Coroner Case Sidetracks Me

December 7th, 2008

I was spending the day working on my spec for NU. I have a lot of work to get done and these next four days I am going to be working hard on it. It seemed that things were going along pretty well, but then my pager went off.

There was a fatal car accident down at the river. I called Anna and we responded to the scene. This is her second case, both in the same general area. This one was at the same spot we have had other fatal car accidents that were due to suicide. But during my investigation I found things that made me believe this was anything but suicide.

This one there was a lot of things at the scene that I had to look at closely and try to determine what I was seeing and why things at times didn’t seem to add up correctly. After the time on the scene I went to Kimballs with Anna. I was teaching her the things we do at the funeral home. It was a pretty long night. By the time I got home and went to bed it was after two in the morning.

A Mini-Golf Comback

October 24th, 2008

This morning’s plans were diverted when I got a call about an unattended death in Pullman. Pete asked if I could cover it. I told him that I was able to do it. I went to the scene and did the investigation. Between that and the time at the funeral home I spent several hours. I went to my house and cleaned up and then headed to the Rec Center to get a workout in. It was an upperbody day. I wanted to shoot some hoops but I had work ahead of me.

I got home and spoke with the doctor involved with the case and then Pete. After running stuff by Pete I was completing out my report. I got a call from Peter asking if I want to play Mini-Golf. I said that I did. I met up with him, Danny, and Kevin at the Mini-Golf course on Airport Road.

The first nine I wasn’t doing very well. I wasn’t in last place but I was about six strokes off the lead. But the back-nine I started to make a comeback. I had a hole-in-one and when it was over with I had completed the comeback and beat Peter, who had the lead at the turn. I won by one stroke. It was a good time to hang out.

After the golfing I came home and finished off the final touches of my report before printing it off. I didn’t have any plans for the rest of the evening, so I got some stuff done on the computer before heading off to bed.

Evidence Collecting

October 23rd, 2008

I tried to get going on stuff from work, but the server was down that I needed so I was unable to get anything going, that was very bad. I wasn’t to get a jump on what I needed to get done with the spec.

I had to get down to Colfax early for the Coroner’s meeting. We were meeting at four o’clock, but I got a call from Pete moving it back to five. That was okay by me. I got my uniform on and headed down to Colfax. The meeting went well.

I was able to ask Pete about a person who died that I had dealt with on an EMS call. I wanted to understand what happened in that situation, because the person didn’t seem too bad off when I saw them.

Then it was off to the academy class. We started with a run. Today we did about a mile and a half plus all the push ups along the way. We also ended up having to do eighty sit ups after the run was done. So we had a pretty good workout.

The class was on evidence packaging. Everyone was given an item and materials in order to package and label evidence correctly.

Coroner Work All Day

October 16th, 2008

I needed to get to the rec center and get my upper body workout from yesterday, but I got a call from Pete about an autopsy for the case that I missed part of from this weekend. I went to the funeral home to watch and learn from the autopsy.

After the autopsy I went to the rec center. I got my work out completed in about an hour. I shot some hoops. Then I went home. En route home I heard some radio traffic over Pullman’s frequency. They were talking about stuff that made me believe there was a death.

Sure enough within about ten minutes of getting home I was called to a place in Pullman. So I had a coroner’s case to deal with. That took some time to get there and go through everything.

I got home to complete the report and I didn’t have any time to get any studying done for the academy. That is bad because it put me a day behind where I wanted to be.

I got down to Colfax. The Sheriff was there and ran us the same path that we ran the other day. We ended up getting one-hundred and seventy push ups today plus our mile run and some sit ups. With my upper body workout the push ups were a little on the hard side.

When class was done I got home and started some laundry and worked on my criminal law study guide.

Criminal Law

October 11th, 2008

Today’s class was criminal law. This will be the subject over the next several classes. At first there was not a lot of discussion, but as we went through the class people started to talk more and got more discussions. We were done by around five o’clock.

I went back to Pullman. I started to work on my homework. It is a one-hundred and seventy-nine question workbook for criminal law stuff. The questions are full over very long answers. Very few fill in the blank.

I decided that I would go to Cougar Country for dinner making today my free day. I already had more than I should have for lunch. I talked with Rhonda while I was there and she congratulated me for getting on the reserves.

I was going to watch a TV show, but I fell asleep around eleven o’clock. Then about two in the morning I got a call from the hospital asking if I could do a transfer for Avalon. But I wasn’t able to because I was on duty for the coroner.

I found there were some missed calls on my phone and a couple messages. I found that there was a case that came in around midnight, but I never heard my phone. I was two hours late to the show. So I called Whitcom and then went to Colfax because I figured at the least I would meet up with Pete.

That is what happened at the funeral home. I explained to him what had happened. Then I followed the funeral home back to the Pullman funeral home to do some a couple of the things that we normally do at the funeral home.

I didn’t get home until around four in the morning.

Goodbye to Patti

October 2nd, 2008

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.

Crushed in the First Home Game

September 6th, 2008

After I got home from working this morning I went to bed. But within a few minutes I was getting a call from Pete. When I heard him on the phone I realized that I was going to need to get ready for the autopsy that I was going to observe. I knew that was going to help make me tired tonight. I went to the funeral home and watched the autopsy. I was able to see some findings that I had seen and understood what they meant. I had a chance to ask questions and have a better understanding about what happened.

When I got home I cleaned up and headed down to station one. I was meeting up with a reserve who bought tickets for the football game for Brandon and I. Brandon was working on getting the transportation figured out.

When I got to the station I met up with one of the guys there. I wrote something that was used to tease him. After I found out that happened, the situation has made me incredibly embarrassed because certain pieces of information about me are out to some of the newer reserves. I have tried to keep my private life and work life separate. It has worked for a long time.

I talked to him about it. We had e-mailed about it, but I wanted to speak to him about a couple things specifically. I cannot look him in the eye. It is tough to look at him at all. He said he doesn’t have a problem with me. He said that he hasn’t lost any respect for me but I am having a hard time with it. We never used the word gay during our conversation, but I don’t have a doubt he knows about me now. I don’t feel better, I think I will have a hard time being around him and the guy who was doing the teasing. Right now I am not sure who was all told and who knows about the situation, but with the way things get spread and the way rumors get built, it will probably be devastating to me. I will have a hard time around the reserves. I am not sure who knows now and as I interfaced with them today I felt very strange not knowing if they knew or not.

I went back home and met up with Brandon. We made our way to the bus stop to ride it to the game. We first went to the CUB. Then to the PD. I met up with the reserve to get my ticket. We went into the game and met up with Weese. We sat down on the twenty yard-line in the lower section. I stood the whole game. It has been a while since I have done that from the stands. Within eleven second of the game starting Cal scored a touchdown. They did not stop. People were leaving the game in the first quarter. That is a record as far as I have seen.

The Cougs got crushed. From what I heard their worst loss in history. Brandon and I went to the bus to head home. At the house we got some pizza. Watched Cops and then the movie Thank You for Smoking.

Rush to do the Paperwork

August 26th, 2008

We are in the tournament for nationals, but that meant that we had to get the stuff turned in last week. Due to some issues we were given an extension, but I had to rush around today and pick up where Erik left off. I had to get some signatures and get a check. Then I scanned those things and e-mailed them to the man in charge of the tournament in Seattle.

That took more of the day than I had planned. I was going to be going to Colfax to spend time there at the fire department, but that got blown away. When I finally got everything done I did make me way to Colfax and worked on some stuff in the Coroner’s office until it was time for our meeting. The meeting covered the new video camera and some recent cases. We had some dinner and set up the call schedule for September.

Then I went to Palouse to help Rudy with his computer. I was there for about four hours backing up data and trying to fix his BSOD errors. After a couple hours of trying I talked him into reinstalling everything. That took some time as well. I wasn’t completely done, but I had to get going because of how late it was and the fact I had to work in the morning.

Ladders and Ventilation

August 7th, 2008

This morning came sort of early, but I had a busy day ahead of me. I was going to be doing some training in the heat of the day today. I was looking forward to getting it done with, but I wasn’t sure I was going to be a fan of the heat. When I got to work I found out that we were going to go up earlier in the day to get it done to keep cooler. I was also getting engine drive time. I still need more time on the engine, but I am getting closer.

We had a call to start off with. Then it was off to station one until the ambulance was back in service. Once in service we went to the tower. I had to throw some ladders and do some ventilation. It was a good training. I had a chance to learn some techniques for vertical ventilation I hadn’t done before. I also learned a way to help get someone down from an upper floor if I were by myself. I did some tandem horizontal ventilation before we were done. It was a good training day in all.

I worked on the engineer book in the afternoon. It was pretty quiet at far as calls went. I was planning on going down to Colfax after the day working. I stopped at the station first to get my backpack with my computer. I talked to the guys I use to work with for a little over an hour before heading to Colfax.

I got to Colfax and went into the SO to drop off my paperwork from the coroner’s case from the other day. I went to the fire station after that. I hung out there for a couple hours but nothing came in. We had a city cop ask us to help with the removal of a dead deer. That was about all we did, that and watch a movie.

Bovill Day Two

July 20th, 2008

I was up early again this morning on my way to Bovill. I got there around seven-thirty in the morning again. I got ready and we were playing just after eight in the morning. Our sticks were pretty cold. I wasn’t cold though. I have an inside-the-park homerun plus two walks and one fly out. We lost that game and got moved to the loser bracket.

The next game was two hours later. I had myself a cheeseburger and waited around for the game. We played a second team and beat them pretty easily. We had a big inning scoring a lot of runs. I have four doubles in the game including three that were ground-rule doubles. That is because there was a ditch in right field and if you hit the ball over the head of the outfielders it would go to the ditch. I did that three times.

Between that game and our next one the sun was beating down on us. There were several ten-six-seven’s walking around shirtless. It was something good to look at as I waited for the next game.

We played against a team with several players from the Pullman area. They went on to beat us pretty soundly. That was all for us. I would have liked to play some more, but it was good to get to head home.

When I got closer to Moscow I turned on my phone and found a call from Pete. He told me about a fatal car accident that happened near Clarkston last night. So I was right in my instinct that there was going to be a case last night. As it turned out though the person was taken to Lewiston before death was pronounced so it wasn’t really one of our cases, but I had a feeling it was a bad car accident.

When I got home I got some dinner at Cougar Country.

Coroner Training

July 17th, 2008

We didn’t do any evolutions today. That was okay because the last two days left me really sweaty. Chuck and I went to Campus and spent a couple hours walking around looking at the Knox Boxes and FDC’s on various buildings.

After work I went to Colfax for my coroner’s training. We were talking about water deaths. Pete talked about SCUBA. We also spent time talking about the recent drowning at the Snake. We were talking about what we would expect to find.

I also got a pager for the coroner’s office finally. Pete has been trying to get them for years. He finally just bought his own for us.

A Day in Colfax

June 26th, 2008

I spent most of the afternoon and early evening working in the jail. I did a couple rounds along the way. I also ran control a fair amount of time. It was the first time I really had a chance to run it for a length of time.

Captain saw for the first time I was losing weight. Up until now he didn’t even notice. He is probably the only one who hasn’t noticed. I needed a new belt and Tom suggested that I could use his old belt. He gave it to me, but it is still a little bit too small for me. In another couple week I suppose I should be able to fit into it.

Closer to seven I went to the jail to attend the coroner’s meeting. We went over a couple cases and signed up for on-call days.

Staff Meeting

June 17th, 2008

I went to the first full staff meeting representing the reserves because Chapman was unable to go. It was a pretty short meeting only lasting about two hours. We covered some updated SOPs and other department information. I got home and typed up the parts that dealt with the reserves and E-mailed them to Chapman and McPherson.

I did my workout at the rec center. I didn’t get up there until later than normal because of the staff meeting.

The softball game tonight was a late game. We were playing the team at the top of the standings. I didn’t know that going into the game. We had eleven guys and we played very well. I used a different line-up than we had been using. We hit the ball very well. We went on to win with twelve runs. It was a good game for us.

I went out to My Office after the game and had some pop and talked with Joe who was there after his game.

I got home and out of my uniform when I got a call from Whitcom about a death. I talked to the ambulance crew and went to the scene. I did my investigation and that lasted until around three-thirty in the morning. I went to bed right when I got home because I was going to have to get up early to do drive time with Ben on the engine.

New Door Panels on the Truck

June 6th, 2008

I had an appointment to see the doctor about my finger that was hurt during batting practice about two months ago. It took a while to be seen, but finally when he looked he referred me to a specialist in Lewiston. I am not sure what will come of that meeting, but I hope we can figure out how to make it better.

I went home and started to work on the door panels for my truck. I got one pulled out and started to use it for the pattern. I cut out the pattern in the wood. Then I pulled out the staples. I patched the holes in the fabric and re-stapled it to the new wood. I did that same thing for the other side.

I had gone into my house and heard something on the scanner that got me listening even closer. I came to realize quickly that we were going to probably have a coroner call out. I called Pete and told him I was interested in going to help out. I continued to work on the door as I listened to the scanner.

Soon they needed to coroner so I headed out to the scene and met up with Pete there. It was for an attempted-murder/suicide. It was out near Winona. It took an hour or two on scene and more time at the funeral home.

When I cleared there I went back to my house. I wash my uniform and got ready to respond on fire calls. We did get called out to the Greystone Apartments for a sprinkler water flow. We spent around two and a half hours using the shop vacs to clean up the standing water in many of the apartments.

First Coed Regular Season Win

June 1st, 2008

This morning while I was working on doing some organization of my den I heard Pullman get dispatched to a call where the person didn’t sound good. Within a couple minutes of getting on scene they asked for the coroner. I responded out there and talked with them. Then I did the investigation. That took a couple hours to complete.

I went home and finished up the one project in the den and also getting my clothes washed. There had been some question about whether we would play or not, but it turned out the sun started to shine and things were looking up.

Within an hour of getting my clothes washed I was putting on my uniform heading out to the City Playfields. We were playing against a fellow A-shift reserve. I was excited to play against him.

But it was pretty lopsided. We went on to crush the other team. I was two for three. I lead the team in batting average. I was pitching and I was having my delivery problems again. But instead of pulling myself out. I kept fighting and trying. Soon I figured out my problem and fixed my approach. I had stopped bending my knee like I use to. It had been so long since I pitched that I sort of forgot how.

Now that I have it figured out I went on to pitch two more scoreless innings. It felt great to get the problem ironed out.

A couple of us from the team went to Cougar Country after the game. I got my normal Sunday dinner has been a Rhonda Chicken sandwich, large onion rings, and a Reece’s Peanut butter Cup Cyclone. While there we talked softball and other related things.

Steve was going to order some stuff for his dad and dad’s friend. But a big line formed. So I suggested he call it in. He did. When he went to pick up the order the girl there said something and he started to get embarrassed. We saw that and were laughing so hard. Which made him more embarrassed.

Following dinner I went home and started to work on the report for my coroner’s case I worked this morning.

Coroner Training Meeting

May 7th, 2008

I took some time before the coroner meeting to work on typing up information to share with everyone else at the meeting tonight. We were going to cover the things that I learned in the week long class. It took some time to type it up and get it ready for everyone.

It took a little over an hour to give everyone the information. We also touched on the double fatal car accident.

After the meeting I went to Loren’s again for another game. This time we had about six or seven people there. We played for a couple hours and I ended up winning around twenty bucks.

Death Investigation Class Day Five

April 25th, 2008

Today is the final day of class. We had a lecture on photography that I was looking forward to because I want to get better at what photos are needed and ideas of ways to take the photos.

The class got done around three o’clock PM. That allowed me to get on the road and I figure I will get back to Pullman before it is horribly late.

By the time I got back to Renton and I went through the motorhome with Bill explaining how to do certain things with it, it was nearly seven o’clock. I took off, but before I got far down the I called Ryan about coming out to watch a movie. It was so late I wouldn’t get there before the theatres closed. So I turned around and went back to the house.

I figure I will spend the night and then head out to Spokane in the morning.

Death Investigation Class Day Four

April 24th, 2008

After class this afternoon I went to Portland with Greg again. On the way we stopped by a marina to look at some more sail boats. We checked out the various boats for a while.

We went to Powells Books again. This time we spent about an hour. I went back to the section I was at the other day. I also went through their gay sections. I was looking for something, but I didn’t know what for sure. I figured I would know it when I found it. I turned out not finding anything I wanted.

After we got back to Kelso we stopped to get something to eat at Arby’s. As we were walking into the hotel there was a ten-six-seven passing me by. I sometimes wonder who they are. I sometimes think about how there are millions of people in America and I will probably never see that person again. I sometimes would like to just stop and say hello. I figure if you say hello to everyone you pass, you will have said hello and “met” a lot of people, but it would be interesting to think that even with a lifetime of doing that you will not have even met one-percent of the population of America, I would bet.

Death Investigation Class Day Three

April 23rd, 2008

The plan for this evening was to go to an extra lecture about international mass graves and working for the UN to uncover the graves.

Right after class Greg and I went to a small town a few miles South of Kelso to look at a small sailboat he found on craigslist and wanted to see. We checked it out for a little while before making our way back to Kelso. We got some dinner and went back to the hotel.

The lecture started and went on for about two and one-half hours. It was very interesting to hear about the mass graves and why they are happening. We learned about the lengths they went through to un-Earth the graves and try to identify the people who were in the graves. He showed us a lot of photos and maps of the areas that these mass graves were at. Shared stories about who killed these people and why they were being killed.

It was pretty amazing to think about what it would be like to live in some parts of the world. Where we worry about non-life and death issues all the time, to them a fear is whether today is their last day on Earth. It can put things into perspective.

Death Investigation Class Day Two

April 22nd, 2008

After our class was over today Greg invited me to go out with him. I am not sure what he was thinking, but I wanted to work on some of the workbooks we had in order to get them completed. I didn’t do any last night, so I wanted to get last nights’ chapters and today’s chapters completed. I got some of that done but it was slow going.

I finally got to bed pretty late and ended up not doing much else for the evening.

Death Investigation Class Day One

April 21st, 2008

I was hoping to get the classroom early enough to choose my seat and get everything ready. After all I was a total of about fifty seconds away. But the sad part is I was still getting in the door just as the class was supposed to start.

I ended up getting a seat in the very front of the classroom. It wasn’t so bad. I was sitting in front of Greg.

After the first day of class I went to Portland with Greg and a guy from Yakima county. We looked at a sailboat that Greg was interested in. We also went to a book store in downtown Portland, it was called Powell’s Books.

It was a good time, but after being there for thirty minutes I made it one tint sections of this three story, one-city-block sized book store. It would take me a long time to get through it all. I ended up buying one book.

Driving to Kelso

April 20th, 2008

I made my way down to Kelso today. I stopped in Puyallup to pick up a rototiller for someone in Pullman. He found it on craigslist. I put that in my mom’s car and continued to Kelso. It was my first trip down there, so I wasn’t sure how long it would take.

I got checked into my room and then went to Safeway. I bought some items for breakfasts and dinners. I was going to cruise around Kelso and check it out, but I opted not to do that so much.

Bummer of a Loss

April 17th, 2008

This evening we had our first playoff game. With the team we are putting on the field today I have great expectations of going all the way. But it was not to be. We went out there flat with our bats. I did well getting a triple in my first at bat, but many of the others were not hitting the ball well.

The other team, not a great team, but a good team that was putting runs on the board every inning. To start the game they only had eight guys and we were not able to beat up on them. After the game was over I was so bummed out. I just didn’t want to think about it. I was mad that we lost. We should not have lost.

When the game was done Ryan and I went to Cougar Country. I then had enough time to run down to Colfax for the coroner’s meeting. We got our schedule set up for next month. We talked about some recent cases including some from the past dealing with the river and Rock Lake. I also got the final instructions for the training I am going to next week.

March Coroners Meeting

March 26th, 2008

This evening was our coroner’s meeting. I got to the office a little early and while I was waiting I went through one of the forensics books. Soon it was seven o’clock pm and no one was there. I was starting to think I didn’t get the “memo”. But soon Pete and Ken showed up. Patti wasn’t going to be at the meeting.

We went over a couple of the cases that had happened over the last month. Then we got our call schedule set up for the next month. I am also getting ready for my week in coroner’s training later in April. I already took the time off of work to do it. April is going to be a busy month for me with the two trips to Seattle I will have to make plus all the softball both for IM’s, summer league, and the tournament.

I am going to try to keep up with everything.

Bad Beating in Poker

March 23rd, 2008

I decided today that I was going to play poker before I had to go to my softball meeting. Then I got a call about the autopsy that was going to happen today as well.

I went to Zeppoz and Loren was there. We were sending some texts earlier about playing. As it turned out we were on the same table. He was betting big pretty often trying to build a stack of money. I realized I would have to play fast in order to make it to the autopsy.

While waiting for the game to start I was talking about the poker hand I saw on TV on Friday night while working at the jail. Someone had pocket Aces. The other person had Ace-King. He pretty much had a five-percent chance of winning. The flop was Q-J-10. To give him a straight and the victory. That was amazing.

I found myself with pocket Aces. I raised a small amount. Loren went all-in. I called him. Everyone else folded out. Loren shows K-Q suited. I was a big favorite. The flop was J-10-9. Giving him the straight and the win. People remembered what we had talked about and thought it was strange to see it actually happen to me. I joked with Loren about popping his car tires. I wasn’t mad at all. I was just amazed that it happened just like I saw on TV.

I went a little longer. I got my money in on a good hand and someone who was at a lesser odds of beating me, in fact beat me. So I left, but the timing was good.

I went to the funeral home for the autopsy. As always that was very interesting and it showed us what caused the death in this case.

I got out of there just before I had to be at Cougar Country for the softball team signups. No one else was there when I got there. I ate slowly and just as I was getting ready to go I saw Heidi show up. So I got a pop and hung out while she ate her dinner. She signed the form and we spent time talking about various things with Rhonda at the table with us.

Wet Lab at WSU

March 16th, 2008

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

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


Blowing into the PBT to start the day

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

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

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


Doing a HGN test


Trying to stand on one leg without falling


Doing the walk and turn event


One more shot of the walk and turn

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Horrible Car Wreck

February 27th, 2008

After my workout this morning I was at home cleaning up. I heard Colfax Fire get dispatched out to something. But I didn’t hear what it was. I was going to ignore it, but I figured that I would turn on my scanner and listen to it while I was cleaning up. I just had a feeling it was a big one.

Before long I heard one of the cops on the way to the scene say there was one “possible.” So I listened in closer as the units were arriving on scene. I heard the ambulance get on scene and say that there were two confirmed and to notify Paul-Sixty-Four.

I called Pete to give him a heads up. He asked if I could take the case and call Ken to help out. I was just getting finished cleaning up so I was able to run pretty quickly.

When I got to the scene it was pretty quickly obvious that it was a bad one. We wee on scene for hours and hours because we were waiting for various people to do their part of the scene.

After the scene we went to the funeral home to continue our investigation. We were starving. It was after six o’clock. Pete took us to Eddy’s for dinner. We went over the findings and had dinner. Then it was back to the office for the remainder of the work on the case.

It was a very long day that I didn’t expect to be half this long.

The photos shown on the news showed the car had been smashed down heavily on the driver side. The news also showed a semi truck that had busted through some guardrail and went into a field. It looked like a lot of force was in the wreck. A state trooper was quoted in the newspaper saying that it was the worst he had seen in a long time.

All is Alive

February 24th, 2008

I was the on call coroner today and all quiet at the office. I also was working for the fire department. We had our final Sunday night rig checks. I worked with Clark on doing some of the checks on Rescue Thirty-Two.

The rig checks we pretty late into the evening. I was on engine tonight and it was quiet all night as well. I haven’t gone on a call for a while now.

Got a New Modem

January 30th, 2008

I decided to go to Moscow and just pick up a new cable modem. I was around eleven in the morning and the guy wasn’t even here. I wasn’t going to sit around all day waiting for him. It is a good thing because it turned out he didn’t make it here until almost three.

I stopped at the cable office and switched my modem. I went and bought a piece of rope I needed to get. I also bought some goggles for swimming.

When I got the modem hooked up at home it worked and I had internet again.

I stuck around until it was time to head out to Colfax for the coroner’s meeting. I got there and it was just Bill and I. We talked about some cases and the reasons why he is leaving the office. Pete and Ken showed up and we did our meeting. We really didn’t go over many cases. We did get our coverage set up for the next month.

I got back to Pullman and took over being on call. It was a slow night anyway.

Bought a Vending Machine

January 24th, 2008

After my workout this morning I went to the surplus sale. I needed to buy a computer for running Windows Home Server. I read about vending machines they had. I looked them up online but didn’t find anything about these models. I had no idea how expensive it would be. I talked to someone ahead of time to figure out how the auction worked. What I found out was that I could get one item rather than all six of them. I looked them over several times. I found one I liked.

Finally they got to that part in the auction. The auctioneer started at fifty bucks for all of them. Then he came down in price. Soon he said how about “by choice”. He then started at ten bucks. Then five bucks. He then asked “is anyone even interested?” I raised my hand. He said “how much do you want to pay?” I knew the lowest price allowed is two-fifty. But I said five bucks is fine. Someone said, right afterwards, I should have said that I would take it for two-fifty.

I also bought a new file cabinet. It is a nice Steelcase model. Very solid. I have been waiting to buy one for a long time. Finally I pulled the trigger.

I went home and cleared a spot in the garage for the vending machine. I got a couple people online with me to get the vending machine. I picked up Dearth and Bien. We went to the surplus stores and loaded it and the file cabinet in my garage.

I spent some time messing around with it. I found that it is in working order. I am going to talk to the people at Colfax Fire to see if we have a spot for one. I was thinking about one down at the Deuce, but I don’t know if we have room for one down there.

I finished up my report of my coroner’s case from yesterday. I had to go to Colfax to turn that in and meet with Ken. He was trying to find out what it would take to record his sermons directly to the computer. I checked everything out and it will be pretty easy for him to do. I dropped off my stuff at the coroner’s office and it was back to Pullman for me.

BKoe and I were going to hang out tonight. We decided that we would watch a movie or play a game. He came over to my place and we played a game he recently purchased. It was pretty fun. We played it for several hours. It was great to get a chance to hang out with him.

No CPR Teaching

January 23rd, 2008

I got a call this afternoon as I was eating lunch from Pete about a case in Pullman. He asked if I would take it. I went ahead and took it. It was several hours to get the whole thing investigated and find the information around the place that was needed to complete the investigation.

I had enough time to scarf down dinner and meet Bien at the fire station for a CPR class. It turned out that the class had no one sign up for it. So we just cleared and went back to The Deuce to work down there.

We did rig checks with Parrish. We spent some time talking about training issues. We only got one call while I was on duty and it was a fire call. I was hoping for something that would allow me to do EMS stuff. But no such luck.

First Case of Ought-Eight

January 12th, 2008

After my final workout of the week today I planned on doing several things. Such as working on the frame, going to the women’s basketball game, watching the men’s basketball game, watching the Seahawks game, doing some work on the computer. I really only ended up being double booked.

I found I was on call for the coroner. But it is rare for a call. I had to go to Beasley just before noon for the women’s basketball game. But before eleven I got a call from Pete. Someone died in St. John. Normally he would take the case, but he wasn’t there. So I had to go up there. That meant I was going to miss part of the game and be late getting there.

I hit the road and started to head to St John. I went as quickly as possible with the road conditions as they were. I also got to listen to the Cougs. But they were not able to do anything against the Bruins. It was ugly.

I did my investigation the scene and went back to the funeral home to finish up the investigation. By this time the Cougs had made a run at winning, but were not able to pull it out of the fire. They were down by double-digits most of the game. But they came back to within three.

The Seahawks came on. I was expecting a lot when they went up by two quick touchdowns within the first few minutes. But that is as far as it would go. The Packers just kept scoring and scoring.

I was able to watch the last part of the game on TV at Beasley. I had made it home and back to Beasley at half time. I was able to put in my time there and watch the Seahawks. But it was ugly as well.

A. Wilcox is a Packers fan so I told him if they win he is sitting in the back of the engine for the rest of the year.

We were having a meeting when the tones went out for a structure fire. Turned out to be nothing. Later in the night we got toned out for another structure fire. That one also turned out to be nothing. In both cases they appeared to have been smoke detectors set off by cooking.

Looking Back on the Last Year

January 1st, 2008

Jan Joining the CISD Team – I started the evening off going to Colfax for a CISD team meeting. They were looking for new members, so I thought I would see what it is about. Now it seems that I am on the team and they are looking at having a training class come in soon to get the new people trained.

Feb How Many Really Know? – When I got home I wrote back and forth with Matt and Monte about the call from yesterday. I told Matt that I was not offended and that he could not offend me. I asked both to keep the information secret. I also asked Monte how Tom knew about it. It was Tom who told Monte. Monte said he heard about it several years about and it was a non-issue to him. I was surprised to hear that Tom has known about it for three or four years. Monte said “remember it is a small world”.

Mar The Start of What was to Date my Best Softball Year – Then there was another play where I had to go hard to my right, more or less a dive and scoop a ball. When I came up with it I looked down at home where someone was running, but I did not think I would be able to make the play, so I held on it the ball. We were playing A Bunch of Old Guys, which use to be Don’t Care. We lost to them by three runs. It sucked.

Apr My First Shift Patrolling with the Marine Patrol – Then we went to the boat. We went through some things about the boat and then we were underway. We made a couple stops of people who were breaking the wake zones. I saw him do an inspection. Then on the next stop I did the inspection. We spent some time driving along the shore line of Medina, Hunts Point, and we were working our way to Yarrow Point.

May A Police Officers’ Funeral – At about 10:00 AM the procession started. It was long enough that as my vehicle was pulling into the parking of the Kibbie Dome the last cars were leaving Tidyman’s. Along the route people were standing on the sides of the streets and police officers on Motorcycles where blocking intersections. There were people who had their hand over their heart, American Flags, signs of support, and cub scout troops along the way.

Jun An Incredibly Fun Softball Tournament in Waitsburg – But we had an eight run lead going into the seventh inning. They were the home team because they were undefeated. In the bottom of the seventh all we had to do was to get three outs and go to the second game. But they started to hit the ball. I knew our team was hurting when after the inning the jumping back slaps that Kelly and some of the other would do turned into just back slaps. The jumping was over with. In my second to last at bat, there were two outs and I was on first base. My quads were sore and I did not want to run. But I brought up my positive mental attitude by thinking about the fact that I want this. That I had gone this far and I just have to do it.

Jul Final Men’s Game is a FFT – Tonight the records were supposed to fall, however, when the other team could not come up with enough players to fill the team, we would end up getting a FFT. That sucked because Michael B, Bill, and I were all up for records to be broken. I needed one walk to tie Skyler. That was my goal. I did not want to beat the record because it has been around for so long.

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

Sept Bought a Lightly Used Truck – By this time in the day I realized that I did want to get the truck, but only if I got it for twenty-one-five. A while later the sales manager called back and said I could get it for twenty-one-seven, plus a full tank of fuel. I said I would do it.

Oct Introducing the Next Coroner of Whitman County? – Pete said he was happy to hear that I would like to do it. He said he plans on not running in twenty-twelve. So that would be when I would need to run. By then some of the other guys would be a lot more trained and may want to run as well. So I figured I would talk to Pete right away and have him start to groom me to be the next coroner.

Nov A Night of Arson’s in Pullman – On our arrival to the scene I could see a five inch across Spring Street. We parked in such a way to protect the hose. We walked up to the scene. While walking up the road a man asked us if the smoke coming from his garage was a normal amount. Because he was a neighbor of the fire, he figured some of the smoke was from the fire. But it was pouring out, and I could tell it was not from the other fire.

Dec Ankle Operation Part Two – I walked into a room with a table for me to lay on. I got up there and the anaesthesiologist started to prepare me to go under. Before I knew it I was asleep. Later I woke up not feeling well. I was being wheeled out to the recovery room. I heard one of the nurses talking to someone else, saying “you’ll have to break it to him.” I still don’t know what they meant by that.

It is always hard to put this list together. There was the day at the jail when I found out that Poff and Capt, as well as everyone else, has known about me for years. Or November when the boys made their first trip to Pullman to see Cougar Football and Basketball. There are many other examples. As usual. If I were to do this another day I am sure some of these choices would be different, but some of them would be the same for sure.

Most of today I responded on calls at the station. But most of the time no one was showing up to go with me. So I stood by on most of them. One of the calls Gecas showed up and we went on the call.

We also got a couple calls during the evening hours. I couldn’t find my pager. I looked around the house for it, I looked around the station, I checked my truck as well. I couldn’t find it. I am a little worried that I lost it on the call I went on with Gecas.

I worked on getting my E-mail inbox cleaned out. It took a while to go through all the messages. I really should go through everything again and reorganize it some more. But I am probably not going to.

Coroner Christmas Party

December 27th, 2007

This afternoon we had our Coroner’s Christmas Party. We had a normal meeting but Pete brought in food for us to chow on during the meeting. I brought in the large car crash collage that I was putting together some time ago. While it sat in my room I got so use to it, that when I took it out of here coming into my office, there was a huge missing item. The wall looks so white in that area now.

Pete and the others really liked it. I was happy about that. Everyone looked at it, and we talked about all the cases involved with each one.

We just spent time talking about random stuff and make our schedules. It was a good time there. When it was over with I went back to Pullman. I was on call tonight, but turned out to be dead again tonight. It has been really quiet during the evenings here.

More Zeppoz poker

December 2nd, 2007

After only about two hours of sleep I was woken up by a phone call from Pete. There was a call waiting in the wing. I had guessed it had to do with the call we had this morning. Later on in the morning I called Pete and it turned out to be what I was thinking it was. As it turned out I had transported the same person to Spokane about ten days prior. So I was familiar with him.

In the rest of the day Wilcox, Dearth, and I responded on EMS and fire calls. The first one was a pretty bad looking accident. Turned out it wasn’t much of anything when it was done. A lot of people stopped to help. I was talking to one person who was there. I got the vibes and the gaydar was going off. I found him on Facebook and sure enough he is family.

I was running really late for poker. Sign ups were at five-thirty, and it was almost that time when we got back to the station after our fourth call of the afternoon. With the heavy snow covering the road we had a long day. But now it is raining and the roads are getting all slushy.

I got to Zeppoz in time to get a seat at the table. Due to the weather, I believe, there was a limited number of players. We ended up having three full tables, but it took almost until six o’clock to get there.

A ten-six-seven who has been in all the tournaments since I started to play was there. He is not the normal blonde/blue but, he is still ten-six-seven.

Towards the end of the night I was knocked out in seventh place again. The ten-six-seven was in the final four. All of a sudden there was a small uproar at the table. I was playing a table game right next to the poker table. I turned around and saw the ten-six-seven with tears in his eyes. Someone said he would chop the pot with him. I didn’t know what had happened.

Later on I found out his dad had died and he was called about it during the game.