Letting in More People

October 28th, 2010

This morning started with got to Carlton’s funeral.  He had become suddenly ill.  After about two weeks he died.  He had been a Pullman cop and that is when I first met him.  Later when he came back from working for the U.N. overseas he got into doing his own home energy evaluation company.  We got together as he was in the process of starting the company and I talked to him about websites and about what he was thinking about for a website for his company. 

It was great to see several former Pullman police officers who served with him.  The fire department had great representation. 

I got home and started to work my SQL scripts while later I was going to head to the Coroner’s Office for our monthly meeting.  When I was at home I got an e-mail from the chief at the FD about one of the comments I had in a recent blog.  He opened a door of communication about my future with the fire department.  I went to the fire department to chat with him about what is going on. 

The problem I have is several years ago when I had gone to work for NU I left for about fourteen months.  When I came back I was told if I leave again I wouldn’t be able to come back.  Because of that and not knowing what my long term future holds at this job, I don’t want make waves anywhere.  I figured if I keep everything on the downlow and things go back to normal in December, then no harm no foul.  It is amazing how often information, even when it comes from the source, gets twisted and passed along incorrectly.  I figured by playing my cards close to my chest until I know what is going on there would be less confusion than having the situation always changing.

So I let the chief in on it.  I felt sort of bad after reading the wording I used in my original posting about “hiding it”.  I probably should have said it a little more accurately about what my goal was.  I hope the chief understands I don’t want to leave the fire department.  I hope he understood from the meeting that not even I know what is going to happen after December and I just didn’t want a lot of limbo.  He said he would keep my situation on the downlow.  He pointed out that putting it on a public blog makes the information available.  Most of the time I just assume that I don’t have a lot of readers outside of a couple friends.  But every now and again someone I know lets me know they saw my blog.  It is fun because a lot of times they like to read what I wrote and it strikes up a conversation. 

But bottomline I am still keeping my job situation on the downlow because I don’t want lots of misinformation floating around until after December when I know what is going on. 

After talking to the chief went home and got my uniform on and went to Colfax.  I had the coroner’s meeting.  We got November and December filled and we talked about a couple recent cases. 

I then went out on patrol with the county.  Matt came out with me on patrol.  So tonight I was just there to look pretty.  Pretty much I just double check things he does and I always watch out for safety issues.  Every person has their way of contacting, what they say, and how they do their thing, so I let Matt do his way.  But sometimes on technique, like when to radio that a car stop is taking place, I will give him some ideas to think about.  We were out until about two in the morning.  We made some stops, but it was relatively quiet tonight over all.

After I got home I did a couple things when my SQL script because it had died on an insert because of a primary key problem.  I worked to figure out what it was that caused that problem.  I coded to fix that one problem and then kicked off the script again.

First on a Double Fatal

July 16th, 2010

I was patrolling this afternoon. It was going to be a shorter day because I had to work the fire department this evening. I worked the Wawawai / One-Ninety-Four area for a while. It was slowish. I about just over an hour before I was going to check out of service. I figured I would go to Albion and work there for an hour.

As I was was traveling past the pumps on Twenty-Seven I heard my radio come to life. The dispatcher started to say “Dispatching Fire District Twelve, Pullman Ambulance, Delta Response…” I was thinking to myself that it was going to be in my general area because I was in the D-Twelve area. The dispatcher continued “… Injury accident Four-Six-Four-One Pullman-Albion Road.” I was just over a quarter mile away. I hit my lights and went to the scene. I checked out just seventeen seconds after going en route.

I was first on scene by a long shot. On my way the dispatcher said it was a motorcycle versus vehicle accident with obvious injuries. I didn’t know what was meant by that. I figured that it could be anything from a minor cut to something worse. When I got there I gave a size up. I knew it was very serious by the way people were standing around and by the way the scene presented itself to me.

I gave a size up and then I got out and checked out the injuries and gave an update for the ambulance. I grabbed my gloves and started to work in an EMS role. Once the ambulances showed up I did a face to face with them and went into cop mode. I met up with some of the other deputies who showed up.

At the Back of an AmbulanceStanding at the back of a Pullman Ambulance

I spent the rest of the time on the scene doing cop stuff. I helped with the measuring of the scene and finally helped get the road re-opened.

I went to the funeral home and met up with Pete and Annie. I took an opportunity to exam the injuries to better understand what had taken place. Because of the motorcycle wreck I was going to be last getting to the fire department. I had someone cover for me. It turned out he covered me the whole night.

I spent some more time on the road and helped picking up a runaway in the North park of the county.

A Week of Work

July 13th, 2010

This is part of a full week I spent in Colfax working and living in my RV. It starts on Tuesday July 13th and goes through Sunday July 18th, 2010.

The plan was to head down to Colfax in the early afternoon, but I got called in to do a transfer for PFD. I went on it with Chia. We hit Outback before we headed back to Pullman. It was a nice trip being able to hang out and chat with him on the way home.

I got my motorhome loaded and headed down to the fire station in Colfax. I had to be up at four in the morning to watch an inmate at the hospital. When I got to the fire station I got my motorhome set up and then went into the station and started to chat with Tim and Bryce. I let Tim know I would be responding on calls should any come in.

I went to bed only to have my alarm clock waking me up at half past four in the morning. I went to the hospital and waited around for four hours for the doctor to release the inmate. It was a long boring four hours. Actually, the first hour was not too bad as I was able to sit there and talk with Ross.

I went back to the fire station and started to work there. I worked with Jenny on driving the engine and getting familiar with the town and getting familiar with the engine. There were no calls while I was there.

Steve, Scott, Jenny, and I had lunch together. Then Jenny and I took the ladder truck outside and I flew the ladder on it. I left a little before four to work in the jail. It was a slower day in the jail. To the point where I wanted to go home early, but I don’t do that. I just pushed through the sleepiness.

When I was finally able to get to bed I was worried we would get a call because I was so tired. There was a call, but it was an ambulance call outside of the city, so I didn’t have to get up. That was good news for me.

When I finally got up on Thursday morning, I went in and worked with Tim. We did some more driving of the engine. But this time we went to several larger buildings with fire alarms to see where they are located. I also looked for the FDC’s on buildings. We had hamburgers for lunch from Rosauers.

After lunch I was trying to keep my energy level up, but I wasn’t much for getting into any big projects. I had to work at the jail again. It was a crazy busy day. I ended up working an extra hour. We had a hearing, two write-ups for hearings, and an uncooperative inmate. But the time I was done around eleven at night, I got out to my motorhome. I went to bed shortly after getting out to the motorhome. I wanted to hit the road early so I could get a full day on the road in order get a full day in before I had to be back to Pullman so I could work at PFD.

Friday morning started out and I looked for my patrol car. It wasn’t outside. It was out at the county shop. But I had no way to get to it. I was mad because I was told by Melcher that he was going to bring it back when he was done working. He used it to go get his patrol car. But he decided not to and it left me high and dry. I sent him a text and he said he would give me a ride out there in about an hour.

I got a ride out there by Curtis about ten minutes later. I left my phone in my motorhome so Melcher tried to text me and call me. I got my car and brought it to the office. I washed it and got it ready for the shift. I hit the road and went out Twenty-Six. I got some good speeds out there. I had one guy at thirty over. I was told by a trooper that he stopped the same person and wrote him a second ticket.

I got dispatched to a house alarm and went there with Dan. It turned out to be false. We went to lunch together. Then we parted ways. I went South for a while. But it was a little slow and it was getting closer to the time I was going to have to call it quits. I figured I had one hour. I was going to go to Albion and put in an hour there.

As I was driving on Twenty-Seven near the pumps I heard “Fire District Twelve, Pullman Ambulance, Delta response for an injury accident.” At this point I knew I would be in the general area. The dispatcher continued with the address of the wreck. It was very close to where I was. I actually was on scene seventeen second after I called en route to it. It took a total of thirty-two seconds from the time they started the dispatch to the time I was there.

Coming into it I didn’t know how bad it was going to be. I had heard there were injuries. They said there were obvious injuries. But that didn’t mean a lot to be because that could be a cut arm or something more. When I got there, what I saw I was not prepared for, but I knew it was bad.

Following the car accident I headed to the office. I had found coverage at the fire department. I wrote my report. While in the office a case was coming up. Several of us went to it together because of the chance the person might fight us.

It turned out to be a non-event. When that was done I headed back to the SO. That was the end of my night. I went to the mortohome and watched Rescue Me on my computer.

On Saturday morning I got back up and started another day on the road. It was a pretty slow day. I started with doing some traffic patrol. I also did an hour in Albion. We got called to a domestic in Uniontown. Scott and I went on that one. Scott was primary, but I was there a long time before he was. I started to handle the case and then caught him up once he got there. Once the bulk of it was over I cleared and did some more traffic. I wrote one ticket for sixteen over.

It was a slowish night. It was getting late when we went to a call for a runaway who claimed he would run from the cops. But he never ran from us. We hung out in Rosalia for about an hour shooting the breeze and talking shop.

I worked the road for a couple more hours, but it was still slow. I got one more stop before I finally went to the SO and went out of service for the night.

Sunday morning was going to be my final day in Colfax for this stretch because I was going to have to be in Pullman in the evening. I walked to Rosauers for breakfast then got my car and hit the road. I got several stops on Twenty-Six. People who were lying to me about things were making me mad so I started to write them tickets and wrote warnings to those who were honest with me.

I don’t write many people, but I was getting so sick of being lied to. I only worked the road for about five and a half hours. I had lunch with Matt, Ricky, and Welter from WSU. I worked my way back to Colfax after lunch. I worked to make a couple more stops before calling it a night.

I grabbed my motorhome and went back home. I unloaded the motorhome and then went to the fire station. There were some people on OT so they made dinner. They were eating at the Deuce. They invited me to have some dinner with them. I had also bought some M&Ms from Dismores to have during rig checks.

It was only Strom and I at rig checks. It took a while to get them all done, but it wasn’t too bad.

Indian Jail Birthday Theme

May 21st, 2010

This evening I headed down to Eddy’s for the goodbye party for Ken. We were having dinner and dessert. We had some stories about Ken and he told us about the latest in his life and his family. Pete said we were going to frame an on-call schedule for Ken, but we couldn’t find one that he was on. Everyone started to crack up. That was a good roast. At the end of the meeting we talked about my situation at Pullman Fire. Annie and I spoke for a while longer outside. She is such a super great person. I love working with her. She said that when the time comes and Pete retires she would love to see me become the next coroner. She said she would help me in any way she could to help me do that.

Then I headed up to Zeppoz to hang out with Mitzel at his birthday party. It was his fortieth. The theme is a jail theme. People dressed in orange. They got Mitzel black and white stripes to wear. We laughed and jokes about the theme. I had a chance to talk with several people from the gang while I was there. It was nice to get a chance to hang out with everyone. I left around eleven to get home so I could get up early for softball tomorrow.

A Day at Colfax Fire

April 22nd, 2010

After getting packed I headed down to Colfax to work at the fire station. I made it on one call that came in while I was there. I was pretty tired so I went into my rig. Turned on my pager and went to sleep. I got about two hours of sleep before I had to be up for the meeting at the coroner’s office.

I got up just after five. I went to pick up the pizza. Then went to the coroners office. We had some dinner and discussed our cases from the last couple weeks.

I left Colfax to head to Seattle for training tomorrow. It was not that bad of a drive. The roads were pretty clear and I was able to cruise along. When I got home I watched some TV. I watched Trauma Life in the ER. Following that was a show called Critical Hour. It follows three or four cases along the length of the episode. One person they followed, I was watching. I was waiting for something to come of it. It was a football player who got hurt. When it was all done, they found nothing wrong and he was fine. It made me mad to watch the whole thing and have nothing come of it. It was like the story of Green Golfballs to me.

No First Class Board

January 28th, 2010

This afternoon I went to the fire station and met with the new station committee about getting some plans created for a new fire station. We talked about the things we needed and sizes they need to be. There is a student from WSU who is going to help us with the plan.

I went home and got my uniform on. I went to the SO. I was going to work with Ross tonight. I also had a coroner’s meeting and the plan was to have the first class board. The coroner’s meeting was shorter than normal. We covered our on call schedule. We also covered some stuff with the chaplain.

I went to the report writing room and waited for Cooper to show up for the oral board. But he was dealing with other issues on the road. While waiting a call for service came in. I was told to go handle it by the sergeant. It was a transport from the hospital to the person’s home. I took care of that.

When I got back to the station Cooper asked if I was done for the night. I said no. He said then get Ross and go get him an arrested. He said if I had to go to Pullman to get an MIP to do it. We headed into Pullman and ran around looking for something. We were not able to find anything. We made a lot of stops, but there was not a lot of people moving around.

We ended the night with a stop. I could smell intoxicants. We ended up doing SFST’s and the person did fine. I cut the person loose and we left Pullman. We tried hard, but were not able to find anything.

Double Autopsy Day

January 18th, 2010

I went to the funeral home for an autopsy at two. After ours was done I sat in on one from Latah County. So I had a chance to see two. One was a natural death then other was a GSW. It is always good to see those to learn. We get so few that every chance to see one is good.

When I was done with the autopsy I went home and started to work on making some Lean Mean Chili. It was very good. I think I seasoned it perfectly. I added some garlic and Johnny’s this time around.

I spent the evening watching some TV and surfing the net looking for motherboards for my old computer.

Christmas Vacation is Over

December 29th, 2009

This morning I got my rig packed and got ready to drive to Pullman. I got to Colfax around three in the afternoon. I worked on the reserve hours for the sheriff’s office. I went to Colfax Fire and hung out there for a while. Scott and I talked for a while about D-Twelve getting a Colfax Ambulance.

Later we had a coroner’s meeting. Anna brought in a cake for my birthday. We went over some cases and got our coverage set up for the month of January. It was a normal two hour meeting.

When I got home I downloaded a program for my cellphone that turns it into a wireless hotspot. That way I can use my laptop when I am not at home nor near other hotspots. I hope to get it set up to use while I am patrolling.

Movie Night: The Hangover

December 22nd, 2009

I was supposed to be on my way to Renton today, but due to the coroner’s case last night I stayed in town an extra day. I worked the coroner’s case for part of the day. I went to Moscow and got a Christmas gift for BKoe. I also got myself a copy of the movie the Hangover.

I was asked by Reed to cover him on the fire department. So I invited Melcher, Rose, and Gecas over to watch the movie with me at my place. So it was an impromptu movie night. The guys came over and we watched the movie.

The only calls we got were all for a fire alarm at the Village Centre Theatres. We were dispatched there three times tonight. We only ended up responding once, but we kept getting toned out and waking me up.

Three Hats Today

December 21st, 2009

This morning Melcher and I hit the road. I was working out there until five o’clock. I am on call for the fire department starting at six. We hit the road and ran some traffic on twenty-six. We met up with BKoe, KStew, and Monte for lunch at Cougar Country. We ran a fresh arrest to Colfax for BKoe. Then we went north and ran more traffic. We made a couple stops along the way. We got back to the station and I was out of there around five. I got to the station and rig checks were done.

Robinson and I hung out at the station for a couple hours. But we didn’t have any calls while we were there. I went home and I was online chatting with someone on facebook when a call came in for an injured person with blood. As I got to the station I heard the person wasn’t breathing and was cold. We got cancelled quickly as it turned out the person was dead.

It wasn’t very long before I went to the scene as a coroner. I told Pete that I was on call for the fire department and I might need to leave if a call came in. I worked the case for a couple hours on scene and then at the funeral home. After I was done with the funeral home the tones went out for a fire alarm. I went to the station and we headed out on it. We were cancelled nearly right away. That was all we had for calls, but because of the coroner’s case I didn’t get to bed until late.

Happy Twenty-Fifth Pritch

December 16th, 2009

This morning we had a critique for one of the two recent fires at Terrace Estates. It really didn’t bring out a lot other than some communication issues and dealing with the cold.

Later on I had a transfer in the city with Chuck. I got a rescue crew to come along to help us with lifting. It was a round trip to the hospital and back to her residence.

After the transfer I had some time before I had to head off to the Rimrock Search critique. On the way down I called Chia to see what he was doing on Friday. He then said they were out with Pritch at Zeppoz for his birthday. They said I needed to come. But because I am going to the critique and on call I didn’t think I would make it out.

I was near Zeppoz when that conversation took place. I popped into Zeppoz and wished Blake a happy birthday. I said hello to the other guys who were there before hitting the road for Colton.

This critique was a lot more involved than the one from this morning. We started with a slide show the Sheriff put together. Then they talked about how the search was started. Then on to things that went well. That was pretty brief. Then we talked about things that didn’t go well. There was a bit of a longer list.

Several of the things they came out with were valid. One was communication problems. One was not having an ambulance or a visible designated EMS team for the searchers. Then there were a couple things that caused some grief that I was involved in. One was the use of the Spokane mountain rescue team to help with the recovery. I spoke up as to what my thoughts were. Pretty much when we are in recovery mode, there is no hurry and safety is of the utmost importance. Then there was one issue I brought up where I blocked the only pathway to get people out of the area where they searched. I got committed and I couldn’t move. That caused some people to get upset because they wanted to get out of there and they were forced to wait. I explained what my mistake was and how I intended to correct it in the future. Pretty much, it was, me being the last unit out of an area like that.

When the critique was over with I think people were overall happy with the command and the decisions made. We learned a little.

I came back to Pullman. I called up another guy on the fire department to see if he would cover for me so I could go out with the guys. I was able to get coverage. I went to the hill. I met up with the two Blakes, Chia, Chuck, Timmy, and Mully at the Coug. I had two beers while there.

Later we went to ValHalla for some more action. I didn’t drink anything there. Ross was working and we talked for a while before I made my way to the other guys. Chuck and I were talking about his upcoming promotion to Senior Firefighter. Chia was getting ready to go so we said goodbye to him.

After we left there we went to Mike’s. While at Mike’s a guy who Ben introduced me to a couple weekends ago was there. He saw me and came over to say hello and wish me a happy birthday. He is ten-six-seven and a very nice person. I enjoyed playing pool with him when we were at Mike’s before. He told me to remember him when it came to softball season this Spring. I told him I would for sure.

Blake, Chuck, and I went to TLD after we left Mike’s. We got a burrito to go. I went home and went to bed.

Rimrock Search Day Two

December 14th, 2009

I came because of what Trevor said… See you tomorrow. After he said that I felt I had to be there. I got up and put on my stuff. I was bundled up well. I got to the command post at seven-thirty. There were more then one hundred people there. They were getting set up in groups to search specific areas. There was a morning briefing then the group leaders got a briefing and were sent out. There were a couple helicopters there as well.

It wasn’t very long after the teams started to go out that a hit had been made. There was a ton of radio traffic. I knew they were on to something. Then the Sheriff called me into the command vehicle. I heard him talking to someone on the phone as he was giving them instructions to find Pete. That is when I knew they found the hunter. That was not good news, because if they are looking for Pete that meant he had died.

I went sent in as the coroner. I got to the area where he was found. He was about two-hundred-and-fifty yards below the hillside from me. The teams worked to get him back up. It was a long process. After we got to the top the searchers got into two lines and we drove between them as they paid their respects.

There was a lot happening around the basecamp. People were asking how I was doing. They got me some food. I went to Adam. We shook hands and did a hug. I thanked him for helping me out. I said my condolences to Trevor. We also shook hands and hugged. I was stopped by a family member who gave me a hug and thanked me for the work I had done.

Then it was off to the funeral home for me. I worked with Pete for a couple hours to figure out what happened. I left around four to go home and get cleaned up before I was on call for the fire department. I got some dinner and went to the station to eat it before doing our daily rig checks and Monday night training.

It was a long couple days for me with the fire department and the searching. It was a sad outcome. It was the first time I had been part of something like that. It was a huge incident and it was great to see everyone who came out to volunteer their time to help search.

I started out the day as a sheriff, then changed to a coroner, and I ended the day as a firefighter.

Feels like the Weekend

November 27th, 2009

I received several responses from people about the messages I sent out to everyone. Several people responded thanking me for the messages and letting me know they felt the same way. I had stopped by the Deuce and John was there. He called me over and shook my hand. He thought what I said to him was very nice.

This afternoon I had a meeting with the other coroner’s to discuss cases that we have done recently as well as covering our schedule. Both cases were mine with the help of Anna.

The meeting lasted a couple hours in all covering the cases and a couple other procedural issues that Pete wanted to cover. When it was done I went into the SO and talked with Jordan for a little while before going home.

I am the on-call coroner for half of today, so I didn’t get into anything that would keep me too busy.

I was totally confused about the day of the week. It felt like a weekend day, but instead it was a Friday.

I went to the store and got some stuff to make Fanny Farmer Fudge as well as some of the orange dessert. I made up both of those things.

Getting Sick

November 23rd, 2009

It sucks but I am getting a little sick. I have a cough and a running nose. I don’t like to be sick. It doesn’t stop me, just makes me a little miserable.

I completed my coroner’s report for the suicide I worked. It was the longest report I have done to date. In total it was five pages. I think it would have been preventable if one person had the whole picture. It was tragic.

I went to My Office this evening and hung out with CBass and BKoe. Richards from the FD came down as well. We watched MNF. Jeff, the owner of My Office, was there and we all talked. Jeff shared some funny stories about somethings that happened with in here in Pullman.

Richards and I played pool. We played about five games. I won three of them. I shot pool very sharp when we started, but I got worse as the night went on. I am not sure why.

Long Term Soluntion, Short Term Problem

November 20th, 2009

Here it is again. This morning the pager goes off for a Bravo response, for a possible suicide in Pullman. I went to the station. It was pretty clear early on that it was done with a gun and the person was probably not going to be alive when people got there. I waited around the station until the ambulance crew returned. I found that it was a young male who ended it all.

I was tapped to investigate the death. Due to the circumstances surrounding the death. I went to the scene. It was not pleasant. The reason for the death, the method of the death, and the outcome all are frustrating to me. I didn’t know this person and I probably never would have. But due to the event, now I do know who he is. I have learned a little about it. I have to shake my head at the waste of a perfectly good life. I suppose one could argue with me about this being a perfectly good life. One who is perfectly good probably wouldn’t kill himself.

This bring me back to a suicide that I wrote about some time ago. It was another young male in Pullman who decided to end it all. The effects that it has on the survivors are not very good. I have heard many people talk about the people who commit suicide as being weak. They are selfish. Those comments are from people who don’t fully understand the ins and outs of the situation. It is a simplistic and sarcastic answer to something that is causing someone a great deal of pain.

Unlike people who make such comments, they don’t investigate those deaths. They don’t get to know what is going on in that person’s life. They don’t really understand the situation. They cannot feel what that person is feeling and they could not ever really get into the mindset of the person who is at the point where they feel like killing themselves is the only option they have. That is utter loss of all hope. The tough thing about suicide is many times with the proper help and counseling those lives could be saved.

Jon and the boys were coming to town today. I had planned on getting some stuff done around the house before they came, but due to the suicide I spent the whole day doing the investigation. Jon got to town. I had a chance to see him for a couple minutes and then I had to leave again to complete the investigation.

When I was done I went to Cougar Country to meet with Jon and the boys. We then went to see the movie Twenty-Twelve. Logan wanted to see it. It was alright. I hadn’t planned on seeing it myself, but because Jon and the boys were going, I decided to go along.

When we got back I started to work on the write up for the suicide. It is going to be a really long write up.

Another Pullman Case

October 25th, 2009

I heard my scanner talking about an echo response for a person who was down. So I updated the on call coroner to give her a heads up. I also told her I was available to assist if she wanted it. It took a while from the time the ambulance cleared to when we were called in to the scene.

It was interesting due to the recent history and long term history of the person. Nothing was pointing directly to the cause, but there were a couple things told to us by neighbors that we needed to look into.

When we were done on the scene we went to the funeral home. I waited until I was asked to look at things before doing anything. The investigation took about five hours of the day. I didn’t get to watch football like I had planned, but that is okay.

Heading Back to Pullman

October 22nd, 2009

After spending days resting and not doing much of anything I headed back to Pullman. I first went to my doctor appointment. I got a note saying I could go back to work starting on November Twelfth. I was also told I only need to wear the boot when I find it necessary for the pain.

I went to Colfax and I arrived a couple hours before the coroner’s training. The training itself was a typical length of time. We covered several cases and got the schedule coverage taken care of.

When I was getting ready to leave I stopped by the front office. Dan asked how I was doing. I was chatting with him about that. Then he asked if I was the on-call coroner. I told him I wasn’t. He said they deputies are out looking for a possible suicidal person. I went to the office to let Pete know. Then I went back to the front office.

Before long the pager was going off for the suicide. Pete and I went to the scene. It was a shotgun death. Those can be pretty damaging. We went to the funeral home and continued our investigation. But the time I got home it was nearly three in the morning. It was a long day when it was all set and done.

Good Service from Jim

September 24th, 2009

I went to put out the trash this morning for pickup. But I found they had already come by. But when I was outside I noticed my trash can was not in its normal place. i took a look and it was empty. I figured that Jim had done it. He works with me at Colfax Fire. I sent him a text and it turns out he had. I said thank you. Then I wrote a letter to his company to let them know how happy I am with his service.

I got a call about helping out with the fire extinguisher class. I got my uniform on and went to the fire station. We went to the tower and taught two classes. During the classes we let everyone fire off an extinguisher and practice putting out a fire that we would light up.

We got done and everything taken care of just in time for me to head to Colfax for the monthly Coroner’s meeting. The meeting was pretty short. But I helped Pete with some of the photos and we talked about upcoming work opportunities for me.

Two Losses in IM’s tonight

September 20th, 2009

The day started with working on my report for the coroner’s office. While there I saw Ron updated his station on facebook to say he had some chili on the stove and invited people over to watch football. I went over to his place and had some chili and watched football until just after one. Then I went to the SO to work on my case reports for my arrests this weekend as well as the tickets.

I got the reports done first and started to get the tickets written up. When Cooper got there he reviewed one of my reports and he had some suggestions and things that I left out that needed to be added in. But because it was close to game time I went home and got my softball uniform on.

Ryan came down from Spokane to play softball. We had about thirteen people show up, but we were missing a key outfielder. So I have to put our right-fielder into left field. We played a team that was hitting the ball well and was killing the outfield. At first they played deep and the balls dropped in. Later we were playing in and they started to hit some bombs. We were not hitting the ball well and quickly got way behind.

Bruce let me know they were using a USSSA bat which was illegal in ASA play. We brought it up, but it was very late in the game and the damage was done. They were mad at us and started to chip at us.

When the game was done they had one. We shook hands, but three guys from their team wouldn’t come out and shake our hands. They were still mad at us from last season when we knocked them out of the playoffs.

The second game the team was using an illegal bat. We brought it up, but the IM office was using an old list of illegal bats. They said the bat was okay to use. We let them know they were using an old list, but there wasn’t anything we could do about it.

We lost that game too. When the day was done I was disappointed that we lost both games. I also felt like we were being a bunch of whiners about the bats too. I thought the bat shouldn’t matter because we should have been hitting better than we had been anyway.

After the game Ryan and I went to Cougar Country to get some dinner and ate it at my place. We watched some TV and hung out talking about Ryan’s future job prospects.

At about midnight I went to the SO to complete my reports. After the re-write Cooper looked over it and said it was better. I got both completed and turned in. It was a little after two in the morning when I got home.

Coming out to Trailbuddy

September 16th, 2009

This afternoon I decided it was time to get my rig washed. It was all cleaned up and looking nice. I went to my bedroom when I heard my coroner’s pager beep. I was the guy on call and I forgot to carry my pager. I looked and the call was only about ten minutes old.

I called Whitcom and got sent out to a house near St. John. It took me about four hours to do the investigation. Due to the death my planned movie night had to get cancelled. That sucked.

A guy I knew back in the day found me on facebook recently. I always liked him. I thought he was a ten-six-seven, but back in those days I really tried to ignore my homosexual thoughts and I suppressed it as much as possible. It was back at that time that I had been with a girl. Unfortunately, that girl also was his girlfriend. We sort of had a love triangle going, but I was with the wrong person in the love triangle.

We had been writing back and forth lately, and I decided to come out to him. This is what I wrote to him:

It has been a long time since it happened, but I still feel bad about betraying your trust like I did.

This is sort of weird, but I was having internal struggles back when we knew each other. I tried to hide from who I was, who I knew I was, but I still knew that there was nothing I could do about it. I totally ignored it back then. I even tried to pretend that it wasn’t true. I sort of believed that I could wish it away. But it wasn’t possible. Even though I had been with a girl, I wasn’t physically attracted to her.

It wasn’t until I got older that I started to accept the fact that I am a gay man. I was very uncomfortable with it. I am still uncomfortable with it, but as time has gone on, I have gotten a little bit more comfortable. There was a time I wouldn’t even admit it to myself. Now I finally can admit it to myself and I can tell some people.

I am not even fully out to people. I haven’t told a lot of people. Most of my old friends are still in the dark about it. Even some of my newer friends are in the dark about it. It seems like most people I know tend to find out from other people. I have actually only outed myself to a relatively small number of people. You can count yourself as one of those people now.

He said that he was pretty surprised by my coming out to him. He said if I was worried about him passing judgment on me, that I shouldn’t worry because he will not do so.

Later I was looking at the site fmylife. It has all sorts of people who write about something that just sucks about their life. I saw this one and laughed very hard:

Today, I realized that when my new roommate said we could both use the condoms he bought, he didn’t mean separately. FML

Monthly Coroner Meeting

August 27th, 2009

This evening was the monthly Coroner’s meeting. I was going to the fire extinguisher class, but I ended up doing a transfer to Spokane. We went to pizza at Rocky Racoco’s. Ryan and Anna met us there. I got a chance to hold Zoey for a while. They asked me to be the godfather. That was great!

After we ate we went back to Pullman. I cleaned the ambulance and got ready to head to Colfax. We had pizza for dinner and talked about some cases. After everyone left Pete and I talked about my future with the Coroner’s office and the chances of me being the next Coroner.

More Blog Readers

August 4th, 2009

This morning I was called into a coroners case in Pullman. I was listening to the beginnings of it on the scanner because the fire department had been dispatched to it. Anna and I went to do the investigation. She took the photos and I took the lead. It was an interesting case and we spent some extra time on scene trying to sort out everything we were finding in the apartment. I also spend nearly an hour making phone calls with various people trying to get information.

When I was done with the case I went to the fire department to do the Night Out in the Park up in Palouse. It is a year event. It brings in the Red Cross, the SO, the Posse, the PFD, Palouse fire, and some local high school kids’ bands.

I was manning the ambulance and talked to the kids who wanted to come by and look at it. It was a pretty easy gig compared to some of the events that we do.

Whitcom also had a booth there. One of the dispatchers said they her and one other dispatcher read my blog from time to time. She said one thing they didn’t know was what I meant when I write ten-six-seven. I got that question a couple weeks ago by a friend who saw it on my blog too.

At first I wouldn’t tell her what it meant. Later I let her in on it. She was hoping it was going to be more exciting than it was, but now she knows. When I have a friend or someone I work with tell me they found my blog I always ask how they found it. I don’t have links to it from anything I have. You have to be told where it is, or find it via a random search. I also wonder how much of it they have read. I don’t write about being gay a lot, but enough that if they read enough of it they will find out that I am gay. It is one of those things I don’t advertise. I never ask if they know, just in case they didn’t see the posts that include that information, but I am guessing they know. I got that impression when she asked how the ten-six-seven related to hot guys. So, yeah.

I have been writing this blog since ought-three. It is pretty interesting to go back through some of my old posts. There has been a lot of stuff that has happened to me over those years. Job changes, boyfriends, new vehicles, and becoming more comfortable with being gay and letting more of my friends in on it.

Monthly Coroner Meeting

July 30th, 2009

This morning before I left the fire department we got a transfer for eight-thirty. I took it with Young. We went to get the patient. We were deciding where we were going to have lunch. He said “Where ever you want.” I said “Rocky Rococo’s.” He said not pizza. Then I pointed out how he said anywhere and then when I suggested a place he said no. So then he said we could go there.

After we completed the transfer to Spokane we went to the pizza place. I tried to get Ryan but I was unable to reach him so he was not able to eat with me.

We went back and I worked at the house trying to get a couple things completed before it was time to go to the coroner’s meeting. While I was at home I got a call to work on a computer for the TF. They had several computer issues they need worked on. I went to their office and picked up a couple computers to work on. There is one I will need to go into the office and work on.

From there I went to Colfax for the coroner’s meeting. I stopped my Steve’s Glass and went to look at a motorcycle. It is a Suzuki that is an enduro style motorcycle, more or less a street legal dirt bike. He wants just under two grand for it. It isn’t a bad looking bike. I am thinking about it. I am not sure if I am going to do it but I very well might. I talked to Steve about the house he bought from me and the boat his son bought from me.

I went to the meeting. We covered several items and a case that was pretty interesting. It was pretty involved and we discussed it for a while. We got our schedule set up for the next month and a half as well.

When I got home I worked on one of the computers. It was a simple problem where the admin password had been forgotten. I was able to reset it and we were good to go on that one. The next one will probably be a bit harder. I am going to work on that on Sunday or Monday.

Big Photo Shoot

June 2nd, 2009

I have been wanting to do this for a long time, and finally I got my fire department uniform to my house so I could set it up. I wanted to take a photo of myself in each of my uniforms. Then I would put it all into one photo to make it look like I posed for the photos all at one time.

I spent some time trying to get the lighting and other set up things just right. Then I put on one uniform after another. It took a long time to go through all the uniforms. One by one I had to put it on and use the ten second delay to take three photos. Then sometimes I had to change out the badges and other brass to other uniform parts for another photos. It was a long process. But the photos all turned out well.

I then started to go through the photos and chose what post to use for what side of the photo the pic would be on. It took a lot of time to cut out the background even though I was using a solid colored background. The whole process to make the photo took about six hours.

I then had to run off to the softball game. We were playing against Spellman’s team. It was crappy because we couldn’t hit the ball. Some of our best hitters didn’t have a hit on the night. We ended up losing after only scoring five runs. Spellman’s team scored twelve in the first inning alone.

I ended the night by watching Rescue Me. It is the first episode I was able to catch in the last three weeks.

A Butt Kicking

May 28th, 2009

This evening we had softball against a team from SEL. We were supposed to have ten people there. But then one was running late, and one of the other guys on my team told the other one that we didn’t need him tonight and he could go home. By the time we were near game time there were only eight guys. I frantically called around and found someone who could play. We played with nine guys and it really sucked. My pitching was the worst I have ever seen.

Here is what I said on the My Office website about this game:

When we were putting together this season’s team we wanted to have the fewest number of players possible in order to maximize the play time for everyone. We expected a couple events would happen in the season in order to make us need a couple subs. But so far this season we rarely have played with more than 10 players.

Today’s game was no different, but today we didn’t even have 10 players. That was a big detriment to us. Playing Schweitzerweizen should not have been a close game. We have a large number of sluggers and we can put a lot of runs on the board fast. Even with our talent we tend to cycle as a team. Either everyone is clicking or we’re not.

Down a pitcher, Scotty Anderson pitched for the first time this season. But it was a terrible debut. Many pitches went for balls which racked up walks. Finally Nick Darling was brought in to pitch in the first inning, but the damage had already occurred. Down 9 runs My Office came back and put up six runs of their own. But that would be as close as My Office would get it.

Schweitzerweizen seemed to be hitting from the top to the bottom of the order. They were finding our gaps through out the outfield. With only three guys trying to cover the whole outfield, the ball was finding a lot of room to sneak in for a basehit.

We have a good defensive time, but over the last four games, twenty-five innings in all, we have allowed at least one run in twenty-two innings. All three innings without allowing a run was all in one game.

The season is not over yet, but My Office needs to start to post “W”‘s if there is to be a chance for a league championship.

Twenty-Four Hour OT

May 3rd, 2009

I was going to be getting off shift when I got offered a twenty-four hour overtime shift. I was worried about missing softball and the autopsy that was scheduled for today. But I was able to go to the autopsy and the softball game was cancelled.

Pritch was working OT as well today. So we bought dinner for the shift. Bob and I were on the ambulance. The only call we got was during the autopsy of course. It was a call up on campus. We were not able to see the end of the autopsy and that is where they found the findings that showed the cause of death. Now I am only going to get to see the photos which are never as good as seeing things in person.

Overall it was a pretty quiet day. There were a couple calls in the middle of the night but they were both for the Deuce. So I never had to get up. That was good because I was pretty tired.

Change in Status at MH

April 15th, 2009

I got notified recently that our benefits will be administered by simply buying them ourselves and then getting reimbursed. So I have been working on finding health, vision, dental, short and long term disability, and life insurance. I have worked with AIA for my car and house, so I thought I would go to them for this.

I am getting situated on my insurance needs. But today I also found out that I am not going to be a real employee. I am going to be a contractor, but it will be hybrid. Due to the Canadian company wanting to overhead me and the other American working for the company will be contractors. But we will have full company benefits as well as vacation, holiday, and sick time. This is an interesting change. I am also getting a small increase in pay to cover the additional taxes I will have to pay.

I went to see a CPA about my taxes. I had a brief sit down with Milt in Colfax. He is going to meet with me on Friday to cover my taxes situation. I also need to find out about my retirement options as the Four-Oh-One-K program is going to be gone too. That is probably a big one. I could do an IRA but you cannot put as much away.

After meeting with Milt I went to the Coroner’s Office for our monthly meeting. We covered the cases we had recently and other discussion covering the budget situation.

Dual Transfers

March 26th, 2009

I was hoping to work at the SO today, but I wasn’t able to get something set up. So instead I did two transfers with Colfax. We first went to the hospital to do one to Spokane. But when we got to the hospital they were not ready, so we left to go to Spokane and get someone from up there to bring them back to Colfax. But after we got outside Steptoe we got called back to the hospital in Colfax.

We turned around and picked up the patient from Colfax. Then off to Spokane. After we got to Spokane we went to pick up another and drove back to Colfax. I was the attendant for the second patient.

Before we left to head to the hospital a rep was there selling fire related items. They had some very nice structural gloves. I asked about the kangaroo gloves. I was told they are not good because when they get wet they get really slippery. I tried on a very nice pair with some good dexterity. I bought two pair. One for each department.

I was at Colfax fire for a while longer. We were listening in to the missing kid search from near Malden. They think he may have fallen in a creek.

Later we had the coroner meeting. That lasted about two hours. We discussed recent cases and then did our schedules. I got home and wrote up the schedule and sent it off to Whitcom and updated the Google calendar with the schedule. I brought up the idea of using the calendar to the group after Annie’s husband brought up the idea to me.

I am Bacon!

March 10th, 2009

This morning I was called by Pete about a death in Colfax. I was asked to take it, but I was working at the fire department until eight o’clock in the morning. But when I got done I would go to it. In the mean time he got Annie to go take it. I called her up later on in the morning and we made an arrangement to meet up at ten at the funeral home in Colfax.

I helped her do the exam and take lab samples. She did a fine job with what she needed to do. We both went to the coroner’s office. She was working on her report. I worked on my final sections of the bookwork for the academy. I have been going through all the notes and rewriting all sorts of things into a notebook if I think that I was to be able to reference it in the future. Plus it was helping me study.

I was really tired due to the day at the fire department yesterday. I was yawning a whole bunch as I was waiting for the test time. This was the final test, either we would be reserve deputies or we would have to retake the test.

I was pretty confident, but I wanted to score well. That was the part that made me nervous. The Sheriff came over to give us some final words before the test started.

I was going through it slow at first, but then I started to bust through it. At one point when I was done I needed to get clarification. It was on question ninety-five. Macy said later on he was only on question number forty at the time.

Melcher and I turned in our tests at the same time. Then we went out and had a piece of cake from McNannay’s birthday cake that the Sheriff’s wife made. We talked about the test while waiting for everyone to complete their tests. Finally the last guy, Jesse Two, was done and turned in.

Before long we started to correct them. I was doing a little better than I thought. There were several questions I was not positive about. But it turned out many of them I was correct on.

In the end I scored a ninety-two. I was the highest scored tied with Melcher. As of now I am bacon! It has not quite sunk in yet. I think I will have to do my first ride to really understand this feeling, but as of right now I have passed my final test. I am going to get sworn in tomorrow and then I will be able to ride. I am going to try to set up my first ride for Thursday. Then again on Sunday.

After the test we went to the Zuu. Melcher and I bought the first round of beer and tacos. We hung out for a couple hours talking and celebrating. I finished off a pitcher of Blue Dolphins by myself.

I cannot wait to get out there on the road. It just doesn’t seem real yet though.

Poker Party

March 4th, 2009

Today I went to Moscow to get an order placed for a plaque for the Sheriff for this years reserve academy. I have the wording on it say “With great respect and sincere appreciation, the 2009 reserve class recognizes Sheriff Myers and the Whitman County Sheriff’s Office for the generosity and opportunity to serve and to protect the citizens of Whitman County.”

I got called by Pete about an autopsy happening today. I went to that and was able to see what a major brain bleed looks like. I was surprised how it damages the brain. It is like using a hose to spray into the dirt. It just digs away. There was a large hole in the brain. It was very interesting to see.

Following that I went to the sheriff’s office to drop off some announcements for the graduation and then went back home for the poker tournament we have tonight. Brandon and Matt were making dinner ahead of time. Heidi, Steven, Dan, BKoe, Michael, Matt, and I all played for several hours. The game finally broke down around two in the morning. I ended up losing about one dollar on the night.

Close to Being an Engineer… Again

February 19th, 2009

I spent some of the day doing some engine driving on Engine Thirty-Two. On top of that I got cleared to become an engineer without having to finish off the PL drive time first. That is something important to me. I was in a situation that I couldn’t get the drive time as easy as I would have liked because of my temp status. With the the recent development I can become an engineer on my own schedule and then work on the PL as I have been. This will stop holding me back.

I went to the county and had the coroner’s meeting to start with. But I didn’t get a chance to talk to Pete about the things I was hoping to speak to him about. Specifically about the fact that I want to be the next Whitman County Coroner. But I want to make sure things are still on track for that. I want to keep the actual conversation on the down low so I didn’t want other around for what we talked about.

Today’s class was radar. It is day one of three for radar. Today it was just background and lecture. Next time we will cover more on the radar itself, and then in two Saturday’s we will do some practical stuff.

Worked with a New Deputy Coroner

January 25th, 2009

This morning I woke up for a minute and was changing positions on the bed when I heard my coroner’s pager go off. I looked and I had a call to attend to. I got a call from one of the other new coroner’s who wanted to go and work with me.

After having had my long day yesterday and the day before I was a little slow to get going out the door. It took about an hour to get to the scene. It was an unattended death. Annie and I did our investigation on the scene and then back to the funeral home. She asked questions and I spent time training her and answering questions with the way I do things. She was very thankful to have a chance to work with me. She said he learned a lot.

Then I went to the coroner’s office and did my report followed by doing some clean up around the office. I organized some of the boxes and items into the proper cabinets. It took a while but it was needed.

I went to Pullman and got myself dinner at Cougar Country. I went home and watched some TV. It was relaxing to just sit and watch TV. A nice end to my weekend.

A New Run Starts Today

January 12th, 2009

I got up this morning to do my workout for the next Body for Life run. For the next twelve weeks I am going to be eating right and working out. My goal is still out there. In the next twelve weeks I would like to lose thirty pounds. That is ten pounds a month. It is very doable. That is what I have averaged over my last many runs.

After work I went to Safeway to stock up on food that I need for my next run. I was getting low on food in general. I also found many other deals where I stocked up on several longer terms things like peanut butter and more.

I was going to go to training but while I was there a transfer came out. I said that I would do it. Blake and I ended up going to Spokane. I have been building a lot of overtime this month. It will help me get back on track with my finances.

When I completed the transfer I had to wash the ambulance before I went to Colfax for the Coroner’s training. Cy helped me dry the ambulance. A. Wilcox stopped in as well. He said he didn’t mean to forget about be during Clark’s going away party. He explained what happened. He never really said sorry but I think that is what he was getting at.

I made it to Colfax for training. I got the photos for the ID cards. I also got the information for the business cards for the new Deputy Coroners. We went over some cases and I got a half rack of Diet Pepsi from Anna for my birthday. This meeting was supposed to happen on my birthday, but it kept getting cancelled due to the weather.

Six-Hour Cross State Trip

December 21st, 2008

The only plan for the day was to go to the coroner meeting and drive across the state. The pass was closed in the morning, so I figured I would hit the coroner’s meeting and then go home and hang out with Gunnar.

Before I was to head out of town for the coroner’s meeting I got a call from Pete that the meeting was cancelled.

I was at home looking through some stuff on the computer on some news websites. That is when I saw the pass was open. So I called Gunnar and let him know I wasn’t going to stay into town. He understood.

I got some pizza from Pipeline and hit the road. It was a long drive over. The snow covered the road the whole way. But I still made decent time coming over, considering the road conditions. It took six hours for me, which is about one and a half hours longer than normal.

Intriguing Coroner’s Case

December 16th, 2008

This mornings plan was to focus only on my NU work. I wanted to go to Safeway and buy some pop. They were having a great sale. I picked up twenty-twelve packs. Then I went to my house.

I was put on notice that there could be a coroner’s case in Palouse. As it turned out there was. I went up with Anna. It turned into an interesting case. The information I was getting from the police who interviewed neighbors was not adding up to what I was seeing. So I started to put my sleuth hat on and went to work.

I was able to come up with some information that started to point to a time of death that was more inline with the condition of the body. It was pretty interesting. I had to dig around a lot of different sources in order to discover what I needed. It also helped I have my computer skills. I was able to use those in order to come up with a possible date of death.

That case took us several hours to complete. Then I had enough time to rush back to my place and get changed for my reserve class. The class itself got out early.

I was going to meet up with Clark, A. Wilcox, and the other guys from the fire department but I ended up doing some call back first. I was told I would get a message if they left Pete’s. But when I got there no one else was there. I went home and sent a text message to A. Wilcox and Clark. Clark called me back saying they went to Mike’s because they got cut off at Pete’s. I told them that I was already home. I was pretty upset that they left me hanging.

I have always had the feeling that they really isn’t anything more than a slight working relationship. Even at that, if it wasn’t for the fact that I was a crew leader of theirs they would probably not talk to me at all. Since leaving the reserves I never hear from them. Many times when we are around each other during different functions or calls I pretty much have to initiate anything. This kind of stuff just proves what I was thinking all along.