Champions!!!

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

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

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

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

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

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

All of us hangiong out with Russell

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mike D Homecoming Poker Tournament

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

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

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

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

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

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

A Bunch of Do or Die Softball

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Typical Tuesday

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

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

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

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

Playoffs Day One

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hanging with Peter

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

Another New Position the Season

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

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

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

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

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

Jailer

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

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

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

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

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

Poker Night at Dan’s

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

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

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

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

Helping out some friends

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

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

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

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

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

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

Good night at the plate

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

HazMat Training Day

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

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

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

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

IM Softball is Back in Action

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Gridiron Classic

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

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

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

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

We went on to a pretty easy victory.

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

Hanging with Peterman

I was getting more productive stuff done at work today. We decided to split up the business objects into a user and generated code base so we could regenerate code without losing our changes. I got that started. I also got it hooked up to the website so we can save data. I am going to be working my butt off the next couple days doing just that. It is slow going because of the Windows Vista box.

When I finished work I went to Peter’s place. We sat down and talked about being a lawyer and law school in general. Then we went to California Pizza near the mall. Then it was off to see Three-Ten to Yuma. It was a pretty good movie. I wasn’t sure exactly what it was about. But I liked it. I thought the ending was a little too Hollywood with the bad guy finding his heart and saving the day at the last minute. But I also noticed they left it wide open for a sequel.

When the movie was over with Peter and I went back to his apartment, but we spent time just talking in my truck. We were talking about Fred Thompson as well as trading stocks on the stock market. We were out there for about an hour before I finally headed off to home.

A Day to myself

I decided to allow myself to sleep in today. I did get woken up by my phone vibrating with a text message. I sent some text messages back and forth with BKoe for a while before going back to bed. I finally got up around one in the afternoon.

I went to Pizza Pipeline for some lunch. When I got into my truck I heard an update for an EMS call. I then got a call from Dearth asking if I was going to come down. I said I was on the way. We went on the call and helped to transport to the hospital.

When the call was done I went home and finished watching the Kyle XY marathon as well as making come measurements in the garage for rearranging my garage to fit the boat inside. I am going to build some shelves to put things away. That will free up floor space.

While I was making the measurements I got a call from Russell. He said Nick was in a bad accident and was taken to the hospital. But it sounds like he wasn’t baddly hurt. Just mainly for precautionary reasons. That made me feel good. I hope there was nothing found in the hospital.

The rest of the evening was spent between doing stuff on the computer, watching TV, and planning updates for a website. I also got the papers ready to turn in tomorrow for softball.

The Simpsons Movie

I was going to watch a movie today, but that was for later on. While I was at home I got a phone call from Avalon. They needed me to give a ride to someone from the hospital. It was my first time doing a transport for them. It took about an hour. I got paid fifty bucks for it.

Peter, Shannon, Peter’s roommate, and I went to see the Simpson’s Movie in Moscow. I wanted to see it on the big screen. I didn’t see anything too special about it. It was just like a long episode. Nothing too exciting. But at least I saw it on the big screen.

While we were in the theatre one guy had this really deep moronic-like laugh. At one point something funny happened. Peter and I laughed. Then the guy with the funny laugh was laughing. Peter and I looked at each other and laughed really hard.

We went to Taco Bell after the movie was done to get some dinner. They I went home and started to do some work on the computer. I wanted to start to work on the PFD portal again. I am trying to come up with a way to assign people to rigs that is better than how I am doing it now, where it is very labor intensive. Not very good if the others are going to use it one of these days.

Two Weeks in a row

I called again about the notice on the Bumblebee for parking on the street for too long. I am not very happy about it because my neighbor called me in. The neighbor is from across the street and it is not like they want to use the spot. I have no idea what the reasoning for it was. I need to talk to parking services to see what I can do and make sure they will not be problems in the future.

For my second week in a row I made it to Colfax for fire training. I got down there a little early and ate some dinner. We went to the training trailer to do some evolutions and test some hose. That lasted about two hours. We got back to the department and placed the hose out to dry.

I went back to Pullman and I was off to the Zuu. I was going to meet up with Brandon, Peter, and Kevin. They were up there playing pool and enjoying taco Tuesday. Brandon and I talked for a while. I also saw Eric and Michael B. They are playing in a fall co-ed league in Moscow. I was invited to play with them. I am excited about getting to play softball some more.

More Women’s Volleyball

I spent this morning in Moscow getting my new cell phone. I have been needing to do something about mine. It is getting into real bad shape and as of the last week the END button has not been working for me.

I had to go get the phone from the mall and have my contact list moved to the new phone. It took a while to get that done. There were people in front of me in line. When I was done with the phone I went to my truck and got some of the settings taken care of. With the new phone I had to search my way through things to see where they were located.

I went home and talked to Peter on the phone for a while about law school and the tests. I got a phone call from Nick at the volleyball game. James had gotten there early and they were leaving early. So I had to get up there quicker than I had planned. That was okay, however, because I didn’t have much going on anyway.

I watched the final game, but it was more than an hour away. Andrew and I spent time just talking about EMT class, being a firefighter and whatnot. Once the game got going we spent time watching the game. Mosebar, a trombone player from the band, saw me and came over to say hello.

Then a guy who was working the event came over to ask help for someone stuck in the handicap wheelchair lift. The thing had gone up two inches and stopped. I was able to get the guy free from the lift.

When the game was done, a different Peter had invited me to come to his place and play some poker. When I got there it turned out there were not games to speak of. So I hung out until I got an EMS call.

When the call was done John, Gecas, and I played a couple games of cribbage. We got one call in the middle of the cribbage playing, but the night over all was a fizzle as far as calls went.

Ryan’s Wedding

Today is the big day. I woke up and got cleaned up. Russell and I needed to go to the tux rental shop to get new pieces for the tux. My shoes needed to be bigger as well as a better fitting shirt size. Once that was completed Russell and I were off to find some roses.

We drove around for a little while and bumped into a place called Just Roses. We were able to get two red and two pink roses. We went back to the hotel to check out and send our postcards that we wrote last night.

Russell and I took Ryan’s parents to dinner at Franks Diner. I had to cut out a little early and pick up Anna and one of her friends from the mall. I took them to the hotel and then parked my truck.

I had been stressing about the best man speech, but this morning in the shower I figured out the direction I wanted to take the speech. I was going to talk about what friends are and what a best friend is. I was going talk about meeting Ryan and playing softball and hanging out with him over the years. I felt better now that I knew what I was going to say.

We went to the hotel and started to get ready. Nick came and I got some photos of him and Russell together.

Russell and Nick looking dignified

Once everyone got their tuxes on we went around and took photos. I got one of Ryan in the dressing room in a chair. I also got Russell and one of me in the chair as well.

Ryan in the chair

Russell in the chair

Me in the chair looking like I am from the nineteenth century

I also got one of me being silly.

Being Silly

We then went out and took photos around the area. I also was getting photos. I got one of Ryan’s brother and his new brother-in-law.

Ben (ten-six-seven), Ryan’s new brother-in-law

Keith, Ryan’s younger brother

Once that was done we were back at the hotel, the time was counting down for the wedding to start. People started to file into the Davenport hotel. The wedding started and it lasted around thirty minutes total. I was the best man and stood next to Ryan. It was neat to see the whole thing.

We went and got some more photos and then made our way to the reception room. They made a grand entrance for Ryan and Anna. I sat at the table with Ryan and Anna. I went and made my way through the line for some chow.

As it turned out Russell and I were sitting at a table with a couple other gay people. So it was the gay table. With Nick there as well. We did not know the other guys, but it was pretty obvious about them.

It came time for the toast. I got up to give my speech. I did a great job doing it. I was prepared and it went smoothly. I did not try to be funny, but the parts that were lighter got some laughter. That was good.

Making My Best Man Speech

Ryan and Anna did their first dance together.

The first dance

The first dance

Russell and Nick got out there to dance a little bit as well.

When the reception got going Ben gave Russell and I a cigar. We went outside to smoke it. It was not very tasty. Russell got a great photo of him smoking it.

Russell smoking the cigar

As the night was winding down I signed the paperwork for Ryan and Anna’s marriage. While we were doing that Keith mention that he lost a stud from his tux. Ryan looked at me and said “So have you”.

First Night in Spokane

I got off work early today to head up to Spokane for Ryan’s wedding. I picked up Russell and we hit the road. It was slow going with all the traffic going both ways. We got near Spokane and I called Ryan to tell him that I had to turn around due to a car accident on the highway. Russell called him back shortly after I hung up worrying that Ryan would be too worried.

When we got to Spokane we went to the Davenport where the wedding was going to be held and where we were staying. While in the lobby I saw Ben. He was ten-six-seven. It is funny how different people can be different ten-six-sevens. Ben is more of a young-man like ten-six-seven. Russell thought he was good looking as well.

We started with the rehearsal. Everyone practiced walking to their appointed position. Went through the workings of the ceremony. Then it was off to the dinner. We were eating a place just around the corner from the Davenport.

On the way back from dinner I decided to walk because we were a block away. Ryan, Russell, Anna, and her friend went back with Ryan. While walking down the road Ryan slowed down to ask “how much”, making a joke that I was a hooker.

I said, really loud, “For you, big boy, anything for fifty cents”. I was two steps from the corner. As I turned it there was a guy and a girl walking around the corner we almost bumped each other. The guy gave me a funny look.

We had to hurry to get to the comedy show. We ended up sitting up front. That added to the joy of the night for sure. One comedian was on stage and asked if anyone lived with their mom. I started to make a clapping motion then stopped just before hitting hands. He noticed this and pointed it out to everyone. I started laughing very hard.

The rest of the evening different comedians would joke about me. One guy looked at Ryan and Russell and said it was nice of them to take “their special friend” out on the town.

When the show was done it felt like I had been roasted. It was a great time. I went to the bar area where the comedian who did most of the roasting was. He saw me and came over. He shook my hand and gave me a half-hug. We talked for a few minutes. One guy who was watching the show said I earned a Good Spirit Award for taking the ribbing so well.

We went back to the hotel and I started to try to think about what to say for the best-man speech. I was having a hard time coming up with anything. I pulled out a postcard that the Davenport gives away with the room. I got a phonebook and opened it to a random white page location and randomly pointed at a name in the phonebook. I then wrote a message to that person on the postcard.

While I was writing the letter to the person a phone call came in around two in the morning. It was hotel security saying we had a noise complaint against us. I then wrote in the letter “We just got a noise complaint, WHATEVA!”

Russell got a postcard and also wrote to the people who lived in Medical Lake. We thought that was pretty funny.

After Ryan left the room I spent some more time trying to think about what to write, but I was not able to come up with anything. I finally went to bed around three in the morning.

A Day Off Where I Work For Hours

Today I had a teaching first aid class to Pullman Transit. The class started at nine o’clock AM at City Hall. I was running late and when I got to the classroom the TV and DVD player were missing. I found a TV and VCR and hook it up in the classroom where running about fifteen minutes late. Finally we got teaching and watching the video. The class was a lot of fun everybody seemed to enjoy learning first aid.

I kept getting phone calls from work as they did not realize I taken the day off. I think I got a total of four phone calls or five phone calls as I was trying to teach the class.

After lunch we finished up the rest of the class, the video, and doing the test. When the class is over with one of the participants asked me a question about internal bleeding. He was asking about symptoms that you can look for to see if internal bleeding was taking place. I was telling him that about a case I had a while back or somebody had internal bleeding. He said he knew who I was talking about. I asked him some questions in the answered them correctly and I found out it was his mom and I was talking about. He told me the whole story about what happened that night. We spent about another thirty minutes talking.

I went back to station one to sanitized and mannequins. While I was sanitizing the mannequins the tones went off asking for reserves to call the station for a transfer to Spokane. I ran into the captain’s office to let him know that I was available. I was able to do the transfer with one of the brand new paramedics Blake. We picked up or patient from the hospital and drove to Spokane. It took a little over an hour and half to get to Spokane. We drop the patient off and then went to dinner the A&W; Rootbeer restaurant. I grabbed some chew.

On the way back to Pullman we talked about career vs. reserves, firefighter training, EMS levels, as well as a couple other issues. I had a good time talking with Blake. When we got back to Pullman we went to fuel up. While you’re driving down guy street Blake tried to get a hold of the dispatch center. He accepted two times with no contact. I jokingly said they would probably answer for me so he gave me the radio. I called for the dispatch center and they quickly answered me. I told them we are back in the city and in service. After getting fuel we went to the hospital to make up the cot.

I went home and checked my e-mail. I saw that Joe bought Pete’s Bar and Grill. He invited all of us down to help him celebrate. He is working on getting the bugs out before the real opening. I got down there hours after the e-mail went out, but Dan and Michele were still down there. I talked to them and congratulated Joe.

I just wonder what will happen next season when it comes to softball. I would like to see us stay My Office because we have been that way for a long time, but who knows what will happen. Maybe a My Office/Pete’s Team.

Ryan’s Bachelor Party

Ten o’clock was an early wake up time after being up until after six in the morning. I had to get my truck cleaned out for the people riding with me. I had to pick up a couple people along the way. I first picked up Russell then it was off to Steve’s house. We all went to Shopko and picked up a white shirt and a place Sharpie pen. I drew out what I wanted to have the shirt. Steve worked on filling it out along the way. We were heading to Ryan’s house to pick him up. I presented him with his shirt and made him put it on. He went with it and wore it.

We started by going to get some pizza. We went to the same place as we did for his birthday. Dan met up with us there. While there we took his cell phone so people could not call him and bother us on his party. Russell took the phone and left a message saying we had taken his phone away and that he wasn’t going to call anyone back. After pizza we were walking down the street. With Ryan’s shirt I put on a drawn in six-pack. A guy without a shirt was walking down the street towards us. I said to Ryan “He’s wearing the same shirt as you”. Everyone laughed about that.

We went to the mall and watched a movie. While walking through the mall a couple of us were saying outloud “Deadman Walking”. We left a gap between Ryan and us. one younger guy was starring at his shirt. I looked at the guy and said “You like his abs?”

When the movie was done we went to the comedy club. We were pretty early. But we ordered prime rib and ate it while talking and joking with Ryan. I talked to Chris the owner of the Brickwall and made sure he knew we were there. During his warm up he was making fun of Ryan and roasting all of us about going to a comedy club in Spokane for the bachelor party. Other comedians who came through also made similar jokes to us.

Following the show we went to get some dinner at IHOP and then more or less called it a night. It was a nice calm bachelor party for Ryan. I wasn’t sure if that is exactly what he wanted, but Ryan is not much of the drinker/party animal. I think he enjoyed being able to be with his friends and just enjoy the day.

On the way home Russell got us to stop on a dark side road where we watched the stars. there was a meteor shower going on. We saw some of them fly by while we were there. I didn’t get home and in bed until into the wee hours of the morning. I am on call for the coroner. I just was hoping that I wouldn’t get a call an hour after I went to bed for a death.

Doing the Dunes

The Keeton’s plus one of their friends as well as Russell and I went to the river. We started out at Safeway I got fuel and water. We drove down to the river and put the boat in the water. Then we got rolling from the dock to the dunes. I figured even though the boat was leaking a fair amount while at the dunes the worst it would do would be to ground itself.

I was going to go ashore, but I spent some time trying to find my tennis ball. I brought that to have some fun with the softball bat. But I could not find it. Then the kids wanted to play with the tube. I stuck around the boat. We were there for around an hour. Then we took the boat out and started to cruise. The kids got on the tube and rode it for a while. Then I got Dan on the tube. After making him crash we took the tube back to the beach and took Russell on the water skis.

He got up on the first try. He skied for a while then wanted to stop. After resting a minute or so, he got back up for a little bit more.

After that was done we went back to clean up our beach area and head to the dock. I had to be back in Pullman by six for being on call. Russell wanted to get me some dinner for me. So he picked that up at The Emerald and met me at my house. I got my uniform on and went to the station.

I ate really fast while rig checks were going. I went out to assist with rig checks. After we were done with them for the most part, I worked with A. Wilcox on his Rescue check offs as well as talking to him about engineer related information.

We got out of there around ten-thirty. But the night was quiet and we received no calls.

Tux Fitting

Russell and I went downtown today to get sized for tuxes. They will be for Ryan’s wedding later this month. We are both in the wedding.

We grabbed some lunch at Pizza Pipeline and I went to the banks to make deposits. When we got back to my place he was in my office and saw my project that I am working on for the coroners office. I am putting together a collage of car accident photos.

He asked about what happened in each one. I told him the circumstances around each wreck. Then we talked about the choices people make in life which brought us to a long discussion about suicide. Why people choose to do it, and what is being gained by it.

Following the suicide we got into a little bit of politics. That is where we are vastly on different ends of the poles. But we stayed mostly in an area where we both agree, and it is about giving up freedom for “security”.

Opening of My Boating Season

It is about time! I had a day off and made plans to go to the river with my boat. Russell, Peter S, and Kevin were all coming along. I got my boat started up at the house before we even headed out. I also put the battery on the charger last night to make sure there was a full charge to it. After it was started I put the equipment I figured we would use.

Peter and Russell showed up. We went to Safeway to get water, gas, and some food. We called Kevin up and went to get him. Kevin is ten-six-seven. Very nice blue eyes and blonde hair and good looks. We got to the river and launched the boat. I found shortly after launching that there is a pretty good leak on it, so I was going to have to make sure that I kept pumping the water out. It seemed like after being out there for a little bit the leaking slowed down.

We drove toward Granite Point and then down to the dam and back past Granite Point. I was looking for a good spot to do some tubing. Finally I decided to go to the Granite Point area because compared to everything else, it looked the best. Russell was the first on the tube. I hit a big wave and Russell went flying out of the tube. The guys in the boat loved it.

I got Peter out there next and got a couple good crashes on him. Kevin also had a good wreck. He sort of racked his balls. I took Russell over to Granite Point where he went diving for lost treasures. He found a Mountain Dew and a pair of sunglasses. Peter jumped off the cliff. Then I took him over to the other side of the river where he jumped from the sixty foot cliff. That was an impressive jump.

When we were done at the river we went to Cougar Country for some dinner. I went to the fire station and then went with the guys to the training tower where we were doing some stuff with the class A foam and seeing why the foam cell was getting overfilled. It appeared water was getting pushed into it.

We found we were unable to flow foam at all. We had some hoses out and sprayed water all over the place for a while though. Following that I went home and got a couple more applications installed on my new laptop.

Ride Along with Joe

I was able to sleep in pretty well. When I got up I did some stuff on my computer for a while waiting until it was time to head to Bellingham. I took a small nap and then hit the road.

Traffic was light going up. I got up there and picked up Joe. We went to Apple Bees for dinner. We talked about Joe’s new phone and computers.

Then it was back to Joe’s. I played with Doug’s new kitties as Joe got ready. He came down stairs and played with the kitties. Then we hit the road. We started by going to the office where Joe did some paperwork. Then it was off to saving Whatcom county. It was a pretty quiet night for us.

We stopped by the dispatch center where I had a chance to see it and talk to Doug. I got some pop and they gave me a sticker that said Junior Deputy. I wore that for the rest of the night.

We ended up getting a drunk. While at the SO doing the processing of the drunk I noticed one of the jailers was ten-six-seven. I had seen him there before. There was also a Bellingham cop who was there and was also a ten-six-seven. That was really the majority of the night. We made a couple calls for service that were not too major. We went to one car accident that wasn’t much of one. A drunk ran off the road. Finally we found her and got her arrested. The State Patrol took that one.

After Joe’s drunk at the SO, he was going to have to do paperwork and it was near three in the morning so I decided to call it a night. Sort of a slow night, but it is fun to hang out with Joe. The drive home was uneventful as I stayed awake easily the whole way.

There have been times in the past where I was having a hard time staying awake.

Chatting with Dave

Tonight I spent a while on the phone talking with Dave. Seeing how things were going for him. He has been working on becoming a plumber. That is good for him. His parents are letting him live at home while he made it back to his feet. We haven’t done anything in a while, but it will be good to see him soon.

Ryan B is Moving to Hawaii

I was the debating on going to Colfax today. Around five o’clock PM, I got a phone call from Joe who said that Ryan and his new wife were having a get together for the friends down a Pete’s Bar and Grill. I was told and Joe and Michael B we’re both going down as well as a couple other guys from the softball team. Food and beer was being served to everybody there. Ryan had bought keg and was barbecuing hamburgers and hot dogs. Joe said everyone was getting there around five-thirty.

I got down to Pete’s Bar and Grill at the time everybody was gonna get there. Michael B was already there and ordering himself a drink, Joe showed up shortly thereafter. We went out on the patio and hung out with Ryan and his new wife and his friends. Dan showed up about an hour later to be with us. I went into the bar and got him a glass of beer. We talked softball and relationships for the next couple hours.

As it was getting dark we went inside the bar and hung out some more waiting for Ryan’s wife to get the video. They had a video of their wedding ceremony from Hawaii. It took a couple hours to get it from the computer with finally was ready to be shown. We went into the restaurant portion of Pete’s Bar and Grill. The video was about 10 minutes long and it was really good. Ryan look happy to be getting married a little on the nervous side. While at the bar he been drinking most the day and was very drunk. He was passed out in the back of the car and Joe and I went to get him to watch the video.

After the video was over everyone was getting ready to go their own way. Ryan and his wife are moving to Hawaii. This is one of the last times we will the chance to see them. As each person was leaving we gave Ryan a hug and his wife of a hug.

I had a good day I was glad I did not go to Colfax. I had planned on working at the jail but this call came in shortly before I was going to leave. I had a good time hanging out with Ryan and Dan and Michael B and Joe.

I was going to have to get up early in the morning so I was not able to stay out as late as everybody else. I went home around midnight and went to bed

Rescue Me Night with Friends

I took my truck to the Dodge dealer this morning. While it was in the shop the water pump went out and sprayed all over the engine compartment. So they are going to have to keep it over night to work on it. I went home and put the Toyota on the charger to get the batter charged up and ready to use for the day.

Tonight is Rescue Me and I invited some people over to watch it. Russell also invited me over for dinner. I went over Beren and Denise were there. We had sloppy joes. Then we went to my place to play Spades and watch Rescue Me. Keith also came over to watch it.

Turns out the Chief who appeared to commit suicide last episode actually did kill himself. So he is off the show for sure. I figured that they were going to find a way for him to come back to the station. But the writers wanted to show the “young firefighters” what they had coming if they did not think about the path they are taking in their lives.

After the show we finished up the game of Spades. Denise and I ended up losing to Russell and Beren. They had to take off around midnight night, when we were finishing our game, so that was it for the evening. I also wanted to get to bed early so I could be up and ready for the meeting with some of the union guy at the fire station to talk about the Association that I am working on putting together.

Happy Birthday America!

The fourth is a great time. I love fireworks and I love the time in the park. I still think back to the old tradition of going to Ocean Shores with the gang. We would stay down at this camp ground and we would light off fireworks and party all the time. We would drive on the beach and just have a great time. I still remember my first time there. We were staying at a state camp ground. When I showed up the Confederate flag was flying. One of the guys came up to me and said that he made sure it was put right side up. Making sure the star in the center right side up. Dave and I would always drive down the beach just after dark and helped to pull people out stuck in the sand. That was our good deed of the day we did each day out there.

Over the years the group had split up and the Oceans Shores trips are no longer. But now I go to Sunnyside Park with the fire department. We show off the fire engines. Wilcox and I went on a call together before it was time to get ready to head to the fire station for the show.

I drove the ambulance up to the park again this year. When we got up there we set everything up. Then people started to show up. We helped them try on the gear. Took photos of everyone. I climbed the ladder and got some photos of the park and the area.

A couple people I knew came down and got in the gear included Andy the poker player I met through Mike. BKoe was working for the parks department, but he stopped by to try on the stuff. Dan’s wife, Denise stopped by.

I helped a couple people on EMS things, but both were minor injuries. While I was going to one I saw Juan from Colfax. I have not seen him in a long time. But I walked by him. We made eye contact and I wanted to stay and talk to him, but I had to go and help someone who needed EMS help. When I got back he was gone. So I ended up calling him to say hello and let him know that I was sorry for missing him. I think I will invite him over to watch a movie again. He is a very nice guy.

The day went off very well. We got out of there just after eleven o’clock and got all the rigs back in service. It is weird that I have to work in the morning. It feels like I should have another day off. In the future I need to take the day after the fourth off.

Teaching CPR

This evening I was teaching a CPR class. Only three people came to it, so the class went by pretty quickly. It started at six in the evening and I was done around nine-thirty, then I had the clean up and decon of the equipment so that adds more time to everything.

I got home and invited Russell over to watch Rescue Me and have some pizza with me. I also told him about what happened in the jail recently. He thought it was a pretty funny story.

Oceans Thirteen

The plan was to hang out with Peter tonight. After I was done working I got a hold of Peter. I went to his Condo in Bellevue that he rents. He showed me around that. We talked about his job search. I was trying to find out why he doesn’t want to be a lawyer anymore.

He never would say, but I started to think that there could be something else. I then sort of figured out that maybe something happened with the LSAT test that made it where he didn’t feel he could get into a good law school. I don’t know if that is the case, it was a guess.

We walked to Lincoln Square to watch a movie. We ended up seeing Oceans Thirteen. It was a lot better than Oceans Twelve. The movie had a lot of little laughs through out the movie. It was one once again where they were in charge and in control. Whereas Oceans Twelve it seemed like someone else was always controlling them.

When the movie was done we walked down to Jack in the Box for some dinner. We sat in there for about an hour or so talking about the housing situation that I am in. Trying to figure out if I should try to get owner financing on the place next door, or if I should try to buy some land and then down the road have a house built. I am not sure what direction I am going to go, but I need to at least talk to Pam about doing the owner financing on her place.

Got my Lawn Mower Going

I have been needing to get my lawnmower set up for a long time. Since my last trip to Seattle when I bought it. I finally got it set up today. My lawn was already short, so I just ran it across the lawn and helped to cut it. I am going to have to do that probably twice a week and it will keep my grass nice and short.

Later in the evening I went to Dissmores to get some chew. While there I saw Brandon and Peter. Kevin, the ten-six-seven, was working. He pointed at me and said to a co-worker of his that was the guy who gave those bad beats. Peter invited me over to play some beerpong. I went home and got cleaned up then went to Peter and Brandon’s. I played one game of beerpong and then Peter, Brandon, and I sat around watching the end of WPT.

I went to Zeppoz to see Russell. Beren was also there. I talked to him about his house going up for a sale due to him not paying the mortgage, that is when I found out Denise was no longer dating him, or something like that, at the very least she moved out and that is what put him in a pinch.

I spoke with Russell only briefly, then I went home. I was up until around three-thirty in the morning when I finally went to bed.