and I was able to do all the hills finishing on College Hill. By that time I was more comfortable with the smaller roads and the size of the engine. We drove all around and there were a lot of people around milling about because it is Rush week.

I did not do a lot more because my system is still down. I finally found out that Verizon said there was nothing wrong on their end, but they thought my modem was bad so they were going to send one overnight.

Rescue Me at Keith’s Place

I worked with FSR on my computer stuff some more. But without having the Internet I decided to go to Taco Time where there is free Internet access. I did that yesterday as well. I was able to get work done while having lunch.

I was on duty tonight. My back was still tender but I was not going to not work. Drew was going to come and check us off on the new Rescue Thirty Two. It was going to go into service very soon. We were nearly done when we got called away on a car accident. So we didn’t get a lot done. We went to the scene and got cancelled pretty quickly.

Because of calls and whatnot we were unable to watch Rescue Me at the station so we went to Keith’s apartment and watched it up there.

Taking the Day Off

Because of my hurting back I decided that I should take the day off of work. It also didn’t help that the Internet in my office was down. I dealt with FSR about trying to get it figured out. We could not find out what was wrong with it. I was going to skip fire training tonight but I decided that I would cowboy up and go.

Now that I am an engineer I was assigned to take Engine Thirty-Three to the CUB. I put my stuff in the engine and we went to station one before going to the CUB. There was a question about what I was going to do. At first I was going to get assigned to a team and then I put on my coat to find out it was too small. As it turned out I had someone elses coat. I was going to have to find out who had my coat.

I was assigned to be a victim in the CUB. I found a hiding spot and they were going to have to find me. They found me finally. Then we had a short critique after it was done.

I got back to the Deuce and found that Walker and I had gotten our coats switched around. So I fixed it and then I headed home.

Hurt my back

Because the softball tournament was cancelled for me I decided that I would get more moving done. I also called Patti and asked to take Sunday from her so I could do some boating on a weekend to come. There was more stuff to pack and start to move. It was slow going. I only had the basement to do, but I really hated to start on it. I hate moving and the stuff in the basement is full of cob webs as well as the fact there has been a presence of mice down there. I am worried about hantavirus in the droppings, so I am looking up information about it and trying to be careful about what I do down there so it makes it real slow going.

I got some stuff done, but I also started hurting more and more as the day went on. Steve, the guy buying my house wanted me to show him around the property. I went up on my quad and he took his motorcycle up there. We drove around and looked at everything.

When we were done I was really hurting. I went to the fire station. Around seven in the afternoon I got a call from Patti about a case to do. So I called the hospital in Pullman and found out what happened. It turned out someone died of a AAA. Because of that I knew I should investigate to make sure there wasn’t a medical misadventure as Pete calls them. There was a AAA in the past where the doctor did not do what he should have in diagnosing it.

I went to the hospital. But I was hardly able to stand and walk. I walked hunched over into the hospital. The chaplain was there and carried a bag for me. I did my investigation. Craig from Kimballs showed up and we removed the body. I went back to the funeral home and did more of an investigate. Pete decided and autopsy was in order.

I called the family and talked to them and went to my office to start on my paperwork. I got it all done and went to the coroners office to get it all printed off for Pete.

The Second Big Move

After having packed all my stuff, it was my turn to do the packing — packing of boxes up and down the stairs. I made trips and up and down as I answered phone calls in reference to my craigslist listing. I had several things for free including he SAAB. A ten-six-seven from Spokane came and got it. He was shirtless and looking good. He got the car and took off. Other people showed up through out the day and got items I was giving away.

I also was working on taking the stuff down to the truck and packing them. It took a while to get everything down to my truck. Once it was all packed we went to Pullman. Dan met us at the storage place and helped to unload everything. Then we went to my apartment and unloaded the rest of the stuff.

My mom went to Cougar Country after that and had dinner. She was going to head back to Seattle after getting some food. I still had a long night a head of me for doing some unpacking and arranging my room. It got my desk set up and decided how I would arrange my room so all my items were nicely arranged. I have a lot of boxes of stuff to go through and put away.

Mom Helping Me Pack

My mom came over from Seattle to help me pack my kitchen and the remainder of my stuff today. We both got into Colfax around the same time. We got some lunch and she worked on packing stuff. I loaded my truck full of items and made my way to Pullman to drop them off. It was nice to have her over and her help made my life so much easier, because packing the kitchen for me would have taken for ever.

Last night in Renton

Tonight is the last night I will be in Renton for a couple weeks. I took my mom’s computer to work to see if it would work on the wireless network. It worked nicely, so I think that the problem is with the wireless router at home. I went to Amazon and bought a new one for her.

I also talked to Dave on the phone for a bit. It sounds like he is close to selling his house in Covington. I would love to see him move out to the Pullman area. I doubt he will, but it would be so nice if he did. I would like to have him around.

The rest of the day was spent trying to find a camper or canopy for my truck on craigslist.

I hit lunch today with Jon, Jim, and Terry. We went to Three Pigs today. It was nice to be here for a week. It was like being on vacation. I did not have to worry about anything in the evening. I just worked and went home. But I want to get back to Colfax and get moved out of my house so I can close the sale and be done with it.

Another day in Seattle

I was able to get the problem with the import of liabilities solved. It was nice to get that done. It has been on my plate for a couple weeks. I worked most of the morning trying to get my computer to do service orders so I could debug. Then I could not step into the VB components. So I battled that and found a different way to do some debugging. Once I saw the data that we were using I was able to fix the problem with no time. Now I am done with everything on my plate until Monday.

I hit Arby’s for lunch with Jon. We talked about my softball application and a car accident that we saw on Coal Creek Parkway this morning. We each saw it at a different time. As it turned out a guy had a medical issue. Slumped over the wheel of the truck he was in. Hit one light pole on one side of the road and went across six lanes at a high rate of speed and hit head on with a tree.

I also spent some time looking up information about flights to Alabama. I am thinking about seeing the Cougs play down there. It would be fun to see an away Cougar game. Konty has a place for me to stay and tickets if I can make it down there.

Helping Jon

Jon and I went out to lunch today. We talked about NetUpdate. He asked me if I was willing to come back to the Seattle area and work full time. I told him that I wasn’t. I want to stay in the Pullman area.

At work I got a couple issues resolved and Chris was happy that I am getting those things fixed.

Following work I helped Jon get his boat out of the water. He is planning on going on a trip and he wants to take the boat with him. I was looking into going to the Cougar game vs. Auburn. Konty said that he has a ticket and a place to stay if I can get my way down there. But it is looking like it will cost around five hundred bucks to make it down there. I want to go, but I am not sure I want to spend the money.

Back in the Office

After being gone since June Second I made my first appearance into the office. They have done some remodeling of my area including taking down my paper curtain to shield the light from my eyes and taking down some of the other things I had. Some of them made jokes about not knowing who I was. I was sort of getting mad about everything, but I didn’t say anything. Ricky now has an office. I am not going to say a word. I have no need for an office. My cube is just fine. On top of that if I said anything they would probably make issue with me working from home.

Other than that it was pretty uneventful. We hit lunch at a new Mexican place near the Crossroads Mall.

I got home and saw Amber. She was happy to see me. I also saw Jen and the parents. We had some dinner and were watching the M’s when Jon came up to get his boat trailer. I also worked on getting my mom’s new laptop set up and running on the network at the house.

Moving Spree is Over

After spending the last couple days in a moving frenzy I have now done. I got my final load dropped off in Pullman at the storage place and at the apartment. I dropped off the UHaul in Moscow like I was supposed to. I told them about the letters that got damaged. It cost me more than a hundred bucks. Then while we were doing paperwork a Moscow cop showed up and came up to me. He asked me what my route of travel was. I said “huh?” He asked if I came from the South. I said that I had come from Pullman. As it turned out someone in a UHaul with a white hat, like what I was wearing, was driving erratically. They asked UHaul to call the police if someone showed up matching that description.

The cop left and Travis gave me a ride back to get my truck. It was at station one still. I got the truck and spoke to John for a bit. Then I decided to go to my apartment and get stuff put away. I debated how to put the desk and bed in the room to give me the most amount of space possible. I tried one configuration before I decided on one that will work for me. I was only able to work on that until around five because I had to get ready to be on call today.

I got some dinner and went to the fire station. We did our rig checks. We knocked out Rescue and the Engine in no time. Wilcox, Parrish, and I went to station one to get some stuff. We ended up talking with VanNess and some of the other guys for more than an hour.

The night over all was uneventful. I finally ended up going to the office and getting my stuff gathered for going back to Seattle tomorrow.

The Big Moving Day

Today is set to be the big day with friends coming over to help me move. I had to get up a little early and get started on moving. It was a bit of a challenge after having stayed up later than I planned. When I finally did get up I got more boxes moved from inside the house to outside. The from outside to the UHaul. It was a slow process. People were supposed to show up around noon, but most came around one in the afternoon. But once they got there we got packing. It took a couple hours for us to get the desks, big furniture, and other boxes out to the UHaul.

Once we got it full Brad, Dan and his wife and kids, Russell, and Jim all went to Pullman where we unloaded the UHaul at my storage place and the apartment. John joined us at the storage place. We filled up the storage place and filled my room with boxes and other items. The couch was too big to get into the storage unit, and it almost did not make it into the apartment. We worked it for a while before we got it inside.

When we finally unloaded the UHaul, Brad had to go, but John was still with us. We drove back to Colfax. I got everyone dinner at the Top Notch. Then it was back to my place for loading more stuff. We had some electronics and some furniture. But some of it was being used for the Texas Hold’em free roll I was throwing.

I had bought an eighteen pack of beer and a case of pop. Everyone was drinking something and playing cards. The kids had things to play with from their home. We started out the tournament. I was sort of up and down. We had the blinds going up every twenty minutes so we could get the tournament done as quick as possible while still allowing time to have fun.

Jim was the first one out, followed by John, then Denise. Dan and I went to the final two people. I was paying the top two, but first place got seventy-five bucks, where second place only got twenty-five. I wanted to protected as much money as possible. I knew I would be saving some of it because I was number two, but Dan had a huge chip lead on me and we battled back and forth, however, the blinds were getting steep. Pretty soon it hit in such a way that my blinds were forcing me to go all-in. Dan won the all in by getting help on the river.

We then finished loading the UHaul with the remainder of the furniture. They left to go home and I didn’t do a whole bunch more myself. I watched some TV and had some dinner. But I mainly was relaxing from all the work I have done the last couple days.

A Little Help From my Friend

Today the only help I got offered was from Russell. I spent some of the time packing my boxes and going through stuff I am planning on throwing away. Russell showed up and we got the UHaul full of garbage and other things I wanted to get rid of. We went to the dump and made three passes by the scale. Once for yard waste, which is free to throw away. Once for the wood, and finally for the trash. The wood was nearly six hundred pounds. The trash was a bunch more. The yard waste was nearly one hundred pounds. In all I had nearly three-quarters of a ton of trash and throw away items. That is not all. I have more coming. But that is all or today.

Following my trip to the dump Russell and I loaded up boxes with tools and the table saw and moved those to the storage place in Pullman. I took Russell out to dinner at the Emerald. He went home and I went back to Colfax and started to work some more on packing boxes. I hate to even think of the work I have been putting in. I hate moving and I do not find it even slightly enjoyable. So I spend the night packing boxes and getting as ready as I can for the people who will be coming over tomorrow to help me move.

Moving Day One

I took today and tomorrow off of work so I can start the moving process. I have e-mailed a lot of people looking for help and so far everyone is going to be gone this weekend. Russell has said he would help. So I have one for sure. I started by getting some boxes at Rosauers and then going to the SO for a while. I saw Pete and helped him look for some photos on the computer. I did not get home and really started on the moving until nearly one in the afternoon. But I spent eight straight hours packing boxes and going through stuff to get started. I had so much junk mail I had to go through to get rid of the mail and pull aside stuff I need to shred up. It took me almost two hours doing that and I was flying through it.

When I was done with that I started to pack up my old TV room followed by the den. I hate moving so much. I am glad I don’t have to do it yearly like I did while living on campus. But now I am going to try to consolidate my stuff and get rid of things I really don’t need. But today was just trying to get stuff packed up.

I also went to the SO later in the evening and hung out there for a while and talked with Rick for a while. I helped him with a computer problem and I asked him about rewiring the Bumblebee to get it so the radio and other things work as expected.

Getting Into the Moving Spirit

I took two days off of work to get ready to do my moving. I started out the morning by making a run to Rosauers in the morning to get boxes for moving. I dropped them off at the house. I went back to Pullman and started my day of work.

I wanted to get a couple things knocked out at work so I could take these next couple days off without worrying about work not getting done.

Overall it was pretty uneventful today. I spent the early part of the day covering for Tadema at the fire department. The later part of the evening was spent around the office getting stuff ready for leaving town on Sunday.

I was going to go to Colfax tonight, but I ended up staying in Pullman tonight and I will get back to Colfax tomorrow and get started on my moving.

It is Official!

I got a call today from my real estate agent. He said the paperwork is signed and I can start to move my stuff from the house. I have set the plans in motion with renting a new storage place that is larger. I also sent out an E-mail to a lot of people looking for help. I am willing to throw a kegger with a free-roll Texas Hold’em tournament for those who help.

I got the photo board at the fire department updated finally. But While I was updating it we got called out so I had to leave it on the floor until I got back.

I spent a couple hours working on Duane’s computer. He is having serious issues. It is very slow and all I have really done so far is run spyware programs and got an anti-virus application installed.

We watched Rescue Me as a group down at the fire station. It was good times. After the show, within about ten minutes we got a call. After that however it was quiet.

More RIT Training in the CUB

I was covering for Tadema for a couple hours so I went to the CUB in the rescue. I was with Chapman and Stallcop. We did firefighter carries and also some scenarios where we had to actually find a trapped or downed firefighter and get him to safety. My knees got a little bloody doing that and of course I got all sweaty. It was hot in there. We were mainly using the fourth floor.

We are able to do what we want with anything up there so I was helping to make noise by bashing a metal pole against the walls. We were breaking through some walls. It is pretty rare when you can damage things like we are and not get in trouble.

After the training we got some Subway and went to station one to help fill the bottles we used. Following that we went to the Deuce. I hung out for a tiny bit and Tadema was able to take over from there.

I was at the office for a while and then I decided to go to My Office to see Duane and have a beer. Ross, Dearth, and Pritch were there playing darts and drinking. I said hello to them and got a time scheduled to go work on Duane’s computer tomorrow.

Early Start for a Late Night

After being up until five in the morning I was woken up by a phone call from Chuck at eight in the morning. He was telling me that the full-timers were going to have dinner at station one. They were going to get a movie for us and dessert though.

I went back to sleep until about ten in the morning. My plan was to go to Colfax and do some laundry and then I would be on call. But that is not what happened. I got up around ten in the morning. I went to my office and did some stuff on the computer and Internet for a while.

I called Keith and Tyson and invited them to get dinner at the Emerald before we went to the station at five for rig checks. While there we did got a call as we were leaving. Rescue went en route quickly so we would not have made it. They cancelled Rescue.

We did the rig checks and got another call in the process. While we were gone the others worked on the Engine. When Rescue got back we finished that off. It did not take as long as last week because I helped do stuff rather than having the new guys do everything. But Chuck wants the new guys to do a lot until they are familiar with the equipment and its location.

James had us do a drill where we wore blacked out goggles and hooked up the rit bag to an airpack. I was a little nervous because I had not done it, but I was able to get it done.

After the rig checks the full-timers got back. We watched Mother, Juggs, and Speed. It is an old ambulance movie with Bill Cosby. It was a pretty good movie. We also had some pie and ice cream. Following that I went home and got to sleep.

D-Money’s Party

I was invited to go to a party tonight at Duanes place. I was told to be there or “GFY”. I planned on being there. I hung out at my office all day once I did get up around eleven in the morning. I was cruising the Internet for a while and downloading video clips from Veoh and watching some on YouTube. I had planned something different on the day.

The plan was to go to Colfax, do my laundry, work in the jail, and relax around the house after I had gone shopping for things from Shopko. But with Keith wanting to watch Rescue Me tonight and with the party, that was thrown out the window.

I went to Shopko and spent over a hundred bucks on stuff. I got a lot of things because they were dirt cheap and not because I had to have them. For instance I got four boxes of crayons for twenty cents each. I am such a packrat.

Keith called around seven and said we were going to watch Rescue Me at eight. That was perfect because Duanes party started at nine. I got some pop and drove to Keith’s apartment. We watched Rescue Me. It was a funny episode as they typically are. What sucks is it always seems to end well before I want to see it end.

I got a call from Joe. He asked when I was coming over. I told him I was on my way. I got to the Skip and Go. I had some of the drink and we sat around watching some Sports Center and talking. The plan was to go to ValHalla. We went there around eleven-thirty. We were there until close. I had some pop there and that was about it. I hung out watching people and chatting with our group.

Tonight they were mainly playing eighties music. A lot of the people there were born in the eighties and they were signing along to the songs. The final song of the night was Queen’s Boheminen Rhapsody. Everyone was signing along and acting it out. It was pretty neat.

After ValHalla closed I took a bunch of people in my truck back to Duane’s place. We drank some more. I went downstairs. Duane has a pool table, dart board, and arcade version of RBI Baseball. Joe and I were playing pool and RBI Baseball together. I kept beating him at RBI Baseball. We had a girl with us who we said we would give a ride home when she wanted it. It was about four in the morning when she wanted that. Joe and I took her home and then went back to Duane’s and played one more game of RBI Baseball. It was getting light out by they time we left at nearly five in the morning.

Last Poker Tournament of the Summer

While at work today Chris was giving me some grief over not having been over there for a while. I tried to smooth stuff over as well as I could. I pointed out that I would be back there for two weeks in August. He seemed to be a little better, but I think that he is going to put some pressure on me to be over there a little more often.

The plans for the evening is to play poker and be on call at the fire department. I went down to the fire department and we did our rig checks and a little bit of this and that. The poker game was set to start at eight o’clock. I got up there on time, but they had already started. I had missed one blind. I sat in and ate my fast food as I played card. I got a run of three back to back to back hands of good cards. My last one was a pair of pocket aces. After that run it was pretty quiet on the cards front, but I had build up a pretty good stack. After about an hour I got called away on a call. I had to leave and hope my stack would support me. We transported to the hospital, but everyone knew I was in a hurry so we did not hang out at the hospital and chat with the ambulance guys like normal.

I left to get to Mike’s. I pulled into his new apartment complex’s driveway when another call came out. I flipped a bitch and went to the station. It was a code run. We went to Beasley for breathing problems. While waiting to find out of the we would transport, we got called to a car accident.

We ran to rescue and Chuck said that I could drive. I told him okay, then went to the back of rescue to get my turnouts on. I think he thought I was just putting up the chalk. After waiting for a few seconds and noticing the back door light was open him and Tyson came over to get their stuff on too.

It was a bravo call, so rescue does not necessarily go code, however I pointed out that SOP’s are not laws, but guidelines and that I could articulate a reason for us to go code. Really we were the closest to the scene and that we would be first on scene therefore us going code will get us to the scene to check for injuries.

When we came upon the Grand and Stadium Way intersection the Ambulance was going code down Grand. We got out in front of them by about a block. We led in to the scene. It turned out to be non-injury. We got cleared and went to the Deuce. I quickly made my way to Mike’s.

When I pulled in Mike said I was on the bubble for the money. Only the top-two get paid and I am sitting at number three without much money due to being blinded. I got up there with about two-thousand in chips. The blinds were three-hundred/six-hundred. Andy said they were working as fast as they could to knock me out by blinding me. With only two people it did not take long for the blinds to come around to my stack. Andy thought that if I had been another ten minutes I would have been blinded out of the tournament.

I played and won a couple hands doubling myself up. But I was out numbered by nearly ten times. The other two had about forty-thousand each, and I was sitting around four-thousand. I found a good hand with top pair and a good kicker. I went all in and we called by the bottom pair, which was three’s. On the turn another three came out and that was it for me.

We shortly thereafter went to a cash game and I won back my lost tournament buy-in money as well as some extra pocket change. We quit playing around two in the morning. I went to my office and did some stuff on the new computer. I was floating around MySpace. I found a guy in my high school class who is gay. I don’t think we really suspected that in high school, but he was not one of the more popular kids around.

I always think about something that one of my old teachers, Aden, said. By your ten-year reunion about ten of the people in the class will have come out as gay. He was wrong about that, but I think he is right there were several gay people in my class no one knew about.

Final Jersey Night of the Year

I spent today bouncing between my new computer and my old one. I bought another external drive enclosure and HD to put into my newest computer. I am planning on building an OS on it that I will start to use as my main computer. The HP I got when I was living in California is getting old. It is having problems playing video. In fact when a video is played it freezes the computer. It really sucks. I also got a couple bugs closed out today as well.

Around three in the afternoon we got dispatched to a call on the Old Moscow Highway. It is a gravel road and with the road construction on two-seventy, I predicted an increase in car accidents on the Old Highway. So far we have had several in the last month. Today we had two cars hit. Rescue got on scene and helped package and transport some of the injured people.

By the time we got back it was pretty late because we had to go to station one where Dearth was doing paperwork on a refusal he had. I had to zoom home and get into my uniform for softball. Speaking of softball my leg, where I was hit with the ball, is dead in the area where I got hit. There is still no feeling on the skin. Under the skin however it is very tender.

I got to the field and found out we were playing Lefty’s. I thought we were playing the Tax Dodgers. Mitzel was pitching, and in the first inning he was really struggling with ball control. So he put me in to pitch for the rest of the game. We only had ten guys so everyone was playing. The first three innings we scored five runs in each inning and had a lead after the third inning. Then we could not score after that. They went on to score twenty-four runs to beat us by nine. No one wanted to lose and we were knocked out of the tournament.

The Tax Dodgers had won and they ended up playing Lefty’s. I watched some of their game before going to My Office to meet up with the team. They were having some beer. I got a pitcher of pop and ordered a burger. A girl came up and bought the team a round of Jagger. There was not enough so I let someone have mine. I really don’t like Jagger. We were there until around eleven o’clock when we went to The Zuu. Russell and Jenny from Mr. Z’s casino were there celebrating their birthday’s together. There were a lot of people from Mr. Z’s there.

On the way there Joe and the girl from My Office rode in the back of my truck. At one point I looked back and saw her on top of Joe. She was really into him. I bought Russell a drink and the girl from My Office bought me a Jagger because I did not get one at My Office. So I downed it. It was nasty. I then had a couple ounces of beer to make the flavor go away. Russell got up on stage and sang I’m Too Sexy. Joe and Ben sang a country song. It was sort of gay there so we left to go to ValHalla. That was the plan anyway, but we were only there for about thirty minutes.

We got to ValHalla and Joe and the girl walked one way and said she would meet me at the bar. I went inside and found Duane. He was already there drinking like a fish. Some of his roommates were there as well. Joe and the girl showed up about three minutes later. Matt and Eric also showed up a little bit later. We were doing the Jersey Night.

Eric and Matt played their last games with My Office as a regular player. Both of them are moving away and it was a great time to get out with them one more time.

Matt Mullvain

Eric Biesen

We were at ValHalla until closing time. In the bar everyone was drinking and having a good time. I was watching some baseball on TV and chatting with everyone on the team. The girl was really drunk by this time. When we left My Office she was stumbling. So she was not any better at ValHalla. Joe got her a water. She was holding the cup and then in a friendly way poured it over some guys’ head. Joe scolded her and then decided she needed to go home.

Joe got a taxi and took her home. Put her to bed and then came back to the bar to be with us. Joe bought a round of shots for the guys on the team. While we were getting ready to do our shots one of Duane’s roommates, who was drunk, was bent over and hopping backwards into our circle. His butt was high in the air. Joe took a drink he had that was old and poured it down the guy’s backside. He got upset a little bit then Joe said you bumped my drink. We were all laughing like crazy and the guy was then cool with it. We had our shot.

ValHalla had been playing a lot of hiphop music, then they switched to some rock. That is when the place got hopping. People were on the dance floor. When they played some Journey – Don’t Stop the whole place was singing along. It was great.

Once ValHalla closed we went down to a house by Sigma Nu’s. There was an after party. It was sort of lame. They had a keg there and people were just helping themselves to the beer. A couple people were doing some beer races. The guy who bought the keg was asking people for money. He was mad because he had spend so much money that he did not have enough for rent. I wanted to tell him he needs to get some priorities. But I ignored it. We were only there for about a half hour when we decided to go to Sheryl’s house.

She was also throwing a party for Russell and Jenny. When I got there I saw Russell’s car but I could not find him at first. I found out he was on the deck passed out sort of. He had been drinking a ton and threw up a little bit, now he was just trying to stop the world from spinning. I hung out outside and spoke with Russell for a while. I was also inside and talked to a few people as well.

Duane was really drunk and passed out on their couch. We decided around four in the morning to go home. I dropped off Duane, Joe, then Matt. I finally got home my self.

Starting in the Losers Bracket

Today is the start of our softball post-season tournament. We played against Chipman-Taylor/Gormen’s. We have beaten them before but we had to play well to do so. I started out at first base as usual. My first at bat was a long flyball to left field. They misplayed it and I ended up on second base.

The was the best I could do during the game hitting. I was doing well at first base and in one inning every play was done at first base. Then in the third inning Brian walked two guys back to back. So he had me pitch. One of the first batters hit a ball right back at me and it went off my right leg just above the ankle. It hurt pretty good. After the game the feeling was gone from the area where I got hit.

Ben also made a great play in the outfield catching a ball he had to move way back on, however, in the process he hit his head and blacked-out. He was wobbly on his legs and we ended up taking him out of the game. He said afterwards that he could not remember the game after his injury and when he realized his was on the bench he didn’t know why.

I stay after for about an hour and a half watching another game after ours. Zeppoz was playing against Coors Light.

With the loss in our game we play tomorrow at seven-thirty in the losers bracket.

My Day on Jury Duty

I started the day in Colfax for jury duty. I have waited since I was eighteen get get called in. I was sitting in a courtroom full of people. I knew a couple people there. As the morning went on a few people were excused. I made it through the first round of cuts. But it was becoming pretty clear I would probably not be chosen. It was a civil suit against Fred Russell. With working for Pullman Fire and the coroners office I knew they would think I would be biased. In the end I was not selected. But I did have a chance to let them know that I am a philosophy major. That I can be fair and listen to arguments. That I don’t let my emotions get in the way of making logical arguments. I was not selected.

I went to the SO and got some sunglasses orders from the guys there then I went to Colfax fire for a while and talked to Jenny for about a half hour. I went to work for the remainder of the day.

The reserves had their first RIT training in the CUB today. We get access to the top three floors to do what we want. We are breaching the walls and crawling through them. We are getting a chance to do stuff we don’t always get to do. It was weird being in the CUB. I did not recognize the building very much. There were a lot of things already removed. On the main floor you could see from the CUB Aud all the way to where the little store was on the west side of the building. It looked like a parking garage on the main floor. The radio station was torn down to the floor. There was wood on the floor and the walls were bare. I did find the door that was on the studio on the fourth floor in one of the rooms up there.

We mainly worked on the third floor. We broke through the walls. I had to take my pack off to go through the wall on my stomach, but if I was able to stand I could get through the wall. Keeping in mind we only had sixteen inches of space to get through. It was really hot in the CUB, plus wearing the bunkers did not help.

The next event was to follow a hose to get your way out. At first we were told to go to the people at the end of the hose. We did that just fine, but then they said we went the wrong way. So we had to back track and get to the other end of the hose. We followed it through doors, down hallways and through a wall. But we were able to get to the end of the hose finally. It too forever it seemed like.

We had some time to rest before we had to do a drill where we got tangled up in wires. First they wold get us wrapped up in the pack and we would have to undo it. Then we had to make our way through a room full of wires. I made it through pretty well. But by this time my knees were rubbed raw.

We left and I was so sweaty. It was pretty nasty. Keith and I went to Cougar Country for dinner. While there I heard about a coroners case. I talked to Patti and I was going to go with her. I took a shower and met her at my office. We drove to Colton and spent about an hour on the scene doing our investigation. It was a natural death. I did not get to bed until after two in the morning.

Happy Birthday Ryan!

Today is Ryan’s birthday. I was up pretty late last night so I did not wake up until about ten this morning. I went to Ryan’s house in Spokane. I got there around one in the afternoon. It was hot inside. He showed me around the house. It is a pretty nice place. I gave him his birthday card and then we went to downtown Spokane to get some pizza.

We went to a really good pizza place. The pizza was outstanding actually. We were there for around an hour eating and talking. I had to take off to go back to Pullman because I was on call for the fire department. I made phone calls and we made plans for a dinner together. Chris and Dan were going to get some chicken. The rest of us brought side items down.

I got back to Pullman and to the fire station just before six o’clock. Dan was working on the chicken to grill it. We had BBQ chicken and potato salad. While we were eating I was thinking that if we got called out we would have BBQ sauce all over us when we got to the scene. Within seconds of me thinking that a call went out. It was to the same guy who had asked me for some money yesterday and who we went on a while back for something else.

We did not transport him and I got back to my dinner within a half hour. I helped to clean up everything and then gave everyone an ice cream bar. We then started our map test that we planned on taking. I had studied it on Saturday and I got one hundred percent on it.

After all that we still had to do rig checks. With the new guys I had them open and go through everything on Rescue. It took a couple hours to do that. We got everything done and noted. We were done a little after midnight.

Chuck and I spoke a little about Erik’s E-mail that made me really mad the other day. I was not as mad after I found out it did not go to the whole department, but only to some of the reserves. But I was still mad that he made a false accusation and his shift does the same thing that he accused me of doing. I wanted to tell him to make sure his shift is doing thing right before he lectures me on it.

I went to Mike’s to play some cards. We were only going to play until one in the morning. I have Jury Duty in the morning so I did not want to be late for it. I was playing pretty loose and had a couple of bad beats. I lost ten bucks pretty fast. I got five more dollars. I lost that a quarter till one. So it was close to quitting time. I went to my office to get stuff ready for being on Jury Duty and making sure my away messages were set up correctly. Just after I got to the office, the tones went off for a call. It took us about an hour total so I did not get to bed until after two in the morning.

Rescue Me Marathon

The day started only five hours after going to bed. The tones went off for an all reserve callback. I went to the station and hung out for about an hour. I was worried that the odor of alcohol from last night was still on my person. Keith said he could not smell anything. While we were there Brian and I were talking about the next A-shift crew leader. Chuck had said the first person to get their engineer status would be crew leader. That was about two days before my final test.

Brian however said that he had talked to James and I was going to be the next crew leader. But he did not get to finish what James had said when a call came in. We got ready to go. Travis did not want to go. It was going to be Keith, Brian, and I. But Brian got held back. So Keith went with me. We probably should not have gone as Keith is not allowed to go second yet. But we went. It was in Palouse. We followed the ambulance to the scene.

Keith went back to the hospital with the ambulance. I followed in rescue. We helped to clean everything up and then we took rescue back to the Deuce. Keith and I made plans to get together and watch Rescue Me that he had recorded from the season.

I went to station one and studied the NE map for a while because we are going to have a test on it on Sunday. I got the map memorized and then went to my office for a while. I also hung out at the Deuce. Chapman borought the new rescue to the station and I got an orientation on how to run it and where some of the basic things were located.

I got some pizza from Pizza Hut and waited for Keith to call. I finally got his call around eleven o’clock pm. I went to his place and we ate pizza. Then we started to watch Rescue Me. There were some really good episodes. I was there until we watched them all.

My oh My is it hot

Today was a hot day. It hit one-hundred degrees today. I was in the office most of the day so I was feeling okay. I filled up my truck at Safeway. I went to get lunch, but their China Express never looks good. The food is always dried out and horrible. I decided to go to Dairy Queen instead.

I got the specs for Sollen Phase Two. I was asked if I thought I could get it done by September’s code complete. I thought I could. I pounded away at it for the day. I was able to get it done and checked in by around nine o’clock pm. It wasn’t all that bad. I was on fire and working hard and fast to get it done.

I did have to leave for a while for Ron’s birthday party at Zeppoz. I got him a dozen golf balls and a card for his birthday. I hung out and talked with the people there for about an hour before I got back to work.

Joe was coming into town as well. We went to the Fireside for dinner. Joe treated because of the help I give him for his website. His friend Doug came along. After dinner we went to The Sports Page to play darts and have some beer. We shared two pitchers and played darts until one in the morning. Then I went to Mike’s to play poker. We were there until five in the morning. I won about thirteen bucks in the process of playing. Today was a good day.

Engineer Testing Done

I had my final drive with Heston today. We drove about ten blocks. He then had me go to the tower. He said I drive a little fast and that I need to slow down with it, but other than that he was good with my ability to handle the engine.

We went to the tower and pumped water for about an hour and a half. I took a hydrant. I flowed water and simulated the foam. I set up the relief valve and calculated friction loss and the whole works. I passed the test so now I am an engineer.

I went to Moscow for the All-Star softball game. While I was there I went to KFC for some dinner. I got a call from Dearth. He said that I need to wipe down the engine after fueling it up so the diesel does not collect dust. I told him I had not filled it. He said that he had accidentally sent an e-mail out about that to the department. I was livid. He assumed it was me and then the department gets an e-mail saying it was me.

For all the times he shift leaves rescue dirty and low on fuel for him to make an issue out of something that I did not do made me very angry. I called Chuck and discussed it with him. He said he would talk to James about it.

I watched the All-Star game. The guy from the Palouse Tavern team, the ten-six-seven, was there. He totally reminds me of Brandon. It is amazing to see him and just think I am looking at Brandon.

Pullman Coroners Meeting

Patti and I met for the coroners meeting today in Pullman because it was cancelled with Pete. Patti and I went at Sella’s and had dinner then made the call schedule. I got done in time to run to the Deuce for rig checks and training. We took the guys to the training tower and did our one minute drill followed by sending them through the collapse drill.

I went back to the office after training and made up schedules for the coroners office. I need to send them to Whitcom so they know who is on call and when they are on call.

Today was really quiet at the fire department. We did get some ice cream from Cougar Country and we filled the SCBA tanks on rescue. That was about it for the fire department.

Round Robin Rounds Complete

I found out that my softball tournament will be played next week. But I am supposed to be in Seattle. So I was debating what to say to the boss to see if I can stay. I never ended up having to ask for the time off as my phone rang early this morning. I got assigned to Jury Duty starting Monday. What luck!

I let my boss know and now I am working on redoing my schedule to go along with my new days in Seattle.

Tonight was the first day of round robin play. Our team is playing two A-League teams. We are destined to be in the B-League Bracket for the playoffs. That is fine by me. The first game we pretty much got crushed as always by Coors Light.

Game two however was a better game for us. We ended up losing due to running out of time to finish the game. We were in the middle of an inning and the umpire said “game over”. So we lost that one. But in that game I was four for four with three doubles. I was a hitting machine.

They even put on a shift, like I was a left handed hitter. When they did that I hit it back to the center field area. By my last at bat they went back to normal fielding positions, and I again went to right field.

After that game Mitz and I went to My Office. We got some dinner and talked softball for an hour or so.

An Obituary

Frederic Arthur (Fred) Clark
Frederic Arthur (Fred) Clark, who had tired of reading obituaries noting other’s courageous battles with this or that disease, wanted it known that he lost his battle as a result of an automobile accident on June 18, 2006. True to Fred’s personal style, his final hours were spent joking with medical personnel while he whimpered, cussed, begged for narcotics and bargained with God to look over his wife and kids. He loved his family. His heart beat faster when his wife of 37 years Alice Rennie Clark entered the room and saddened a little when she left. His legacy was the good works performed by his sons, Frederic Arthur Clark III and Andrew Douglas Clark MD, PhD., along with Andy’s wife, Sara Morgan Clark. Fred’s back straightened and chest puffed out when he heard the Star Spangled Banner and his eyes teared when he heard Amazing Grace. He wouldn’t abide self important tight *censored*. Always an interested observer of politics, particularly what the process does to its participants, he was amused by politician’s outrage when we lie to them and amazed at what the voters would tolerate. His final wishes were “throw the bums out and don’t elect lawyers” (though it seems to make little difference). During his life he excelled at mediocrity. He loved to hear and tell jokes, especially short ones due to his limited attention span. He had a life long love affair with bacon, butter, cigars and bourbon. You always knew what Fred was thinking much to the dismay of his friend and family. His sons said of Fred, “he was often wrong, but never in doubt”. When his family was asked what they remembered about Fred, they fondly recalled how Fred never peed in the shower – on purpose. He died at MCV Hospital and sadly was deprived of his final wish which was to be run over by a beer truck on the way to the liquor store to buy booze for a double date to include his wife, Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter to crash an ACLU cocktail party. In lieu of flowers, Fred asks that you make a sizable purchase at your local ABC store or Virginia winery (please, nothing French – the *censored*) and get rip roaring drunk at home with someone you love or hope to make love to. Word of caution though, don’t go out in public to drink because of the alcohol related laws our elected officials have passed due to their inexplicable terror at the sight of a MADD lobbyist and overwhelming compulsion to meddle in our lives. No funeral or service is planned. However, a party will be held to celebrate Fred’s life. It will be held in Midlothian, Va. Email fredsmemory@yahoo.com for more information. Fred’s ashes will be fired from his favorite cannon at a private party on the Great Wicomico River where he had a home for 25 years. Additionally, all of Fred’s friend (sic) will be asked to gather in a phone booth, to be designated in the future, to have a drink and wonder, “Fred who?”

Engineer Testing

Today I took the written Engineer Test for the reserves. I thought it was a hydraulic test, but it had a bunch of other questions as well. I didn’t know how well I would do, but I passed it pretty easily.

We also had RIT training today. We are going to be using the CUB for the next two weeks. We get to do what we want as far as cutting and breaking things. But to do that we started with RIT training to get people on the same page.

After the training I talked to George about my knee and I wanted to make sure someone would not try to put me on light duty if it was painful to crawl. I need to see a doctor about it and see if we can figure something out and try to get it better.

I went to the deuce and helped Dan move some files. Then Dan and I talked about a bunch of engineering stuff. I asked all sorts of questions. I also reviewed the engineer packet and am trying to get ready for the final drive and pump test with Heston. We are planning on Thursday for that.

A Day of Relaxation

I decided that I was not going to do anything at all today. I was going to sit around the house and just relax. When I finally got up I made some breakfast. I started to watch some TV. I watched a couple movies. I also decided to move my recliner from the old TV room to the living room. So that is the only real work I did.

I moved my boat back to where it goes and I went to the store to get a late lunch. But for the most part I spent time watching movies and staying inside with the AC going. It was nice.