Brief Test Not So Well

I did my teaching for the fire department. I got down there a little early to set up class. I got my information gathered. Then they started to arrive. I went through the whole process of filling out the timecards and time logs. It was well.

I high tailed it down to Colfax for my training there. I was missing the stuff of Miranda warnings. I sat in on the remainder of that class and then asked some questions.

All of a sudden I realized that we had a test and I had not fully studied. So I took five minutes to review the notes. Not nearly enough time in order to do awesome on the test.

It was worth eighty points. I actually did well, scoring the third best grade in the class. I was in the mid-eighties percentage-wise. There were other people who did really bad.

I got to questions I did not remember the full answer to, but I thought through it and I was able to come up with a lot of answers or partial answers.

But when the test was done and we graded them, it was clear some people did poorly. The instructors tore into the whole class about it. I think they may have lit a fire under some of these people. There were some who were not taking things seriously and they were not getting the work done. I hope this is the turning point.

Better Swimming This Time

I did some more swimming. On Monday it didn’t go too well, but today I am happy with how well I did, when compared to Monday’s performance.

I spent some time today getting things set up for a training I will be doing for the new reserves on Thursday evening.

The day over all was pretty quiet. We got some hydrants taken care of. I also worked on some stuff in the evening hours on my own. Overall it was a quiet day.

Swimming Again

It has been a while since I have been swimming. I got up around five-thirty in the morning and I went to do my workout. Then I went to the swimming pool. I have lost a lot of what I worked to get, in terms of swimming. I could only do one lap at a time without having to stop to rest. Part of it could have been my cold that was causing me to not breathe all that well.

I got out in time to go to work. The ladies who were working as lifeguards said it was nice to see me back. I stopped to talk to them for a minute before getting cleaned up for work.

Today we were going to train with the reserves. We were at the training house. It was fun being there doing the training and being with the reserves. I helped to get the bottles refilled for Rescue and hung out with the reserves until the late hours of the night.

I finally went to bed around midnight. That is really late for me here.

Training House ROAM Training

Today the big thing was ROAM training at the training house. We watched a webcast on ROAM which stands for Rules of Air Management. Pretty much explaining how in the past we use to wait way too long before exiting a building. Everyone was trained it was time to leave a building when the low
air alarm sounded. But what we need to do is already be exiting and walking out of the building just as the low air alarm sounded.

Then we went to our training house to do some training. We did some crawling around until we were running low of air, then we were going to get replaced by the next crew. During the crawling around we were searching for missing people and we were putting out pretend fire. We also had to keep track of our air and pay attention to how it is going.

I felt like I could have done a lot better. When it was all said and done I felt like I didn’t do a very good job inside of the house. I hope that with some more training I will feel better about my performance.

Monday Night OTEP Training

Today was pretty busy with training, work, calls, we didn’t have any down time before it was time for Monday Night Training. I was excited for training tonight because I was going to get to attend OTEP with the reserves. I still feel like I am part of the group, however, at the same time I don’t feel like I am part of them anymore.

I really don’t know where I stand with everything. I don’t know if I will be a reserve again or not. I don’t know. Part of me hopes that I get to be a reserve again for another month of two just to sort of have a time period where I know what is coming and I have a chance to say goodbye in a less abrupt way.

What would be interesting though is how the guys on my old shift would feel about me coming back. Specifically, the guys involved in that stuff I wrote about from about a month ago. I figure if I do come back I will go to each one of those guys and talk with them and let them know that if they would not be comfortable working on the crew anymore that I would understand and that I would help them get to a different crew. Or maybe I just wouldn’t be made a crew leader and it would all be a moot point.

But for anyone who knows me I am so forgiving, even when I have been greatly wronged by someone, that it probably will not be a problem. I think I am pretty good about keeping work and private life separated and that allows me to work with people who I sometimes have a problem with personally.

The End of an Era

I started out this morning with doing the cooking for breakfast for the football game. I really was hoping that I would be the one working the game on the field. The Cougs are playing USC. As it turned out I was working the field. I was so excited about that fact.

After breakfast we had the briefing and then made our way to the field. It was neat to be down on the field. As the game went on it was clear the Cougs were in big trouble. It has been two-hundred-and-eighty games since the Cougs have been shut out. That goes back to the Eight-Four season. But the Cougs couldn’t get it across mid-field let alone coming close to scoring any points.

As the game went into the second half I was getting nervous abut the streak. By the time we were in the fourth quarter I was starting to think it wouldn’t happen. I was thinking the streak would be over. And sure enough, the Cougs were shutout. I was so mad. It was stupid to play a QB that was hurt to the point that you didn’t do anything that could possibly hurt him. If he is so hurt why put him in? We have a bad season. The only thing we had going was the shutout streak and that was let go. I am so mad about it. It is incredible.

I didn’t want to do much of anything for the rest of the night. We got one call that we took. It was a combative drunk. I had some fun with that. There was yet another fall from a high place tonight. But that was not a call that we took. It was the other station. The night over all was pretty quiet.

Fire Training

I spent a fair amount of the day doing fire training. During the day we went over some stuff with the PL and setting it up. Using it to get out the window and off the roof of buildings. There was some good information included in the training.

Later on back at the station I worked on my engineer training some more. I am rewriting all my questions in the form of sentences. I am going to then be able to review the questions like it was a book. I hope to use that to help me study and score very high on the test.

Following the work on the engineer stuff I decided to go to bed. I was pretty tired and it seemed like a good idea at the time.

Getting New Boots

When I got up this morning I felt very rested. More rested than I have felt in weeks. I decided to send a text message to Brandon. He was working grave at the PD and he was up all night, so I thought I would tease him. He hit me back and suggested a breakfast at Tam’s. I said that would be good. We had an early morning fire alarm. We followed up the fire alarm with a second medical call. Due to the length of time we worked past eight o’clock, BKoe was too tired and went to bed. I was disappointed.

I decided that I would go to Spokane and get a pair of boots from one of the places up there. I called Ryan and we were going to meet up for lunch while I was up there. I called Reiber and got his advice about boots. He suggested that I go to Nicks.

I met up with Ryan at a place called David’s. We got some pizza and talked about web hosting and web sites. I went to Nick’s from there and tried on a couple different pairs of boots. I ordered some boots. They will be around five hundred bucks when it is all said and done.

On the way back to Pullman I called the station and I found out they were going to be doing a transfer to Spokane. I told VanNess that I would like to do it. He said he needs to get one more person to do it, that it may not happen. But I had to stop by the station anyway. So I stopped in and talked to the guys there. I found out we would not be doing the transfer. So I went home.

Later I got a call about another transfer and someone else had called in saying that he was available. So we ended up coming in. But do to mix ups on the other end we waited around for nearly two hours until it was settled. I was staying at the station to keep the staffing levels to the minimum. We ended up running two calls right at the end of my night. I ended up going for almost eight hours.

A Nice Little Run with the Sheriff

I worked the ambulance today. We were doing hydrants for the afternoon when we got dispatched on a confirmed structure fire in the CUB. When we got there it was out, but there was water damage we dealt with. I also had to get to Colfax for training. On our way back to the station from this call we got toned out to Palouse. But the captain send a second ambulance because I had to get going.

We got back to the station and I headed to Colfax. It started with the Sheriff lining us up. He questioned us about different things that we went over on the first day. Anything we didn’t get correct we had to do push ups. After doing over fifty push ups we went on a run outside. The run outside included three stops along the way to do push ups. The run wasn’t too bad, but I was a little tired at times.

When that was done we had the chaplain talking to us about his side of things and what he does and how he helps. The class was done quickly that night and I was able to get back to the station at an early hour.

Long Busy Day and Night

Working at the fire department today I expected that we would do our weekly rig checks on the ambulances, have a community breakfast, and then I would work on my engineer workbook. What really happened was much different. Due to calls everything got thrown around.

We started by having the guys from the Deuce come down. They brought some food. We did our morning chores and started to make breakfast. I helped with the apple pealing. We were really getting the cooking underway. It was looking good and I was hungry. But before we could sit down and eat I was called away on the ambulance for someone who was hurt.

By the time we were done breakfast was done and they were working on the ambulance checks. I restocked the ambulance and the medic and I went in to eat before we helped with the rig checks.

We were not done eating when we got called for something else. I had to get up and walk away from my breakfast/lunch by the time I was eating it. We dealt with the call and were at the hospital. As we were close to leaving we got called to an unknown injury accident. On the way we were upgraded to a delta injury accident on a residential street in Pullman. We got on scene and transported two of the people.

By the time we were done with those two calls I got back to restock the ambulance again and finish my breakfast. But now it was time to start to worry about getting dinner ready. My breakfast took about six hours to have from start to finish.

I took the medic to the Deuce to pick up a couple things he had there. We got some stuff for dinner to go with the meatloaf and went to the station. I started on the weekly rig checks on my ambulance. The others had been completed so it was the only one that needed to be done. As I got going others came out to help when they had dinner cooking. I was able to get it almost completed before dinner, but not quite.

I sat down for dinner with the other guys. It was very good. Mashed potatoes and gravy with meatloaf. Following dinner I cleaned up the plates and dishes. I turned on the Cougar game. They were in the game against UCLA. I was watching the game for a while. Then I went to the training room and turned on the game there. I also grabbed the photoboard to update it. We had a big change up with where everyone was working so I had to update the board to show those changes.

I went to the bay to turn off the lights and I saw the Ambulance Thirty-Five book. I was going to put it away when I realized I didn’t have a weekly check sheet completed for it. So I pulled one out and started to work through the engine fluid checks and filling out the form.

One of the reserves who was working the volleyball game came through to put away the equipment that he used. I stopped and talked to him for a few minutes. We talked about the other night that we went out as well as the Cougar volleyball game we worked. We are hoping we will get a chance to go out with the old reserves again on Apple Cup in a couple weeks.

I went back to my bedroom after that was done and continued to watch the Cougar game. But the Cougs were losing and they were not able to get more than a single fieldgoal. They ended up losing by twenty-five points. I watch some TV for a little bit then I decided to go to sleep.

It had been quiet more of the evening. But by a little after eleven we started to get called out and we ran eight calls over the next four five hours. We made it back to the station once. I was able to get restocked and started to make entries into the log book when we got called out for a second set of runs. It was a busy night. I finally got to bed for real around four in the morning.

Goodbye to Patti

Today was the last shift with the guys who had been on the shift since I started working it. We were having several people rotate. I am staying, but we lost two guys and are getting two other guys.

I finally completed teaching the CPR class to the guys. It had been delayed several times due to calls interrupting the scheduled class time.

As a last meal we went to the Deuce and had ribs for dinner. It was great. I then went to Colfax to have the coroner’s meeting and the going away dinner for Patti. We talked about some of the old times and got our schedule set up for next month. I am pretty much working every weekend day except for two of them.

Mock Train Crash

This morning when I got off work at the fire department I went to Colfax for a mock scene. It started out with a train vs car crash with alcohol involved. It was for the Colfax High students. We started with an assembly. Then to the scene. I was on the ambulance. During the scenario we got a real patient. I was the attendant. That took me out of the rest of the mock scene.

Following my call we went back to the scene. It was cleaned up. We all had lunch and prepared for the hazmat portion of the event. I set up the computer items and walked the Colfax people through how the system worked. We went to a train car to see how some of the tools we have work on the train car. That was nice to get a chance to see how the tools worked. We cleaned up and headed back to Pullman.

I was meeting up with Brandon and Kevin. We went to see a movie in Pullman. We saw Eagle Eye. It was an alright movie. When it was done we went to my place and played some games that Brandon had before Kevin had to leave. I went to bed a little while later because I had to work in the morning.

Last Shift with Bob

Today is my last shift working with Bob as a medic on my shift. He is going to be going to a different shift. I like working with Bob. We get along well. I have a good time working with him.

The day today was very quiet over all however. We did our normal daily things including doing hydrants. We had a call at the CUB for a fire alarm and we were first on scene.

In the morning we got a call to keep the string of the “six o’clock in the morning calls.” It was really close to quitting time, but we got it. That was the final run we had together, at least for now.

Outside the Park Homerun

Today was pretty busy for the most part. I got up and went to station one for the reserve testing. I got to drive the PL to the tower and back. I helped to set up everything. I also was an evaluator. I followed about seven of the people through their testing to keep time and make sure they did everything they were supposed to during the test. We were done after about five hours.

I was invited to My Office by two of the other career guys. We had some lunch and a couple pitchers of beer. We talked about a various number of things. One of the subjects that came up was about me. One guy has known since he was a reserve with me years ago. The other guy was a newer fire medic. I didn’t know he knew. But when I made a cryptic reference to the guy who knew, the other one acknowledged that he did know about me.

I asked how he knew. He said he over heard something about six months ago. He said it didn’t surprise him, but he didn’t care either. He has been a very nice guy to work with and I have always gotten along with him. I asked why he wasn’t surprised. He said it is because I am such a nice guy.

Following the time at the bar I went to my house to get into my softball uniform and went to the Valley Road Playfields for the games. I ended up pitching both games and did just fine while pitching. I had one ball hit back right at me in the second game and it hit my right on my cup. Good thing I had one.

Hitting was good for me. I had an over-the-fence homerun in the first game. It was the difference in the game. It was a two run shot. I took a pitch that was inside and up. I swung away and it just flew. I knew there was a good chance that it would go out when I hit it.

We lost the second game because no one could hit and all of our defensive players made an error. It was sucky.

Ryan and I got some dinner from Cougar Country and went back to my house to watch the Simpsons and Family Guy. After Ryan left I worked on my Town Crier column.

Working Fire Hydrants

Today while working Bob and I spent a lot of the afternoon and some of the morning work on fire hydrants. We also got a dinner supplied by someone working over time. We had to go to a fraternity to do a fire safety talk with the members. It was a pretty quiet night over all. We did get one call where there was an unattended fire. The reserves used their fire extinguisher. We helped them get it refilled at the station following their call.

Calls Cancell CPR Training

Today I was going to do my CPR class with the guys again, but due to calls and other things we ended up not having time to do the class.

I spent the evening hours working on my engineer book. I need to study in order to get ready to take a test. I also need more drive time on some of the rigs so I can do my tests on those and become an engineer again.

Long OT Shift

After I got off work this morning I went to Colfax. I had to touch base with Hamilton about my background. I found out if I can get Mercer Island to release my polygraph results I will not have to drive to Spokane to do it again. I called over there to find out if they could do that. I also spoke to my doctor about the physical. I should be getting that in writing so I will not have to do a second physical in two weeks.

After that was all done I was going to go work out. My plan was to wait until around three. But I was out and about. I figured if I went around noon I could get it done and that way I wouldn’t miss it for some reason. It was good I did.

I got the work out completed. I had been shooting hoops when I got a phone call from the chief. He needed someone to work an overtime shift at the Deuce. I was higher on the list and I picked it up. It turned out to be just over eighteen hours of overtime. That is nice to pick up.

We had a couple calls through out the night. Nothing real major. There was a two-inch gas line that was damaged during some construction. Gas was leaking. We stood by for until Avista got it taken care of.

Later in the evening we watched Three-Hundred and we also got one more call for a fire alarm. It was a pretty uneventful night over all.

No Calls

Today is the first day since I have gone to shift work that we went call-less. It was a nice change of pace. We spent this morning going over the engines and running some pump tests.

The afternoon I finished up my engineer book. Now it is time to study it before I do my test with Brown. Once the test is done I will only have to finish drive and pump time on Engine Thirty-Two and the PL. Then I will work on being an operator of PL. Then I will be totally done with the engineer stuff. That is something I have been working on doing really hard.

First Cougar Win

After the test was done at the SO I went home and cleaned up. I went to the fire station to help make lunch. I was the griller. I cooked up all the hamburgers for everyone. I spent a while working the grill in the process.

The guy who found started the string of events recently was at the station. I told him I wanted to talk to him. After I was done eating I asked to chat with him in the bay. I started by saying “I heard you found something funny on the Internet”.

From there we talked about what had happened. I told him I was disappointed that he didn’t respect me enough to not make fun of me. I told him by giving that there person some grief about what he read also was making fun of me.

He said he was shocked to find out that I am gay. He didn’t know up to that point. He felt like he was left out because it seemed that everyone else knew. Even the guy he was giving a hard time knew. I was surprised to know about that. I didn’t know that he knew. I wonder how he found out. Sounded like it was a non-issue with him. He has known for a while it sounds like. But this other guy didn’t seem to know why I was upset about the whole thing. I am not sure after we were done talking that he knew. I asked him if he would at least not tell anyone else.

It is not even that big of a deal that people find out that I am gay. It is not like I can stop people from finding out. Like I told this guy I don’t tell people. I let him know I actually only told one person at the FD that I am gay. They other found out from other means. Over time others find out. Most of the time people have known for a long time before I find out that they knew.

I also let him know that I don’t like how people self-censor when they know. He said that he wished he had known because he had made some comments in the past that he felt bad about now that he knows I am gay. I said that is the point. I don’t want people to not be who they are when I am around.

My position was working at station two today. I took my engineer book down there and worked hard on it. I am trying to get it done. I stayed there working on it until almost ten. That is when I was going to get released from working.

But we got a medical call. Following the medical call we got a fire call. I ended up working an extra hour.

The Cougs today were on TV. They looked good, but they were playing an easier team. We however lost the starting QB. Later on our backup QB was hit and he was taken off the field in an ambulance. Not a good situation.

Bad Turn at Two

This morning I was woken up with an EMS call outside of the city. By the time I was done working the call it was time to go home. I went off to the Rec Center to do some cardio. I have a test coming up on Saturday. With the looks of the way I am going right now I am afraid I will not be able to pass the test.

But as I have said before if it is meant to be it will happen. There is a chance it is not meant to be right now do to any number of reasons. It will not be clear right away, but if I don’t get it I have no doubt at some point in the future it will have been for the best.

I went to my softball game this evening. We played in Moscow. I ended up playing at second base. In the second inning there was a play that I tried to turn. But I didn’t square up my body and I threw very wide of first. About ten feet wide and I almost actually beaned the runner with the ball. Hitting-wise I only had a triple to the fence. I didn’t hit well besides that.

After the game Warren, Jesse, and I went to My Office. We had some chips and drinks. While there the “hottest guy in Pullman”, as Russell would say, walked in the bar. He sat a couple tables from us. Russell and I have been seeing him around Pullman for several years, I would have to think he is a Senior this year. This is the first time this year I have seen him.

CPR Class Cancelled

I was going to teach CPR today to my shift. Before that was to start several of us played basketball. The sun is right behind the hoop and I had a hard time seeing. I finally got some sunglasses and that really didn’t help me play, only helped my eyes from getting killed by the sun. My shooting was horrible.

I set up for the CPR class after shooting hoops. We got through the first hour but it was time to break for lunch. Drew bought pizza because he was working an OT shift.

As lunch was coming to a close we got called out. Soon we were getting called out to other things. Before long we cancelled the rest of the class because no one was around to teach it to.

Close to five we got our class B’s on and went to the Kappa Delta’s house. The women invited us up for dinner. We all sat at different tables. The women ate with us asking questions. Then we had a time to introduce ourselves to the rest of the house and they asked some more questions.

On the way back from dinner I stopped to get some pie. I hit a curb with the tire of the ambulance and I had to buy some pie.

Three for Three

I went into the fire station to participate in the new station committee. Following that I was waiting a while to speak with Chief Brown. As it was getting close to noon I decided to go home and get lunch. Just as lunch was getting done I heard them call for someone to do a transfer to Palouse. I called in for that.

We got to the hospital and found out we were delayed one hour. I worked on some stuff for my CPR class that I am teaching tomorrow to my shift. We did the transfer. I was in the back of the ambulance. When it was all said and done the whole thing took more than four hours. Chuck did the transfer with me and we talked some politics. We talked about being gay and it being out at the fire department. I think most of the guys at PFD know. I don’t tell people, but I think others make it know. For the most part I think the newer reserves are in the dark about it. Or at least most of there were in the dark about it.

I went to a softball game in the evening. I was the EH. I hit the ball well. I went three for three. One of them bounced badly and I was running hard. I got to third, but I had to slide. We won the game and I went to the fire department for training.

I was hoping to talk with the guy that saw the blog. But he wasn’t there tonight. I have been waiting to get a chance to speak to him. I have a couple things I would like to let him know. I also want to find out who it was that he told. The other guy never said anything to me at all through out the night. I was also ignored by one other guy. I am not sure if that was on purpose or not.

I have been keeping a low profile with the reserves right now. I am not sure who knows and who doesn’t. More importantly I don’t know who knows the whole story or part of it. I have been letting them come to me and talk. If they talk to me first then I figure all is good with them. Several of them talked to me so that is good. But I am not sure about two of them who were there plus the one who wasn’t. Only time will tell.

Second Marine Patrol Duty of the Year

I got to the station and got ready for marine patrol. I was working with the same guy as yesterday. I also spent most of the day on the boat with Dearth. It has been great working with him. He has taught me a lot over the weekend. We started by fueling the boats.

We cruised all over the lake working on stopping people and doing boat safety inspections. I also got to drive the boat around a little bit in one of the coves. I was practicing using only the engines to move the boat around. We were telling everyone in the area they couldn’t anchor in. So I drove from boat to boat so we could tell them.

I left from the marine patrol and came straight back here. It would have been a day that I would be working but I was on an Ollie day. We were dispatched to a call and a callback was done. I came in for the call back. Following that callback I was leaving when I got called back again right away. I ended up getting a couple hours of overtime this evening when I got back.

Another Busy Night

This is not something I would normally put into words but it really made me laugh hard. I was doing rig checks in the morning. I was in our first out ambulance and I let loose with a little gassiness. I heard someone coming so I stepped out and closed the door so the odor wouldn’t get out there.

About ten minutes later my partner opened the door and said “I smells really bad in there.” I didn’t say anything. Soon he had the back door open trying to air it out. Before long he grabbed a mop and mopped out the back of the ambulance thinking it was something in there. It made it smell better, but I started to laugh my head off.

In the afternoon a rider from Colfax Fire came. She was assigned to my ambulance. It was a quiet afternoon and evening. We went to the store and got food for dinner. It was a very good dinner. We were there until eleven o’clock. Finally the rider was sent home. Within eighteen minutes we were sent on our first call.

It didn’t take long and we were running from call to call. I was able to get a quick hour of sleep. Then we had more calls. I got back to bed at five in the morning. I was only going to get one hour of sleep before I had to go on a road trip to Seattle.

Playing Games

I had to go to the softball managers meeting. I had the time wrong so I got there early. I went to the Bookie while I was at he CUB and looked at some books while I was wasting time. I found some Body for Life books. I want to buy them.

When I got home I played some games with Brandon. While playing I was texting back and forth with a guy who read my blog recently. I said I wanted to talk to him. He asked about what. He assumed it was due to the fact at the football game on Saturday he ignored me. He said he thought I wasn’t in a good mood and waned to leave me alone. I told him that wasn’t it. I want to get this conversation over.

One of the other things I have been working on is speaking up when something bothers me. As a cop I need to be able to speak up when something is happening and not worrying about what someone thinks. I need to be able to speak my mind. That is something that I am working on a lot. Some of that includes being able to confront someone.

Today would have been my two year anniversary as crew leader if I wasn’t working for the fire department as a full-timer. I still miss some aspects of being a reserve.

Lunch with a Commissioner

This morning I was fasting for a blood draw that was taking place this morning for my annual physical. I went to the Palouse Medical office for the blood draw. Following the blood draw I went home and had breakfast.

I went to the rec center to lift weights. But due to my hurt back I was being cautious of doing anything that would further hurt the back. I was able to get most of my work out done but there was some pain involved so I backed off when that happened.

When I got home I cleaned out the truck floor and vacuumed it. I was going to be picking up Tom to go to lunch at the Hilltop Restaurant. We were meeting with Jerry Finch a County Commissioner. We had a nice lunch with him talking about some of the political issues that are currently coming along as well as his pending re-election. I got a yard sign from him to put up next to my Rossi sign.

I had to go back to the doctors office after lunch for the rest of my physical. My eyes were good. My blood work came back good as well. I was a little worried about being overweight for years if that would have caused some problems. But it hasn’t… yet. With any hope my Body for Life work will make it so nothing does happen. The physical went well.

I had softball this evening in Moscow. I had been taking some pain pills through out the day in order to deal with the pain a little better. I went to the softball field and did what I could to hide the pain. I wasn’t able to make normal throws, but I was still able to throw the ball well. I did fine fielding the ball. My hard part was batting and then running with any great speed. But I did what I could.

We went out and took a fourteen run lead. But as the game went on we stopped hitting and the other team hit the ball well. They took over the lead. It was a battle, but they finally beat us twenty-six to twenty-five.

Ouch! There Goes the Back

I did my cardio today at the rec center. I failed the mile and a half yet again. But I was pretty close all the same. I need to have water with me for it so when my mouth gets some cotton mouth going on I can swig some water.

Afterwards I shot hoops waiting until I could sign up my team for softball. I have found out that I am hurting as far as players go. I am hitting the free agent market looking for some players to pick up. I have found three so far. With one more I am on the fence about. The problem is that he is an first baseman and I am not sure we need one of those.

I was taking some laundry down stairs and I felt my back go out. I felt the pain start to get worse and worse. Sure enough I sent it into a spasm. So now I am hosed for the next couple days. The problem is that I have things I need to do over the next couple days. This really sucks.

I had HazMat training tonight. I was about ready to go when I saw an e-mail about a problem with the events calendar. The e-mails are not getting sent to Heston. So I looked into it and found it was a problem I created when I was testing the system after adding in new functionality. I was able to get that fixed.

HazMat training was pretty brief tonight. People noticed my walking and knew I was hurting, but I denied it. They knew though.

The hurting back is probably going to cause me a bit of a slow down on this current Body for Life run.

Weekend Work

Today is the first day where I worked a weekend where our rig checks were not interrupted by a call. We were able to work through the PL. I got to fly the stick. We also replaced a chain on the chainsaw and cleaned up the chainsaw really well.

I spent time working on my engineer book, but I didn’t get a lot done because I just didn’t have the energy that I normally do when working. I was able to get chapter five’s scenarios completed. That took some time to do.

We got two calls in the wee hours of the morning. I didn’t get a lot of sleep straight through because of that. But I did get some sleep.

I made my lean mean chili for everyone. They all liked it. That was good. I wasn’t sure how it would turn out, but it turned out really well.

Oh Crap

While at work I was called into the Chief’s office. I was not sure what was going on until he asked me to have a seat and close the door. I was worried about what I did. It is never good when an unscheduled meeting starts off like that. I was told that he was told that a reserve was uncomfortable with something on my facebook or MySpace page. He said he doesn’t pry into my personal life. He wants to keep our friendship, but he has to deal with this issue because it affects the fire department. I wasn’t sure what he was speaking of because I am careful about what I post on those mediums. I was asked to deal with it and possibly talk to the reserve in question.

After the meeting I went to facebook and MySpace to see if something was on there that I didn’t know about. With nothing found, I figured it must have been something in the blog. This has been written in for the last five years. There is a lot of stuff in it. So I started to try to find anything. I found one comment that was not written about anyone specific at all. No identifying information was given that would point to anyone either. But due to what I was told I figured that paragraph was causing the problem.

The last thing I wanted to do was cause some sort of problem. So I figured I would delete what was written just so it wouldn’t be out there anymore. I felt horrible sitting in the chief’s office when he was talking to me. I hate it when being gay is brought up with people I work with. I like to keep my personal life and work life in separate worlds.

I don’t know how mad the person is at me. I don’t know what it will be like to be around him. I don’t know what it will be like to be around the others that now know.

After taking care of the problem I wrote an E-mail to the person explaining that I am sorry that there was an uneasiness felt. I let him know that I am horribly embarrassed. I figured that I will lose his respect, but that is what I deserve.

It is frustrating that something that I wrote that was not attributed to anyone specific was used to make someone feel uneasy. But I cannot let that go. I had to delete it anyway. It will not take away what happened, but it will not be used in the future in the same way.

A Counting Shift Member

This morning it wasn’t supposed to be this way, but I was one of only four people on shift. A quick discussion was held and I was cleared to be a shift member. That means that I can count towards the staffing minimums and I am eligible to be on the overtime list and more. It was going to happen most likely on Friday. It just got moved up two days.

It was a little different. Now I am the driver on the ambulance today. And when we had calls I was the number two guy there. Helping the paramedic and doing what I needed to do. It is a bit of a different feeling.

We were pretty busy with normal shift duties and calls for service. I wanted to get some good sleep tonight, but we got some calls that interrupted that from happening.

I also worked to get next Wednesday off. The Bellevue company wants me to be here for a meeting with the potential buyers. I spoke with the chief and I said I was willing to go with a day without pay. Now I am set up to be in Seattle for a week and a day.

Working with the Reserves

This evening I was going to be teaching the reserves how to use the new timesheet. I spent some time getting an information sheet ready and setting up all the reserves with their own time log Excel workbook.

I went down after dinner to help with the training. They were split into groups doing different stations. One was my station. I walked them through how the sheet worked and answered any questions they had about it. It went pretty well.

Earlier in the night our dinner was put on delay because just before we were going to remove the burgers from the grill a call came in. We got back about an hour later and the food was cold. I heated up and it was still good, but I really was looking forward to a warm dinner.

Got a Yard Stick

I went to the jail to help out because they were only going to have two people there. I worked and did what I could to help out. They were testing for the list. Some of the people were coming in to be printed. I fingerprinted one of the people. Sgt asked me to create a schedule where we would have twelve hour shifts. That really won’t work, but I was able to make one with ten hour shifts for swings and graves.

I went to the fire station to get ready to do the Lentil Festival. I got a sandwich board set up with flyer’s for the reserve program. We were showing off the engine to people as they came by.

I took a walk around the area and I was able to pick up a couple things including a yo-yo and a free light bulb. Got some chili and a couple other freebies. I saw some people with yard sticks. I went to find where they were. When I found the booth with them they were out. They had just given the last one away. I was crushed.

Then someone walked up to us and said “there was a fireman looking for a yard stick”. I said I was. She then gave me one of the two she had. That was very nice.

Teaching First Aid

I was supposed to be on duty today, but I also had a first aid class scheduled for one of the city department. I ended up being told that rather than moving the class, that I could go teach it instead and then come back to work when I am done.

I went to City Hall and got the AV equipment set up and then did my class. It was the same department that I taught last year, it was just a different group of guys. We broke for lunch around the noon hour and we were done around four. The class went off without a problem.

Second Day on Shift

It was my first weekend shift so I was trying to figure out how everything works on weekends. We started doing rig checks the we got a call. It was followed by a second call out of town. When it was done I barely had gotten half way through my rig checks, but the guys at the station completed everything we hadn’t completed.

We had a breakfast together that was eaten closer to lunch do to the calls we had. After lunch was got called out to a car fire at Shopko. That turned out to be a pretty small event. We got it put out with a minimum amount of water. We got a couple more calls to finish off the night.

I spent my free time working on the engineer workbook that I have to get through to become an engineer again.

End of the First Shift Night

I got up with the alarm going off for a fire alarm. It was up in Thompson hall. It was the one where we had to climb and crawl in the attic to get to it. We got it reset. Just as we got back to the station we were sent back there. We checked the detector location. With no fire, we reset again and disabled that detector. As we were getting back to the station we got dispatched to another fire alarm elsewhere.

I got out there about thirty minutes late. I went home and changed to hit the rec center. I did my workout. While I was there a ten-six-seven was working out. It seemed like each place I went he was near by. It was nice scenery to work out to. What was funny is that his body didn’t fit his face so much. He was very muscular, but he face looked very young.

I worked on some of the videos from softball. I am putting together a video for each person. I am placing each clip with a person together and playing music in the background for it. It is taking a while but it is fun to do.

This evening I had HazMat training. I went to the fire station for the training. We were touring campus looking at the places that hold on to hazardous materials. We were seeing the locations and how the rooms are set up in terms of safety equipment and what not.