Breakfast for Dinner

November 15th, 2010

It was a typical Monday at work.  I am working on my SQL scripts.  Now that they have been run I am working on data verification.  I am also building a toolset to automate the data verification later when we roll out for other zones.

I hit Fred Meyer’s for lunch.  They have a pretty good deli there. 

I kept was at work until just after seven o’clock PM when I went home.  My mom was just finishing dinner.  We were having breakfast for dinner.  It was very good.  I always like breakfast for dinner.  But I guess the choice was between that or pizza.  I love pizza, but I am okay with the decision that was made.

I watched House and then an interview with George W. Bush.  It was a very nice interview.  It is interesting to hear his thoughts and perspectives on why certain decisions were made during his presidency.  I am sure the hard c0re “open minded” liberals will never take Bush at face value.  They have their mind made up and there is nothing that can change the “open mind”.

Bruce’s Goodbye Party

November 14th, 2010

After getting up I worked on getting my stuff together so I could get back to Renton this evening.  I fueled up and ran a couple other errands before hitting Bruce’s house.  He invited a handful of people over for a steak and baked potato meal and football.  We watched the Seahawks and Cowboy’s game.  The Seahawks took it to Arizona and with St. Louis going down the Seahawks have sole possession of the NFC West.  JoeJoe, Web, and Pentico also were there.  The steak was good and we had a lot of good laughs.

Bruce is leaving with his family to New Mexico.  It is too bad we didn’t get to play softball this last IM season (due to fields being upgraded).  We ripped on each other and talked about the upcoming season of softball.

After being at Bruce’s I went to the fire station for our weekly rig checks.  We tore through the engine and rescue fixing problems and cleaning the bay.  I headed from the fire station to the sheriff’s office.  I needed to go through the October hours and get the spreadsheet updated.  While I was there I helped Sgt. Anderson with his presentation that he has coming up for the reserve academy.

I hit the road around nine in the evening and cruised on to Renton.  The drive over was pretty smooth.  A little fog in Whitman County and some rain as I got towards the pass and Issaquah.  I got in around one in the morning and got to bed.  I didn’t sleep well over the weekend and I am not going to get much sleep going into tomorrow either.

Back to Pullman

November 4th, 2010

Another week in Seattle out of the way.  I made my way to Pullman after I got done with work.  I went to Three Pigs for lunch with Jon and the normal Pig crew.

The trip over went pretty smoothly.  When I got home it was latish.  I watched Becker before heading off to bed.

Poker Tournament

October 23rd, 2010

I played in my second ever Washington State Poker Tour tournament.  I played a couple years ago and this time around I planned on doing better.  The field was smaller than the last time I played, but I knew many of the people there are good.

I won a couple smaller pots.  I got a full-house with one person in it with me.  I also lost a couple pots along the way.  But after the first break the re-buys ended and people did add-ons.  I hoped that I would start getting some cards to play with but I still wasn’t getting a lot of cards. 

Sitting around the room were lots of guys.  It is a guys only event.  There were a couple ten-six-sevens.  There was one at my table I was trying to figure out.  He wore a light weight coat the whole time we were there.  He had tats going down both arms.  I am not a big fan of lots of tats, but there was something that kept my attention.

I finally got dealt a K-Seven suited.  Two of the three cards that hit were of the same suit.  I also paired my King.  I checked to the guy who has raised pre-flop.  He bet and I went over the top all-in.  But it was only about double his original bet.  He called.  He had pocket Q’s to go with a Queen on the board.  He had a set to my pair.  I needed a heart to hit the board to allow me a victory.  It didn’t come and I was knocked out. 

I went to the cash that was starting up.  We were playing dealers choice.  The game was Crazy Pineapple.  I got a pair of Kings and a three pre-flop.  The three and one of the Kings were suited.  The flop came and we threw away some cards.  I threw away the three.  I was sitting on two pair.  The flop had a pair of eights.  One guy bet and I called.  Then the turn brought another eight.  He bet and I called.  The river came and he put me all in.  I had a good full-house.  But I couldn’t beat his quads.  That knocked me out.

I went to Redmond High School to watch Logan play is football game.  It was a night game.  They lost.  I headed home and went to see a movie.  I chose to see The Other Guys.  It was pretty funny.  The theatre on the West Valley Highway only charges three bucks.  The ticket taker was ten-six-seven.  As I walked up he caught my eye.  He was wheelchair bound and very friendly to talk to.  I wanted to stick around and talk to him some more.  I guess that is a second reason to go to that theatre…  the other being really cheap.

Long Work Day

October 21st, 2010

Because of the lack of hours I put in over the first three days this week I want to put in two ten hour days in order to get a forty hour work week.  I got into the office after nine.  I worked on a new project I have been assigned.  I need to write some code to do some file uploads and database saves.

I had lunch at Three Pigs with Jon and the guys.  After that I was back at the office working until nearly nine-forty.  It only took about twenty minutes to drive home.  That was nice. 

I pretty much had some dinner and watched a tiny bit of TV before heading off to bed.

Road Trip with Gollnick

October 20th, 2010

The other day John asked if anyone was going to Seattle soon.  I told him I was.  So we arranged for him to come to Seattle with me tonight.

I spent much of the day during work on the SQL migration scripts for transforming data to move to a new database.  I got some stuff done around the house before heading out.  I am going to be gone until next weekend.

I picked up John after eight and we headed for the Seattle-area.  It was a nice drive. We were able to talk shop and visit.  John said it was a nice fast trip without having to stop all the time like he does when traveling with his kids.  I got home a little after one in the morning and pretty much went right to bed.

Training in the Audian.

October 18th, 2010

This evening I had fire training.  We were doing firefighter survival training in the old Audian movie theatre.  We did one scenerio where we crawled around the main theatre room.  There are no seats in there now.  We were placed away from each other.  We had to find our partners and then crawl to safety.

The second one we had to use the hose to find our way out of the building.  When we were done I went to the movie theatre to watch Jackass Three-D with BKoe, the Khurt’s, and Burkett’s.  We were going to have a beer, but I didn’t get done with training in time to do that.  Jackass was very funny!

BKoe’s Birthday Celebration

August 22nd, 2010

I spent much of the afternoon watching some TV. I was trying to get my DVR emptied. Around six o’clock I went to Zeppoz. BKoe was celebrating his quarter century birthday. We bowled a couple games. I did alright. By the last game I getting the highest score. While bowling we were buying BKoe lots of shots. I got him something that I thought would be gross. I got Jager and Goldschlauger in a shot mixed together. Then I got him an Everclear chaser. He didn’t think the gross shot was that gross. Maybe his taste buds were already shot.

I did an HGN on him and he was showing the effects pretty obviously. I videoed it so he could see it for himself.

When we left I watched some more TV trying to burn through more of the shows. I also started to watch a couple episodes of QaF. It has been showing on Logo. But they are doing some editing. It is not in its full effect that it was while it was on Showtime. But it is fun to relive it.

Another Dead Day with BWil

July 30th, 2010

This morning I started working at the fire station in Colfax. It was my third straight morning there. It was only going to be half a day because I am also working the road this evening. I have BWil riding with me.

While we were having lunch we got a call for motorcycle accident. I went out on it with the ambulance. We ended up transporting. I got back just before two when I was supposed to meet with BWil. I got my uniform on and I met up with Brandon. We washed my car and then hit the road.

We hit dinner with Matt and Kelly at McDonalds. I was working on getting some of my cases closed. They were getting to McDonalds so we had to hurry down there. When we walked in they got up and started to walk away. I knew they would do something like that. They laughed and sat back down. We talked about the temp position with WSU PD. I still have not heard back from the PD. I have no idea how I am doing with the process. But based on the fact I have not heard back I think I am out of the running.

It was pretty quiet overall. We did a lot of patrolling on the county roads. I hit Hole In The Ground and Kackman roads. Nothing at all was found. It is sometimes nice to have a rider. We spent time talking about laws surrounding searching. It was nice to have someone to chat with.

Colfax Fire Day Two

July 29th, 2010

I started off the morning with a call that came out five minutes before shift change. We went to the EMS call at Whitman Health and Rehab. When it was done I got back to the station and restocked the EMS bag. Then I worked on doing rig checks on Eleven Zero Three. I also went over some more stuff with Tim.

I spent time on the phone with Jon and my mom about the job offer. I was getting their thoughts on the whole thing. I am still not sure what would be best. I am going to be working a job that will not be helpful with me financially. My mom said that she would be willing to help me out. She offered to buy my house and that I could pay her back. Because of the rates she is getting on her money she said that if she were to have me pay her the same rate she would get from the bank she is getting in interest. She is getting less than two percent. Meaning my rates would be low and it would make it easier for me to make the payments.

I ran one fire alarm with Tim. It was at the Shabby Abby apartments. It was a cooking issue. We reset the alarm and headed back. We had lunch with Bryce. We ordered a pizza. For dinner we had lasagna and garlic bread.

I contacted Chris telling her I still didn’t know what I wanted to do. She suggested that I take the weekend to think it over.

A Week of Work

July 13th, 2010

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Family Reunion in North Dakota

June 14th, 2010

There were not a lot of posts for the month fo June.  Looking back I don’t even know what all the issues were, but I wanted to get caught up on the month.

I went on a trip to North Dakota for a couple days.  Jon and I met up in Salt Lake City and flew into North Dakota.  We were there for a family reunion.  We started the night by going out to dinner as a large group.  Jon and I checked into our hotel room and spent a lot of time with Grandma Anderson.  We played card games and just hung around talking.  Larry, Dale, and Karen were all there.  On Saturday we went to Makoti for the actual family reunion.  We saw the place where grandma and grandpa Anderson grew up.  Makoti is a small town in North Dakota a ways from Minot.

While there Jon and I saw our uncle Wayne and cousin Tom and Sheila.  One night we went to a couple of bars with them.  It was great to see the family.  We went to the Mouse River where Tom has a place where he stays on weekends.

After we were done there we went to some races.  The track in Minot was under re-construction.  We had to drive to another town.  Sitting in the stands there was a ten-six-seven sitting next to me.  He had the most piercing blue eyes.  I could not stop looking his way.  I cannot believe I wasn’t caught watching him.  His eyes were absolutely incredible.  Just incredible blue.

I had a great tim seeing family in North Dakota.

Good Day on the Course

June 6th, 2010

I played golf this morning with Ron, Joe, and Mitz. Ron and I were on one team. The team who got the best score on a hole won that hole. There were no hold-over holes, so you only earn one point per hole, if someone won it. Ron and I ended up winning by one or two.

My drives were going great. I had several great chip shots as well. I only had one bad drive the whole day. I was only doing about seventy percent swings and it made all the difference in the world. I had a great round. We finished up around two and I went home and relaxed for a while. I was going to meet the guys at Zeppoz before this evening’s softball game. Cougar Country is playing Zeppoz.

I went to Zeppoz about two hours before game time. I had some pop and chatted with everyone up there. We headed down to the City Playfields about thirty minutes before game time.

We scored the first two innings holding them from scoring. But then they scored five to go up by two runs. They tacked one more here and there. We tacked a couple runs on. But we ended up losing by one run again. In games with the other two A-League teams we lost by one run. We just need a couple timely hits.

Following the game I went to Cougar Country for dinner and home to watch my Sunday night TV shows.

Whoa is Me

May 28th, 2010

The only plans I had today was to go out with Chia and go to bed early because I am working at the SO tomorrow. I took a little nap around four o’clock because I was pretty tired. At around five-thirty I got a text message. It was one I was halfway expecting. Sure enough Chia was backing out. So I was pretty disappointed. I don’t get to go out very often. I was excited to go out and hang out with someone, another thing I don’t get to do very often… And it doesn’t happen. I wanted to get some dinner, but I had no idea what I wanted. So I went to Dairy Queen and overate.

I think lately I have been eating very poorly. I need to get control of myself, but my stress level is very high. Not getting the fire job, my savings getting low, unemployment ending, being a mo, and no close friends nearby have weighed me down. If there was ever someone who would be a candidate for ending it all, you would think the above would be good reasons. But that is a long-term solution to a short-term problem. I look at others who kill themselves and it is such an irrational decision. Many times if those people waited for a bit thing would get better.

Also there is the fact that there are things to live for. There are many people who have it way worse. I must count my blessings. I still have reasonable health. I have a house, car, truck, motorcycle, quad, motorhome, and more. There is nothing to complain about. I also have softball. Too bad it is not held more often. Well, the whoa is me is over with.

I went to bed around nine-thirty and spent the next four hours trying to get to sleep. I was tossing and turning trying to forget about everything that has happened over the last few weeks.

Indian Jail Birthday Theme

May 21st, 2010

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

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

Special Day at the Pigs

May 18th, 2010

I went to lunch at the Three Pigs with Jon, Terry, and Jim. Normally they go Thursday’s but today was a special day because I was in town.

The boys had some playoff baseball games tonight. I went to Justin’s game. Jon is one of the coaches of the team. I watched several innings of the game. Then I left to go home and work on some of the code that I needed to bring in to the interview that I have tomorrow. After I was done making sure it was clean I sent it to Jon to have him look at it. He said it looked good. I packaged it up and put it on my thumb drive ready for tomorrow’s interview.

Job Interviews

May 17th, 2010

I drove to Seattle late night so I could go to a couple job interviews today. The first one was at Microsoft. It would be working for one company and then getting sent to be part of a team doing work for Microsoft. This was the technical portion of the interview. It didn’t got too great. The question was about lists and array’s. I just don’t do them enough to be able to discuss them very well. When it was all said and done the interviewer spent most of the time at the white board writing stuff and I ended up writing two words. I haven’t heard back from them yet. I doubt I will.

The next interview was with a company in downtown Seattle. It was for a company that has an ecommerce website. The guy who does it now is a Brit. As the interview went on I started to see him as hotter and hotter. His accent was just great to listen to. Then it was his hair. I just wanted to stay talking to him. But it was not to be. The interview ended. I just wanted to stay though because the more I talked to him the more attractive I was finding him. The style he did was fun. He showed a simple webpage that had some calculator functions.

In the evening I was watching House. While that was on I texted back and forth with Peter a little bit. Then I talked to Russell. He was in Bellevue. We met up there and caught up. When I showed up he ran out to meet me and gave me a hug. We went inside and talked. He was telling me about his schooling and the networking that he is doing. We went to my rig and continued to talk for about another hour. I was telling him about my situation with the job interviews and my situation at Pullman Fire and my long term livelihood in Pullman. I let him know that I am resigned to the fact that I will be moving back to Seattle soon.

Final Thunder Football Game

May 15th, 2010

This morning I did the first thing with the SO in the last couple weeks. We had boat patrol training. We were learning how to do the boat safety inspections and did some driving of the boat. That was from eight to eleven. I headed home and took a nap because I was really tired. We always have those sleep-deprived nights at the fire department when I am not able to sleep in the next day.

I then headed down to Lapwai for the final Thunder game of the season. There were only fourteen people for the Thunder. I said I should have brought my uniform. But there is no way I could have played. My ankle was not feeling well at all. They were out-manned and it was bad. They were tired and lost the game. I got to the top of the Lewiston grade when I realized I left my sunglasses in the PA booth. So I drove back to Lapwai and picked them up.

Then I went home and called Shane about his house warming party. I went over to his place. Kuhrt, BKoe, and some others were there. I had some pop and we sat around talking for several hours. Then a lot of them got into the hot tub. I hung out there for a while longer, then I went home to go to bed and get some sleep. I was pretty tired after the last day and a half.

Dealing with Crushing News

May 9th, 2010

Hard to think of anything about today other than the letter I received. I started out today up the tower working on doing EVAP check offs for the new guys.

I headed home and stopped to get my mail. There was a letter from the city of Pullman. Right away I knew what it was. I wasn’t selected to be a career guy. It felt like a kick in the gut. I didn’t feel like doing a lot, but I have to keep on.

I went to softball, but I went early. So many things are flying through my head I just need something to take me away from the overwhelming sense of rejection and failure. I wasn’t sure how to deal with this. But I do know is that quitting is not the correct option.

We played against Bill’s Welding in softball. We beat them. I did my normal stuff at softball. When we left I let Heston know I got the letter. I wanted him to know that I knew I didn’t get the job and that I was still the guy I normally am.

I did however find someone to cover me at the fire department. I needed to be away from it for a while. I talked to Turpin at the fire station for a little while and then on to the house. I had a couple beers and talked with BKoe for a while about it. We had some friends come over and played Settlers of Catan. It felt good to get my mind off of everything. What I need to distance from the whole things. Dwelling on it and yelling about it will not change it. I have to come to terms with it and then move on. As hard as it is, I need to do this.

I talked to Ryan on the phone about it for a while. He is the first friend I told I didn’t get the job. I let a couple others know after him. I also called my mom and wished her a happy Mother’s Day. I let her know I didn’t get the job.

That is what I am doing. I am not a big drinker and I am not one who needs to use alcohol when things go bad. For the most part I hardly touch the stuff. But tonight was a night I just wanted to sit in the backyard. Listen to some music. Sip on a cold one and just let me mind go.

I did that for the most part, but BKoe was there and I was able to get some things off my chest. That is what I need more than anything. It is good to get things off my chest.

The Day in Spokane

May 7th, 2010

I got up and made it to the fire station to head to Spokane for a goodbye party for Pritch. He is going to a new fire department. We went to Northern Quest Casino first. We played craps for a while. I don’t know much about it, but I did okay at first and ended up losing eighty bucks in my learning how to play it.

We grabbed some lunch and went over to El Patio. It is a hole in the wall kind of place the guys like. We played some pool and shuffelboard. We hung out there for a couple hours. Then it was off to Stateline. We watched the performers and it was a good time. Not really the kind of place a Mo hangs out, but I had a good time. While there I found some eye candy for me to watch. It gave something for everyone to watch. He wasn’t there all that long, but it was weird, it looked like he was there with his dad and grandpa. I wouldn’t want to go to a place like that with my family like that. At one point someone pulled up his shirt. That, of course, didn’t bother me. It was simply more eye candy for me.

We left around six to get back to Pullman in time for me to be at the fire station by eigth o’clock PM. I drove back Richards’ truck and Chia was with me. Today was good with him. After a little bit of time it was like we were back to normal. I am glad I wrote him the message the other day. It made for a better day today. I had a good time hanging out with him and the others.

Chia and I had a good talk on the way back and spent time talking about the sheriff”s office and his interest in being a reserve. I think it would be cool for him to join up.

When I got home and I went to the Deuce. I was talking to Chuck and Pauly. They were giving me a hard time about knowing if I got the job and I told them I didn’t know. They thought I knew but was told not to tell anyone. But they did not believe me in the slightest. The funny thing is no one believes me. I was asking them how long after the interview they found out. I have heard people say anything from an hour after the interview to a week later. So I am not sure what to think. I wish I knew.

But I have been thinking about it. I am not sure if I will stay a reserve past this month. If I get the job that I will leave the reserves to be full-time. If I don’t get the job part of me would think it would be time to leave the reserve program. Just on principle alone. I wouldn’t be very happy to continue to be there if I was not hired. But if the decision is based only on the interview and nothing more, it could be bad for me. Only time will tell. Needless to say I am not feeling good about things right now.

So today was good because I had a good time with the guys in Spokane and I had a chance to be with Chia and get past things, but I am pretty stressed about not knowing what the future holds. But as I always say, thing happen for a reason. If I don’t get the job it will be for a reason. Only time will tell.

In a Off Mood

May 5th, 2010

Due to the bad interview at the fire station that I wrote about earlier, some of my issues with the SO, and the stuff that happened with Chia yesterday I have not been in a great mood. While at the jail I wasn’t taking a bunch of the whining that I normally hear. This time if someone was complaining or whining about something I put an end to it. That is what happened at dinner. Someone was complaining about the portions they got at dinner. I put an end to it. The next round my partner said the inmates were saying I was not very nice. I guess sometimes it sucks being in jail.

I just was in a dumpy mood. I didn’t feel like taking much of anything. Doing the work there from time to time would take my mind off things. I wish I was in a better mood. Normally I am in a good mood, it was just not a good day for me.

When I got home I spent some time writing a message to Chia on facebook. I let him know I was sorry. I let him know that yesterday was not a good day and I just needed to think and that is why I wasn’t wanting to talk. I felt bad because Chia is a good person.

More Firearms Training

April 23rd, 2010

I headed down to the Renton Fish and Game Club for Marine Patrol training. We were doing our annual firearms familiarization. We shot the AR-Fifteen and Glock forty calibre. There is something about doing target practice that is fun. As you would expect, the more you do it, the better you are at it. I shot pretty well. We were there until about three o’clock.

I went home and hung out. I came close to taking a nap, but I didn’t. I watched some TV and had some dinner.

I went down to Jon’s and picked him up and then to a poker game. It is the monthly game they have in his neighborhood. I was playing well. I ended up winning eighty bucks. I got a Q-A in one hand and the flop was Q-Q-Q. I won that hand.

I had a couple other big hands. On one hand I made big bets making someone believe I had a good hand. On the river I bet the max amount., He folded. I was on a total bluff. I rarely do it, but this time I planned on doing it and it worked.

Early Playoff’s Exit

April 19th, 2010

I went to the SO to do paperwork. I went in uniform in case I needed to hit the road. I never did. I completed my warrant and got it turned in. It was the first warrant I wrote up myself. I got it and served it.

I also had other paperwork I had to do as well. I spent hours doing paperwork, plus I had to do some time in court.

I went home to get ready for softball. It was the playoffs and I was planning on going a long way in the playoffs. We were playing against Connor’s team. But that didn’t turn out too well. We threw the ball around a lot and let runs score. We couldn’t hit the ball to save our lives and we ended up losing the game. I was very disappointed. I was expecting so much more. But it just wasn’t to be.

I got Victor to cover the remainder of my shift and I went to Matt’s. We played Scene It and hung out. BKoe came with me. Eric was there as well as Erin. It was a fun time. We left around two in the morning.

First Citizen Rider

April 9th, 2010

This evening I was going to have my first citizen rider. I am very excited about that. I went out on the road around three in the afternoon. I did an hour in Albion. Then I picked up my rider. We went to McDonald’s for dinner with Matt K. and Shane. After dinner we went through Albion again. We talked to K. Stew about a couple Intern related things and K. Stew encouraged me to apply for the WSU police job. I had put in my application already. I spent a couple hours working on that.

We went to the SO and I washed my car. Then we headed out SR Twenty-Six. I got someone doing nineteen over just outside of town. I stopped the car and smelled drugs. So I ended up getting an arrest. We then hit a lot of county roads going through some smaller town. I got a call for service around midnight for a welfare check.

When I was headed to drop Eric off at his house we saw Rick. He asked us to come and help bring the Peace Keeper to Pullman. Some stuff happened up there that caused the cops some concern that it could get out of hand. So they figured having it close to Pullman would be a good thing. I got to bed around four in the morning.

It Has Been A While

April 8th, 2010

I got a text from Chia asking if I was going to the pancake breakfast. I told him no. I don’t like some of the politics behind it and choose not to participate in it. I have not done it since it has been done by the guys at the PFD. He then asked how things have been going because it has been a long time. I didn’t respond. Partly because I kept getting busy and just never returned a text. At the time I got it I was in a really bad mood. I don’t know what I would have said if I responded when he first got a hold of me. But as the night went along I started to get in a much better mood.

I worked at the jail. I was there for a while before heading for the reserve meeting. It was a short one because we were doing our monthly training on Saturday at the gun range.

I went back to the jail and finished out the shift there. Then I went down stairs and started on the road. Broadfoot was out there too. We were stopping cars for six over doing an emphasis on speeding. We were letting people know that even six or seven over is still speeding and they need to watch their speed.

It is interesting, it seems like I would send messages to Chia and it was like I always got a lukewarm reception. Ever since leaving my full-time gig at the PFD many of the full-time guys have drifted away from me. I use to get invited to lots of things now I don’t get invited anymore. One guy, Tim, who I wasn’t all that close to before doing full-time is one of the ones who I seem to talk to the most. The last few times I did anything with them it was because I would send a text to someone and I would get a response that they were out somewhere I should come by. But they were already there and I was an afterthought.

There is a divide between the career and reserves and now that I am on the other side I am not one of them anymore. I am probably being a big of a whiner and being passive aggressive about things. But up until Chia asked if I was going to the pancake feed I haven’t gotten a text from in a month.

Something About the Fauxhawk

March 15th, 2010

I drove up to Liberty Lake for a job interview. This was a follow-up to the test they had me drive up to do a couple weeks ago. I got a late start and I had to push it to get there on time. I pulled into the parking lot right at the time for the appointment. I interviewed with one guy. The nice thing is he was ten-six-seven. Something about the fauxhawk and the barley visible goatee, but the obvious soul patch. I had something worth looking at. But the interview itself went about twenty minutes. I pretty much told him what was on my resume, which was sitting in front of him, and he told me the same stuff I was told on a previous phone call. The point is it was pointless. Also based on the rate of pay, I am not going to be able to take the job. The pay rate is just too low.

After the interview I got some pizza from Rocky Racoco’s and went to Ryan’s house. We watched the Simpson’s and Family Guy. I played with Zoey a little bit.

I hit the road and make my way back to Colfax to hit the road. I got a call to St. John early on for a vandalism call. I went and took care of that. Then it was out to Endicott. I was there for a couple hours in total. I got a chance to learn the streets of the town a lot better and I drove around on them multiple times. I went off duty around midnight because I was going to have to get up early again to take my rig to Kendall Dodge. I am getting bored of bring it down all the time.

Playing Ball with Ben

March 7th, 2010

I had a chance to play softball with Ben this afternoon. It was great to get out and play ball with him. It has been several years since we were able to hit the softball field together.

Our practice/scrimmage lasted almost two hours. This is the third week that we have scrimmaged a team that Steven knows. We pretty much destroy them from week to week. This week after the second inning we started to give them six outs per inning to give them a chance to do more batting practice. I hit the ball pretty well. Also I got a chance to see our new pitcher, Brandon, in action. He is a friend of Ben’s.

Keith’s House Warming

February 19th, 2010

I slept in this morning a little bit which was nice. I have been getting up at eleven to noon daily over the last few weeks. It is a dramatic change from getting up at eight o’clock daily.

I was all ready to go already so I just loaded up and headed to the SO. I had to write up two tickets I issued last night. Then I was off to Keith’s house for his house warming party.

The drive over wasn’t too bad, but once I hit the Seattle area it slowed down. It was five o’clock in the evening.

I got to Keith’s around six o’clock. I hung out playing with Apollo and chatting until people started arriving around seven.

As people arrived we hung out in the kitchen talking. Anton was talking about being a police officer. We talked about that for a while. Other showed up and we ate then started to play video games. It was a good time hanging out with Keith. I really like hanging out with him.

As I was driving over I was thinking more about my future. I am really enjoying being a cop. I have put in a lot of hours over the last two weeks since being first class.

I have been thinking more about being a cop and getting out of the other things I do. I have sort of gotten bored with the typical natural deaths we deal with as well as the drunk college students. Maybe it there were more fires I would be more excited about firefighting, but lately it had been SSDD. I am looking for more variety. But I wonder if police work will become boring to me at some point too.

I have thought about getting my ankle taken care of and then doing a lot of working out in order to be able to easily pass the physical agility test for being a cop, then applying at places on the West side where the pay can be as high as eighty grand a year, after five years. That is something I could live on. That would be a huge change in my life, moving from Pullman and doing only one job. But I know I could get on some softball teams over here so I would have that going for me.

I haven’t told anyone else about these thoughts, but I am going to explore them and see how things go with the career job at the fire department. I know if I did that I wouldn’t be the next coroner of Whitman County, but I feel like being a cop. That has been something I wanted to do for a long long time.

Another Night on the Road

February 17th, 2010

I got my bi-weekly column created and sent in to the Daily News. This week was about the death of the police officers and the shooting of them in the Puget Sound region since last October.

After I was doing getting that completed and sent it, I headed to Colfax to work the road. I got a message from BKunz who said he was going to be coming through Pullman today and wanted to see if I wanted to meet up. Of course I did.

I got some papers and started to serve those. I had one in Colfax, one in Endicott, one in Colton, and finally one in Pullman. I got them all attempted or served until the Pullman one. I met up with Brandon before I attempted to serve it.

He came in the area to help a cousin move to Lewiston. So we had dinner together. He looks as good as he always has. He is such a genuine and nice person. I met him about sixteen years ago when he was a freshman at WSU. He was my next door neighbor. We played softball together as well as other things. As it turned out, later in life we shared the passion for firefighting. He is now a full-time firefighter.

It was very nice to see him in person and hang out with him for a while. I hope this softball season we will get a chance to play together at least once.

Following dinner with Brandon I did my final paper service. Then I hit the road going various places. It was pretty relaxing.

When I was done for the night I went to the SO to complete my paperwork. Dan and Bryce were there. We talked about the Cougs for a while. I headed out after getting most of my paperwork done.

Summer Softball Meeting

February 14th, 2010

I had a meeting with some of the guys for this upcoming seasons’ summer softball team. We met at Zeppoz at noon for that. We talked about the players we would have and that we want to play in a lot of tournaments.

After the meeting Christopher and I stayed up there and bowled two games. It was fun to hang out with him. He plays on my IM team and will be on the team is summer as well. I am excited to get out there and play some ball. The bowling went well for Christopher. I did my normal thing. I had some good frames and a lot of missed opportunities.

After bowling I went home and got my uniform on for working the road. I went to the SO and wrote a supplemental report for the search warrant. I hung out in the office for a couple hours helping out there. Then I went to the hospital for an Inmate who was taken there. I was at the hospital for just under two hours.

I went to Subway and got dinner and then I hit the road. I really only had just over two hours to go play. I hit the county roads near Pullman and worked SR two-seventy. I made a couple stops. I wrote one ticket on the night. As always it was pretty quiet when I was out there.

Happy Twenty-Fifth KB

February 12th, 2010

At five I was going over to Kevin’s for a surprise birthday for him. I got him a card and gift certificate. I went to his place. BKoe was already there. There were about nine others there. We had some cake and hung out for about an hour. They left to go to a casino and I went to work at the County.

I was working with Larson tonight. I hit the road and got some dinner with the others and I was waiting for Larson to get to the SO. We got a chance to serve a search warrant.

I was the first one in the door. I did the roll I was assigned to do. After we were done Larson and I went to the SO to process all the evidence. It took several hours for us to do the computer and paperwork. I didn’t get out of the SO until five in the morning. That sucks because I have to teach first aid tomorrow morning. I wasn’t planning on being out that late.

When I was done I went to the fire station to get my class set up in case I wake up late.

Super Party for the Bowl

February 7th, 2010

After sleeping in until the noon hour I finally started my day, but I was running late. I was suppose to be at the Morgan’s by this time. So I hurried up and got ready. I got my uniform loaded into the Bumblebee. I headed off to the store to get some M&Ms. As I was getting to Dissmores I saw it was packed. The parking lot had people driving around and there was no obvious spaces available. I thought Safeway might not be as bad. But I was wrong. It was packed too. I got my stuff and headed to Ron and Heather’s place.

There were a lot of people already there. I had some food and talked for a small period of time. Because I was running late I decided that I wasn’t going to stay very long.

I got down to the station around two in the afternoon. I sat down for a game of seven-card-no-peak-baseball. I lost, but I bet a lot of quarters along the way. I ended up knocking some other people out of the game.

We stopped after that game for a while and had some food as it was getting close to game time. We watched the game for a little bit as everyone was eating. Then it back to playing. I won a couple pots, but I was draining money. The thing about poker there is pretty much everyone plays to the end of many of the games. There are very few tight people.

As it was getting towards the end of the poker night and the game there was a large amount of money in the pot. We were playing R.F. and there was a fair amount of money in the pot. I would guess around ten bucks. With the two dollar limit, it was five to one odds more or less. So I stayed in with three hearts and no wilds. That is sort of crazy to do. But I got a heart and a wild for a flush. That was enough to win. That win put me up on the night.

Once that was done I went to the SO and completed the last couple paragraphs of my report for last Sunday’s case. Then I hit the road. I went North and made a stop. I saw four cars go by me at between eighty-two and seventy-nine. But with all the traffic around me I wasn’t able to get to them before I lost sight of them. So I continued through Colfax hoping they would continue their speeding ways and I would pace them. But that wasn’t to be. I did get one for expired tabs on the South side of Colfax. Then I went to Albion and worked there for a while. It was very dead so I went to some other county roads outside of Pullman.

While out there I was dispatched to a Nine-One-One hang up near Palouse. Everything was okay there. I went to Palouse-Cove road. But I only saw two cars the whole time on the road. I sat and ran stationary radar and read some RCW’s while I waited.

I went South to Airport road and Two-Seventy. I was out on Two-Seventy when I heard a domestic get put out in Palouse. I started to head that way. I took it easy going through Pullman and then hit Twenty-Seven. I got on scene shortly after the Town Marshall.

The night was drawing to a close, so I worked my way back to the SO because I had paperwork to complete before going home for the night.

I Quit

February 3rd, 2010

I spent some of the time this morning after I woke up working on my column. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to write about, so I spent a while doing research. I ended up using an article I worked on several months ago. I finished it off and sent it in.

Then I went to get some lunch at Pizza Pipeline. I was going to go to the bank, but I held off. I am going to wait to get my check for the week and do both at the same time.

I also worked on my taxes. MH didn’t send me a W-two. And I may not get one. So I had to try to figure everything out for myself. At one point I made an error in doing a Ten-Ninety-Nine. I more or less doubled my income which caused my taxes to be nearly twelve grand more than it should have been. I was worried about that, then when I fixed the problem I was only in the hole about fourteen hundred bucks. That sucks, but it is way better than what it first looked like.

I got called in for a transfer to Lewiston with Pauly. It went off without a hitch. When I got done doing that I went to Kuhrt’s to help him with some computer problems he was having. I was there for about an hour.

I got home and did some research on jobs. I am now jobless and I never heard anything back from SR. So I guess they really don’t care too much about my departure.

Meeting with a Lawyer

January 21st, 2010

I have never had to meet with a lawyer for the fire department in the past. This is my first time in a decade. We are being questioned for something involving the police. We are just witnesses. The problem it was a year ago and I don’t remember the incident very well, so I was careful only to say things that I remember happening for sure. I didn’t want to say anything I wasn’t sure about. But that being the case there wasn’t much I really remembered about the whole thing. I did the best I could.

When that meeting was done I went to Keegan’s house and hung out until two in the morning. We watched a couple episodes of Being Human. Then we chatted about unemployment as well as living in Pullman.

I got home and stayed up until around four in the morning getting some stuff done on the computer. I have been working hard to getting my computer going and set up just the way I like it. So far I found I am not a fan of this keyboard because of the way it is set up and the feel of the buttons. My scanner doesn’t work either. I would like to get that taken care of as well.

Game Night

January 19th, 2010

I sat around my house waiting for my computer to show up. Around noon it came. I unpacked it and imaged it with Windows Home Server. Then I started the process of reinstalling Windows Seven Ultimate. Then I worked on installing software. I did that until near six o’clock.

Then people started to come over and we played games. We played Apples to Apples and some Mexican Train. Victor, Keegan, Matt, Melissa, BKoe, and Eric all came over. We played games until after midnight. Then some people left and that is when Mexican Training was broken out. We had some very good laughs with Apples to Apples.

When they left I worked a little more on my computer. It is really fast. I love it so far. The keyboard is disappointing. I can’t use my old one, and the new one doesn’t have the set up that I like. It is more compact than I like.