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.

Slow Friday Night

November 12th, 2010

I worked most of the day on getting some fixes to the SQL script.  I also went to Les Schwab to look at tires.  It was going to be real spendy for me, but once I get them then I will be set for the next forty thousand miles.  They have been ordered and they will be in on my next trip to Pullman. 

When I got home I was getting work done only to realize that it was close to six.  I was going to hurry to the station only to find out I was on engine tonight.  So I didn’t have to do rig checks.  I kept working on my computer. 

I went to Martin Stadium where Colfax High was playing a football game.  Colfax Ambulance was there.  I went down to the field and said hello to the guys.  Nebe, Hickman, and I got into a discussion about WSU Football and Coach Wulff.  I stayed through the first quarter and part of the second quarter. 

I went to get dinner later on and then got back to my house and made dinner and watched some TV. 

I got an e-mail saying some help was needed on some data that had gotten into the wrong zone.   There were only eight records, so I ran down all the data and made the scripts necessary to move the data.  I got that sent off.

We got one call tonight for a fire alarm.  We stood by at the station for about hour.  I went home and stayed up until around five in the morning.  Finally I went to bed after only getting one call this whole night.

Cougs Lose a Winnable Game

November 6th, 2010

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

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

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

Poor Turn Out

November 5th, 2010

I spent the day time working on SQL migration scripts for a database move.  Outside of doing that I took the opportunity to get my haircut.  It was getting long and I needed to get it looking better.

Around six I started working with the fire department.  We did our daily rig checks and then we ran a couple calls.  Then we had to do parking lot patrols for fires by the campers.  We need to make sure they are following the rules around having the fire.  It was pretty dead.  Many of the parking lots were sparsely filled with RVs.  It was just pure ugly.

After doing the patrols I went home and watched som TV and worked some more on the SQL Scripts.  We got one last call around two in the morning, but even campus was pretty quiet tonight.  It was vastly different than last weekend.

Letting in More People

October 28th, 2010

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

Cougar Football

October 16th, 2010

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

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

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

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

Goodbye WH4L

September 13th, 2010

After spending the better part of the last decade with WebHost4Life, I am leaving them.  Really, they left me a long time ago.  In the last year I have had so many outages of my websites.  They have gone down and back up at random times.  It has been horrible. When I tried to use tech support they have been very slow.  I had a SQL Injection Attack.  After figuring out the problem I fixed it.  But their control panel was broken and I couldn’t change my SQL Password.  So I asked them to do it.  It took more than five days!  In that amount of time my SQL Server was hit again.  I did my research and found a company I am going to try.  Arvixe.com is who I am trying.  So far I am impressed with their tech support.  I am also happy with the speed of their servers.  I also like that I can have multiple domains without having to create code to reroute the request to the proper domain.  The system allows me multiple websites.  So far, so good.

I spent the better part of the day moving over my websites.  The big one will be the cityofpullman website.  I had fire training tonight.  We are going over ladders.  We spent a lot of time throwing ladders and getting more comfortable with them.  It was a good training.

When we were done we went to My Office.  We hung out talking and laughing about the various activities we have been part of over the time at the fire department.

I spoke to Bob from Imprezzio.  I asked to get a copy of the contract they offered to me so I can look it over and decide if that is what I want to do.

More Pump Training

September 12th, 2010

I slept until around four in the afternoon after going to bed around eight in the morning.  I met two of my new guys to help them with Rescue pump training.  It was a continuation from the training we did last Friday.  It was just less instruction and more hands-on for them.  They are both doing very well.  They need to get to know the equipment location on rescue a lot better though.

We did rig checks following the training.  It took around two hours to get that done.  I went home and watched TV for most of the rest of the evening.

Before rig checks I went to Tesoro for some pop.  They had a deal for ninety-nine cents for any size pop.  I was charged full price.  I pointed out it should be at the sale price.  The lady said that they didn’t mean to have the largest size included in the sale and they were going to put a sign up stating that.  But I said right now it is not up and the sign says ninety-nine cents.  So I went and grabbed my refill cup and came back in.  She said that I could have the one that I already poured because there was nothing she could do with it.  I refused it and poured a new one, leaving the old one sitting on her counter.  If that is the way they want to play, then they can eat the losses on it.  I was mad.

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.

It is Busy

August 23rd, 2010

Training at the FD was the BLS Twelve-lead. Before that I got together with one of my new guys and we worked on doing pumping on Rescue. After training tonight we spent a couple hours running on EMS calls. There was nothing too big, but I didn’t get to go to bed until after four in the morning. It was just one of those busy days. This summer was pretty quiet for the most part. But since the students have come back we have been running lots of calls.

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.

Lots of EMS Calls Today

May 27th, 2010

I spent some time sending this afternoon applying for some more jobs. I also found out the one I really wanted in Bellevue was a no-go. I sent the message about being willing to work on a short-term trial basis to prove myself. I hope that will show I am willing to do what it takes and that they give me a shot. But I am not holding my breath after I got the E-mail saying they were not going to be doing any more interviews for the position for a while. I was wished luck in my continued job search.

This afternoon while I was trying to relax and watch some TV, I heard Pullman get called out for two ALS transfers. I contacted the station about doing some drive time this evening with some of the recruits. I was told there were also two transfers from Pullman to Gritman. Not long after that Colfax got toned out for a transfer from Pullman to Gritman. So I called in and said I could meet them at the hospital if they needed. They took me up on it. We did a transfer. Returned and did the second transfer.

When those were done I went home and got some dinner before heading to station one for the drive time with the recruits. We drove around Pullman in one of the large ambulances because they need more time in it. We were out driving around until eight-thirty.

I watched some more TV and then headed to bed just before midnight. We got a call just after midnight. It was upgraded from a delta to an echo. When the call was complete I got home and took off my boots. Before I could sit at my desk to work on the stats we got called for someone who fell. Just before we had a chance to leave that call in the ambulance a second call came out for an assault victim. We left one rescue guy with the first call and went to the second one. Both were taken code-three to the hospital. That is rare for us to do that.

While at the hospital a guy who worked there asked if I was a cop. I jokingly asked if I gave him a ticket or something. He said I did. So I was trying to remember more about it. He gave me details, but I couldn’t remember it. He said it happened about two months ago. I told him I would look it up to see if it was me. He gave me his last name. When he did that, I started to remember it. I think I remember giving him a ticket. I don’t remember a lot of details around the stop. I hope that after I read my report I will remember some more.

Just Like Back in the Day

May 23rd, 2010

Just like when I use to work full-time in the jail, I did another twenty-four plus hour day. I got home from the jail and went to Moscow for my softball game. We ended up losing the game. It really wasn’t close. I played first. I didn’t hit worth beans.

I hung out at the field for a bit talking to Billy, Ron, Bruce, and Heather. I got home and stayed up until noon when I was done being on call for the coroner. I then went to bed. I had been up for about twenty-eight hours. I was going to get about four hours of sleep before I would have to get up and head back to the softball field. Tonight I was playing a co-ed game against Ernie’s team. They are the number one team right now.

We played them tight. It came down to their final at-bat in the seventh. We had a three-run shot in the top of the seventh to put us up by one. Only to lose it with a two-run basehit.

I went home and got into my jail uniform. I went to the fire station where rig checks were going on. They were just completing them. I talked to the new guy about him starting to respond on calls. I went to Colfax and went to take a nap in the basement of the jail. I got up just before eleven and replaced the guys in the jail.

I was working with Brett again. It was pretty quiet for us. I did the first set of rounds and the last set. I also brought in Transformers Two. We got to watch that as the night went on. I headed out around six in the morning.

Alexithymia

May 20th, 2010

This morning I went to the fire station to complete a class that I missed on Monday due to being out of town. It was on Wildland Urban Interface. It lasted about two hours. After the class I met with Heston to learn what I could do to interview better. He suggested getting some more certs. Maybe showing how I am using the certs I have. He said being very clear about my intention to making the fire department my number one priority. It sucks that actually demonstrating that fact doesn’t amount to anything. I just have to say it is my number one priority. It is not about what I have done or what I have shown I will do. It is about what I say I will do. Lesson learned. I let the him know I am actively searching for a job and I don’t know what my future holds as I now need money and I am going to be more willing to accept a job.

After that, I headed home to send a couple E-mails to the people I interviewed with. One was to the first interview that went real poorly. I said that I understand I didn’t do well in the interview, but I can code. I sent some more samples of code and let him know that code I wrote in the document he gave me to fill out was not a copy and paste from the Internet. He E-mailed me back and said I am not a good fit for the team I interviewed for, but there may be another spot for me.

I also E-mailed the company that I interviewed for in Bellevue. We didn’t cover any of my code. So I sent a sample of the code, the sample I put together for the interview. I also reiterated some of my strong points letting them know I would do a great job if given the chance. I don’t know how far that will go. I am very hopeful for that. But I am not holding my breath too much.

I heard back from them as well. It pretty much said that the code would be forwarded. I just hope they forwarded my E-mail message as well.

I went to the jail and worked this evening down there. I went to Rosauers to get some dinner because I didn’t feel like chicken. While there a couple of the deputies were getting dinner. I was asked by one of them when I was going to work next. He is the one that I have sort of had a internal problem with recently and the reason why I have been staying away. So I just sort of changed the subject and said slightly under my breathe that I have been busy.

I was in a mood that was one I could not describe. I have so many things going through me right now. There is the frustration over not getting the job at PFD. There is this feeling like some people are nice to me, but are not really friends, even though I would love for them to be friends. There was the desire not to be at the jail. The personal issue I have on the patrol side. The hope for getting the job in Bellevue. The desire to stay in Pullman to complete this softball season. The sleepiness that I had going too. I feel like I need to just get to the top of some building and scream and yell my lungs off. I need to thrown things and be violent with clay pigeons. I just need to get this feeling out of me. It feels like I have tucked it deep inside and on the surface most people don’t even know these horrible feelings I am having. I am playing it off very well. If I were to act the way I was feeling people would know there was a problem, but there is nothing that anyone can do about the fact I didn’t get the job. Though I feel like a total loser for not getting it. I feel like the politician who should have won an election, but someone else ended up winning showing the politician that people really don’t like him as much as he thought.

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.

Early Sunday Rig Checks.

May 16th, 2010

We are doing an early rig check today. I got to the station around three o’clock and started to do rig checks on the engine. I got it almost completed when the other guys showed up. We were going to meet at four, but I wanted to make sure I was done in time to get to softball. When rig checks were done I went home and got my softball uniform on.

I headed down to the field and we had ten people on the nose. I played first base the whole time. We won pretty easily. I didn’t hit the ball great, but it was fun to get out on the field. We are undefeated so far this year. We had a good team for sure!

I then hit the road and headed back to Seattle. I had several interviews over the next couple days and the first one is at nine in the morning in Redmond at the Microsoft campus.

Summer Men’s Softball Season Starts

May 11th, 2010

I had a couple phone interviews today. One of them didn’t go well, but the other one was going better. I am actively searching for work in the Seattle area now. I need a job and I want to get into computer programming again. I know I can get on some softball teams. So, I may be Seattle bound in the next couple months.

I went to the fire station to find out where HazMat training was going to be held tonight. I also had a chance to talk to the guys on B-Shift. They said they were disappointed I didn’t get the job. They were hoping for me to get it.

Around six I headed to station one for HazMat training. But it was moved to the Deuce. I went to the Deuce and we went over some new testing kits we got for some biological agents.

Then I went to the softball field for our first men’s game of the season. We have had three rain outs. But tonight we were going to play.

I had a bad time pitching. I threw thirteen pitches. Only one was a strike. Then I went to first base. We went on to win the game. I had a hard hit ball down the firstbase line. I took a step or two and stuck my mitt out. I snowconed the ball. I could see it starting to move out of the mitt. As it started to fall free I barehanded it with my free hand for the out. I got a lot of people cheering me on for that. Even some people on the other field saw it and made good comments.

Hitting was a problem. I had two good hard hits. I finally hit a double like I did a few years ago. A solid hit to right-center field in the gap. It felt good. I hope to do that a lot this season.

Time to Move On

May 10th, 2010

I am working hard to apply for jobs in the Seattle area. I am willing to move there should I find the job that works for me. I have come to terms with leaving Pullman.

I went to the fire station to talk to the chief about not getting the job. He said we can meet next week when he is less busy to talk about it. I am on edge waiting to find out what happened. I want to scream and yell, but it will not do any good. But I need to know what happened for my own closure.

Tonight for Monday Night Training we did firefighter survival. We covered a lot on the SCBA and did some crawling around in tighter spaces working to move around the SCBA to make it through the space.

After training several of us went to dinner then to my place to watch the Hangover. As the day went along I had moments of feeling okay to moments of being upset.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The Blues

May 4th, 2010

I didn’t know what today has in store for me. This was one of those days with nothing except for softball planned. The way the weather was holding out I thought we might play. I was starting to make serious plans to play. But I found out around four o’clock PM that it was cancelled. The cancellation of softball left it open for me to go to OTEP training in Albion. We covered trauma assessments.

As the day started out I did a lot on my computer. I was reading up on some stuff online. I tried to find some resources that will tell me how to get the alternator out of my motorhome. I failed at that.

After training I came home and got online again. I chatted with someone online for about an hour talking about being a firefighter and houses. I was watching NCIS when they paged for a transfer. Then they paged for reserves. I waited about one or two minutes to call in. I have to get up early for my interview so I chose to allow someone else to take it so I could sleep. I knew if I took it I wouldn’t get back until late. I was the only one who called in.

I was told I was working with Chia. That would be interesting. He thinks I am mad at him right now. He tried to call me a while back and I didn’t call him back after he left a message. But what I found is that after I left the fire department working full-time I was forgotten about and not asked to participate with stuff. I came to the realization that we were co-workers who did some stuff outside of work rather than friends.

That said, when I got the call from him I know he wanted me for something other than to hang out. I figured it was something computer related or something related to the SO. I figured I would get back to him when I could.

A couple weeks ago he sent me a message on facebook saying that he hadn’t heard from me in a while and wanted to know if he did something to make me mad. I never responded, but there is nothing I am mad about. There have been many times where I sent him texts or said stuff on his facebook page with no response.

We went to Spokane and dropped off our patient. As we were coming back to Pullman, he said now that I have you trapped I want to know what I did to make you mad. I told him nothing. He pushed the issue several times, each time I told him I wasn’t mad. Later we were driving down the road and he fell asleep. I was thinking about how I could tell him what was up, but I didn’t know how to bring it up. Then he woke up and again asked if I was ready to talk. I wasn’t.

I was also thinking about things at the SO. I like the work, but I feel like every time I am in the same room with one guy he gives me a hard time. I don’t mind that because he does that to everyone and I laugh about it. But it also feels like I get “yelled” at for things. It feels like I am being held to a higher standard than some of the other guys. I am not sure if it is because more is expected of me or if it is something else. He has also given me some nice atta boy’s too. So, I am totally lost about how to read him. I know I haven’t done anything wrong while I have been there, but it feels like I cannot walk across the floor correctly. It makes going into the SO something I don’t want to do when that person is around. Who know, I am probably being hyper-sensitive.

But the whole trip back to Pullman I was very quiet. I didn’t say much of anything at all. When we got to the station I entered the call into the book. Chia completed his stuff and then left the room without saying anything. I left the station and went home to go to bed.

I need to talk to Chia, but I am not sure how to say what I am feeling. Really it is just that I feel like we are nothing more than co-workers. But that said I should be able to talk to him like I can my other co-workers. Last night was just a bad night with both of these things running through my head.

Getting Work Done

May 3rd, 2010

I decided that I would stick around the house and in Pullman and get some stuff done. The staff webpage and the photoboards and both stations needed some work. So I got some photos printed as well as new name plates for all the reserves who just became EMTs. I got those put up. I went out looking for a bolt I need to fix the motorhome. I still need to figure out how to get the alternator out and the new one it. I think I am going to be doing some searching on the web.

Other than that it was sit around and watch some TV night. I sent a text to Gunnar to see if he wanted to come over. He came over around nine o’clock. We watched House and then parts of about three other shows. Nothing else was on that I wanted to watch. We talked for quite a while.

I am not sure what to think. I really like having someone I can hold on to, but I am not sure he if the perfect fit for me. Some of the same issues I use to have with him have not gone away. Sometimes I think that getting in contact with him only is leading him on.

On the Road and at the FD

April 30th, 2010

I worked the SO today. I started with a car accident on Johnson Road. The RP didn’t know where he was so it took a bit to find it. But once I found it, there wasn’t much to the accident. Just a car went off the road and rolled to its top. I took photos and talked to the driver.

I went back to the SO to write it up. It didn’t take too long to get the paperwork done. Then I had to decide how I wanted to write up a ticket. I talked to a couple other deputies about it. After getting their input I decided to write the bigger ticket.

I went home to work the fire department. It was one of those nights we ran several calls well spaced so that I was only able to get several hours of sleep. I was up againt at four in the morning for a fire alarm and a call that we probably shouldn’t have needed to go on. But we get those a lot. By the time I got home it was around six in the morning.

Another Arrest

April 12th, 2010

I checked into service after getting a couple more names on the softball roster. I headed to the WSU police station to ask about the hiring process. On the way I stopped someone for running a stop sign. Ended up with a suspended driver. I never was able to ask the questions about the hiring process.

I went to help with a stolen pop machine. That was all I got done today because I had to be at the fire station in Pullman by six o’clock PM. I got home and changed into my PFD uniform. I headed to the station.

We went to the city playfields for the pack test for wildland firefighting. On the way I dropped off the rosters for softball. We hung out at the playfields while people did their pack test and then went back to the station to clean the engine.

I went home and for the first time in a long time I was able to just sit around and watch some TV. It has been a long time since I have been able to do that.

Running Some Calls

April 10th, 2010

This morning I went to the gun range and worked on a combat course. I did pretty good. I shot well with the rifle. When it was done the top four reserves were going to get to go to a competition in Lewiston next weekend. I was invited, but because of the softball tournament in Spokane I am not going to be able to go. I had to turn down the invite, but I was happy I did well enough to get to go.

I went to the SO and worked on some paperwork for a while. I had to get caught up as I had added some cases over the last day. I got several closed out. I went home and tried to nap, but that didn’t work I was getting a lot of texts and phone calls.

I went to the fire station and did the rig checks. Then I hung out there and had some dinner. I also worked on a report in Spillman. While I was hanging out there we ran several calls. Then we started to hit the Event Center for multiple calls due to people being drunk. It was getting pretty busy for a while.

I Guess They Know

April 2nd, 2010

I had Matt from my reserve class riding with me tonight. I had a case that we went to investigate in Lamont. It turned out that nothing was going to come of it. We were working to get him an arrest so he could get up to the next level.

As we were driving he mentioned that he found my blog. I asked him how much of it he had read. He said that he read a number of entries and he didn’t read anything that surprised him.

I guess I am more obvious than I thought I was in the past. He said he thought most of the people in the reserve class knew. He mentioned that he was with a full-timer and they talked about it a little bit as well. It was the same guy who told me about what he did during the academy when he was in it with Joe.

I have to say that everyone has treated me very well and it seems that I had no idea they knew which shows that they have all been very cool about it. It has never been an issue. I told him that I keep the advise that Carter gave me years ago. If I don’t make an issue out of it, no one else will. So I told Matt more about things and how I feel about being gay. For all the jokes I make about Mike being gay, I wonder if he actually knows about me being the gay one.

It felt good to talk with Matt about it. It was fun to work with Matt. I have worked tons of hours with two other guys, so it was neat to see how someone else does their cop work.

We ended the night standing in the freezing cold waiting to get that final arrest. It never came.

Taxi’s are Cheaper

March 14th, 2010

This morning when I woke up I got my patrol car and hit the road. I was only able to work until five because of the fire department. I got my biggest speeder to date, eighty-one in a fifty-five. That is twenty-six over. The person claimed to not know what the speed limit was. I said I didn’t know of any places in Washington where the speed limit is eighty miles per hour.

I worked with Paul-Nine on a couple calls. He stopped a car and I backed him on it as things seemed sort of fishy. He got an arrest. Then he helped me on a call with juveniles fighting.

I went home and got ready to work the fire department. We had daily rig checks. Only three of us were there for it. We had a new guy, but I don’t count him because one of the regular’s have to work with the new guy to train him.

We ended up running two calls. One was around midnight. The other one was at four-thirty in the morning. Let me just say, a taxi is much cheaper than an ambulance.

No Trip To Renton Today

February 18th, 2010

The plan is to drive out to Renton today. But before I got going I wanted to get some M&Ms and Diet Pepsi for Foster. He is back at The Deuce. I also got Reiber a custard filled donut. I delivered the stuff for Foster to the Deuce and got into a conversation with Dragoo while I was there. That lasted a while. By the time I was getting ready to leave it was nearly four o’clock, so I decided to stay in Pullman tonight and hit the road.

I went home and got my uniform on and then went to the SO to get a car. I wrote up my reports to get caught up and then hit the road. I went out twenty-six. I hit two-seventy. I stopped by station one to drop off Reiber’s donut. I wrote a couple tickets tonight.

When I was coming back to Colfax I saw a car that looked like it was driving poorly. I followed it and pulled it over. I was wasn’t sure about the alcohol usage and the driver admitted to drinking a couple beers. I called Brown who came up and helped me out. With his help it was determined the guy was okay. As we were clearing that we heard something happening in Colfax.

We went back to provide back up and search for a suspect. We were there for about an hour working that when the suspect was found and taken to jail. I called it a night and went home. It was a good night for me.

Good Training

February 15th, 2010

I spent most of the morning in bed. I think I am getting caught up from my last few days. I have been spending a lot of time working and not so much sleeping. I had the ringer on my phone turned off to get as much sleep as possible. It was very nice.

I got up just before one and started my day. I had to get the slings for the shotguns and the pizza for dinner for tonight. I went to Walmart and then called Phil about the slings. He said he found two of them in the reserve closet so he thought that maybe we wouldn’t need to buy any. He said I should hold off.

I called in the pizza order and then went to the fire station and worked on getting my the CPR babies put together. I went to Papa Murphy’s and got the pizza and dropped them off at the station. I decided to get one more and had one of the guys on the shift go pick it up.

I went home and got my uniform on. I started to cook the pizza. We were eating pizza and talking about our “training” for tonight. It was based on elevators and the keys for them. But that was just a ruse for the real training. That was going to be a drill that we would play off as a real situation in order to see what things we need to work on. It was also to be a wake up call for everyone to make sure we are not being complacent on fire alarms and calls.

What happened is the phone rang and the Lt. got it. He said the Captain got a call from Community Hall for the smell of burning plastic. We would go up there and people would believe that we were really going on such a call. He set up command as normal. Then after a bit he said they had a room and contents fire and they were working to get someone down the stairs. He asked the engine crew to get water and hook to the FDC. He had Rescue get the high-rise pack and respond to the North East corner. There were some issues doing things quickly and it took some time to get everything done. So it was a chance for us to see what we needed to do for the future.

I think everyone learned a lot. We have two hose packs for the high-rise. But the area is tight. When you pull the hose out it is hard. Parrish set them in a different way to see if it was easier. But as I pulled they got stuck on the gated wye. As I pulled it flew out and hit me in the head. I was wearing a helmet so it didn’t hurt, but it was good that I was wearing a helmet! We got the rig back in service and then did some walk through stuff of the FDC’s on a couple buildings around Community Hall.

We went back to the station and finished our dinner and did the rig checks. I have a first-round job interview tomorrow in Liberty Lake. So I am not going to stay up too late. I scheduled myself to be up there at ten o’clock AM.

I spoke with Kuhrt today and he told me they may need to hire a temp to work as a WSU cop for a year as one of their officers will be deployed. He suggested I send a letter of interest to the Chief if I am interested in doing in. I sure am. So I am going to talk to the Chief tomorrow about it.

Long Day at PFD

February 13th, 2010

After only about two hours of sleep I made my way to the fire department to teach a first aid class. There were six people in it. It was a good group and I wasn’t as tired as I would have thought I would be. I had some Five-Hour Energy and pop to help out.

Upon completion of the class I got the stuff decontaminated and put away. Then I went to the Deuce to meet up with one of the new guys. I have heard some things from others and I wanted to talk to him about it. Mainly, he has no experience in the fire department, but does have some experience with some stuff in the EMS field. He doesn’t know some of the ins and outs of the fire services. One being that no matter what you knew in your last department you have to prove yourself in your new department. One thing that helps is listening to people whether you think you know what they are going to tell you or not. I wanted to make sure he understood this so he would fit in. I want to see him do well and if someone doesn’t tell him things then you can’t expect him to know them on his own. I incorporated this with some drive time.

When we were done with the drive time we got come rig checks done. It was a Saturday night, but it wasn’t crazy busy. We did run a couple calls through out the night, but for the most part it was pretty quiet.

Hanging with Drew

February 9th, 2010

This morning was our monthly staff meeting at the fire department. I got my pop and headed in for the meeting. They normally last two to three hours. We cover things that deal with the fire department making recommendations and bringing up issues to be looked at.

I had to leave just before noon for a dentist appointment. It was my normal semi-annual cleaning. That went well and it went quick.

When I was done with that I did drive time on the engine with Victor. I am working with him and one other guy to get their engine drive time in order to become engineers.

This evening was HazMat Training. It was held at the Deuce. The training was pretty short and sweet. It ended with a game of Jeopardy. The prizes for getting questions correct included winning some candy.

After that was done Drew and I went to My Office. We had some dinner and beer. We talked about various things. This was the second time we went out. It is nice to get a chance to get out and hang out with Drew.