Golfing at Colfax

I set the alarm clock to wake me up in the morning only to wake up on my own. I got myself ready for golf and drove to Colfax. I did some putting while waiting for the tee-off time. Joe, Ron, Heather, Jonathan, Dan, and Michele were all there.

Once it was time to tee-off we had a group of seven golfers. We started our way around the course. I was doing okay overall. I shot way over my normal average, but I had some good drives. On the seventh hole I always have some issues with the small stream. I got up to it and only needed to chip over it. I hit a ball, it made it over the stream only to hit a tree and bounce back, landing in the water. Heather was laughing so hard.

The second round was a lot better for me. I came close to getting a birdie on one hole. But I missed my putt by several inches. I did get one chip from the fringe that hit someone else’s ball sending mine in to the hole.

After golfing we went to Ron and Heathers for dinner and poker. I was able to play one short tournament. I won twenty bucks in it.

I went to the fire station where we did some learning on the new EMS computers. We also went over a couple things on Rescue with Chipper and Williams. After washing it we all went home.

It was a quiet night until just after four in the morning. We got called to a dumpster fire. Rescue was on scene second and we helped put out the fire and do the overhaul. Loren was just getting home from the casino and was the RP on the fire.

We spent almost two hours between the fire and clean up of the equipment afterwords. I went home and went back to sleep.

Moses Lake Softball Tournament

I wasn’t all the excited about the long wait between waking up and playing in our first softball game after the noon hour, but what are you going to do. I stayed in bed pretty late, going to sleep after waking up every hour or so.

Finally I got up and had some breakfast. I got my motorhome ready to go and helped some of the others get their camping area taken down.

We hit the road to head to the game early. I wanted to fuel up and get some donuts. After seeing them yesterday and someone else talking about them I had to go get some.

After having the donuts we went to the field. Everyone else was just getting there. We did some throwing of the ball around and got ready for our first game. We, again, had some troubles winning the game. I went one for two. That is not a good sign when you get only two at bats in a game.

We didn’t have a lot of time between games. We made our way to the other field. We were playing a team that Geo’s brother plays on. We should have beat them, but we couldn’t get timely hitting. We hit into so many double plays during this tournament we were killing our own rallies. On a personal note I went three for four with three RBI. It was a good game for me.

We left with our heads down after losing a lot of games we shouldn’t be losing. Bruce and I hit the road and Warren went back with his girlfriend.

We were about one-hundred miles from Pullman went I heard a loud noise. We pulled over to find the skin on the door get torn off. Bruce and I put a tarp over it to protect it and then just slowly drove back into Pullman. That added a lot of time onto the trip back.

Once back we unloaded stuff from the motorhome. I put my stuff away and I was thinking about going out, but I decided to stay in and work on the webpage for the Merchants and just relax. I had to be up in the morning for golf.

The Third Tournament

Took off this morning with Bruce and Warren heading to Moses Lake for our softball tournament. The drive was pretty uneventful. We pulled into the parking lot about thirty minutes before game time. We got ready, threw the ball around and started to play. I had a bad first game going hitless in three at bats. But the second game was much better.

We were playing against a guy who use to play intramurals. Kelly and Jake really wanted to beat his team. We played them tough and our hitting was better. I was two for three at the plate. We won that game which made us feel a lot better going into the evening.

We carpooled out to a ranch in the country where we were going to spend the night. I got the motorhome set up, but the AC wasn’t working. I need to have that looked at.

BKoe came over from the academy to play softball with us. Bruce, BKoe, and I drove into town and went to WalMart to get some food for cooking on the grill. When we got back we cooked everything up and sat around talking.

The winds started to come up and it was getting very windy. We huddled on the backside of one of the tents to act as a wind break. Everyone headed off to bed around ten o’clock which was early compared to normal.

Moving Crew

After waking up early I thought I would get to the rec center to worked out and swim. But the swimming pool wasn’t open. When I completed my upper body workout I went to the basketball court. I shot hoops for a while. Then I jogged up and down the floor doing lay ups when I go to the opposite end. I did that for several minutes as a work out.

Later on I met up with Bryce and we helped Bruce move. We were moving some of his bigger items from his house to his new place. That took a couple hours total.

I got home and worked on a couple things when I got a phone call to do a transfer. I went to the fire station. It was a transfer to Spokane. On the way I was talking to my passenger about softball and my ankle. He suggested that I do some physical therapy for it. He explained to me how that could help the ankle out. So I am going to look into it.

When I got home I did the things I needed to to the motorhome to get it ready for the trip to Moses Lake tomorrow. I loaded up Brandon’s stuff and some of my stuff. Tomorrow I will be ready to hit the road to Moses Lake with Bruce and Warren.

Hanging with Andy

I went on a couple daytime calls with Nick today. It was fun to get out there and go on some calls. One was a gas leak report. We got there and helped search the building. Nothing was found.

I was going to play poker at Loren’s but he called and said only four people were going to be there so he cancelled. Before I knew it was cancelled, I spent time cleaning my den up while I was waiting for the poker game to start. I can see my carpet now. It is nice. I still need to organize it some more and go through more stuff. But I am pretty happy about it right now.

I got a call from Andy about going out. I thought he was gone from Pullman already. But he doesn’t leave until Friday. We went to ValHalla at first. We had some chips and beer there. But we decided to leave and head to Rico’s. He likes that place better. We were able to sit there and talk without yelling. It was a nice.

We hung out with his wife-to-be for about an hour or two talking about random things including his plans for the summer before he has to go off to the military. He told me to set aside his wedding date so I could go to it. I put it in my calendar already.

More Rainouts

The weather forecast for today is for rain. It started to rain early in the day and it went downhill from there. It rained harder and harder. It was pretty clear the games were going to get cancelled. Gollnick called about playing poker. So he will be coming over tonight. I invited many others to come over as well.

There were several calls that came out including a rollover car accident with injuries. But no other reserves showed up. I didn’t get to roll on it. I just stood by the station. Rich and I played some Ghost Recon as I was standing by.

I got home and started to work on my garage. I was going to set everything up out there for poker tonight. I got signs made for prices of stuff. I also lowered the prices in my pop machine. Gollnick got here and helped me move my poker table to the garage. That got set up and people started to show up. We has Kevin and Peter with us for a while. Then Dan and Denise showed up and we played until around eleven o’clock.

After everyone else left John and I played for a couple more hours. We did a twenty dollar winner takes all Texas Hold’Em game. It went both ways, but then I lost a lot on a hand that I should have gotten out of. Soon I was gone. I was down a little for the night. But it could have been worse.

A Day for Softball

With our first game almost at noon there was a lot of time to sit around this morning. I woke up early and had some breakfast. Then I got the extension cords picked up and put away. I started to get the other things around the motorhome ready to go. I went to the main camp for a while and hung out there.

Then I went back to my motorhome and took a short nap. I got my uniform on and got the motorhome ready to head to the ballfields. That is when I was checking my oil. I found a belt was missing. Luckily there was an extra one in the motorhome. I got a tool and worked to put it on. But that was pinching my time that I had to get to the field. I still got there before a couple people from the camp.

I got to the field and Brandon was already there. It was great to see him again. I don’t know if he really wants to move to Pullman for a job working for the fire department, but it would make my day if he did get one there.

We lost the game due to seventeen walks given up as well as the the fact we stopped hitting the ball very well. Early in the game we scored a lot of runs. Then they had an inning that had around nine or ten walks. We said our goodbyes.

Warren, his girlfriend, and I went to get fueled up. Then got some lunch as well and bought a belt to replace the one I used. Then we hit the road. I pushed it hard the whole way trying to get to Pullman as fast as I could so I could play in the coed game. I started myself at first base.

We were doing okay during the game, but we were in a small hole with a couple run deficit. We were not able to climb out of it. We were playing Spellman’s team. Finally in the bottom of the seventh inning we got the first couple hitters on base with no out, but we had a women come to the plate. She didn’t hit the ball well, but always put it in play. I just knew there was a good chance for a double-play ball. That is what happened.

With two out and down by one we had a good hitter coming to the plate, it was the top of the order and we have one person on. We were down by one. I thought we may have a chance. But she hit a hard ball for an out. We lost by one run.

After the game several of us went to Cougar Country for dinner. We were there for around an hour talking before I went to Warrens. I dropped him and his girlfriend off but we didn’t unload their stuff to make sure I could get to the fields on time.

We unloaded their stuff and I went home. I got and unloaded some of my stuff during commercials on Family Guy.

Very Hot Day

Brandon came to the camp site and I got to see him for the first time a while. He got his uniform from Kelly and went to put it on. The team went to do some warm up hitting. I didn’t do so hot there. Brandon was crushing the ball as normal for him.

Then it was off to the fields. I had water with me but I would soon find that it was getting hotter and hotter. I was trying to stay hydrated but it was hard to keep up. I could tell I was dehydrated. So I drank more water through out the day.

The first two games were losses. But we were not playing super poorly. Our hitting in the first game was horrible however, we didn’t get but about two runners on base in the first three innings. Then we finally started to hit. We lost but a couple runs. It was almost the same thing for our second game.

After those games we played a team that was not doing well at all. We really crushed them. Our hitting was better that game as well. I didn’t do great in that game, but I did have good hitting in the second game.

After the games Brandon gave me a ride back to my motorhome. I turned on the air conditioner and tried to cool down and hydrate some more. Kelly was planning on going golfing. I was going to skip out on that, but I decided to go. Geo and Andy came along.

Andy and I were in one cart with Kelly and Geo in another cart. Kelly and Geo were good, Andy and I sucked. I shot my normal rate of double and triple bogie’s on most holes. We played until around seven-thirty.

On the way back I bought a couple gallons of water and some Gatorade. I got back to the motorhome and worked on getting the stats put into the computer. I had some dinner and then went to the main camp. We hung out and talked about many things as normal. It was just time to sit around and laugh and have a good time.

I went to bed early again tonight.

I was neat to see Brandon again. We use to be neighbors in Stephenson. That was more than a decade ago. He was only eighteen when we met. Now he is thirty. He looks older of course. He is still very athletic like he was when we met.

Heading to Wenatchee

After spending much of the day preparing for my trip to Wentachee. I got it loaded up with my clothes after putting them through the washing machine. I loaded up the food and put water into the water tank.

I went to Pullman Building Supply and bought a couple two-by-sixes to make some step risers for the front tires. That way I can level the motorhome. Once everything was complete I fueled it up and went to Les Schwab to have the battery looked at. I went to Rite Aid and got some oil as well as some reusable ice packs.

I went to Warren’s place and picked up him and his girlfriend. Then we were off. I was going to go through Colfax and turn on SR Twenty-Six. But I spaced it. We kept going North on SR One-Ninety-Five. Soon we went through Steptoe and I still wasn’t thinking about the detour we were taking. But about a couple miles from the rest area I realized I was going the long way. So I turned around went to Steptoe and we took SR Twenty-Three to I-Ninety. We pulled in later than I would have liked. I found out there were two places for full-hookups but they were taken by others in the group. I had to do dry camping. That was okay, but I needed power.

We were able to run some extension cords. Almost two-hundred feet of extension cords. So I wasn’t able to run anything with a lot of power. But for the things I needed to run it was enough. That was good by me.

I was able to meet Kelly’s parents as well as others from their family. All of them were very nice people. I hung out at the main camp for a while but I was tired so I went to bed sort of early.

Hickman Command

This afternoon we had a call-in meeting with the people from work. When it was all said and done the meeting lasted nearly four hours. I found out that a couple more people got laid-off. One developer also quit. There is not many left from NU anymore between layoffs and people quitting.

When the meeting was done I had to hurry up and get Nick so he could use my vehicle to drive to Spokane to get Russell. I let them use the Durango and I used the Bumblebee this evening.

I went to station one to attend training. We went over some water supply Powerpoints then it was off to the tower. I ended up being the officer on the first in engine. That put me in the role of Incident Command. I played that position for the whole training. The evolution at the tower lasted a couple hours in total between the training and clean up.

I kept on getting things thrown at me that I had to deal with. I had to call for more ambulances and more resources from outside agencies. We had a mayday situation and victims in the building. A wildland fire happened as well as the actual building on fire.

It made for an interesting command situation. When we were done we did a critique of the whole call. I was able to get some questions answered that I had. Chapman and Brown said I did good at being IC. Brown also said my arrival report was really good.

When training was done I had to get to the Daily Grind to meet up with Kelly. We were going to go over the line up for tomorrow’s softball game. We were deciding where to play people and what positions they should hit.

Russell and Nick got back after one in the morning. They topped off my tank of gas and I gave them a ride to Nick’s apartment.

Preparing For Football

I got on to the website for the Sabercats and got their roster downloaded and ready for my laptop. I will have the football game tomorrow to take care of.

Mike came to town from Montana. We went to Rico’s and played pool for a while. Andy and Andy’s brother showed up. We went downstairs and spent some time talking. Andy is walking through graduation tomorrow. Mike’s sister is also walking. That is why Mike came into town.

Wally Died

I was looking at the Daily News website when I found a death notice for Wally from the Palouse Thunder football team. We played together some years ago. I knew he had cancer and things were getting bad. I didn’t know however that he was in a Pullman-area nursing home due to it.

I notified Jerry and Jerid about it. Jerid is the league commissioner. He wrote something up and asked all teams in the league to hold a moment of silence before the Saturday game.

I went to the funeral home to talk to Bob about it. He didn’t have a lot of information but was able to tell me that the funeral would be held up in Fernwood in Idaho.

Wally would always greet me when I would come into the locker room after driving from Seattle for the game. He was always very nice and friendly.

He played football and loved it. Playing for the Thunder was a great chance for him to get on the playing field again, and someone who knew him said it meant more to Wally than many of us would ever know.

In his final game ever he scored a touchdown and that was one of the best football moments he ever had. It was a big deal to him to score and everyone on the team was so happy for him. It was a great moment.

Driving in my New Motorhome

I got up after allowing myself to sleep in. By the time I got up and got underway it was around noonish. I filled the gas tank. I went down to Jon’s house and saw my mom and the boys for a while before hitting the road.

It was sort of slow going as one might expect in a large vehicle with a smaller engine. I had to stop a couple times along the way to get some gas as well. I finally pulled into Spokane around five in the afternoon.

I met up with Ryan at WSU Spokane and we drove to the theatre to watch Harold and Kumar. It was not nearly as funny as the first one. But there were a couple good moments.

When it was done Ryan and I got some dinner and I made my way to Pullman. I got there around nine o’clock at night. Tyson had moved out and Brandon moved his still into the house. But he had to leave his stuff outside of the bedroom because Tyson was still here when Brandon had to leave.

Drive Time with Chipper

Clark and I went out to do some drive time today at the fire department. We were only going to do an hour, but we ended up getting all his hours completed on rescue. So now we are closer to him getting done with this part of his rookie book.

Later on we had our coed softball game. I didn’t plan on playing any of it. I was just going to coach. We had a ton of women and quite a few men. We ended up losing because our men hit horrible.

In the last inning I subbed myself in for Dan because I knew I could get a hit and we needed that. I did get a hit. But we lost with the bases loaded down only by three runs. That sucked.

Brandon played on the team today as well. Then following the game we went to The Zzu. We played pool for a couple hours. I was on fire for a while. I won most of the games we played. I did another shot that needed some good english on the ball for it to be made. That was the second time I did that in front of Brandon. He just laughed when I made it.

I also saw the guy who Russell called “The Hottest Guy in Pullman”. He was having some beers with a guy I know. So I am going to talk to the guy I know.

Better Weather for Softball

This afternoon the weather was not snowy and it was a lot better for softball. It was a little on the wet side still. I worked the WSU Baseball game first. The Cougs had a big first inning with seven runs, but then let the game slip away.

Later I was on my way to the Valley Road Playfields for some softball. The first game was coed. It was a FFT because not enough women showed up. That is part of the reason why I hate running the coed team. But as a returning championship team I had to put it together again.

Then it was off to our men’s games. The first game my hitting woes continued. I have been having a hard time seeing the ball or something. I am swinging and missing when I shouldn’t. Then there is the whole not making good contact on the other times I am hitting it. We won the game pretty easily. Dave pitched a one-hit shutout.

The second game was against a better team. We battled after being down by eleven runs. We got two back and then battled some more. We had an eight run inning getting us closer. But they were still scoring runs.

We were having some issues with the field umpire hesitating on calls and making a blatantly bad call. That took us out of three innings. We still came close. We put the winning run to the plate with two guys on. But when the batter hit the ball, the umpire didn’t see the play at first. He hesitated on the play. Didn’t know what happened and called our guy out for the final out of the game. That was madding. We were not very happy about it. We ended up losing that game.

Ryan came over to my place. We watched the Sunday night Fox shows and ate some pizza.

Full day of work

I taught a First Aid class at the fire station today. It took about eight hours total. I finally got out of there around five-thirty in the evening. I went home to change and ran down to the station to talk with one of the firefighters. He wasn’t there, but I talked to the other guys.

While talking to them I got a phone call asking if I could do a transfer to Spokane. I went ahead and did it. The trip went really fast because we didn’t stop for food after dropping off the patient and the drop off went very fast as well.

Later I went to Brandon’s where we played some games. We ended up playing Taboo. That was a lot of fun. I was paired with Shannon. We ended up pulling it out at the last minute winning by two points.

SCBA Training

My day pretty much revolved around marine patrol training. We were going over the new SCBA’s that we will be using on the boats plus we covered several other items. It took about three hours total.

After that we went to dinner for Mom’s dinner. We had mexican food. I planned on leaving right away after the dinner to head back to Pullman.

The trip went along nicely. Without icy roads and snow I was able to move along around the speed limit the whole way.

Softball Season is Starting!

With the snow and all we were playing softball today. The first game was coed. I am not playing just coaching because we have too many guys. I figured I will get my play time in the men’s games.

We lost the coed game, but I didn’t really care. I didn’t even really know. It was so cold. It actually started to snow right after the coed game. I took some photos of the snow as it was falling covering the field and the team with snow.

Part of the team getting snowed on

I couldn’t hit the ball. I actually missed the ball on several swings. I couldn’t believe it. I was starting to get worried about my poor hitting. It was ugly. But the rest of the team was hitting the ball well and we went on to beat the other teams. It was pretty easy. I am not sure if we are that good or if they are that bad.

After the game Ryan, Anna, and I went to dinner. We hit some Mexican food. We hung out for a while chowing and chatting before they had to leave to go to Spokane.

Fantasy Baseball Draft

I made my way to Phil’s house for the baseball draft. I wasn’t sure how it all worked as Ryan did this last season. This year it is me running the team because Ryan didn’t want to do it. After getting my computer set up and on a wireless network the draft started.

It took almost six hours in all. We stopped for some pizza from Pipeline during the event. We ordered six pizza’s in all. I ended up making this my free day as I had both pizza and some cookies. I used some guidelines I downloaded from a website showing what each player should go for assuming it was an auction style draft. I payed around what the site said the players were worth for the most part. I got some of them cheaper.

Overall my team was made fun of for being a ninety-eight all-star team. More or less they are saying my team is old and out of the prime. I don’t know how it will do.

After that I called mom to talk to her for a while. It was her birthday today. I bought her a GPS for her birthday and gave it to her the last time I was in town. She really likes it.

I went to the Keeton’s and played poker with them until around midnight. Denise was doing well and she ended up being the big winner on the night. I think I ended up down about ten bucks.

We had a good time playing cards and laughing at the stories we were telling.

Lots of Pullman Fire Activities

It started out with going to the fire station and talking to Drew about the training I had planned for the evening. Then I went to Kruegal park to take photos of the Easter Bunny that was delivered by the fire department.

I went home and started to build the website for displaying the photos that I took at the park and from the stair climb in Seattle. I got that close to being done when I had to run out to Pioneer Center for taking photos of the badge pinning ceremony.

After that I went home and started to watch the Cougs playing basketball against Notre Dame. Not a lot of people gave them much of a chance. After the first half I went to Kevin’s place where Brandon and Kendall were there. We watched it together. It was great. The Cougs went on to win by twenty points. They held ND to forty-one points. Their lowest point total of the season.

I had enough time to rush to the fire station for training. I went through all the objectives and safety items. Then we went to the tower. I got the fog machine going and did the final setting up of the scene.

Drew started the scene with his arrival report and walk around. Then I had units show up in an order like they would in a real call. Drew directed teams to do certain things. The only problem was the smoke machine ran out of smoke and the room cleared out really well, so one of the things I did to test them was obvious. I had put a baby in the hallway. I wanted them to do what they would do in a real situation depending on what they found. I put it there in such a way that they wouldn’t see it. The only way they would find it would be by accident. But with the lack of smoke it was easy to see. They did react just right however. So that was good.

After the event was done we went to the fourth floor of the building to clean up some bird droppings and remove the birds that had taken up residence. We put the rigs back in service and went back to the station.

Brandon and Kevin were waiting for me at the fire station. I was running really late. I wanted to be done by seven-thirty. We weren’t done until nearly eight-thirty.

They came back to my place. We had some lasagna and bread. We played several games until around two o’clock in the morning. It was a fun night with those guys.

The Palousitics Lunch

Today was the first of the new monthly lunches that we at Palousitics will be holding. Ten of us met up at the Hilltop Restaurant for a nice meal and good conversation. The turn out and the food was good and I think everyone had a good time getting together.

Later on I worked at Beasley. It was a musical performance. It lasted for a couple hours. The people who came seemed to enjoy the show.

It was God’s Will

After my workout today I was going to turn to go home from the Rec Center. I was in the turn lane and had my left hand blinker on, but something made me go right. (Not that going right is ever a bad thing).

I turned onto Stadium Way and saw someone near Troy Road was hitchhiking. I thought that was odd to see in general. But it was a younger looking lady. When I saw the size and stature of the person walking along, plus the coat and scarf, I thought I might know her. As I passed her up, I knew who it was.

She is someone who is a fellow DJ on KZUU. She is a very nice person and I felt like I had to go back and pick her up. I was worried about her hitchhiking, even though “it is only Pullman”. So I turned around, but I had to go all the way down to Stephenson to turn around because of the median in the road. Finally, I got back to her and she was happy for the ride.

As it turned out she had to get across town and get her computer for a class presentation. I told her I would give her a ride back to campus as well because she would have to take the bus back otherwise. The part of town she lived it would require a transfer to another bus.

While we were driving along I found out that she also has a radio show on a local Christian station and I started to think it could have been God’s will that brought me to her.

As my reward for giving her the ride, when I drove down Main Street in Pullman, I saw my barber walking across the street to open his barbershop. I had planned on getting my haircut, so that worked out perfectly. Had I got straight there without stopping to help this lady, then he still would have been closed.

I went down to a couple calls at the fire station, but as normal I only stood by. But Rich and I had a chance to play a game for a bit while he was on his break. That is always fun to have something to do while I am standing by.

Rich also had asked if I could help him with a computer problem. He had some nasty malware application on his computer and none of the major applications were finding it and cleaning it. I did some research on it and found out how to clean it out of the computer. That took about an hour total to get it done and help make sure the computer was good to go.

I had just enough time to get down to the fire station in Colfax for training. There were only about ten people there for the Building Construction lecture. It only took about an hour for that.

Brandon and I were going to meet up at The Zzu for Taco Tuesday. I think things were still going good for me at this point. I started to play pool against Brandon. I was playing my normal game. I was able to sink a lot of balls, but I also missed a lot. But what was interesting is we played five games.

In those five games Brandon had not been beaten once yet I had four wins. He had one. He was on the Eight ball on four separate occasions. He was missing very easy shots. When he would make a shot, he would also sink the cue ball for a loss. Or he would sink the Eight ball in the wrong pocket. I think I had an unbeatable force on my side today.

Wet Lab at WSU

Today the only real plan was to go to the WSU Wet Lab. But it turned out there was a coroner’s call. I talked to Patti and she invited me to come. The investigation was very interesting. I had to look at a lot of evidence around the house to figure out what was going on. It was an interesting case and I cannot wait to learn more.

Then it was off to the WSU PD. I started by getting a breath sample. That would show that I had no alcohol on board to start off with.

Blowing into the PBT to start the day

We had tequila and rum to drink. Carl and Heidi from PPD, and Dan from the PAs office were there to help out. We drank and played a game called Scene It. That was a lot of fun. Dan bought some pizza for everyone and we continued to drink. Through out the drinking part we were supposed to keep watching the BAC readings so we would get to a very specific level of intoxication. I was supposed to be at about a Point-One.

When we were done drinking we went over to the CUE building for the actual field sobriety tests. On the way there Carl was making some observation about someone who I was thinking was a ten-six-seven. I acknowledged that I did think that person was a ten-six-seven and Carl started to laugh. We got another PBT test to see how intoxicated we were. The Pullman cops who had come to help out with the tests got called out to a person not breathing.

Soon the coroner called me to see if I could take the case, but I was in no condition to do that.

Doing a HGN test

Trying to stand on one leg without falling

Doing the walk and turn event

One more shot of the walk and turn

Brandon was also there. He took some photos and watched what was going on. I have found the alcohol will cause me to lose my swear filter and I tend to allow more swear words to flow. I also noticed that I allow my homosexuality to come to the surface a little bit. But I am usually able to suppress it.

During the test though a couple of the people doing the tests on me were ten-six-seven. A couple times I almost blurted out that fact. I was able to hold on to that though.

The FST went on for a while and the people doing them were doing a good job with them. We had a debriefing after the tests. Then we all went to Rico’s. I started to drink a lot of water. My highest reading I remember was a point-one-three. I was feeling very drunk. What was interesting to me was when I was at a point-oh-five I felt like I was too drunk to drive.

Carl said I should let Brandon know that I am gay. I figure as a cop now, he will hear about it through the grapevine. I don’t necessarily like the fact that it just gets spread around, but I figured that Brandon is a very good friend and I wanted to let me know rather than him finding out via the grapevine.

I sat down and said to Brandon “I am gay.” He asked me a couple times if I was serious. I said yes. Then we looked at Matt across the table and Matt confirmed it. Then Matt told Brandon the story where Matt found out. It was the scene where he made a joke not knowing about it. Carl and Monte had told him afterword because Matt sort of thought he had said the wrong thing around me. Carl thought it was funny. I let Matt know he didn’t say anything bad.

Brandon did ask why I was telling him. I would like to chat with him a little bit more about it, but I don’t want to make a big deal about it. He said he is cool as long as I don’t hit on him. I said I haven’t hit on him and that will not change.

While at Rico’s we listened to music and talked about random stuff as people usually do while their at the bars. I was there until Matt gave me a ride home around midnight. I was tired, but I also drank more water when I went home to make sure I would not have a hang over in the morning. After all I had about fourteen shots of Hard-A between four and six o’clock PM.

Taco Tuesday

Tonight’s HazMat training dealt with using the computer and weather station to create computer models for the spread of the HazMat release. It is something that I have not really touched in a major way since the class I took on these applications about four years ago. It was good to get into this stuff.

I remembered a fair amount of the stuff and the rest of it I was reminded of as the class went on.

I went to The Zzu with BKoe and Kevin. We had some tacos and played pool for a couple hours. The whole night I was doing well with the pool playing. In fact my team or when I was by myself, I never got beaten. Most of the games were won by my team or we lost the game by scratching on the Eight-Ball. I have one shot that I had not done in a long time where I put enough english on the ball to roll around one ball and hit my ball in the pocket. The guys at the table were very impressed with that shot. I followed it up with an easy shot on the Eight-Ball and missed it. Then I started to get crap from everyone.

Final Day in Wildland Class

Today was the final day in Wildland training. I have been doing it all week in Colfax. We did our final sections, then did our written test and shelter deployment test.

After the class I went to help C-Shift with their weekly rig checks. While at rig checks I got a call about going bowling. I had not been bowling in years. Due to my ankle I have not been able to bowl very well.

Kevin, BKoe, and I went to Zeppoz. I was able to bowl pain free. We ended up bowling four games. My first game was around a one-fifty-two. Pretty good for not having bowled in a long time. Brandon is a good bowler and I was only able to beat him once.

After bowling we went to Brandon’s place and we played poker. We were there until nearly four in the morning. We were playing dealers choice. That was fun. It was all low stakes.

BKoe the Cop

BKoe invited me to his swearing in at the police station. I showed up to see him become a sworn police officer. I also had a chance to see several of Pullman’s finest and say hello to them all.

After the swearing in I went home to get ready for the Wildland fire class being held in Colfax all weekend. I wasn’t looking forward to the early hours, but I needed to get the class done and out of the way. I figured doing it in Colfax I would be able to skip the Pullman class coming up.

When I got back I went to Rico’s for Andy’s engagement party. Mike had come out from Montana and he was there for the party and they all planned on going to the Cougar Basketball game tomorrow.

I hung out chatting with Andy about his student teaching and his responsibilities that he has coming up following his completion of school. It was great to see Mike as well.

A new Vehicle

I asked Ryan what he would say if I told him I was in Spokane. He said he would ask to have lunch with me. Then he asked if I was. I told him no. But I said I would be.

I made my way up there. I was going to Dishman Dodge to look at a couple Durangos they had on the lot. I met up with Ryan and Rocky’s Pizza for lunch. We spent about an hour talking about softball, baseball, and my new purchase.

Then it was off to Dishman Dodge. That took about seven hours total. I test drove two of the Durangos. One was a Ought-Seven and one was an Ought-Three. I like the color and seats of the Ought-Three. Plus the cab reminded my of the look and feel of the old Dakota. But the Ought-Seven was nicer over all, had many less miles and some other things I just couldn’t pass up. Plus it wasn’t a ton more than the older Durango.

So then it was time to start with the negotiations. That took almost as long for me as the actual test driving and deciding. We had to come up with an agreement. Plus I kept Jon in the loop the whole time. It was taking a while but I didn’t wanted to walk out the door. If it was in Pullman, I probably would have left for the night, but because it was in Spokane. I liked where the negotiations were going, and my goals were being met.

I suppose if I did leave I may have gotten a tiny bit more off the cost, but in my view and what cost to my time, gas, etc. I was happy with the deal that I made.

Then I had to play some games with the finance guy. Trying to up sell things. But I was able to repel the attempts at taking all my money.

I moved the stuff over from the truck to the Durango and made my way home.

EMT Class Help

Started the day driving to Steptoe for the EMT class. I was doing more medical assessments. My roll was mainly to help people with doing a medical incident. I made up some scenarios and run the groups through it. I did that for most of the time there. I also helped with some check-offs on using the long bone splint for a femur fracture.

For lunch a group of us went to Colfax fire for some pizza and watched the Cougar game. Well we watched the tip-off and the first points scored by the Cougs. We were back at the school until around four in the afternoon.

When I returned I went to the Dodge dealership to look at their trucks. I found one fifteen hundred. But with what I would get for my truck and what they wanted on that truck I would not be making a good switch. I want to reduce the overall amount owed on the truck. I would have only reduced what I owe by about two grand and I would have added about forty-five thousand miles to the rig. Not a good trade off.

I will keep looking until I find the perfect truck and the perfect deal for me.

I went to the Rec center and did a cardio workout. Then I swam five laps. My legs were tired and I was really not swimming super well. But I chalked that up to having just done twenty minutes of cardio.

After the Rec center I went to the casino and played with about forty bucks. That didn’t last forever. Russell was there. He was looking at getting off pretty soon. I was going to give him a ride. But I got a call from Avalon about transporting a person from the hospital. When I was done it was after three in the morning. I went back to the casino wearing a polo shirt and slacks. At first Russell glanced at me thinking I was someone else.

He got off and I gave him a ride to Nick’s apartment. I went home and called it a night.

Riding in Whatcom

I planned on going on a ride along in Whatcom county today. I got up this morning for a little while. Then I went back to bed to take a nap so I could be more awake for my ride along.

When I got up I got dressed and then fueled my truck and went to Whatcom County. I went to Joe’s house and hung out with him for a little bit. I helped him with his website. He had messed something up and I fixed it for him.

We hit the road and started at the office. He had to write up some reports before we went on patrol. Then we went to Wendy’s for dinner. As we were finishing up dinner we went to the report of someone shooting.

We found the people involved. It was nearly midnight. They all got cited for disturbing the peace. We went to a house party where some people were taking DXM. It is in many cold medicines. It causes euphoria at a lower dose and at higher doses it can cause some other problems. It can kill you in an overdose situation. The ambulance had to get called on this one.

We went on one more shooting call but were unable to locate the shooting noise this time. We went to the dispatch center and hung out with Doug for a while. It was about four in the morning when I called it a night. I rolled home and when I got here I pretty much peeled off my clothes and went fast asleep.

Grandpa Patterson’s Funeral

I started the day off at a swimming pool on Mercer Island. I had to do a swim test for the boat patrol. We started with a two-hundred-and-fifty yard swim, but they ended up having us swim five-hundred yards. That wasn’t that big of a deal because that is what I have been doing at the rec center. After the swim there was a thirty minute treading of water. When that was done we practiced some recovery swimming techniques. It lasted a total of two hours.

I got home and cleaned up for the funeral. We went to the Greenwood Cemetery for the funeral. We had the service. Jon and I were pallbearers. We went out to the gravesite for a graveside service as well. The VFW was there they did a gun salute for him. When that was done we all went back to our place for the wake.

Later in the evening Dave and I went to see Rambo. When it was over Dave and I sat in the parking lot for about an hour talking about my efforts to make life changing habits that will lead to a more healthy life for myself.

Grandpa Patterson Died

I got an e-mail from my mom today telling me that Pat died today. I called her to ask about some of the details. Sounds like he was sick and in the hospital for a couple days. But it was known by people that it looked like there was going to be a poor outcome. He died during the day on Saturday. So I have a funeral to go to when I am back home.

I made plans to meet up with Brandon and Kevin tonight. Russell also wanted to come over and watch the Devil’s Rejects. Kevin and Brandon also came to watch that.

In the morning I woke up in time for going to the Cougar Basketball game. I went up there with the fire department. Only four of us worked the game. The Cougs were playing a great game. They crushed USC. If they had played like that during the last couple games they would have won those games too.

On the way back from the game they toned for reserves to call the station for a transfer. I went on it. So that pushed back the time I met up with the guys. Because I was in Colfax I stopped by the fire station to pick up my W-Twos. I washed the ambulance when I got back and went to pick up Russell and Nick. Brandon and Kevin came over.

We had pizza and watched the Devil’s Rejects. Following that movie I took Russell and Nick home. When I got back Kevin, Brandon, and I played Racko and Mexican Train Dominoes. We stayed up until around three in the morning playing games.

It was a great time with them.

Super Bowl Party

Today’s Super Bowl party was held at Bryce’s house in Colfax. I purchased some peanut butter cups, chips, and dip. I brought that down with my pop. I got there around the same time Carl did. He brought his beans stuff. Jim and Connie brought their taquito’s. Everyone had their thing there.

We started by playing some poker. But I was not doing very well. I sort of just bled out money most of the night. We were rooting for the Giants to beat Patriots to ruin their attempt at a perfect season. We stopped playing cards at the start of the game. We were not very impressed with the commercials this year. They were not very funny nor ground breaking.

At half time we played cards until there was about five minutes left in the game. After that we went back to watch the final part of the game. That was probably the best part of the game as well.

We played a tiny bit more cards before calling it a night. I went home and watched the end of House.

Got Fired.

WSU got cancelled again. It was announced last night. It was weird because I was someone who had to work even though everyone else didn’t.

Today was the day I was going to get fired from NU. But it was one where I was told I would be fired. It was more of a formality than anything. They had to “terminate” everyone to close out the books. Then start the new company. I was hired back on.

When I had my conversation with the guys it seemed the idea of me working from home was very good with these guys. On top of that, the need to have me back there monthly was also a thing of the past. So I think this summer you will see me in Pullman a lot more than years past. So today is my first day under the management of the new company.

Tonight on call at the fire department was dead. I spent a lot of time over at Brandon’s in the evening playing cards. I went to Russell’s to see the snow cave that Russell and Nick built. I also spent time talking to Parrish and Bien about fire department related things, as well as heating ideas for my garage.

Lunch with Forbes

I went to lunch today with Tom. We went to Rancho but they were closed. So we ended up going to Neuvo. I had a taco salad and we spent time talking about a couple Pullman-related issues. It was a nice lunch with him. We were gone for about an hour and a half chatting.

I ended up getting a transfer to Spokane shortly after lunch. I was down for a call when the call for the transfer came in. I said I could do it and went off to Spokane. The roads were really bad. The last seventeen miles was like driving on a dirt road full of pot holes.

After I got back I met with George about reserves issues. I was supposed to meet with the other crew leaders as well, but that ended up getting messed up because I was gone. So George ran down the things they all talked about.

A Productive Day

Today was a productive day for me. I started out with the early morning wake up. Today was a “free” day on my Body for Life workout regimen that I am doing. That means I don’t have to do a workout and I can gave a treat or two if I choose.

I started off working on the frame for the photoboard for The Deuce. I made some additional needed cuts, and started to put on the L-brackets to hold it together. I made sure the glass would fit. Then I did some sanding. After the sanding it down I put a layer of stain on it. I will need to put a couple more layers on over the next couple days.

I pulled out the quad and did my driveway and the sidewalks on the street. The snow was falling pretty hard. I was a little nervous about doing the sidewalks. I wasn’t sure what someone would say, if anything. There always seems to be someone who complains. Later on in the evening I did it a second time due to the additional snow fall. The second time through I just pounded through it.

Brandon and I were going to meet up for dinner and then play card at the Zeppoz tournament. We hit Golden Teriyaki. It is owned by the same family as the Emerald and New Garden so the menus looked identical.

Following dinner I drove to Zeppoz. I hit every green light along the way, except for the one at Bishop. But that helped me make good time. I went into the casino and the tables were full. They started a different tournament today. It was for today only, but that really bummed me out. When Brandon got there I told him what happened and we decided to leave. I was disappointed that happened.

I went to Safeway to get my weekly shopping trip completed and out of the way. On the way home from Safeway, as part of my freeday I got myself a small Blizzard with Reese Peanut Butter Cup. It is the best of both worlds! I also got home and finished up my laundry.