Apple Cup at the Moose

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

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

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

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

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

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

This time it was only an overcooked pizza.

Not Spending Thanksgiving Alone

After being up until nearly five in the morning I figured I would sleep in until noon or later. But at nine-thirty I got a call from the VanNess. He said that he wasn’t sure if I was clear that I had been invited to Thanksgiving dinner. I wasn’t clear about that at all. I sort of got the feeling otherwise. But I was very happy to hear that. So now I am going to get a Thanksgiving dinner. My alternate plan was for pizza.

I went back to sleep for another couple hours. My mom called and she wished me a happy Thanksgiving. I spent time on the computer and watched football to burn time. Around four I went to the fire station to do daily rig checks. I was meeting with my partner on Rescue at four-thirty to head to station one.

When we got there I jumped in and helped out. I was assigned the gravy making detail. I was doing strong work. I was joking with Drew about getting toned out while making dinner. He said, no, the tones will go out when we are dishing up.

I put the gravy on the table and the youngens started to get served. We got toned out on a structure fire. It turned out to be someone who had a fire in the fireplace with the flue closed. We opened the flue. Put out the fire and removed the smoke from the building.

We finally got back and started dinner. It was very good. I was very happy to have been included in the meal. After it was done we were sort of talking and telling stories when a second call came in. We ran that one and went to the hospital. I got the back of the ambulance cleaned up. Then went back to the station and helped to do the dishes.

When everything was cleaned up we left and went back to the Deuce. I went home and started to write to my friends. I was writing a letter of thanks to many people who I feel I need to recognize for positive things they have done for me. They were heartfelt and I said things that I felt, but I usually cannot tell people. I ended my final one just before one in the morning.

Spending Thanksgiving Alone

I was on call for the fire department this evening. I went through the December schedule and got it posted online.

I called down to the station about Thanksgiving. I was going to see if there were plans for a big dinner for everyone or what was going on. I was told last week it was brought up and all the guys made their decision about what to bring. I sounded like it was going to be just a small thing with the career guys and their families. I let Robinson know that we would not be taking Rescue down for Thanksgiving on Thursday.

Around six I went to the fire station and we were about to do rig checks when a fire alarm came in. We rolled on it before heading back to the station to do daily rig checks.

Following that I didn’t have a whole lot to do. I played around online for while before going to bed. I got woken up for a call around four in the morning. We had just gotten out the door when we were cancelled. I went home but could not get to sleep. I got up and watched the remainder of House online. I had started to watch it before I went to bed. I finally went back to bed around six in the morning.

Patrolling with Melcher

I was excited because this evening I was going to patrol with Melcher. I got up and went downstairs. The boys were up. We watched some football on TV. It was snowing outside pretty good. There was about an inch on the ground and more was expected.

We had breakfast and then they started to load up and got ready to head out of town. I was at home and watched some more football as the snow was piling up. At one point the tones went off for a bus rollover on Davis Way just outside of the city limits. They called for four ambulances. I went to the station. But it turned out there was only a bus driver on the bus and it never rolled. So everyone was cancelled. But that put me behind the eight-ball. I had planned on going to get some long johns.

I drove to Shopko and picked up two pair of long johns and got home. I got my uniform on and headed to pick up Melcher. This is his first patrol as a second class reserve. I was excited to patrol with him.

The weather was bad and I thought we would deal with a lot of car accidents. We ended up dealing with none. We got dinner with BKoe in Pullman. We traded driving after a while. The snow had stopped and the roads were starting to get better. We worked twenty-six for a while. Then we went north on One-Ninety-Five. But it was dead. We made it all the way to Pullman. I took Two-Seventy to the state line with no luck. As we were leaving Pullman I head a PPD officer getting ready to transport someone to Colfax. I offered to bring the prisioner to the jail. He happily took me up on the offer.

That was the final thing we did on the night. It was near two in the morning. We fueled the car and called it a night.

Final Cougar Football Saturday of the Year

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

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

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

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

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

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

Video Game Night

I started the day with my doctor’s appointment with my eyes. He found the pressure in my eyes were higher than normal. He wanted to check my eyes to see if there was something wrong. The eye test included dilation of my eyes. The left eye was left seeing blurry for a couple hours. It was crazy to close my right eye and see the world as someone who needs to use glasses. There was nothing I could do to see clearly through it. That sucked. The good news was there is nothing wrong and life goes on.

I went to Loco Grinz with BKoe for lunch. Then I went home and did some work on the computer. While at home I heard them call for reserves to call for a transfer. But I had a meeting with Heston and the other crew leaders. I was called directly by the captain to see if I could do it. I let him know that I was supposed to do the meeting. I said he would need to clear it through Heston.

I was cleared to do the transfer. I was supposed to do it to Lewiston. I was told the meeting would be moved back. But when I got to the station I was told that transfer was cancelled and we were going to Spokane instead. I went with Tony.

Following getting to Spokane we hit dinner at Chili’s. We got back and I went to Kuhrt’s house. CBass’ birthday was today and they were out celebrating. People went back to Kuhrt’s place. When I got there CBass wasn’t there, but BKoe and some others were.

We played Wii bowling and Scene It on the Xbox. It was fun times. I was there playing Scene It until nearly two in the morning. Kuhrt and I played two games after everyone else left. He won the first one. I won the second one. I won on the final question. I was down by about two-thousand points, and got the final question correct.

Blast from the Past for the Bumblebee

After sleeping in ever so slightly I got cleaned up and started my day. I went to Schucks to get an alternator for the Bumblebee. While at Schucks Hampton from D-Twelve was helping me. He said, you bought the Bumblebee. So he knew the rig, but it seemed he didn’t know I always had it. So I let him know I have always had the Bumblebee. That is when I found out that we knew each other back in the day through the CB. We use to play CB tag and hang out. He was bringing up the names of all the people who were around back in the day.

I ran a couple EMS calls with Winter and Irving. After the first one we went to Heros and Sports for some food. Just before it was served we got another call. We loaded up in the Bumblebee to go to the call. We finally got back to our late lunch which turned into an early dinner.

I went home until it was time to head to the station for First Responder training. I wanted to observe the class to see if some of the reports I have been given were true. As I watched the class for about an hour and a half. I didn’t see anything that I thought needed correcting, but I think there is probably a chance the behaviour that was reported probably did happen. I just hope it was a one time occurrence.

I went home and watched some TV for the remainder of the night.

Pool Playing Fun

This morning started with a meeting to discuss streamlining the response to calls to better utilize the resources we have. Ideas we brought up to use all our resources, to include the reserves before calling help from our local partners. Many of the things brought up universally accepted by the task force. It is good to see we have some positive ideas that can help make Pullman Fire more streamlined.

After the meeting I started to type up the notes from the meeting but the career guys started to go over reports on the Zoll’s. I decided I should participate in the training, just to get better at reports and because a couple examples had my name on them.

When the training was done I went to the Deuce to meet up with John to go to Jefferson Elementary school to show off the fire engine to the second graders who were going through a book on firefighters. They kids had a good time looking at the fire engine and its tools. They all had a chance to get into the drivers seat and take a look around from there.

Tonight’s OTEP training was infectious diseases. It was a short training. Chia did the training for it.

When it was done Chia, Blake, a couple other reserves and I went to Val Halla. We played some pool and had a couple drinks. I only had a couple because I planned on driving home. After my couple I didn’t have anything more for four hours so it had plenty of time to go through the system. I was mainly out to hang out with the guys and have a good time.

As we were leaving to head to Mike’s I checked my phone. There was a missed call from the fire department. They had tried everyone else on the career side. They needed someone to come in and cover for someone who needed to go home sick. They called to see if I would finish out his shift. I was so stoked. This would have been a big step to have a reserve work a shift. I wanted to do it, but I had drank a couple beers. I had to turn it down. It killed me.

At Mike’s we played some more pool and shut the place down.

New Guy on the Shift

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

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

Another Cougar Loss

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Interview in Spokane

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Working without the Boot

I worked rig checks today without the walking boot. I pretty much have it off totally. Now I am get waiting until Thursday for being back to full service.

Rig checks went pretty well. I worked on the engine and helped Togs do the pump test. Everything went swimmingly.

DUI Crash Demo

Parrish woke me up this morning with a phone call to let me know the guys are coming over to start work on the installation of my new heater. It is a gas forced air furnace. It is made by Carrier. I went ahead and went with the upgraded model because with rebates it turned out to only be five hundred more than the lowest model. In the long run it could be the best option for me.

I left the house around ten-thirty to head up to the CUB mall for the DUI demonstration. The reserves are going to work on extricating some people out of a car as part of an example of what could happen in a car accident.

When I got up there WSU PD had booth and they had drunk goggles. I tried on a couple pair. I was amazed how those made it hard to walk.

I was talking to Garner who was up there as well. He said he is going to stick around Pullman for a while. He got a job working at Les Schwab. That is great for him.

I was thinking that Les Schwab seems to hire a lot of ten-six-sevens. Including the one I had written about several years ago who worked in Clarkston. They should do a men of Les Schwab calendar.

As it got close to the event the guys from the fire department came up. They were looking over the scene to make plans on how to do the work they needed to do. I got my video camera ready and started to video tape the whole thing. I got them coming to the scene with the sirens. Then the whole job of the extrication.

When they were done we went into the CUB and had lunch together. I went home afterwards and got the video downloaded to my computer and working on putting the video to some music.

I went to Colfax Fire for training tonight. We were doing OTEP. It was spinal injuries. The guy did a good job with the presentation.

Gotta Fix Things

I went to the bank to deposit the movie BKoe gave me. I stopped by the fire station on my way by and talked with Blake, Foster, and Jay. We talked about the very busy weekend.

I went home and worked on my den some more. I have a couple stacks of papers that I need to go through and sort out. First I was sorting it by job. I got that completed. Now I need to decide if I want to get rid of it or file it or what. I have six stacks of papers to go through. I also need more space to put my folders away.

We had a meeting at the fire department. It was in reference to some stuff happening that needs to stop because someone is having a bad experience to the point where it is detrimental.

The meeting went for about two and a half hours. We also talked about some other irritations that the reserves have about how we feel like we are underutilized and that we are viewed and worthless by some of the full-time guys.

Silly Faggot

I spent much of the morning watching football. I watched Farve go to Green Bay. He is my starting QB for FFL. My team was doing okay, but this week, like every week this season I have been matched up against the team that scored a lot of points. There are eight teams that scored less than me. There are three that have higher scores. I am paired against one of the three. This is a bad season for me.

Tonight is weekly rig checks for A-shift. I went to the station around six o’clock to do rig checks. It only took us about an hour and a half to get everything done. I went home and watched some TV. My normal Sunday night shows were not on tonight so I had to choose to watch something else.

I got a response to the message I sent yesterday about being called a faggot. The response said that he didn’t know that I was there, that he didn’t remember making any mention of me, and that no one there knew me, so why would he reference me.

I responded back with a better run down of what happened and pointed out that he was talking to someone who did know me. I also pointed out that I was close enough to hear the whole thing very clearly. There was no doubt about what I heard.

I asked him straight up if he thought that way about me. He didn’t answer that in his response back to me. All he said was “I can’t take back what I said. It was obviously stupid and incredibly disrespectful. All I can do is apologize.”

So, he didn’t deny thinking that I am a faggot. I think that the only thing he is sorry about is that I heard him, and he may not even be sorry for that.

Den Cleaning

I found out my heater is going to run me about twenty-five hundred bucks. That is going to take a pinch out of my budget.

Today was room cleaning day, and I went to town on it. My den was way over due for a cleaning. I had a lot of stuff that needed shredding and to be cleaned up. I would say I made a hug dent with about four hours of work, but I have a way to go. I still have to go through a couple more things. I need to organize my stuff a little better. I have a couple more stacks of things to run through. But it feels good to walk into my den now.

I went to the fire department and got my timecard completed and turned in. This is the last A-shift of the month. We have to turn our timecards in on the final working day.

In the evening I spent watching some TV and just relaxing. I tired to go to bed around midnight, but it was so busy on the scanner after a tiny bit of trying I gave up for a while longer.

Unemployment Orientation

This morning I had to report to a unemployment orientation training session. It is mandatory for everyone on unemployment. It took a little under three hours. But I suppose, without having a full-time job, this is something that I can find the time to do.

This evening I had training with the fire department. It was ventilation training. but due to the bad weather we were going to keep it short and sweet.

I just supervised because my foot is in the walking boot. It was a short two hour training session.

Movie Night with C-Shift

Brandon and I met up for lunch today at the Mongolian Fire. He was going to go to Moscow to looking for a hat for his costume. I tagged along. We went to Goodwill and WalMart. Finally we found it at Tri-State. After dinner we went to Loco Grinz for dinner.

I pulled a newspaper out of the Bumblebee when I noticed it had a front page article that showed Turpin, Christensen, and Wedam on it. I wanted to scan it in to the computer so I went to the fire station and got it scanned. Turpin was covering for someone at station one so I showed him. I went to the kitchen and the guys were

The guys there wanted to get a movie and asked if I would go to the store to get one. I picked one up from Safeway. Richards, Young, and Caessens all watched the movie. They wanted me to get a scary movie. After the movie the Young and Richards went on an EMS call. Caessens and I stuck around chatting about fires and the differences between Pullman and Shelton. I left around midnight.

Gave Marv a Ride

I went to the fire station today. It has been a while since I was last there because of being over in Seattle. The chief saw me and said something about my lack of shaving. But I showed him my boot and then he understood that I was pretty unavailable to do much of anything until I get it off.

Within a little bit of being there we got a call from a Palouse EMS worker. He needed a ride back from the hospital. We no longer send rescue. So when someone is needed in the back they have to send one of their people. But then we have a situation where someone needed to drive down to pick them up, or we need to give the a ride ourselves. It will be interesting to see how that works out.

In the IM Championships!!!

Victor and I were going to respond to calls today. There really wasn’t a lot going on. I was getting some things taken care of on the computer and around the house. I had to get my shirts folded and put away. I also had to take the motorhome to the storage place and bring the Bumblebee back. Before that got going we got a call for EMS. Victor and I went to the station but we were cancelled. So I went home and got the motorhome. I drove it to get the Bumblebee. Then I got some lunch and deposited a couple checks. I went to the worksource office but they were closed for the lunch hour.

I saw a sign while I was there. It said that you were not to leave your kids unattended in the car. I thought that it was strange such a sign was needed there, but then again… Anyway, I went to the fire station for training at one.

It was on the air cart. We pulled it out and took a look at it and the air lines that went with it. It was a short training, but it was good to go over it again.

I went home and started to think about playoffs. We had two games tonight. I also had a telephone job interview. That started at four. I got the phone call and spent about thirty minutes answering some questions. If I am good enough I will come in for another interview.

I went to the field and met up with the others from the team. People started to show up and I was getting the line up set. We had fourteen guys there. One was hurt so I didn’t worry about playing him. But we needed to win so I only batted eleven. 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. They were done. We had a couple guys on with no outs. So we were poised to score some more.

Ryan and I went to Rancho Viejo for dinner. We ate and talked softball. We set the line up for the championship game on Sunday. We also talked about finances. Ryan told me he advised his bosses that we was planning on resigning in November.

With us playing in the championship game on Sunday, I will miss it. I am going to be in San Diego playing softball in a tournament down there. We are also playing Kelly’s team. It was a game we have been wanting to have for a long time. Our team, defensively, is as good as his team, but hitting, we need to bring our sticks. We have a lot of pretty-good hitters. We need them to do their really good hitting on Sunday.

I got home and started to pack for my trip to San Diego. I was going to have to be out the door around eight in the morning. I wanted to wash my uniform so it was clean for the start of the tournament. I didn’t get to bed until nearly midnight.

Second CPR Class

I was teaching CPR tonight for Avalon. It was the second group that I was doing. The first game, yesterday, was great to work with. I was hoping today’s class would be as good. It wasn’t quite as good, but it wasn’t bad.

I got to the station around three in the afternoon. I got the classroom set up and then I edited the department website.

The class got there and we got underway. I was pushing to be done by seven, because that is when some of them were supposed to leave. There had been a scheduling change, that wasn’t passed long to them.

After the class I got the stuff from the class cleaned up and put away. I then got some ice cream from Reiber. After the class I went home and watched some TV and relaxed. It was a quiet night for me.

Another IM Softball Playoff Game

I got up and went in to the fire station to teach CPR to a group from Avalon. It was a great class. We had a lot of fun. It seemed like I was hitting on all cylinders. It was a lot of fun.

After the class I went to Moscow to get my vent for the motorhome. I went to the roof and worked on resealing the vent and then put the cover on it. I did that until it was close to the time to get ready for the softball game.

This evening we were playing in a softball game without Ryan. We had twelve guys there. I hit everyone. We were playing against a team that could hit. We had some of our better players there tonight. We had a four to three run lead then we let up eight runs. It was sort of deflating. Then we scored a goose egg. The next inning we held them scoreless and then scored eight of our own, including about four after two outs had been recorded.

We went into the sixth inning needing to score two runs to win. We were down by one run. We quickly got guys on base and scored one. Then Peter hit one down the line scoring the game winning run from third base. We are going to the quarter finals.

I got home and watched a new episode of NCIS with Brandon. I stayed up sort of late just lounging.

First Round IM Win

Victor and I responded on calls for a while this morning and into the afternoon. We had a couple runs.

I was excited for the softball playoffs. Tonight was the first game. I went to the Rec Center to get Bruce’s eligibility form turned in and then to the field. Ryan met me there. I was pitching. We were playing very well. Our hitting was good. We scored fifteen runs, only having one inning without a single run scored.

With the first round win out of the way, Ryan came over and hung out for a while. We watched Saw IV. He left and then I realized that I was going to have to get up early to teach a CPR class.

Oral Board Interviews

Today the big plan was to run the oral boards for the reserves who are applying to be firefighters. We have around eleven people to interview. Each one was given a half hour time slot.

It is helpful to sit in on the oral boards because I get to see things from the other side. I can see how different people interview and how the panel looks at them. I can see what things are good and bad. I can see how I should work to answer the questions. It was a great experience.

I think when it was done, my position was the voice of the weak. I looked for the positives in what they said and their possible future for the department. I tried to bring up the positives in order to make those points shine and hope that I could convince the other, including myself, the candidate would be a good fit. I think when it was done the panel did a good job in the decisions we made.

When that was done I went home and watched some TV before going to the sheriff’s office to write up my MIP arrest on Friday. I was pretty tired and when I got home I went to bed.

Full Day Testing and Training

This morning I got to the fire station. We were doing the physical tests for the paramedic list and for the reserves. That took several hours in all. We had a lot of people go through the test. Unfortunately, the physical agility test knocked a couple people out of the running. Our test is not overly hard, but from what I have heard from some people who have done other tests, they say ours is harder than others.

When the tests were done I went to pick up the recruitment signs that were placed around the city. I got those delivered to the fire station. I went to Safeway to get some garlic bread and then to the Deuce to start dinner. I was making some broccoli and chick fettuccine Alfredo with garlic bread. It was good stuff. I could have used more sauce, however.

When dinner was done we worked on radio operations and SOPs. We used photos that the Lt gathered to practice doing the arrival reports. Then he would ask us what we would do next. We talked about the decisions that people made and how they were good decisions or why we might decide to think about other options.

When the training was done we had to fill some air bottles on Rescue. We started to get some calls. We didn’t get slammed, but we did have about three calls on the night. One came in around three in the morning. That sucked.

Hitting the Road with Cooper

This afternoon I was responding on fire calls with Victor. We went to do some work of cleaning up around an hydrant on Derby street. As we were finishing up we got called to an EMS call. En route to that we got diverted to a HazMat call on Campus. We set up command and then passed it along to the ambulance that came in. We made entry and assessed the problem. It was minor. EH&S; from WSU came to clean it up. We cleared and went back to the station.

I was going to go to a Pre-Law get together on campus, but I then got brought back on a car accident. By the time that was done it was so late I decided to start to get ready for working tonight with Cooper at the SO.

I met up with Cooper around five-thirty pm. We went to Clarkston on follow-up. After Clarkston we went to Pullman and met up with some of the other local cops. We had some dinner and talked shop. We left and hit the road.

I really liked working with Cooper. It was great to see him in action. Sometimes we would stop someone and he would ask me why we were stopping them. I told him what the reason was. It was good to have him quiz me along the way. I was doing good with his questions.

We made contact with a couple really drunk students. After I worked with one of them we were concerned for the safety of the person and called for EMS evaluation. Later we saw two students walking in the middle of the road. We made contact with them as well.

I didn’t write any tickets tonight. I did get one criminal cite. I worked until about three in the morning. I was on my way home when he got called to a rollover accident. I missed out on that by fifteen minutes. But it was okay, because I had to be up early in the morning.

I Hate the Waiting

I was down at station one. Turpin saw me and walked up to me and said “we need to talk.” I always hate that kind of thing, because you don’t know what it is. So the rest of the day I had to stew on what he wanted to talk about.

Chia and I went to Tam’s Place for some breakfast. It was nice to get out and chat with him for a while. We left and I took my motorhome to Moscow to get a new vent for it. They were out. I did get some food at WinCo as I wanted to.

I went to the station a while later and Victor and I went painting a couple hydrants and cleaning up some shrubbery around them. We got the rescue back and washed up before being done with it.

I went in to talk with Turpin. I was nervous about the conversation because it is never a good thing when someone says “we need to talk.”

The gist of the conversation is some of the reserves think that I am not playing well with them and I need to work on that, but I wasn’t told what the exact problem was or examples of things I have done wrong. I am being asked to change but not being told what to change.

There is a perception that I am on an ivory tower. Also that I micro-manage. I don’t like being thought of as someone who does either of those things. I hate the idea of being a micro-manager. Turpin gave me some ideas, in general, of what I can do. More or less he said that I will have to let some guys fail at their attempt to complete a task so they can see that it doesn’t work. I wouldn’t let someone fail in a critical situation, but in the daily routine things. It is the way they learn. I am taking from that point that people think that I am giving out tasks and telling them how to fulfill the task rather then letting them do it their way. Point taken.

That is also what might make people feel that I am believe that I am better than them. I have seen some people have a chip on their shoulder over me. The sounds conceded, but it is true. I am not sure where that is coming from. I never have pretended to be better than the other guys or to hate them, but for some reason, that is the feeling some guys have. It is possible that a couple people have fed it to others. But the issue is one I have to deal with. I have to make sure people don’t feel that one. I really don’t want people to feel that way about me. I would like to get along with my co-workers. I just hope that can be done.

Parts of me though feels like if someone has a problem with me that should deal with me man to man. They shouldn’t go to the chief and tell him. That is not using the chain-of-command. That is not dealing with the issue. That is causing more problems and drama. Well, there is nothing I can do about that. I just need to be who I am and keep doing a good job. Maybe over time people will get to know me and they will be willing to accept me for who I am.

Last Night With Brown

Today it appeared our training was going to be cancelled because Brown called in sick. But with the training subject, yearly sign-offs, I didn’t see why it needed to be cancelled. I spoke with Brown and found it wasn’t supposed to be cancelled. So we had it go. I also told Brown what I had planned. He liked it. I also let him know how the guys were looking forward to going out with him tonight after training. He said he had been getting well enough to come to training.

We were doing some hose pulling drills. I set it up to be some races between teams to pull a line and spray water to knock over several cones that were set up. The idea was to be able to pull the hose, get water, and spray down the cones, then break down the hose and have it rolled after than the other teams. The training went well. Brown talked to the group and set up the purpose of what we were doing.

After training we went to Zeppoz. There was several people from the two shifts not working. A. Wilcox also showed up. We had a couple rounds to toast Brown and give him good luck on his new job over in King County. It was a good time with everyone and it was a nice time to say our goodbyes to Brown.

Robinson was trying to tell a story about how he got his truck. As he was telling his story we kept interrupting him. He was getting frustrated. We were laughing hard. He was pretty intoxicated so it made it all the more fun. It took nearly forty-five minutes to tell the whole thing. Then at one point he told the whole story in about twenty seconds. We all asked why it took so long to tell the other version.

Last Day Working for NU/MH

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.

Good Service from Jim

I went to put out the trash this morning for pickup. But I found they had already come by. But when I was outside I noticed my trash can was not in its normal place. i took a look and it was empty. I figured that Jim had done it. He works with me at Colfax Fire. I sent him a text and it turns out he had. I said thank you. Then I wrote a letter to his company to let them know how happy I am with his service.

I got a call about helping out with the fire extinguisher class. I got my uniform on and went to the fire station. We went to the tower and taught two classes. During the classes we let everyone fire off an extinguisher and practice putting out a fire that we would light up.

We got done and everything taken care of just in time for me to head to Colfax for the monthly Coroner’s meeting. The meeting was pretty short. But I helped Pete with some of the photos and we talked about upcoming work opportunities for me.

Three Hats Today

I ran a call with Pullman fire early this afternoon. We took it all the way to the hospital. When I got home I heard a call go out in Albion. So I went out there for that call. Due to manpower needs we called for D-Twelve to come and help. When they got there we got things taken care of. Parrish made a comment about my hat changing.

This evening I worked the sheriff’s office. I went out with Zehm. We had a call for some goats on the road near Palouse. We took care of it, it turned out they were not located. After some looking we found a neighbor who said he chased them back where they went.

I ran some traffic on some county roads. I got a couple tickets out of it. I also learned some more from Zehm. It seems like I learn things from Zehm. This time it wasn’t in reference to something where I messed up. He told me about asking people if they looked at their speedometer.

The night was pretty uneventful again. It seems to be uneventful whenever I go out on patrol. I seem to have the white cloud around me.

Missed Fire Training in Colfax

Tonight I was supposed to go to fire training in Colfax. But due to things around the fire station I decided that it would be best if I didn’t. We had an ambulance leave town for an emergency transfer. Without any people for callback we were down to four in the system between the two stations and the six reserves on the night.

It turned out to be a quiet night and we didn’t have any calls while they were gone, so things turned out okay.

Blake the Teacher

This evening for fire training we were working on Cardiac emergencies. Blake was teaching the class. He gave me some money and asked that I go and get some supplies for rootbeer floats. I got those things back and we all has floats while doing the training. Blake is a good lecturer. I enjoy his classes.

After training a group of us went to Zeppoz for after training dinner and beverages. It was a good time. Blake and I spent a lot of time talking about training and issues surrounding people and getting them excited about training.

Everyone left around midnight to head home. It was great to talk with Blake. He is a good person and I really like working with him. I have worked shifts with him in the past and I also did some hospital transfers with him.

Come From Behind Victory

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

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

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

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

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

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

Working with Jordan

Today I went on a couple EMS calls with Pullman. After the calls were done I went to lunch with Victor. We ended with a trip to Pizza Pipeline for lunch.

Tonight I was working the road with Jordan. I was having a good time. We first went on a call to Albion. Then we went to Pullman where we were going to have dinner, but we had to run back to Colfax instead. We ran some traffic on SR Twenty-Six waiting for our fellow officers to get to Colfax to have some dinner at Zips.

When dinner was on we worked the road some more. I had one car that refused to pull over for nearly two miles. Finally we got the car pulled over.

We worked our way to Pullman. We worked by the gyms on foot. I was able to get a couple MIP’s. We were there about about two hours. Then we went back to the SO and I dropped off Jordan and went home myself. I had to be up for the football game tomorrow.