I am Employed

October 12th, 2010

There has been a long stretch of my not writing blogs.  It has been the longest stretch since I started this blog.  It is not something I wanted, but with my old webhosting company and the problems I got out of the habit of doing it.  Then trying to get caught up makes it difficult.

Then to top that off I have been in a situation where I am undergoing a major life changing event.  I was offered a contact job at Brian’s company.  This was something I was expecting.  Actually I was expecting a full-time job offer, but it is for one year.  The thing is I would be working out of the Kirkland office.  When I interviewed with them I was ready to move to the Seattle area, but lately that feeling has changed.

I decided to take the offer, but I haven’t told anyone.  So I went to Seattle for a visit, as far as anyone else knew.  But some people were suspicious.  Now, it is a lot more obvious as I have been working in Seattle for more than three weeks now.  I haven’t been keeping the secret so much anymore.  I have told some of the people in the Seattle area.  I also told Ryan.  During my second week the office manager came into my office and said he was offering me a full-time job.  It would be doing something similiar to what I was doing, but I would be more of a tester/developer.  But I could work my way to doing dev full-time down the road.  But it sounds like they are willing to let me learn on the job.

I am going to learn some new technologies life Flex and Iron Phyton.  I get to work from home on Friday’s so I will be going over to Pullman a lot.  But I also plan on staying home on some weekends. 

Yesterday I told them I was going to take the full-time job offer.  I have also done a couple projects that they are happy with already.  So it is good that things are going well for me right now.  I am not going to make as much as I would like to make, but I figure I will go in and work hard and do a good job and earn a pay raise as I show them I am worth it.

So my plan is to try to hide it for another month and a half at the fire department.  At some point I am going to have to do something there.  I don’t know if I will have to quit or if we can work out some sort of deal.  I hope we can just work something out.  I will cross that bridge when I come to it. 

Cooper pretty much knows that I am working in Seattle.  He wants me to stay on there and just put in my hours to keep my commission.  That is what I want to do as well.  I love being a deputy.

I am going to have to work something out with Pete as well.  I let him know that I didn’t know what the future held, but I do want to be the next coroner.  So I need to do what I have to in order to make that come true.  I also need to make sure I stay up with my OTEP training for my EMT certification.

For the last couple weeks I have been in Seattle Monday through Thursday night and then I drive to Pullman where I am until Sunday night.  I am probably going to stay there on some Sunday nights and come back on Monday morning.  But I have been playing all that by ear.

So far I have been doing what I did last time I lived in Seattle.  I work all day and then come home and do nothing until the next day at work.  I want to start to find things to do, but I need to start to rekindle some of my old relationships with some of my friends.

I am going to let the Sgt know at the marine patrol that I have my stuff with me and I am around a lot more so if they need someone in short notice that I should have some availability.  But it sounds like I will be a very busy man at work as well.  Once I start working as a FTE I will be working lots and lots of hours every week.  So with my other activities I may have a hard time doing they hours they want me to.  But right now it isn’t a big deal because all I do is sit around the house when I go home.

It is also important that I start some sort of work out program.  There is some workout equipment at the office building where I work and I have access to it.  I need to take advantage of it.  Maybe I can work out following work and get on the road around seven when the traffic isn’t as bad.

Outside of that I have been a busy guy.  I played in a co-ed fall league for softball with Spellman.  I also played in a softball tournament this last weekend.  We went three and out, but it was fun to play and it could be my last tournament with the Garden if I keep the job over here.  That sucks because I do like the team and the guys I am playing with.  Plus we picked up a ten-six-seven.  We played another touranment with him.  He is blonde and blue eyes.  Plus he is very cool.

Got a Contract Job Offer

September 10th, 2010

After being unemployed for a long period of time I got a phone call today from Imprezzio offering me a contract job.  It was not quite what I was expecting, but it is a job that will pay me and it will keep me out of debt.  I would be ten-ninety-nine status and I would get less than I would like, but it is a starting point.  I would start by working with the testing of a product that is getting ready to roll out.  I would be the contact for various companies and Imprezzio.  Then I would work with Brian on various projects.  It was not one of those situations where I was going to just jump at it, because it is not at the level of pay I was hoping for, but it is nothing to walk away from either.

I also had an interview with one other company based in Seattle.  I am not sure I am what they are looking for.  I can hold my own when it comes to programming, but I cannot show it in an interview setting.  I could have had a job a long time ago if I was able to impress in an interview.

This evening I was working at the fire department.  Tonight is the first home game weekend of the season.  We started by working the Pullman High football game.  They played Moscow and got shut out.  Then we did fire patrols in the parking lots around campus.  We had one call happen during that time.

Later that night we have three calls come in right around the same time.  Then it just got quiet and we didn’t have anything for the rest of the night.

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.

Colfax Fire Day One

July 28th, 2010

I got up and worked with Jen. It was a quiet day. I worked on doing the weekly on the ladder truck. That took a couple hours. We also did lunch together with a couple of the guys.

While working I got a call from Chris from IT with the county. I was offered the job working as the county IT guy. With the low amount of pay I am concerned over whether I should take the job.

I went over and met with Chris about the idea of doing a ten-ninety-nine. That didn’t go over as well as I hoped. But I got a run down of the things I would be doing. I told her I would need to think it over for a while. I needed to decide if working for less money than my monthly bills are would be a good idea.

I was in a conversation with Perry, Bill, and Scott over at the PD. While we were talking Bill said that if I wanted to be a part-time Colfax Police Officer he would be willing to hire me. He said he is selective and he thinks I would do a good job. I am going to consider doing that. I think it would be cool to have that job.

It was a quiet day and night. I didn’t get any calls.

Didn’t Get Pullman Fire Job

May 9th, 2010

I was turned down for the career job at Pullman Fire. I knew my interview went poorly, but I had hoped all the work I have done would not be over looked. It was. I don’t want to do anything rash, but I have to get a full-time job soon, I think I am at the point where I will take one no matter where it takes me.

I am not sure how to approach the chief about this. I think I will just ask what I could have done better or what about my interview made it so I was not accepted.

I just want to crawl in a hole right now and tie one on. But I have to work tonight at the fire department. I would rather not. I would rather take the evening off.

But I think the long of the short of it is that I need to think. I need to sit down and really consider my next path. I need to consider Whitcom. I need to contact them and let them know that I would like to be seriously considered up there.

But as I have always said, there is a reason for everything. At this time I cannot understand what in the world it would be. Maybe this was supposed to push me to the West side. Maybe this was to push me back to computers. Maybe this was supposed to push me into law enforcement. I just don’t know.

I am going to keep the course for now. I am going to continue to work as I always have. I am going to not do anything rash.

Not Feeling to Good About It

May 5th, 2010

I had my chief’s interview for Pullman Fire today. I am not sure how I did. Actually when I left I felt like I didn’t do too well. As I was driving away I thought of areas I should have touched on. I should have been more enthusiastic. I should have included more information on some subjects, such as what I want to do for the fire department and where I see myself in five years. I think I left a lot on the table.

As I walked out of the station I just didn’t have the feeling like I nailed it. It is like when, in college, you take a final. You know right away if you did well or not when the test is complete. You know if you knew the stuff or not. I left thinking that I earned a C- or D on this interview. I don’t think I outright failed it, but I sure could have done a ton better.

I would hate to think how well I would have done if this had been my chief’s interview if they didn’t know me at all.

I am First Class!!!

February 6th, 2010

This morning it was an early morning for me. I have switched backing to being a late night guy, but I have to change that at some point in the future. But for now I guess I will let it remain.

I went to Colfax for the EMT class. I was helping Jeff with the class. He did pretty much all the teaching. I pretty much just watched and helped with the skills portion of the class. Several of us went to Subway for lunch.

After class I was off to the SO for the daylight and nighttime check off’s. I need two daytime and two nighttime traffic stops to complete my transition to first class. But no one was around. I was worried about that. Jordan showed up and Jimmy had called me back. I asked if Jordan would be able to check me off. Jimmy said that was okay.

Jordan and I hit the road. I made three stops really quickly. The final stop took me a while to find, but I got it. With those four complete I went to the SO to work on my report from last Sunday’s case. Cooper said that I can now go out on my own. It feels so great.

One of the first things I did was get the report nearly completed. That needed to be done before I went out to play. We all went to Subway for dinner. That was my second trip there.

Following that I went up North. I worked the Pine City-Malden road. I also worked in Tekoa for over an hour before calling it a night. I got several tickets tonight and while working stationary radar on the Pine City-Malden road I was able to get a lot of RCW’s read.

Switched to WordPress

February 2nd, 2010

After being with blogger since the beginning of the existence of my blog, I have made the switch. I didn’t want to, but Blogger said they were going to stop doing the FTP posts. That is the method in which I would put up my entries. So I first had to research the multiple blog systems out there and choose one. I was going to go with an ASP.Net version, but after finding WordPress and seeing the layout, I went with it. I want to have a similar look to my old blog as far as the right-hand sidebar goes.

I spent some time working on getting my blog backed up and moved into WordPress. That took some time and I had to fight through some issues. But it is done now and I think I am okay with it. One thing is I already received one spam comment. But I am going to keep them from being posted to my blog, I hope.

I also quit the web development stuff I had going. I pretty much submitted my first and last invoice for the sign up process. I then said I was giving my notice. I haven’t heard back from them. That surprises me. I figured they would at least try to find out what the deal was. I wrote some of my thoughts down about why I wanted to quit.

Specs from the company that are nothing more than screen shots. No direction about expected behaviour.

We are in a development period that I believe to be fundamentally detrimental to the overall final product. We are being told to develop the site, only to have a consultant group change some foundations to the site, which requires changes in multiple locations. These are such things that should have been done well before starting the site. In fact I asked about the free userlevel months ago and I was told it wouldn’t happen.

What I saw with the signup process worries me that people are not going to be willing to listen to ideas. Some of my suggestions have never been been considered and returned to me.

I had some initial concerns in this area. I spoke with several people who are elsewhere in the industry about my concerns and I got many opinions. Most of which I agreed with.

So I have been on edge over the above, but frankly Tim’s e-mail to me and multiple others about his inability to reach me after hours was the final thing. I tried to speak to David about it, but he has yet to return my phone call placed on Jan twenty-third.

I felt leaving while the sign up process was being completed was not the right thing to do. It is now complete (except for two images). I sent an e-mail to David on jan 30th about getting these two images. I have not received the images, nor an e-mail back. As of this time, I do not want to continue to wait for a response from David, I am sending all the code back, and someone else can insert the two images which will complete the sign up process… outside of the integration with the shopping cart (Page 5)….

Maybe they will ask, but I don’t know. I was disappointed by the way things were going. The money just wasn’t there. The payrate was good, but I was not seeing enough work and the work I was getting was being hurried and there was a lot of un-needed stress about getting things done on some random deadline.

I then spent time dinking around on the computer this evening. I also had training in Colfax today. It was actually in Steptoe for Colfax fire. I went down early and worked on some stuff at the SO, getting tickets written up and updating the hours for the month of January for everyone.

It is sort of a big day, I left a job, but it wasn’t like I quit because I really wasn’t doing a whole lot.

Ought-Nine in Review

January 1st, 2010

JanMr. 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.

FebFinal Mock Scenes – Today was going to be a long day. I was expecting to be done around three or four in the afternoon, but today was the day I was going to prove I could do the job, or I would prove I need more work, or that I am just not cut out for being a cop. I have spent sixteen hours a week for nearly the last five months

MarFirst Day on Patrol – Following the swearing, Jimmy was doing a couple things at the SO before we left to hit the road. We went north on One-Ninety-Five looking for speeders. We pulled over one car, my first as a reserve deputy. I was the cover officer. I went to the car and the passenger was talking with me. The person was given a warning.

AprMy Latest Oil Change – I have lifetime powertrain and bumper-to-bumper warranties. It has a DVD player built into the radio. I have a rearview camera and backup sensors. It has the Hemi with MDS so it shuts down some of the cylinders when they are not needed to help save fuel. It seems to have some get-up and go. It feel great to drive it. Plus it has the newer traction control system so I feel better about driving it on the bad roadways.

MayFirst Code Run – we got to the first address we needed to go to Endicott for a call to back up the others there. We were going code and just passed some cars on SR One-Ninety-Five. After we got past the Albion road a burglary in progress was put out in Albion. So I had to turn around and go back to Albion. So I went code past the cars I had just passed.

JunContract with MH Terminated – Since April of Ought-Four I have been working as a software engineer for NetUpdate and then I was moved to MostHome when they bought out NU. I worked with them until I got notice today that my contract was going be terminated. The application that I worked on since I started with NU was a mortgage application. That was then sold to a competitor a couple months ago. I told MH that I wanted to remain on with them. But as it turned out the project I was put on just got sold off. So they are cutting their ties with me.

JulSecond Class Reserve – I was told I was moved up to second class. They shook my hand and said they had great expectations for me. They all believe that I will do a fine job. That was great. Now, I just need to start to set up times to ride so I can work my way to first class.

AugFinal Shift as a PFD Temp – We got on scene in the ambulance and were made into the backup team. We went to the attic where the seat of the fire was. Eric, who was on his first day back, was on the nozzle and put the fire out. It was still pretty small, but growing. It was lucky that we got there when we did and that the fire was not in the wee hours of the morning when it could have really taken off. I ended up putting in an hour and a half of overtime. So my full-time tally was one year, one month, four days and one and a half hours. It has been a good run.

SeptBushwood Golfs Again – I was hot on my short game. The problem is that we would use after we all hit a drive we would pick one. From that point each person hit his own ball to the hole. I didn’t do too poorly. I was able to keep up in score. In fact my putting made me lead some of the holes. I had some very nice putts including two there were around thirty footers for birdies. It felt great.

OctIM Championship Bound – I hit the ball well, as did the team. Our defense was very good. We went on to win and go to the Semi-finals. We were playing a team that had been using an illegal bat. Once they were called on it, in the previous game, they couldn’t hardly score. It turned out we shut them out. We scored nine runs. We didn’t hit the ball as well as I would have hoped, but we won. Ryan said it best, this is the most worried I have felt in a shut out. We never had a big enough lead that put me at ease. Not until we scored the ninth run and the other team no longer had a chance to win because of the eight-run limit.

NovGay Firefighter – Then I was asked a question about how I feel I am treated being a gay in the fire department. I said since I have been outed to everyone I don’t feel that I have ever been treated poorly due to being gay. Chris let me know that he has known for years. He said that pretty much everyone on the fire department on the career side knows. He said there are probably only a couple people who don’t really know. He said that they probably have been told, but think that people are screwing with them. It is without a doubt that the information is told to everyone. I am not sure who actually tells the others but the information is freely available. But once again no one treats me differently.

DecSearch for Missing Hunter – I was teamed up with three young men. It turned out it was the son of the missing man and his friends. They wanted to put a member of the SO with each team going out searching. We were sent down the road a ways to start our search. The son was leading the way as he knew the area well. We made our way along some level ground. There was about four inches of new snow. It was covering rocks on the ground so we had to be careful where we stepped.

This years review shows many things that were related to being a reserve Deputy. I guess that is the major thing that has happened to me over this last year. I am now a sworn reserve law enforcement officer. Many of the writings I had through out the year dealt with the class or going out to patrol. I also had an unusual suicide where I was able to trace the night leading up to the death of a young man. It was very unusual and probably affected me more than any other death I investigated. It didn’t make the list this year because the fact that I am a gay man who is a firefighter is something I am always thinking about. When it was finally brought up with some people I have never talked to about it before it was a big conversation to me. It was nice to hear his perspective. Ought-Nine was a good year overall. I had some frustrations at the fire department, but they were overall small in the grand scheme of life. I am jobless, but I do have a new contract where I will finally start to bring in some money again. It has been a year that I am happy with.

Rimrock Search Day Two

December 14th, 2009

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Rimrock Search

December 13th, 2009

After my brief sleep and the long night of running calls with Pullman Fire I was up and getting dressed to head to Colton for the search for the hunter. I met up with Rich and Craig in Pullman and we had a caravan down there. When I got to the basecamp there were only a dozen people down there or so. It was early on. I was teamed up with three young men. It turned out it was the son of the missing man and his friends. They wanted to put a member of the SO with each team going out searching. We were sent down the road a ways to start our search. The son was leading the way as he knew the area well. We made our way along some level ground. There was about four inches of new snow. It was covering rocks on the ground so we had to be careful where we stepped.

As we went along we got to the hillside and started to work our way down. We split up into two groups to cover two sides of a large draw. I was teamed up with a friend of the son who is in the military with him. We made our way slowly down some steep hillsides. There was brush that was hard to see through so we sometimes had to go lower on the hill to look around it. The hillside was steep enough that we had to slowly make our way down it sliding. Then we found a point where a creek made its way down the draw. It was frozen over so we were walking on the ice trying to get down in a safe way. We had to slide down parts of that. At one point we got to a place where there was a twenty foot drop. We couldn’t go up nor down. So we had to go up this side hill. There were no good hand and foot holds. It was steep and we needed to make sure we didn’t slip or we would go off the twenty foot cliff. I was really scared. At one point I didn’t have any good hand holds. I was laying on this hillside that I thought I could be a hurting unit if I messed up. There was large clumps of grass to hold on to. But those were higher up than I was. So I had me to get up to them. I was with a young man named Adam. He helped me get past that point. Then we worked our way down some more, but it was very steep still. I was thinking that we would have to make our way back up this hill side after we got to the very bottom. But the other group had already been there so we started to work our way up the hill. It took another hour or so to get up to the top. It was a relief to be up top.

We got back to basecamp and I worked on what help they needed there. I didn’t get sent out on another mission after that point that day. We had been gone for four hours as it was. Adam and I spent some time talking. I also got his facebook profile up and added him as a friend.

I was at the command post until four-thirty. I wasn’t sure if I was going to come back on Monday so I went to the son and to Adam and said goodbye to them. The son said “See you tomorrow”. I think that really help me decide that I would need to come back tomorrow.

I went home and stayed up until ten. I had to fight going to sleep, but I didn’t want to go to sleep at five in the afternoon and be up and sitting around at three in the morning.

What is the Purpose of Daily Activities

October 29th, 2009

On a high level, what is the point of life? Why do we live a life and do activities? Why do we have things like movies and TV shows to entertain us? Do we live to participate in those sources of entertainment or is the entertainment something for us to do while we wait for our real purpose?

We are suppose to find a woman someday and get married. Have a couple kids. Keep the cycle going. But why? What happens if you don’t? I have grown up believing that, but what if I don’t get married and have kids? Am I going to live a less fulfilling life? Will I have failed in my life-purpose? I wonder these things, because chances are I will not find a woman to marry. I will probably not have a kid. I think about that from time to time. I think about what it would take for me to find someone who would be willing to have my kid. I don’t know if I could do that or afford that. But I think having my own son is something I would like at some point. I grew up thinking about how I would raise my kid. I thought about the kinds of ways I would reward and punish. How I would teach and learn with the kid. I feel like I am going to miss out.

But if I hadn’t spent most of my life believing that it is what every normal person in the world does, I probably wouldn’t think about these things at all.

But this goes back to what is the point of my existence? I enjoy firefighting and policing. But at some point have I seen it all? Is it time for me to move on to something else? I have wanted to be a judge and lawyer. Should I leave Pullman and my life here in order to start a new life?

There was an article about men who are millionaires in their thirties. I wonder if I had focused my life to being a really rich person if I could be a millionaire. I think about their life. What do they do in the evening? How do they spend their free time? Do they do fun things? What do they find to be fun?

Sometimes I think of life like a game where I get to do it one way, then next time I play I will try something different. But then I realize that this is a one-shot deal. There is no resetting the game board. I have to do it all in this one life. Or I have to choose to do one thing and do it well. But realize that I will not be able to do other things.

In some ways, going back to what I said before, now that I have done the firefighting and cop work, being a coroner and radio show host. Now that I have that experience it is time to find something to do that I can do for the next couple decades. One thing that holds people down is the unwillingness to move and be mobile. When you plant roots you cannot be quick and agile.

So, that is a brief rambling of things that flow through my head. That is the high-level view. I am not sure how many pages I would have to go through in order to fully articulate my thoughts.

That said, yesterday was a pretty dead day. I didn’t get out of bed until noon. I went down stairs to find it was cold. I took a look, and it appears my furnace was having some issues. So I called Parrish. He had me do a couple things and nothing worked. So he sent someone out to the house. After working on the system for about forty minutes he told me the furnace was shot and I need to get a new one.

That sucks. That is all I need is to have to purchase a major item like that while being jobless.

Ankle Worked on Again

October 12th, 2009

I got up this morning and met up with Jeremy to head to the airport to fly to Seattle. We met up just after four in the morning. The taxi got us to the airport, but as it turned out, Alaska’s booths were not open. So I had to get in line and wait until five when they opened. I was the first in line, so that was nice, but they let all the first-class people go first. Jeremy was flying first class, so I was giving him a bit of a hard time.

We got through security really fast because it was five in the morning and there were not a lot of people there. Jeremy and I sat there waiting for our chance to get onto the plane. Because he was first class he got on first. As I walked past him I joked that he should have a good time up there, I was going “back there” and pointed to coach.

I was in my window seat. I put on my sunglasses and I pretty much planned on sleeping. Though I got decent sleep last night, I was still tired. While waiting to actually fall asleep I was this guy walk on the plane. He had incredible eyes. They were blue and he was a blond. His jaw line was very nice. He was one of those guys you swear you have seen somewhere else. He was ten-six-seven, and I couldn’t help to wish he was sitting next to me. But, it was not to be. I wish I could have met him and talked with him, I just wanted to know more.

The flight took just over two hours and I slept for most of those. I was getting a little restless because I had surgery today and I wanted to get it over with.

After I got off the plane I met up with Jeremy again. He got off the plane way before me. But it did give me another chance to check out the ten-six-seven. I am guessing he is in his mid-twenties. I just wish I would have had a seat next to him. I wanted to have a reason to say hello to him.

As Jeremy were going to baggage claim I saw the guy was going in the same direction as us. He got on the same tram car as we got on. Because of where I was seated the guy was standing, it allowed more time for sight-seeing.

Jeremy got to the baggage claim and got our luggage. We walked outside together and he wished me well with my surgery and worked his way to get home. I was waiting for Bill. I was wishing my ten-six-seven was out there waiting too, it could have been my chance to say hi, but I didn’t see him.

Bill showed up and we took off. But he made a bad turn and ended up going right past the terminal again. As we were passing the terminal I saw the ten-six-seven walk over to a car that was picking him up. So he had been in the area and I missed him. Darn it anyway!

We went to the house and I got the suitcase out of the truck. I was getting my room ready for me for tonight after the surgery. I was probably going to be hating life, because I tend to after surgery.

I got a phone call from the doctor’s office. They asked if I could come in early because the doctor was ahead of schedule. I said I would. I got into the office and got the paperwork completed and I was called into the backroom.

I got in my gown, I got an IV and my vitals taken. It took two tries to get the IV going. The doctor came into the room and explained what he was going to do.

I was taken into the operating room. I layed down on the table. They started to do what they needed to do. The nurse gave me some oxygen. She said take some deep breaths. I figured out shortly after the first couple breaths what was going on. She wanted to get my oxygen level up so they could intubate me. I could feel a little bit of a stinging sensation in my IV. I thought she was putting some pressure on it on accident. She said I would probably feel a little bit of a stanging sensation. All of a sudden I could tell I was getting put under. There was no warning, it was happening. I didn’t try to fight it, I just closed my eyes.

All of a sudden I was sitting in recovery. I was getting woken up with a popscicle. I didn’t feel too bad. I was very cold and they gave me a warm blanket. I was getting more awake. Rather than letting myself sleep, I sort of fought it and before I knew it I was mostly awake. I didn’t feel great, but I didn’t feel bad. I had some graham crackers and apple juice. It was good. Then they gave me some oxycodone. After about an hour I was being let out. I had been given the instructions for what to do. Compared to last time this was nothing. I didn’t feel bad on the trip home and I was waking up easily.

I got home and went to my bedroom. For the rest of the evening I watched TV, drank apple juice, ate graham crackers, and took meds. I didn’t feel that bad at all. I would fall asleep for about five minutes or less and then get back up to watch more TV. I was making sure my ankle stayed elevated.

Last Day Working for NU/MH

September 25th, 2009

Today was my final day at MH. I have been with them since they acquired NU nineteen months ago. There is not enough work for me and they needed to downsize. I made it through several downsizings at NU over the years. I didn’t do much today because there were no projects for me to get done.

I ran a couple calls for Pullman Fire. We started with an echo call. Unfortunately things didn’t turn out well. The coroner was called. I went back to the scene to help with the removal. We had a couple car wrecks and a medical call. When I was done with the fire calls I went home and sent a final E-mail to the people at MH. Many of them didn’t know me, so it is lost on them I am sure.

I worked the sheriff’s office today. I was out with Keller. I drove the whole night. We didn’t have a lot go on. I did take two cases that I have to do the reports on. I also got a couple speeders while I was out there. It was a pretty quiet night over all. But it usually is when I am on duty. The night ended with helping Colfax with a deer that had been hit by a car. It was still alive but in the city, so we had to get it out of town to put it down.

Monthly Coroner Meeting

August 27th, 2009

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

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

Bought the Motorcycle

August 12th, 2009

It has been a process looking for the bike, but I finally found one that I could ride around and I decided to purchase it.

First I went to DOL today to take the written test for a motorcycle license. I had to get a photo. But I was not expecting that. I haven’t shaved for several days. So I will look like a total slob.

I went to Colfax and got the bike and started to ride. I spent about an hour cruising around the streets of Colfax. I was liking the bike. It doesn’t have a ton of power, but it will get me around the streets of Pullman just fine. Plus if I need to make a trip to Moscow I could do it.

I loaded it up in the truck and headed to the Courthouse to pay for the license. It was more than two hundred for the sales tax plus the license and a new plate. I went to the SO and hung out there for a while. I remembered that I had purchased some cookie dough from McNannay. I paid for it and picked it up.

I headed back to Pullman and had BKoe help me unload the bike. I took it out for a ride around the streets of Pullman. It was fun. I put about ten miles on it here in Pullman.

In the evening I just hung out at the house getting some stuff caught up on. I also went to buy a frozen pizza for dinner tonight. With my job at the fire department quickly coming to an end I am going to be able to get on top of things I let slide. I have some tasks that I have been needed to complete for more than fifty-five weeks. I will try to do those plus I need to clean my den. It is horrible. I have a stack of mail that is about fourteen inches high. Argh!

No Longer a Software Engineer

June 24th, 2009

Since April of Ought-Four I have been working as a software engineer for NetUpdate and then I was moved to MostHome when they bought out NU. I worked with them until I got notice today that my contract was going be terminated. The application that I worked on since I started with NU was a mortgage application. That was then sold to a competitor a couple months ago. I told MH that I wanted to remain on with them. But as it turned out the project I was put on just got sold off. So they are cutting their ties with me. Things could be a lot worse. I have saved up a lot of money over the last six months or so and I have a bit of a saving that can help hold me over. Now I have to get the fire department job to sustain myself. As of right now I have the fire department for about one more month. Then I am done with them full-time.

I will have to work odds and ends until something comes up where I can make a good amount of money. In the mean time I will have the fire department and my savings to hold me over.

I figured this day was going to come. I just didn’t know when. When I got a call from my company’s CTO and he started to tell me that my product was sold off, I figured that I was going to be out of a job. I had been saving for this day and it is a good thing I did.

I guess I will have to figure out how to apply for unemployment so I can collect some benefits from that as well as working some to make ends meet, without chipping into my savings, if at all possible.

So that is how my mid-morning started. I also had a CPR class that I taught this afternoon. I am going to have to work every overtime shift I can get my hands on for the next month.

When I got home Brandon, Peter, and Kevin came over and we played some games and hung out for a while.

Put in Offer on Colfax Property

June 11th, 2009

I met up with Craig today at ReMax and put in a bid to buy some property in Colfax. It is two parcels right next to each other. My plan is to build a big shop and office plus maybe had some storage units included to help with the cost.

They want twenty-five grand for the the two parcels. I offered fourteen grand. They sold a couple other plots for seventy-five hundred in the last two years. They got it for around that amount too. I figured with the economy that they have gone down in value. I don’t know if they will take it until Monday.

I went to Colfax and met up with Jesse Two and Rich. We cleaned the two AR’s from our training recently. I also went to dinner with the guys who were working. We went to Zips. After dinner I went back to Pullman for the night. I have to work in the morning and then it is off to go camping.

My New Durango

April 2nd, 2009

After I got off work I went to Lewiston to pick up my new Durango. I worked on getting the things transferred over to it. It has leather in all three rows. That was nice to see, because I only negotiated the first two rows. It must have cost less to do all three than they thought it was going to cost to do the first two rows.

I have lifetime powertrain and bumper-to-bumper warranties. It has a DVD player built into the radio. I have a rearview camera and backup sensors. It has the Hemi with MDS so it shuts down some of the cylinders when they are not needed to help save fuel. It seems to have some get-up and go. It feel great to drive it. Plus it has the newer traction control system so I feel better about driving it on the bad roadways.

When comparing my Ought-Seven vs Ought-Four it was night and day. My rig has traction like the Ought-Seven. The Ought-Seven was one I would try to put sideways on the snow covered roads and soon as it started to move sideways it would straighten out. I was easily about to put the Ought-Four sideways. I didn’t like that in terms of safety.

It looks very nice. I also have the navigation system installed. I have a huge hard drive so I can input songs and play straight from my hard drive. It also have satellite radio. I have enough space to put all my music on the hard drive.

I decided that I would find an application to update the ID3 information on all the songs. Then I am going to go through and clean the directory. I am going to work on properly naming all the songs and fixing the errors in naming of the songs. I am going to get rid of all the duplicate songs as well. I expect this project to take many hours.

After getting the rig I went to Costco to get some groceries. I hadn’t been to Costco in a long time. But I was able to get several things that I needed including paper plates, a push broom, and a sixteen gig thumb drive. I spent nearly four-hundred bucks in all.

Nathan came over and we watched Mr. and Mrs. Smith. We were not able to watch the whole thing because he had to go to a meeting, but we were going to get together after his meeting.

My softball games that were planned for the afternoon were cancelled so I didn’t have to worry about those.

A call came in for a transfer to Spokane. I decided to take the call. I went to Spokane with Blake. It was an ALS transfer. Following that call I went home to continue to working on my music. I ended up staying up until nearly two in the morning.

Got An Oil Change

March 24th, 2009

I was excited this morning to go to Lewiston to look at a Durango I found online the other day. It appeared to be exactly what I wanted. It was a fully-loaded SLT model. Last night, however, I noticed when I was online that it didn’t have leather seats. That made me a little nervous. I figured that would be one thing I can overlook.

But when I got there I found there were other things it didn’t have. Including navigation built into the radio. It has DVD, but not rear DVD. There were a lot of things like that. But the two biggies where the leather seats and navigation.

So we negotiated. I was able to get more money for my trade in. They offered to have leather seats installed. I still wanted the navigation. So we worked out a deal that we would install the radio with the navigation built in. But then I wouldn’t get the leather. As it was the rig was discounted about nine-grand.

So I made the deal that the leather would get installed at the cost the dealer was going to have to pay. I would pay that. The radio would be installed and I would have the rig. So I have to wait about one week to actually pick it up. In the mean time they are letting me “borrow” my old rig until the new one is ready. So the rig I am driving actually now belongs to the dealership.

It took several hours to do this deal. I was down there for a while. But I am excited to get it. I like the new rig.

I got home and then headed down to Colfax for fire training. We were doing stuff on fire alarms and sprinkler systems. We went out and looked at sprinkler heads and wedges to get the sprinkler shut off. We also looked at the alarm panel in the station. Then we talked about all the buildings with FDC and Knox boxes in Colfax.

After training I went home and I was working on my computer when I heard Colfax get dispatched to a structure fire around eleven o’clock. After I heard the update and a request to dispatch Albion and Steptoe, I went to the station. I didn’t get to the fire itself, but I did stand by the station until three in the morning.

I went to the hydrant that was set up to refill the water trucks. I was up there for about an hour helping to fill the trucks. Then they didn’t need a lot of water for a while so Tim and I went to the station. I left around three in the morning.

First Arrest Made

March 12th, 2009

I set myself up to ride with Bogenreif this evening. I got down to the department around four in the afternoon. We had the swearing in of the other new guys as well. I helped to hand out their BDU uniforms. Then they got their swearing in. I took photos of that going on.

Then Bogenreif and I hit the road. We talked about law enforcement. I worked to see how he did things and asked questions. We were told to do things the way the deputy we are with tells us to do things. So I spent most of the time listening to him and taking advice on how I should make contacts, say things, sell things, and more.

On the first stop he took the contact. Then I took the next one. We sort of switched back and forth on the contacts. I only wrote two tickets. One was for running a stop sign. When we went to pull the vehicle over the driver threw a lit cigarette out the window. I warned for the thousand dollar ticket and gave the stop sign one. The driver was thanking me for the ticket.

I also had one person who had expired registration for twelve months. I wrote for that and forgave the running of the stop sign. On the way back to the station we found someone speeding through Uniontown. We stopped him. He was suspended. I arrested him and searched him. I ended up doing a cite and release rather than taking him into the jail.

I got back to the sheriff’s office and did my reports before heading home for the night.

First Day on Patrol

March 11th, 2009

I was excited today because I passed my written test yesterday and I very well could be out on patrol today. I started by heading to the sheriff’s office to see who was working today. I made a phone call and got myself a deputy to work with. Then it was a matter of waiting. I was very excited to get out on the road. It had been a long journey to get where I am today.

I had my uniform with me and as it was getting closer to time get sworn in I put my uniform on. A couple other guys were also getting sworn in. Craig was riding tonight with Jordan. We started with getting sworn in by the Sheriff.


Getting Sworn In

After getting sworn in I got my badge and put it on. I was getting some crap from people because I was wearing the Class A uniform. Many people prefer the BDU style or the jumpsuit uniforms. I think the Class A looks sharp. Plus I wear a leather basket weave duty belt instead of the nylon. I think that also looks nicer.


In uniform after being Sworn In

Following the swearing, Jimmy was doing a couple things at the SO before we left to hit the road. We went north on One-Ninety-Five looking for speeders. We pulled over one car, my first as a reserve deputy. I was the cover officer. I went to the car and the passenger was talking with me. The person was given a warning.

Then we got someone else speeding along. I ran that person’s name through the dispatch center. From that point on I pretty much did all the radio traffic.

We headed back to Colfax and met up with a couple troopers and some other deputies for dinner at Subway. We hung out for a while and talked shop. We were going to go to Whitcom and give Jamie a paper with the names and phone numbers of the new reserves. It took nearly two hours to get there because we kept getting side tracked.

The first thing that happened was someone was doing forty-eight in a twenty-five in Colfax. We pulled over the van and I took the lead. After running him I was going to ticket him for speeding, but the ticket book was at the SO. I ended up giving him a written warning. He got lucky, but it is in the system so if he gets stopped again the fact he has been warned will be known.

When we got into Pullman we witnessed someone outright run the stoplight at Davis and Grand. We pulled over that driver and I ticketed him for failure to stop at a stop sign and for no proof of insurance.

We got to Whitcom and I gave Jamie the paper and we hung out at dispatch for a bit talking with Jamie. When we left we went up Terre View to Merman and down to Valley. We stopped someone for having an obstructed window due to the snow that was not removed. That guy got a warning.

We headed out to SR Two-Seventy for some traffic. We stopped one car for speeding. forty-eight in a thirty-five. I was going to do a warning, but when I ran the ADR I found lots of tickets. So I wrote the driver for speeding. Later we stopped someone else for doing thirteen over. I also cited the driver because I wanted to be consistent. If I ticket one, I should ticket the other person for the same speed today.

We stopped another car for no brake light and speeding, but gave that person a warning. When we were done I ended up ticketing three people and giving one warning. We had a total of ten stops. I did the contacting on most of the stops and all the radio traffic. Jimmy said if we had finished the driving course in EVOC he would let me drive because he felt I was ready for that already.

We went to the SO and I did the paperwork that goes along with writing tickets. It includes writing a short narrative and getting the tickets turned into the sergeants. I went home after having worked a successful first day.

I am Bacon!

March 10th, 2009

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This is my Rifle

February 5th, 2009

This morning I went to the burn house from my time to go through the training. We were going inside the house to see fire behavior. We were also learning how to tell if the flames were overhead even if you could not see through the smoke.

After we were in the house we waited for our next lesson which was door ops. We were learning a different way to think about and make entry on a fire. It was interesting to listen to and try out.

After the training I went home. I was going to go to Colfax early and pick up my AR-Fifteen. I am excited about getting it. I bought it late last month. I called up the FFL dealer and make a plan to meet up with him. I got to his place and did the paperwork. I opened it up to inspect it. It is a nice looking gun. I can’t wait to get a chance to use it for target practice.

After getting the gun I went to get dinner and then to the SO for training. We are doing mock scenes. It was a lot of fun today. I was a little nervous, but the first one was a good ice breaker and I learned several things. I was able to apply those lessons to my other mock scenes.

On my last scenario I was dealing with someone who was not very compliant. I had to push him against the wall to cuff him. Then as I actually placed him under arrest he was pulling away from me. I had to put him against the car hood so he wouldn’t keep pulling away so I could keep control.

Overall the instructors thought I did a good job on my mock scenes. I made mistakes but I am learning from them. I was told I did the best search of any of the students on the last guy. The one thing I need to work on is being so trusting and willing to believe what people tell me. I need to be more along the lines of not believing anyone until they prove themselves as being honest instead of waiting to catch them in a lie.

A Review of Ought-Eight

January 1st, 2009

JanBody for Life – While I was researching that [number of calories in a Big Mac] I hit upon (I should say hit BACK upon) the Body for Life site. I am going to give their twelve week program a try that combines weight training, cardio, and nutrition into a program that lasts twelve week. That is eighty-four days.

FebNU Sold to MH – Today was the day I was going to get fired from NU. But it was one where I was told I would be fired. It was more of a formality than anything. They had to “terminate” everyone to close out the books. Then start the new company. I was hired back on.

MarTruck Traded for a Durango – I test drove two of the Durangos. One was a Ought-Seven and one was an Ought-Three. I like the color and seats of the Ought-Three. Plus the cab reminded my of the look and feel of the old Dakota. But the Ought-Seven was nicer over all, had many less miles and some other things I just couldn’t pass up. Plus it wasn’t a ton more than the older Durango.

AprLast Radio Show… Ever – This last semester or two the show has suffered from my lack of time preparing for the topics, getting guests, and whatnot. I don’t have the fire in my gut like I did. I just don’t have things to talk about like I did at one time. … I decided it was time to pull the plug on the show.

MayMultiple Softball Tournaments – Brandon came to the camp site and I got to see him for the first time a while. He got his uniform from Kelly and went to put it on. The team went to do some warm up hitting. I didn’t do so hot there. Brandon was crushing the ball as normal for him.

JunSnow and Fire in June – I opened the door and saw snow. I thought to myself “Am I more shocked over the fire or the snow?”. Then I looked up and saw heavy brown smoke coming from the south-east area behind my house. On the way to the station the guys leaving Station Two quickly called or a second alarm. I drove by the scene and saw the whole front of the building involved in fire.

JulPullman Fire Temp Full-Time – I went to Heston’s office and said I that I am going to take it. He shook my hand and we scheduled my first day to be Monday of next week. I am going to only have three more shifts as a reserve. I am sad about that. I am going to miss working with those guys. I am now in a little bit of a haze as this is a big event in my life and I have a lot to think about now.

AugPlaying in Nationals for Softball – We didn’t score enough runs and lost the game ending our hopes at the Western ASA D-league Nationals. It was fun to be here and I have my t-shirt to show for it.

SepPassed my Physical Test for Sheriff’s Reserves – I crossed the finish line in thirteen minutes and fifty-eight seconds. That was so huge. I passed the test. It felt great. I finally did it. We had some rest, then we had to run a sprint. That was seventy-one seconds for three-hundred and thirty yards. I knew I could do that without a problem.

OctI am a Sheriff’s Reserve – The first day of class I got a chance to meet up with some of the other students. We had the Sheriff tell us about ethics and what he expects from us. It was mainly a day of introductions and laying some of the groundwork of the academy. I am excited for the academy to get over with so I don’t have to worry about getting days off from work and then I can go out on the road and work on becoming First-Class solo patrol.

NovMet a Man – When the game was done I met up with Gunnar. We have been e-mailing back and forth the last two days and decided that we wanted to watch the movie Scream. So he called me up. We met at Starbucks. We sat there talking for a while. He is working on a project and he told me a little about what he is doing.

DecTreating Myself Well – I don’t usually splurge in the way I did over the last week. I have spent thousands of dollars on a new Tempurpeadic Rhapsody bed, a fifty-eight inch plasma TV, a new TV stand, and a new Sprint Touch Pro cell phone.

Looking back over the year some months I had a hard time picking out one thing because several things could have been listed as big events for me. But if I had to pick out three major things from the year I would say being a Pullman Fire Temp, a Sheriff’s Reserve, and making it to Nationals in Softball were the real big events.

Got a New Car

December 30th, 2008

I met up with the guy from Yakima today. I took the rig out for a test drive. That went okay. I saw something under it that made me worried. I took it to a place and had them give it an inspection.

After going through the inspection they said that it looked okay. The problem that I saw, some oil on the transmission, was not a concern. He said it was not from my transmission, but from road grime.

We concluded the deal and now I have a limited Durango that is blue and has a hemi. I am happy about it over all.

The Big Thirty-Five

December 18th, 2008

Today is my thirty-fifth birthday. I wasn’t planning on doing a lot of celebration. Pretty much at the coroner’s meeting we were going to have some cake. But before it got too late that meeting was cancelled. Then the sheriff’s office cancelled the reserve class. This was all due to the massive amount of snow we were receiving. I was loving the snow.

With those things cancelled I didn’t really have any backup plans. Gollnick called and asked if I wanted to play poker. I said I would. He came over and we played cards for several hours.

During the game I found a sly way to let him know it was my birthday. Once I did, he remembered that it was. We played poker and at the end I was up about ten bucks on the night. It was fun to play cards.

I got a lot of birthday wishes from people on Facebook today. It was great to see my friends and acquaintances. It make me feel good to be remembered by so many people.

My Boyfriend

December 17th, 2008

I got the final items completed on my work for NU. They have all been checked in and I am now going to start the testing process. I got some plowing done around the house.

Gunnar and I were going to get together. We went to Moscow. I went to a couple stores. I bought a couple pair of cargo pants. I tried them on and got his input. It was pretty relationship-like feeling. I also got some belts.

We went to get some pizza and then back to my place to watch a movie. We choose The Count of Monte Cristo. I also told him what ten-six-seven means as well as wondering if someone owns a weedeater or not.

We sat on the couch together watching the movie. When it was over with we cuddled some more. During that time he asked me if I would be his boyfriend. I said I would. So I now have a boyfriend.

New Bed, TV, and Phone

December 8th, 2008

I don’t usually splurge in the way I did over the last week. I have spent thousands of dollars on a new Tempurpeadic Rhapsody bed, a fifty-eight inch plasma TV, a new TV stand, and a new Sprint Touch Pro cell phone.

All three items came in today. I started to get the phone set up. The bed was set up by the delivery men. I put an electric blanket on the bed so it would heat it up. I was told the first night they are too cold to be soft. So I figured with an eclectic blanket that would fix it.

Later on I spent time working on my living room set up. I took down the old TV stand and components. Then I put in the new TV stand in place. I set up the TV and the other components. I watched a little bit of a CD just to see what it looked like.

The TV is huge in my room. It takes up the space between my couch and loveseat. It is pretty crazy.

My First Date with Gunnar

December 5th, 2008

I went to the Dodge dealership to talk with them about the Chrysler Aspen they have for sale. I got a pretty good over all price on it. The problem is I was not happy with some of the things it didn’t have, such as the upgraded sound system and the center counsel that is not as spacious as the Durango. I turned down the deal after some negotiations. I got some calls through out the afternoon dealing with this vehicle. The final one was me saying they would have to come down five to seven thousand more for me to consider it as it would be me “settling”. I am not ready to do that.

I went to Moscow to pay for my bed and TV set. I am excited to have it delivered. It will be at my place on Monday. I am excited to see what it is like to leap on one of those beds. I will have to writ about it in one month when I have it and me broken into it.

At six-thirty Gunnar and I were going to go out on our first official date. We hung out on last Saturday and again for coffee on Monday. But we have not done anything official yet.

I went to his place to pick him up. I was trying to decide if I was going to get out and open his door or not. I decided to not do so. I am not sure of that was good or bad. But he got in and we headed down to Pete’s. He was dressed in some slacks a tee-shirt and a button-up with the buttons not done. He was looking good.

I was wearing slacks and a collared polo-type shirt. I was looking reasonable as well. Or so I say. Anyway, we went to Pete’s and had dinner and conversation. We talked a little about jails and religion and their crossing point. We also hit on some other subjects that he brought up. We both ordered nachos.

After dinner was over we went to Zeppoz’s. We were going to do some bowling. There was a bit of a backlog. So we played some video games and I watched him do some Dance Dance Revolution. He is pretty good at it. I went to check on the lane availability. Turns out there were many lanes open but we were never called for it.

Anyway, we started to bowl. He was struggling. On the other hand I was doing pretty well for myself. He finally got a strike and i gave him a high-five. In the second game I bowled left handed. I lost to him by five pins. I bowled a one-oh-nine left handed.

After bowling we went to Dairy Queen for dessert. We both got an ice cream cone. I drove him home and he was saying goodbye. He put his hand out towards me palm up. Indicating he wanted to hold hands. I took his hand. We held hands in my vehicle talking about all sorts of things for about fifteen to twenty minutes. He talked about how happy he was to have found me. He was excited about the possibilities for the future. He didn’t want to let go. Later on that night he sent me an e-mail saying that if I didn’t want to have let go, he would have gladly gone home with me.

It felt so good to hold hands and have the physical contact. I am making sure that we are taking things slowly. There is no reason to hurry into a physical relationship if we want something more out of it. If we want a one-night stand type of relationship it would already be over with.

I am not sure what it will be like in the future if our relationship blossoms into something of a boyfriend relationship, then he will come with me on events I am sure. I am sure people will talk, because first off it would be a might Mo of a relationship. The other thing is that he is twenty-one. I am sure people will look at me as a cradle robber. I am just happy to have someone who loves to be around me and I hope that something positive comes of the whole thing.

I Did It!!!

September 20th, 2008

This morning I got up and got some breakfast before I had to get ready to run my test for the SO. I was very worried about passing the run. I haven’t been able to do it.

We started with push ups and sit ups. I knew I could do those. I did those just fine. Then we went to the track to run the laps. I have been working on this for a while. I had to run a mile and a half in under fourteen and a half minutes. That is a lot of time for most people, but I have to push hard for that and I always come up short. The last time I ran it I was more than one minute off.

I lined up and got ready to run. Myers said he would hold a pace that as long as we stayed ahead of him we would do fine. I started out and quickly was leading the pack. I didn’t want to, but I had to set a good pace early on. After the first hundred yards my legs were feeling weak. I was very worried about passing it.

My first lap was under two minutes. My target time is a two minute lap. I was ten seconds ahead of pace on it. I figured after the third lap, the half way point, I would grab the water I set by the track to rinse my mouth. One of the problems I run into is my mouth goes dry and it hurts to breathe.

I actually waited until the fourth lap however. I grabbed my water and away I went. I rinsed my mouth twice along the way. That helped. I was able to get into a pace that I just got into a zone with. I had a breathing pattern and just kept it going. Finally I was at my final lap.

I was rounding the one hundred yard point into the final lap. I only had three-quarters of the lap to go. I saw I had time to do it if I pushed hard. I told myself that if I pushed hard I wouldn’t have to do that run again anytime soon. Myers said if we failed anything today we would have two weeks to get ready to run it again. I didn’t want to have to run it again. I pushed and pushed. Soon I was in the final stretch. I could see the finish line.

I crossed the finish line in thirteen minutes and fifty-eight seconds. That was so huge. I passed the test. It felt great. I finally did it. We had some rest, then we had to run a sprint. That was seventy-one seconds for three-hundred and thirty yards. I knew I could do that without a problem.

I ran into a problem in the first corner. My shoe came untied. Then my other shoe came untied. So I was being careful not to trip myself. I crossed at seventy seconds. I got it by one second. I have passed the physical.

We had a written test and then a quick interview. Both of those went fine. McNannay said he was happy to see me in the academy again. I am going to have to work on getting the time off of work now.

First Day of New Job

July 14th, 2008

Today was the first day working as a temp full-timer at the fire department. I brought in some donuts. Heston and did our admin stuff. Then I had a task of changing the tires on a car that we are going to extrication training on later on this evening. I don’t have my rookie book yet to start working on. That is going to take a while once I do get it.

Towards the end of the shift we got a call where we went code in the PL. It has a growler and we were playing that all the way there. Turned out to be a nothing call.

Later on I went to extrication training. I was helping the reserves with it. This was my first Monday Night training that I didn’t have to be at, but I was able to get there. It was my one last chance to do something with the reserves. But when I get on shift, the Monday nights that I am working I will get a chance to work with them on training then as well.

The New Temp

July 8th, 2008

I went to the fire station this morning to update a couple photos on the photoboard. I was asked by Wilkins if I would be there after I was done. I told him I needed to go to the rec center but I could come back later on. I had a feeling that he wanted to talk to me about the temp job.

I went to the rec center and did the LE physical agility test. I am still not there on situps. I also made the mile and a half in about the same about of time. I need to shave about one minute off that time in order to get forty points.

I came home and cleaned up. I called the station and I set up an appointment to meet with the Chiefs at three o’clock PM. In the mean time I talked with Jon a little about the upcoming decision that I have to make. I guess I am sort of in the drivers seat, because I don’t need to take the position. I sort of feel like I need to take it however.

I went to the fire station and I met up with the chiefs. I was offered the temp positions. It was said that I would not be guaranteed a job due to this, but it could help if I do a good job while working as a temp. I was given some time to think about it. They said they would work with me due to my other job. I told them I couldn’t give up my other job knowing that there may not be a position when this is all done because they want to change it to a paramedic position. They said they would work with me in reference to my other job.

I left and called Jon. We talked about it some more. He pointed out that this temp period is a good thing for a couple reasons. One is that if I don’t work out, then I still have a job to go it. If I don’t take this, and wait until a fulltime position comes open. Then I take it and don’t work out, I am out two jobs. Plus with them working with me I should be able to do both for a while. I am very nervous about saying yes, but I went back to the station to take it.

I went to Heston’s office and said I that I am going to take it. He shook my hand and we scheduled my first day to be Monday of next week. I am going to only have three more shifts as a reserve. I am sad about that. I am going to miss working with those guys. I am now in a little bit of a haze as this is a big event in my life and I have a lot to think about now.

I got a call from Gollnick. I thought he already knew. He was calling about playing poker. I figured I would tell him in person.

I asked Heston to hold off on the e-mail until as late as he can so I can tell my guys in person. It was going to work out because everyone was coming down for rig checks early, and A. Wilcox and I had to be there to clean the bay. As I got to the station I got another call from Gollnick. He had been at the station and heard some rumors. He called me to ask me about it. I told him what was going on. I told him that I was going to tell him while playing poker. For my guys, I waited until everyone was there.

I told them that I was offered and accepted the temporary position. They congratulated me. But I am sad. The E-mail had gone out and by the end of my softball game I had a couple texts from people congratulating me.

We played against Tubbs. My head was not fully in the game as I was thinking about the change in my life. I had a good night. I pitched the whole game and didn’t walk anyone on accident. One guy we walked on purpose a couple times. I also hit the ball pretty well. We won the game in the bottom of the seventh. It was great to win that one. We let up eight runs in the first, but came back to win.

After the game I went home and Gollnick came over. We played poker at my place until almost two in the morning. We spent a lot of time talking about the things I should do while I am at the fire station. What I should do on my first couple days. I had a pretty good idea having been around the fire services as long as I had been. The one I didn’t know is to make sure there is coffee always ready.

I lost some money playing poker, but it could have been worse. I was only down nine bucks on the night, but at one point I was down to two bucks left.

Today is one of those days, I was expecting the offer for the temp position, but I am still not mentally prepared to leave the reserves. Though I have spent a lot of time thinking about that in the last couple months. I also realize my dreams of getting back on the sheriff’s reserves will probably not be fulfilled. I am disappointed about that because I was really starting to think about how nice it would be to get that under my belt. It seems like everything went so fast.

Last Radio Show… Ever

April 28th, 2008

Went into the studio today to do the final show with Tom. But it was clear very quickly that the transmitter was not working. I worked on it for a while, but it was hopeless. We finally left about thirty minutes into the time slot. While talking with Tom I found out he wasn’t planning on doing the show again. I also thought about it for a little bit.

This last semester or two the show has suffered from my lack of time preparing for the topics, getting guests, and whatnot. I don’t have the fire in my gut like I did. I just don’t have things to talk about like I did at one time. I also am worried about things with work and everything else. I decided it was time to pull the plug on the show. My last show was today and I never even got on the air. I may see about subbing a show next April to do my show on the Easter Massacre with Karl.

At fire training tonight we were doing more on the wildland class. It was the final day. I had missed all the other trainings because of various reasons, but I also had completed the Red Card last month in Colfax, so I didn’t need it anyway.

Bought a Motorhome

April 1st, 2008

I made my way to Seattle. But while I was en route I found out that the pass was going to be closed for a while as they were doing avalance control. That caused me to have to wait in the car for an extra period of time.

When I got home I paid for the motorhome. I now own the motorhome. I am going to have to figure out where I want to store it while it is over here, but for now it will remain at my parents’ place.