I am a Bad Guy

November 13th, 2010

I couldn’t sleep very well this morning.  I sort of tossed and turned and I was up about five hours after going to bed.  I sent a text to KStew to find out if I would be inside or outside doing the mock scenes for the interns.  He said I would probably be inside most of the time.  I decided to wear shorts.  KStew asked me to wear a long sleeve shirt. 

I was supposed to be there at noon, but I got called in early.  I grabbed some pop and went to the WSU PD.  I was paired up with Brock.  My first role was that of a really drunk guy who was going to need detox.  I was supposed to have very little interaction with the interns.  I was just supposed to lay there and make noises.

One intern was asking me questions.  I didn’t really answer.  Once in a while I would give a one word answer.  In once case he asked when I was born.  I was February.  Then he asked what year.  I said two-thousand-and-ten.  He then said “you’re pretty big for nine months old.”  I started to laugh.  He was the only one who made me break character.

Then I was in the role of a drug dealer.  When I get contacted by the police I am supposed to drop a baggie and walk away.  I am supposed to keep walking until they stop me.  Something I made it a couple steps.  Other times I was able to get outside of the building.

It was fun to somewhat mess around with the interns.  I would try to lay down some clues and see if anyone would pick up on them.  I also had props hidden on my person to see if the interns would do a good pat down to find them.

While I was doing that Ryan was texting me with updates about the Cougs.  The Cougs were beating Oregon State when I left WSU.  It wasn’t until I started to listen to the game that the Cougs stumbled for the first time in the game.  There was a fumble followed by a touchdown for Oregon State.  I got home and watched the rest of the game on TV.  The Cougs won.  It was the first Pac-Ten game since Apple Cup ought–eight.  That was a span of sixteen Pac-Ten games.

I got my uniform on and went to the SO.  I got a car ready and was going to hit the road.  I was with Jordan for a while outside chatting when a Colfax cop was going to a call.  We went to back him up.  A couple others came as well.  We ended up staying with our cars because two Colfax cops covered the call.

I went back to the SO and I ended up helping Sgt. Anderson with a presentation for the Reserves.  I helped him create some PowerPoint slides based off some of my notes from my Reserve Academy.  By the time I left it was almost ten o’clock.  I went to Pullman for dinner with Matt.  Boyd and Harris were also there.  I was later than them so I ordered and ate my food quickly.

We talked about the random stuff that we always seem to chat about in some sort of way.  We joked and ripped on each other.

After dinner I worked the road for several hours.  It was a pretty slow night.  I got one guy for a big speed and he had several other problems.  When it was done I could have tagged him for almost fifteen hundred bucks.  But I only wrote him for speeding.  So he was very thankful to get a two hundred dollar ticket.

I went north and hit some roads up there.  But I didn’t see much of anything.  I called it a night and wrote up my ticket around three in the morning.  When I got home I watched some of my recorded TV shows before I went to bed.

Cougs Lose a Winnable Game

November 6th, 2010

I worked the Cougar Football game.  I was working the Fieldhouse with Jensen then we went to processing.  I would go out to the concourse from time to time to watch the game.  But it seems like when I went out there the Cougs would have a downturn, so I spent most of my time inside of processing.  It was a pretty slow game.  In fact the stadium was about half full.  It was ugly to see.  While in processing every joked around and watched football. 

This was a game the Cougs should have won.  The last two drive the Cougs had plenty of time to do some rushes mixed in with the passes, but we went with three straight passes followed by a punt.  That was our final two possessions.  I was mad that we didn’t try to run on first down and get some yardage so the passes wouldn’t have to be long ones.

Following the game I got my rig and went home and changed into my deputy uniform to go out and patrol the mean streets of the County.  I was working with Knox.  He hadn’t been out much because of harvest.  But we had been working on finding a day we could go out together.  It was so dead out there.  We had no calls for service and we only stopped about ten cars the whole night.  It was the opposite of last Saturday when I didn’t stop running.

Cougar Football

October 16th, 2010

Today was Cougar Football Saturday.  Today the Cougs were going against Arizona.  My article about the Cougs came out in the paper today.  I pretty much said that when someone tries to rebuild a college football program that was at the very bottom, it takes about four years to build it back.  We are seeing some shining moments out of the Cougs now.

I worked the Rescue during the game.  I watched most of the game, but we got called to one open fire that we had to put out.  Other than that there were no calls.  After the game we did parking lot patrols for illegal fires.  Fires are okay as long as they are in approved containers.

We walked through several parking lots.  We talked with people and watched some other football games on the various TV’s people had set up through out the stadium.

I was on call for the fire department as well.  It was pretty slow we ran two calls and a third one just before four in the morning.  We were cancelled en route to the final call.  It was pretty slow for a football weekend.

Cougar Football Saturday

September 11th, 2010

Today is the first day that I worked as a deputy at a football game.  I was excited for that.  I got to the SO and got a car ready.  Elllsworth and I went to WSUPD for briefing.  I was assigned to work with Hansen on the field.  That would mean I wouldn’t have many contacts with people but I was going to be taken care of.  Before the game we went to the pressbox and hung around up there for a while.  We got stuff ready for the command post for the game.  Then we took our position on the field.  It is my second time being on the field for a football game.

Being September Eleventh they had the honor guard from PFD and PPD work with the ROTC guys to do the flag.  They didn’t have a huge production like I was expecting.

At half time we ran the refs to their locker room and then escorted them back to the field.  In the third quarter we went to command and Hansen took it over.  We were there until near the end of the fourth quarter.  We got some food from there as well as warm cookies.  It was good stuff.  Before the game ended we went back to the field to escort the refs back to the locker room. Then our job was done.

The Cougs looked flat for most of the game.  It wasn’t until the fourth quarter that the defense stepped up and made some big plays.  It was because of that we were able to stay in the game and score some points.  We ended up winning by one point.

When the game was done Ellsworth and I went back to Colfax.  I went to Rosauers for some dinner and then out to the fairgrounds.  I was working out there until the morning doing patrols.  I was pretty tired, but for the first couple hours there was a dance and stuff going on.  But shortly after the dance thing quieted down and it got boring.  Matt and I watched some movies and the we did a round.  There was nothing going on.  It was very cold outside and we used little heaters to help keep the command post warm for us.  I stayed there until about seven-thirty in the morning when I left to go home.  I was very tired and ready to go to bed.

Great, Wonderful Mood

January 29th, 2010

After getting up this morning I was in great and wonderful mood. I don’t know what it was, but I wasn’t tired. And I also felt so great. So happy. Just in a good mood. I ran some errands around town including meeting with a PPD officer about a stop I was involved with recently. He asked me to do a report on it. I went to the fire station and spoke with Heston for a little bit while I was there.

I was working for Peter tonight on Rescue. I went to the fire station to get on Spillman to get some of the work completed that I needed to do. While I was getting things done I was asked if I would go help out at the basketball game because only one person was available. I said I would. I had to run home and get ready. I went straight to Beasley. The Coug women lost to the Huskies. It was a good game. They went to overtime.

After that was done I went home and got a couple things done on the computer before I went to the station. When I was there I got the things completed on Spillman and went to the dayroom where Pritch and Mully were watching TV. I sat down to watch with them. While there we were dispatched to a call. When it was done I went home.

I was there for a while when we got another call. While on the way to the hospital we were toned to a person down. We knew the call was coming in because of listening to the police. We were first on scene because we were about a block away when the tones actually hit. I took patient care to start the call. It turned out to be a release.

We got another call at the PD before we were done. Then we went to the hospital and picked up Mully. When we got back to the station that was going to be it for the night for us. It was after three in the morning. I stayed up until five watching some videos on YouTube.

Final Day of the Decade

December 31st, 2009

I went to the fire station and met with Brenda about the reserve timesheets. I also met up with Ryan about the map tests and the upcoming fire academy. I am going to be making the timesheets for the reserves this year. I also was integrating the timelog into the timesheet Excel workbook. But more importantly something I have been working on is the ability to fill out the timelog and have it automatically fill in the timesheet. That is now completed. I also let Ryan know about some of the things I didn’t like about the academy in the past. I also let him know the map tests are worthless for proving guys know the roads. So often they pass the test with one-hundred percent, but still are clueless when they get on the street.

I went home and started to work on the new spreadsheet. I had the basic stuff done for the timecard. I just did some tweaking on it to make it closer to the ones we currently use. The timelog has some updates to it. Then I started to put the two together.

I was trying to create a master workbook that would have every one’s name and employee number. It would also include the pay. Then if information needed to be updated on any reserve it would only have to be updated in one spot and the workbooks would get that information by linking to the master. But I was running into problems. That is because I didn’t want to hard code each firefighters workbook, I wanted to be able to have one spot where I put the firefighter number in their workbook and Excel would then take that number and concatenate it with the column number in order to get the correct data. But that is not nearly as easy as it sounds. I found a function called INDIRECT, but it only works when the master spreadsheet is also open. That is not going to work for what I want to do.

Finally I had to give up on that idea for this year. I just made a master in the workbook and the data would be updated there. So it is still only one place to update the pay information for people. But if four people need their pay information updated it will require opening up four spreadsheets rather than one. But I got the whole set done. I hope the guys like it. I know several thought it was cool with mine, because I was testing out the process. Now that I know it works I asked Heston about doing it for everyone. He said go ahead. Several of the guys who saw me using it this last year wanted me to do that for them. So I am sure for the most part guys will like it. But as with all change there are some guys who hate change and will complain about it no matter what.

I went to the Deuce and met up with Suggy for working the WSU Men’s Basketball game. They were playing Oregon in the Pac-Ten opener. The first half was not very solid for the Cougs. But in the second half they started to come alive. They had an eight-zero and a ten-zero run. Soon it was tied up. With about thirty seconds to go the Cougs had the ball. But they ended up wasting too much time on the clock. That caused them to have to take a poor shot and it was missed. That put the game into OT. In the first OT the Cougs had a five point lead, but it came down to a dunk by Casto in the final second of the game. The Cougs were up by two and the crowd went crazy. There was three-tenths of a second left on the clock. But the Cougs were assessed a technical foul for celebration. They gave the Ducks to free-throws. The guy made both and they tied it up and went to a second OT. The second one was closer. But the game ended when the Cougs had the ball with less than ten seconds to go. It was tied. The Cougs missed the shot. The Ducks got it and drove hard to the bucket. They made it and got fouled. They celebrated without penalty. They made the freethrow going up by three with, again, three-tenths of a second. But the Cougs couldn’t come back and lost. I was so mad. It was crushed. It felt the highest of highs only to be crushed.

During the game I talked to Kuhrt and he was seeing what I was doing for New Years. I told him that I had no plans. He said I should come over. He said he would get in touch with me after the game. I went home and completed my project to work on the timesheets. I got a text from Kuhrt to come over. I headed that way. When I got to his place we watched some TV and talked shop. I asked him questions about the way he learns and remembers traffic laws. We had a couple drinks. At midnight we toasted the new year. It was a nice evening with the Kuhrt’s and their pets.

Apple Cup at the Moose

November 28th, 2009

I was invited to go to the Moose and watch the Apple Cup with the gang. I got there just before kick off. I was invited to help myself to some food they had there. I ate and had some pop. I am on call tonight so I cannot have anything more than pop.

As the game was going on I thought the Cougs had a chance. They were down by thirteen after half, but I was mad they didn’t try to score when they had the ball and some time on the clock to at least try something.

The second half things went down hill. We ended up losing by a shutout. I cannot believe how horrible things are right now. But I believe we will see things look up in the next two years.

I had to leave before the game was done to get my uniform and do the daily rig checks at the station.

I went home. Brandon, Kevin, and I played some games. We played for a couple hours before Brandon had to go to bed. I went to bed myself around midnight. I need to get up and patrol tomorrow.

Before I got to sleep, I tossed and turned in bed for a while. Finally I was drifting off to sleep when a call came in for a Delta Response for a Structure Fire at the Elmhurst apartments. Pretty much every firefighter in Pullman knows that is a bad news place. It is very old building and it would be a big fire should one happen.

This time it was only an overcooked pizza.

Final Cougar Football Saturday of the Year

November 21st, 2009

I had breakfast with the boys and Jon before heading to the fire station. I went to The Deuce and picked up the minivan and some EMS equipment. I went to station one. I hung out there having some lunch and talking with some of the guys as we waited for the briefing. After which we headed to the stadium. I was working as the runner.

I spent the whole day in the South Aid Room, aside from the times when I walked to the top of the seats to see some game action in person. The Cougs looked good for the first half, considering all other factors. We were only eleven points out. But the second half belonged totally to Oregon State. The number of people at the game is horrible. I heard there were about eight thousand total. I am not sure if it was that few for sure, but it surely was empty.

We got some free pizza from Pizza Hut. They gave away all their remaining pizzas to people around the concourse level.

After the game I went home. We ordered some Pizza Pipeline. We also got Tricky Sticks. The boys love it. We ate the pizza and watched some TV. Before it got too late I went to my den and worked more on my suicide report. It is a very long report. It took a while to write it up and I still have some more I need to do.

When I was done I was looking at the Seattle Times website. There was an article about suicide awareness. I read it. There was one person talked about in the article. I soon realized it was a case that happened here in Whitman County.

I stayed up reading some suicide resources before heading off to bed around one in the morning.

New Guy on the Shift

November 15th, 2009

I worked the women’s basketball game and when it was done I went to the fire station to meet up with the new guy who is on my shift. He is an EMT and in the current recruit class. Because he is an EMT he has been put on shift and is starting to go on calls as an observer for the most part.

We covered what calls he responds to and what he doesn’t respond to. Things we do when we respond, etc. Then it went into rig checks. I had been thinking about going to Seattle for marine firefighting training, but due to the response committee meeting tomorrow I decided to skip it, because the response committee is important to me.

Another Cougar Loss

November 14th, 2009

This morning with only four hours of sleep I was up and getting ready for Cougar Football. I got my uniform on and drove to The Deuce to give the van keys to Michael. I had forgotten to put them in the keybox when I left the station last night.

I was going to the station when I got a call from the developer lead of the contract I was interviewing for. It went about thirty minutes total. Kittelson and I went to station one together in my rig. We went down for lunch and the game briefing. I had a couple hamburgers and enjoyed the company of everyone until the briefing started.

I am working North One with Kittelson. Bien is going to be coming to the game to meet up with us and hang out. We stopped at Safeway to get some pop and supplies for the game. I found that Safeway switched from Pepsi to Coke. I was very annoyed by this. I am going to write some letters about this.

We got to the stadium and made our way to our place over the tunnel. It wasn’t too bad on the weather side of things to start. I was wondering how my ankle would deal with the standing around. I was a hurting unit by the end of the game. Without a doubt. I hope things will get better. Kittelson and I talked about being a reserve sheriff. Keith showed up and we watched the game together. Bien made is way around a little bit going to see Reed and a couple others. For the most part he stayed with us the whole time.

The Cougs were not doing too well. They threw three INT’s in the first quarter along. UCLA scored on their first possession because of the first INT the Cougs gave up. UCLA had a short field for a lot of the first quarter. The Cougs were only able to score one touchdown the whole game. The Cougs were having such a hard time they fans cheered for firstdowns. By half time many of the fans had left this extremely cold game. Near the end of the game one could almost count the number of people left. The Cougs went on to lose.

When it was done we went back to the station and turned in our equipment. I went home and took some medicine for my ankle and had some dinner. I was meeting up with Victor for working Jeff Duhman at Beasley. I was looking forward to working that event. We made our way to Beasley. The doors were open and people were pouring in. It looked like a lot of people were going to be coming. I hung out in the first aid room for the opening act. Once it came time for Dunham to come on I went to the place where we stage on the concourse level. He came up on stage to a lot of cheers. There were a couple bits it was doing that was cracking me up. I was laughing really hard. He did a couple things on the local area and poked a little bit of fun at the football game.

It was a good show and people were having a good time. Once it was done I went home. It was nearly eleven-thirty at night. I got a hold of Keith who was over at Reed’s. He had me come over and bring some batteries. I went to Dissmores to get the batteries. They only had two lines open so it took a while to get through the line.

I got to Reed’s and we played some Rock Band. It was my first time playing. I had a good time playing that. I had a couple beers while I was there. Keith was crunk in a big way. He was starting to go down hill while I was there. I think he is going to be hating life. Before I left it wasn’t liking life too much as it was. I went home around two-thirty in the morning. I didn’t stay up too late before going to bed. I was really tired because I didn’t get a lot of sleep last night.

Interview in Spokane

November 13th, 2009

The plan for the day was to drive to Spokane and interview for a contract position for a company based in Spokane. I would work from home with the position. The trip up to Spokane went just fine. The roads were good. I saw some snow flakes hitting when I was getting close to Spokane.

The interview lasted about thirty-five minutes. I went to get some pizza from Rocky Rococo’s downtown and then hit the road. But the snow was falling pretty good. The drive home went a little slower as people were driving a bit slower. The more South I got the more the snow was falling and sticking on the road. After I left Colfax it was really slow going. The traffic was backed up from Pullman to near Shawnee road. That really slowed me down. I took the Albion road to cut off the traffic.

I got home and got my uniform on and went to fire station. I got the minivan ready to go and waited for Walker. We went to Beasley and worked the men’s basketball game. The Cougs were playing in their first regular season game and they won it pretty easily, but they didn’t look great. It was a win all the same.

Just before six o’clock the tones went off for a rollover accident with extrication required. Rescue rolled on it. One of the people from the accident needed to get to Spokane. But Spokane had no beds, so we ended up needing to go to Kootenai Medical Center.

I got a call from Foster to see if I could drive. I said I was at the basketball game, but if it could wait until the game was done I would drive. I was told it needed to go out now. I was told he could call a couple others. When no one was able to do it, he called me back to see if Heston was good with me going out now and leaving only one at the game. It was nearly over, so that was okay with Heston.

I went to the station and we grabbed the ambulance and hit the road. It took about thirty minutes to get the transfer moved to our cot and to get going. It was a code run. It was one-hundred-and-three miles. The roads were in bad shape until I got close to Spokane. It was slow going at time. I was really concentrating on making sure we got there safely. Then on I-Ninety the road was fine. We were able to cruise along there very well. This was my longest overall code run and the longest on a multiple lane highway.

We didn’t get back to Pullman and back in service until almost four-thirty in the morning. I didn’t get to bed until five in the morning. I was not going to get a lot of sleep tonight.

Come From Behind Victory

September 19th, 2009

This morning I got up early to help with making the meal for the football game today. I got to the fire station and helped with the final aspects of the meal. I was sort of tired from not getting a lot of sleep last night.

We had burritos. It was a good meal. Then we made our way to the stadium. I was working North One. It was a slow and boring game, quite frankly. I was not impressed with the ability of the defense to stop SMU. The offense was lackluster. It just was ugly. By the fourth quarter a lot of the people had left the game. But the Cougs had run two interceptions back for touchdowns.

Then with minutes to go in the game the Cougs got the ball back and had a chance to tie it up. By this time more people started to come back to the stadium. Soon the Cougs scored and got the PAT. Now we are tied and it went to overtime. On the first play SMU threw an interception in the endzone.

We went out there and ran the ball a couple times. A fieldgoal was attempted and made. We won the game and a lot of fans ran on the field. They were excited about the come-from-behind victory. It was funny to think we would storm the field after beating SMU, but I think the way we won caused great excitement.

When the game was done we went back to the station and got everything taken care of.

I went home and decided to lay down on my bed for a while. Without a doubt I knew I would fall asleep. I did and didn’t wake up until five in the morning. I was tired.

Potlatch Softball Tournament

September 12th, 2009

I played in a co-ed softball tournament in Potlatch with Zeppoz. I got up there around eight-thirty in the morning. The first game was at nine. It was a fun little tournament. It was not sanctioned so we were able to use whatever bats we wanted. But the fields was so small we really didn’t want to be hitting the ball out all the time.

I played firstbase and was the EH for the majority of the day. Between games we had some breaks where we hung out chatting and we played some cribbage. It was having a good time hanging out with the team.

We played a total of four games including the championship game that we ended up losing. So we were second place in that tournament. But I had a good time playing ball and it was a nice way to spend the afternoon.

There were no umpires so I got to be the umpire in a couple games as well. I did a good job, but one person was unhappy about my strikezone when she was hitting. Oh well.

After the games I listened to the end of the Cougar Football game. The Cougs ended up losing the game. That pretty much sucked.

I went home had some pizza and watched TV before getting to bed early enough to be up early for EVOC tomorrow morning.

I Was Too Whimpy

September 5th, 2009

Today is the Cougars’ season opener for football. This is the first year I have not been eager about the football season. That dates back to the loss of the no-shutout streak the Cougs had. It had dated back to eighty-four. I am bitter over that being lost, so I haven’t been able to get overly excited about this season. We did better against Stanford than last season, but I didn’t care.

I watched the Cougar game on TV until I had to leave to go to Bothell for Justin’s football game. I put in Ballard High School in the GPS. I hit the road. I got on to the five-twenty bridge. Just after the last exit I realized that I had put in Ballard instead of Bothell. So I had to go across the bridge and back to get on the correct route. Justin’s team won. Jon is the first year coach. This is the first win for the team. They were winless last season.

On the way back from Bothell I had texted back and forth with Peter. I was thinking I could meet up with him. I went to his place and we sat down and talked. Just like the times before. We talked politics. We agree on things, but we always find a way to argue our points and make fun of the other person.

I wanted to ask him point blank what happened to us back in the day. But I wasn’t able to muster up the courage to bring up the subject. I was mad at myself for being a whimp about it. I want to know the answer, but I am not sure the best way to bring it up. A couple times I wanted to ask, but I never did.

When I left I was on the way home and I was mad at myself thinking about how I could have brought it up. I think the way I can do it is to ask him, “What happened at the beginning of your sophomore year?” That will start off the conversation. I need to know how I went from someone who hung out with him daily to someone he acted like didn’t exist. We went from best friends to people who never saw each other. It was all on him though, because I still tried. He even admitted on his twenty-first birthday that he was being an “ass” to me.

The Cougs Couged-It

February 14th, 2009

This morning I got working on my laundry and I was going to wash my car, but due to doing a repair on my hose I couldn’t do it. I swept the garage out and made the measurements to build a shelf for the back of the rig to make better use of storage for my rig.

I went to Rich’s house to help him with his computer. There was a problem with the DVD drives not being recognized. I spent some time doing some troubleshooting to find the problem. With some searching online I did find a possible solution. We had some lunch and then I did the solution I found. It worked and I was on my way to the station.

I was working the basketball game. I was excited to both work it and get to see the game. The Cougs unfortunately had a nice lead, but lost it towards the end of the game to lose it. That really sucked. We should have won the game.

Following it the game we went back to the station. I fueled up the rig and went home. It wasn’t long before we were called out for a call-back due to multiple calls going on at once. I went to the station and I was there for almost two hours until enough workers were back in service to bring the numbers up to the minimum staffing levels.

Mr. President

January 10th, 2009

This morning the first thing we did in class was vote for the class president. I wanted to be the class president. There were two possible candidates that most likely would have been voted for. Myself and one other guy who works in the jail right now. He also would have been a very fine pic. But it is something I want to do. The vote was held by Ross putting out the ballots. When the counting was done it was nearly unanimous. I am now the Ought-Eight Reserve class President. You can just call me Mr. President.

When I got home I contacted Dan. He was taking me to the WSU Cougar Basketball game. The cougs were playing against Stanford. I spent some time talking with KStew about softball. I also spent some time talking with the guys from the FD. Then I made my way to my seat.

The Cougs kept the game close the whole way. Then as the game was going down the stretch we were in a battle back and forth for the lead. Finally Thompson made a dunk over one of the Stanford players. That caused the whole team and crowd to go nuts. That seemed to be the big turning point. It was at that point the Cougs seemed to really know that it was our game. The Cougs went on to win. It was the first Pac-Ten win.

Ten OT Hours

January 3rd, 2009

The plans of the day were simple. Go to the Cougar Basketball game. But I did more than just that. I got home from the fire department. I kept my uniform because I was going to have to go to the Deuce to head to the basketball game and I didn’t want to drive all the way down town just for the uniform later on.

When I got home I did some plowing of the driveway and sidewalk. It was pretty cold outside while I was doing that. A neighbor asked if I could do a portion of her driveway where the road plow had deposited some heavy snow chunks.

I went to the Dodge dealer to get my new antenna for my rig. The old one was slightly damaged. I also found out how I could fix it from being unpluged. The coax cable that goes from the radio to the antenna was unplugged and I had to plug it in, but the area where it was unplugged was too tight to get most tools, let alone my hands in. I also found out the traction control that my ought-seven Durango had was also in the ought-five and ought-six, but not the ought-four. So I am thinking about upgrading to an ought-five. But I just don’t know if I want to take on the new debt load. I may wait it out a little bit until the prices get a little better.

I went home and got the antenna on my rig fixed and now I have a radio that gets more than ZFun. I started to get ready for the basketball game. I wanted to get to the station early and get the van started, warmed up, and the snow taken care of.

I met up with Turpin, Robinson, Walker, and Pauly down at the Deuce and we headed to Beasley. The first half of the game between the Cougs and Huskies was good. We lead most of the way, but went into half down two points. That is as close as it would get. Coming out of the first half we couldn’t score and they couldn’t miss. The Cougs really let it get out of hand and we ended up losing by around twenty points.

After the game we were heading back and the tones went out for a backfill of the station. I called in on that. I went to station one and worked there for five hours while the guys did a transfer to Spokane.

John was doing an OT shift so he made dinner for everyone and invited me to have some. It was homemade lasagna, his wife made it. It was good. We also had garlic bread. After dinner I helped to clean up and I did the hand dishes, but there wasn’t much to do.

John, Chia, and I played some poker for about four hours. We had a lot of fun making fun of each other and pushing money around. At the end of the night John was even, I was up six bucks and Chia was down six.

Worked An Event

November 2nd, 2008

I did some studying of the stuff for the reserve academy with Jessie. She came over and we went over a lot of the slides as well as the objectives of learning to see how well we knew everything.

We did our studying until around four. Then I had to head off to the fire department to get ready to work a basketball game for Beasley. The women’s team was playing an exhibition game against a team from Australia. The other team had high school students on it. Our women’s did well and beat them.

During the game I spent a lot of time reading and studying for my reserve academy.

The End of an Era

October 18th, 2008

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

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

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

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

Long Busy Day and Night

October 4th, 2008

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Another Cougar Downer

September 27th, 2008

I got up this morning to a phone call and decided to stay up. I got cleaned up and grabbed some breakfast. I got a hold of Bien and he gave me a ride to my car downtown. I also talked to Dearth. He was going to get cleaned up and then we were going to meet up and head to Tyson’s trailer.

I parked just off of campus and waited for Dearth. Him and a friend of his picked me up and we drove out to Tyson’s trailer. We were playing beer pong and having some ribs that Dearth grilled up. A while before the game we walked to the parking lot near the vet building to see Wehrung. The guys were happy to see him. We talked for a bit. He handed me a flask and said “here Probie”.

We went back to Tyson’s trailer and got ready to walk back for the game. We made our way to some seats under the scoreboard in the endzone. Within now time the Cougs were down two touchdowns.

The game went down hill from there. We did score two touchdowns along the way. Bien, Dearth, and the girls left at half time. I stayed until the end of the game. When the game was done I got my car and went home. I grabbed something to eat real quick and drove out to Tyson’s camp. They were playing some beer pong again.

I continued being a designated driver for the night. I took McPherson, Bien and the girls to Mike’s. I went back to the camp. We sat around a little fire talking and chowing a little bit. Dearth started to fall asleep so he had be give him a ride to the place he was staying.

I said goodbye to Tyson and left. I went to Mike’s and worked on finding Bien. When I got there I ran into Faber. It took a while to work my way downstairs. Finally when I was there I looked around the dance floor and found him. It was really crowded down there. I made my way up to him letting him know I was going to have to head home for the night. I was very tired and I wanted to get to sleep.

First Cougar Win

September 20th, 2008

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

Bien’s Going Away Dinner

April 11th, 2008

The plans for the morning after working out was to do the call with NU and work on my Windows Home Server. The call lasted around thirty minutes. Windows Home Server took longer. At first the install was crapping out. Finally I got it to fully install and for it to connect to my desktop. I also got my laptop set up. I then put one more hard drive into the server. I have a total of three five-hundred GB hard drives in the system. I copied all the data from my external drive to the system and have it set up to do a redundancy. I believe that my data should be pretty well protected.

Wilcox and I went to get the new rescue and get it back in service. We had to pick it up and move the tools over. When we were at station one I was given a pair of leather fire boots. I am happy about that. From what I have been told they are lighter and more flexible to work in.

We went to the Deuce to start on the BBQ. Bien was running late. So when the food was ready he wasn’t there. But neither were the guys from station one because we started to get a couple calls when the dinner was supposed to be ready.

It turned out only the reserves were there without Bien. It was sort of funny that the dinner just wasn’t working out very well. I invited Heston to come down as well. He was going to work the baseball game until we could get a couple people up there to relieve him. Chipper and I ended up relieving him.

The Cougs were getting blown out by ASU. We were standing at the top watching the game and talking. Heston left after a little while. While we were there a foul ball came right at us. Chipper got out of the way really fast, I sort of leaned to the side. It hit less than a foot from where we were standing. It then bounced off the top of the brick wall and towards the crowd.

People saw us get out of the way and one guy was giving us a hard time that we were supposed to protect the people yet we were getting out of the way. I said that if the ball was on fire I would have run to it. He then said out loud to other in the crowd to give us a round of applause. As they clapped Chipper and I were a little embarrassed.

Following the game it was pretty dead. There were a couple EMS calls but nothing for the engine to do.

Better Weather for Softball

April 6th, 2008

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

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

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

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

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

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

Microsoft Launch Event

March 27th, 2008

Brandon, from Whitman Co IS, and I made our way to Spokane through the nasty roads due to the snow that fell over night. We were up there for the Microsoft Launch events. We got a neat lunch bag that had some food and is very nicely made. I really can see me getting use out of it in the future as well.

They also gave everyone a copy Visual Studio Two-Thousand and Eight, Sql Server and more. It was great. I will be installing it laptop soon.

Brandon and I walked to a nearby mall for lunch and then back to the event for the afternoon session. The afternoon event went until after the Cougar Basketball game started. They were playing UNC in the Sweet Sixteen. But after about the first fifteen minutes the game started to go down hill with UNC getting a lead we couldn’t catch up and lost the game.

Lots of Pullman Fire Activities

March 22nd, 2008

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Round One Down

March 20th, 2008

I had to go to the softball meeting for IM softball today. When the was done I went to My Office. I watched the Cougar game on TV. It was a great game in the second half for the Cougs. It was tied going into to the break. But then the Cougs went out there and started to really kick some butt.

After the game was done guys came down to meet up with me to sign the roster and pay for the team. I still have several other people to sign the roster. Many others also have to pay me still.

Out on the Bubble

March 2nd, 2008

This morning I worked a WSU Women’s basketball game with Wilcox. We didn’t really talk to each other much. But it has been like that forever. We really only have small talk conversations. The Cougs lost the game and ended up tenth place in the Pac-Ten.

When I got home I spent time working on cleaning my driveway and sidewalk of rocks and other debris. I had a ton of stuff on the driveway and it looks very nice now. I also got my laundry taken care of as well. It was a good day as far as that goes. But now I need to work on finishing up the garage. I have some clutter that is being built. With a nice day I could get out there and pound it out.

Later on I went to Zeppoz for the poker tournament. It was a new tournament structure. They made us do a ten dollar buy-in. A lot less people were there. I am sure it will build back up, but I was doing pretty good. I wasn’t really losing too much. I was maintaining for a long time. I did an add-on during that period and it was off to the eliminations.

I made it a long way. I finally started to get some hands and I was winning the hands I got. Then the dealers changed. My first hand was pocket-Kings. I didn’t get anyone to call my raise on the blinds. My next hand was pocket-Sevens. There was a raise pre-flop with four people going to the flop. The flop was Seven-Seven-Ten. I had quads. I was last to act. There were two checks. A minimum bet of one-thousand. I called. The other two folded. The turn came with a check from the person who bet. I bet one thousand and I got a call. Finally the river. Another check, I bet three-thousand. No call. So I didn’t have to show my hand. I threw it away.

But I started to get bled away as the blinds were so big. Pretty soon it was down to three. I was on the bubble with enough for the big blind. One caller. I have two-three. I was hosed. The other guy had King-Two. I was out of the tournament.

I had a good time. On the way home I treated myself to a Blizzard from Dairy Queen. I watched some TV and completed my laundry before going to bed.

EMT Class Help

March 1st, 2008

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Done Stewing

February 28th, 2008

I woke up this morning and started to think about what I was told last night by Chapman. I can say I was very mad about it last night. I stewed about it as I went to bed and I stewed more about it today.

Around ten in the morning I called the other person who was in the vehicle when the incident happened. He backed up what I believed had happened. So I was happy that I had remembered the situation correctly. That made me relax a little bit and enjoy the rest of the day.

We had a couple car accidents go out at the same time later in the afternoon. So I went to the station to help out but I ended up standing by with one because no one else showed up.

I had to be back at the station to meet with Turpin and Parrish about some training things that are going on. When that meeting was done I spoke with Turpin about some of the issues that were brought up with me about various things. I let Turpin know that I had made a mistake in letting a specific person to drive code. I think I misunderstood something from the training officer. I told him what I should have done in order for this mistake to not have happened.

Then I talked to Chapman some more about last night. I got a little bit more and confirmed what I had already understood about what had been said about me. By this time in the evening I was pretty calm and decided that it probably wouldn’t do any positive changes by bring it up with the person or anyone else. I felt that it was best if the whole thing was dropped and it just went away.

The whole drama thing just takes away the fun from the fire department. I just would like it to go away and for the business of being a firefighter and not a whiner would be in the forefront.

I watched the Cougs on TV with John at the station and we saw them crush Cal. I just wish they had done that last time they played.

EMT Extrication class

February 23rd, 2008

Started the day with Extrication class in Colfax. I got my turnouts from Colfax. My role was at photographer and as a trainer on some of the scenarios. I would set someone up in the car and help people with how to take them out of the car. Later on when we were cutting I mainly was taking the photos of everything. I ended up with more that four-hundred photos on the day.

I worked the Cougar Basketball game. We need to be able to beat Arizona, but we were not able to do it. I don’t know why we are having some of the problems this season that we didn’t last year.

It sucked to lose to them. That sort of put a damper on the day.

Grandpa Patterson Died

February 9th, 2008

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

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

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

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

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

It was a great time with them.

Another Loss, Not Good

February 7th, 2008

The Cougs should have beaten UCLA today, but that did not happen. It was sucky to watch as they could not get anything going. The shooting was poor. We couldn’t play great defense. We couldn’t score when it mattered. We went on to lose again.

I spent a lot of time on the phone today with Ricky trying to get my computer set up and running with the certs and receiving credit reports. This is a problem that until it is fixed I cannot do anything about fixing the issue in my inbox.

Another Cougar Loss

February 2nd, 2008

I worked the men’s basketball game today. I had to be at the station around ten in the morning. I had worked last night for the fire department, but it was pretty dead.

The Cougs didn’t do very well on the court. The first half they were rebounding well. They were making it look like Stanford would be going down. Then in the second half we couldn’t do anything to work towards a victory. We ended up losing by two. Taylor had a chance for a lay-up at the very end of the game, but missed it.

The evening I was going to be on call for C-Shift. I was looking forward to being on Rescue. We got calls steadily through out the night. I helped to find the cause of a fire alarm in a frat. Plus every time I went to bed, I would get woken up by the tones. We had calls to the point where I was up for every hour through out the night even though I had gone to bed twice.