SWAT Training

I was helping with the with SWAT training today. I was a bad guy guarding my marijuana grow operation. My job was to walk around the front of a barn in the middle of nowhere waiting for the SWAT team to try to get me. I had a gun and I was told if I chose to use it during the exercise I would probably be shot, so it was up to me.

It took a while for the to get where I was due to the amount of ground they had to cover to get to where I was. They got to me and made the arrest with no one getting hurt.

I left to get back to Pullman for being on call for the fire department. We had a meeting that I was going to hold I wanted to cover several topics to make sure everyone was on the same page now that I am back as a reserve. The meeting took just under two hours because we discussed a couple of the topics.

When the training was done I went home. I was on the engine tonight. It was a quiet night until about five in the morning when we had a fire alarm to respond to.

Code Take Over

This morning I had a meeting with the new station committee at the fire station. While I was down there I got a phone call from MH. The guy said “What did you do?”. I didn’t know what he was talking about. Then he said that he was asked to get my code and do some changes for something we have been working on. It is something that I don’t believe is wrong on our end. I did what I was supposed to, but because some things were not getting into the database it was assumed to be on my end. So they want this other guy to do it. I told him I would get him the code.

I sent him a copy of the code. I was at lunch when I got a call from him saying it was older code. I let him know I was at lunch and would fix it as soon as I got home. I realized I did send him some older code, so I zipped up the new stuff and sent it his way.

I was supposed to go to Colfax Fire training today, but due to some issues on my shift I decided to stay in town. I went to the station at six o’clock to do the rig checks. We also planned on going to do the fire drills on campus. Turpin let me do the whole thing with his help. We got the building evacuated after I notified dispatch. Then I did the talk with the residence hall staff. We did some walk arounds of the building and looked at the fire safety items in the building. Then we talked about vehicle placement and tools we might use in various fire situations.

The Rescue crew took a dinner break together then we went to the second building we were going an alarm in. I did the whole thing all by myself again. We also did some more fire walkaround and talked about the fire safety systems they had through out the building. It was a good night of training.

We had one call in the wee hours on the morning. One guy on rescue didn’t make the call. So when I got home I called him up to make sure his pager was on and working.

New Safety Committee Member

Today we had our quarterly safety committee meeting. I am the new member representing the reserves. We go over the safety concerns, any incidents and exposures that happened that quarter. One of those incidents was mine. It was a horrible day for me while on the ambulance. I wrote about that a while back. They didn’t seem to think it was a huge deal, but for me it was and still is a big deal. I was so embarrassed over it.

When the meeting was done I did some stuff at the house including E-mailing back and forth with a guy who needs a web developer. I found that he wanted a php guy, so I am not sure I am going to be the guy he needs.

Fire training tonight was aerial operations and stand pipes. Due to my ankling being incredibly painful I was put on engineer status for the training. It was good because it gave me some pump time. We started at station thirty-one. After the Powerpoint we went to the tower. One guy had some issues he wanted to talk about with some of the things that was happening on the shift. So he told me that he was mad about the fact we haven’t had a lot of participation with the Sunday rig checks. I told him I would put in a policy to correct that. Pretty much everyone will need to find coverage for the rig checks even if they are taking an Ollie day.

He also was concerned over the way I had the schedule set up with who was on the engine with him as the officer. He wanted someone with more Pullman fire experience. I had someone who had been a firefighter for a while somewhere else. So I made some changes to the schedule. He also thought I was having a hard time adjusting to being a reserve and our role on the scene. He said on a call when we got to the scene it was clear they wanted us to wait in the rig. But I had gotten out.

I told him that I had gotten out because Thompson was not answering the radio when someone was calling him and I was letting him know he was being asked for on the radio. I let him know due to the loud engines in the area it took several attempts to let him know. Then he started to talk to me about other stuff. He and the other guy were in Rescue and they were miffed over it, but they didn’t know the whole story. So that was just someone getting mad when they didn’t know the whole story. It was one reason why I don’t like to get mad about things without knowing the facts. Making assumptions can cause unneeded bad feelings.

Him and I left and went to the training at the tower. All went good from there. The training went well. When it was done we went to Zeppoz and hung out for a while. We were there until about midnight. We got some dinner and had some beverages. It was a good night over all.

Second Place In First Annual Garden Tournament

Today was my second day of softball. We had ten guys on the nose. I started by pitching, but I was having a hard time pitching a strike. As I tried more I kept getting worse. Finally after walking the bases loaded I changed pitchers and went to play first base. I stayed there the rest of the day. My ankle was hurting pretty bad. It never got better like it normally does so I was really a gimp out there.

I was doing okay at the plate. I was hitting the ball well and taking some walks when it mattered. We won the first game beating the team we lost to last night. We destroyed them. Then we played Sports Page. We were close at first, but they took a seven run lead into the seventh inning. We were sucking it up at the plate. Then the hitting just clicked. We scored eight runs and took a one run lead into the bottom of the seventh. We held them scoreless and won the first game. So we had to play them a second time.

The second game we hit poorly again. He did have one big inning scoring around nine runs. But it wasn’t enough to take the lead. Then we gave up a big inning. We were down by eleven. We had one more chance. We scored four runs and lost the game. It was fun to come back, but it just wasn’t enough.

I went home and relaxed and worked on getting some work done around the house. I went to Cougar Country with BKoe for dinner. We sat there and chatted about stuff. Rhonda came over and talked to us for a while. Then I went to the fire station for weekly rig checks. I went to the fuel pumps with Togs after rig checks to fuel up the engine. I am going to see about getting him to be an engineer, but I don’t know if he will be around long enough to make it worth while.

I got my timecards done and went home to go to bed. I am planning on going to Seattle in the morning for my vacation.

First Show in Years

This morning I had to be up early. With the number of calls and when we got them I was running on just over three hours of sleep. I went to Pullman for the first softball game. As it turned out we had four games. The first three were round-robin. When those were done we started the double-elim tournament. The first few games were pretty ugly for us. We were not hitting the ball very well. We lost several of the games by a pretty big margin. We had a two hour break. I went to Cougar Country for some hamburgers and then drove to Moscow for our first double-elim game. We were playing a team that we should have no problem beating.

But it was not to be. We had a battle back and forth. We would score and they would answer. A couple runs at a time. Finally we had a one run lead. The other team hit a three-run shot and went up by two. We ended up losing the game. That put us in the loser bracket and playing at nine in the morning tomorrow.

I hurried back to Pullman and got my fire department uniform on. I was working the event at Beasley. It was a play, the same one I went to last night. I was working with Walker. We spent most of the time chatting about testing for different fire departments. Then I put on Transformers. We got about half way through it when the play got over.

Then it was off to my place again to change for the drag show in Moscow. I am not into drag at all. It is not my thing. But the show is sort of a gay get together. I don’t really know many gay people in the area, but I thought I would go and see what it is like. I got cleaned up and went to pick up Gunnar.

We went to the show and they were in the middle of a set. When it was done we went into the main room and sat down at a table. We spent a lot of time people-watching. There was a group of ten-six-seven’s dancing with their shirts off. It is a time for them to show off their stuff. So the scenery was good, but I had a boy there with me so I didn’t really want to not pay attention to the hotties dancing. I haven’t been to a show in many years. It was when Russel and Scotty were still in the area. It was a little different because of the venue.

We watched and talked about the various people we saw there. Some faster songs came on so he went out to dance a little bit. I watched him do that. When he got done it was very hot inside the place and he wanted to get some cool air.

We went outside and walked towards my rig. It was near the end of the show anyway so we headed home.

I went to his place to drop him off. We sat outside for about ten minutes talking about stuff. We had dated a little back in December. He wants to get back with me. So we talked about getting together again. I went home and got some dinner before I went to bed. I was pretty tired and I had to get to bed for our softball games in the morning.

I Don’t Like Musicals

I was scheduled to work the event at Beasley tonight. I also picked up the next banners for the reserve recruitment. I went to Kinko’s to get them and I went to station one and set one up on the sandwich boards. I put it out in front of the station. I also got my stuff ready for the show tonight.

I went to station two and checked on the equipment there. Then I went home and got some of my computer work taken care of.

When it gets closer to the time to go to the event I went to the station and put the events stuff together. Young comes to get me and we drive to Beasley. I watched most of the play, but it was a musical. I am not a fan of musicals at all. So I got bored of it and went into watch some TV.

After the play I was working on Rescue. It was a slow night for the most part. We had three calls spaced out enough that caused me to hardly get any sleep on the night. I have a softball tournament to play in the morning so I was going to be very tired.

Monthly Coroner Meeting

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

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

Fall Co-ed Season is Under Way

After the second straight night of going to bed late I woke up around ten o’clock. The big plan of the day was to go a movie with BKoe. I got the photos for the photo board at the Deuce cropped and ready to go. I took a motorcycle and drove down to the Deuce. I updated the photo board at the station and then went to station one. I met up with Heston and showed him I printouts for the possible reserve recruitment sign.

I was at station one for while talking with Heston and Brown. I let Brown know that I would not be able to be at training tonight because something going on over Moscow. He asked what I was going to be doing, but I didn’t tell him because I did not think he would understand that I want to play softball.

After I left the station I went to the bank to deposit my coroner’s check. I got ten dollars cash back. I went to the Man Shop to get my hair cut. I got my normal short haircut and I was able to get a razor shave on the back of my neck. I wish it was a standard at most barbershops but it’s not.

On the way out of the barbershop I saw Joseph from the Thunder football team. He asked me if I would be the announcer for next year’s team. I told him that I would do it. I told him that I was too busy this year to make any games.

I got ready to go see the movie with BKoe. I took my motorcycle to Safeway to get some pop and pretzels for the movie and then I drove to the theater. BKoe got to the movie theater just as I was getting there we walked in together and went into the theater. Matt and CBass were supposed to go to the movie with us but they were not able to make it.

After the movie was over I got home and got my uniform for the softball game. I headed over to Moscow and met up with the rest of the team. While at the field I could see some smoke in the distance coming from a grain bin. I watched it for a while and it did appear that there could have been a fire in the grain bin. I finally called Whitcom and talked to a dispatcher. Moscow fire was advised but they found it was actually dust from farming operations and not a fire.

The game started and I was an extra hitter but I got to play first base after the second inning. The shortstop for the other team was a ten-six-seven. I spent part of the game watching him play his position. The one thing I noticed is his throws to first always seem to loft over there. In the sixth inning he was coaching first base and grabbed a bag of Redman chew and took a plug of dip.

The final out of the sixth inning was a ball hit up the first baseline. I charged the ball and hit off my mitt but it stayed on the ground right below me. I picked up the ball and tossed it to Joe who was covering first base from pitcher and we make the out. In the seventh inning I wrote the pine. We won the game and a group of us headed to the Sports Page tavern in Pullman. I got something to read and we sat around talking sports. I left the bar around ten o’clock. I got home and started working on the speech recognition on my laptop. It seems right down to take the longer to write anything however as soon as I learn how to use speech recognition better this should really be cool.

Going Out with a Structure Fire

As I was waking up this morning I wasn’t sure how my final couple hours would end. I was thinking that I should have ended the night of the Staley fire so I could end on a fire. Before seven o’clock rolled around the tones go off for a structure fire. We could see the smoke from the station.

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

I got back to the station and got the last remaining items from the station cleared out and headed to Tam’s Place for breakfast with Chia, Keeton, Young, and Pritchett. I left after I was done eating so I could get a couple things done before meeting up with the guys to go to the river. I dropped off my turn outs at the station and went home. I got a couple things taken care of at home and packed my stuff to go to the river.

I went to Pritchett’s place. We were meeting up there. From there Keeton, Pritchett, and I rode together to the river. We got there and made our way to the beach. It is a long haul from the parking lot. I didn’t know how long it was because I had never gone there without being on a boat.

We set up our area. I put on some suntan lotion and we went into the water. We played fetch with Chia’s and Pritchett’s dogs. We were there for hours watching as more and more people showed up. As the college students started to arrive the scenery was great. You couldn’t look somewhere without finding a couple ten-six-sevens. I really enjoyed the scenery while playing with the dogs.

Brown showed up with his boat. We hung out for a while near his boat and then went for some tubing. I hit the water and the rope on the tube was really long, so I was getting whipped around pretty good. I had a couple good wrecks along the way. Including one where I went about twenty feet sliding on the water before rolling.

It was getting close to five so we started to pack up and make our way back home. It was a good afternoon on the water.

I got cleaned up. I waited from BKoe to show up but as seven o’clock was rolling around he was no where to be found. I texted him and he was in Moscow. He forgot he was going to give me a ride to the bar. So I called Pritchett and he gave me a ride down to the bar.

We got there just after seven o’clock. Guys filtered in over the next two hours. It was a going away party for me from the career ranks. It was very nice to see some of these people stop by and wish me well and let me know they enjoyed working with me.

I had a couple guys over the last few months let me know that at first they were not sure what to think about me coming on at first. But they said that I have been a great addition. They really have enjoyed working with me and think that I am a pretty darn good guy.

One guy and I talked for a while about stuff. I remember when we would go on calls together I didn’t know what to think. We talked and all was good. But when we were on shift together at first I think there was the feeling that we didn’t know each other. And as time went on he warmed up to me and got to know me and the same of me towards him. I really think he a good person and I really enjoy talking with him.

As the night rolled on I got some beer purchased for me and we sat around talking, playing pool and darts. When it was nearly eleven o’clock we made our way to TBag. Pritchett was already there. I was given a couple shots of hard-A. I wasn’t really wanting to have them, but I cowboyed up and drank them. We played pool and sat around talking.

Then one guy came up and said the words that I know will lead us to a specific conversation. It was, something along the lines of “It doesn’t matter to me, you’re a good guy, so it really will not make a difference, but…” That is the start of someone wanting to know if I am gay.

With the guy who was asking, I wasn’t sure if he knew or not. But he has been around for a long time so I had to assume that he had heard through the grapevine. He said he had heard some stuff, but he didn’t believe it until he heard for himself. I told him that I hit for the other team. I told him that I don’t really tell people because I don’t want them to act differently around me. I told him I like the fact that when I have been around him for all this time he wasn’t afraid to say things and not worry about offending me. I told him I wanted him to remain feeling that way. He is one of those guys who always says “That is gay” or things like that. He said he sort of knew that something was probably up because I am not interested in the hot girls as everyone else is. He could tell so he figured something was up. I am glad that he asked and now I know that he knows.

I had asked Chia a while back if others on the shift knew. He said he didn’t know. He said that no one would care. I believe that is true, but I wanted to know. I would like to think they all knew and still were the way they were around me. Which would show they are comfortable with me. I just feel like if I walk into a room and people feel like they have to watch what they say, that it would be a strain to be around me and they would just choose not to be around me. I don’t want that. I really don’t care what people say, because I believe you have to choose to be offended. I choose not to be offended by that kind of stuff.

The other Blake came up to me and started to say the same thing. I thought it would all be coming out that night. But before I confirmed anything I had to know exactly what he was asking. As it turned out with him he was talking about something totally different. So I don’t know if he knows. I guess thinking about it now, I am not sure if I just want to come out to those guys and that way I know that they know and I can just get on with things, or continue to play the game I have been playing. I am not sure if I want the reserves to know. I know that some do know, but I always hate it when the new reserves find out about me because it is always something that someone else brings up. Over the years I have had a couple guys ask me straight up. I always will confirm it if they ask. I like it when they ask, because if they are willing to ask they will typically not make a big deal about it at all.

Two Days To Go

This is the start of the second day of my set and the second to last day as a full-time firefighter. We went to College Hill and did some walk abouts of the area apartments to become more familiar with the area. We also did a walk through of the new residence hall on Olympia Ave.

We had a nice meal together for a brunch. It was eggs, sausage, and pancakes. It was pretty good. We had some time in the afternoon. I was going to take a nap, but that never happened.

In the evening we made sloppy joes for dinner. Just as we were completing dinner we had a call for a fire alarm at the place we have been running to for the last couple weeks nearly daily. It is getting old.

Chia’s wife came and we all watched the new Fast and Furious movie. It was fun to watch and with Paul Walker in it, the movie is juts that much better.

After the movie I was starting to think about bed. But then we got a transfer. No one called in, so Tony and I had to take it. We went code-three to Spokane. We had a really fast turn around at both hospitals, so it was a pretty quick trip, but it still sucked to lose all that sleep.

The Begining of the End

Today is the first day of my final set. Once I work these three days I will be back to reserve status. I am excited about it, but at the same time I will miss working with the guys. It has been very great getting to know them and hanging out with them all the time. I am going to miss the lifestyle. But I am going to use this time away to get back into the groove for working out daily and getting my weight loss underway again. It is something I need to do.

The day involved a walk about in the CCS and CCN are as well as North Campus Heights, which is now called Terre View Crossing. The walk about took a while to get done. When we got back to the station we needed to work on getting the engines checked so we could do walk abouts during our Sunday shift.

We ran a couple calls plus we got a free dinner from Erickson because he was working a twenty-four hour OT. We also got a lot of desserts today. With Heston’s birthday on Saturday and Wehrung’s mom bring in some pie, we pretty much had stuff to eat all day long.

Back to Back Nighst with Three Hours of Sleep

It was way too early to be waking up. I was tired from only three plus hours of sleep for the second straight night.

We started by doing some walk abouts on campus looking at alarm systems in the gyms. When we got back I made breakfast for everyone with the help of the other guys.

I was going to try to get some sleep in the afternoon, but when I did finally get to lay down the tones went off three times. I had to go on the third thing that was toned out.

By the time we got back it was too close to having to start to make dinner, so I stayed up and started dinner for everyone.

After dinner I had some stuff I wanted to do. So I still didn’t get to bed right away. I did go to bed around ten o’clock. but we got woken up about every three hours for a bogus fire alarm. It was a bad night of sleep.

First Night Out with Another Second Class Reserve

I was very excited about going out to work this evening with the County. It is the first time that I will be on the road with one other second class reserve. After I got off work I went to Reaney park with the fire department for a wellness fair. Various groups had booths. As people went to each booth they had to do something to earn a sticker. Once they got their “passport” filled with stars they would get a prize. I was helping to run the PFD booth. We had a two and a half inch hose for the young kids to roll. We also had a high rise bundle for people who were a little older. Our booth went over really well. It was the first wellness fair and it wasn’t too well advertised, but I hope that as time goes on it will be more popular.

After that I went home with the hope of getting some sleep before I had to get ready to hit the road. But I was not able to get a great amount of sleep. I only had a couple hours last night due to the EMS calls that we had. So I had hoped to get a good nap in. During the time I was laying down, it felt like I had a thousand things running through my mind all at one time. I was so excited about going out tonight and I had random thoughts running through my mind.

Before I knew it I had no sleep to speak of and I was getting ready for my time on the road. I cranked up some tunes and got my uniform on. I headed down to Colfax for my shift with Rich.

We started by getting a car ready. I had planned on going to Lamont as well as work down towards the river. I was told to stay up top because there were very few people on duty.

We were heading towards Wawawai road when we got a report of a dog that was running around. It looked like a stray dog with its fur all matted down and it looked like it had not been eating. We started to head towards Pullman where the dog was seen. At first we were going to take Staley road into Johnson road where the RP said the dog was, but those roads don’t even cross. As we were getting to Staley road a second RP said the dog was at Sand road and Johnson Road. We turned around and went to Pullman and drove out Johnson road to Sand Road. The second RP was waiting there. He showed us where the dog was located and and worked to get it to come out from his hiding spot in a huge bunch of bushes. We were not able to. I spoke with the OIC who said there was nothing we could do about the dog anyway. There is no ordinance in the county about dogs running loose.

We also had a call for a car that was erratically driving. I found the car as soon as it was put out and stopped it. We spoke to the driver and cleared it.

We had dinner with the OIC and one other Reserve at Quizno’s and talked about the two calls for service we had. We learned a lot from each of them about how to handle them. Those kinds of calls we really don’t talk about in the academy. We get on the job training for those. That is exactly what I received tonight.

After that we were running some traffic on Airport road. We stopped some fast cars and wrote a couple tickets. Then we went out Twenty-Seven towards Palouse. We went through Palouse and Garfield then we took Dry Creek to One-Ninety-Five. There was no traffic on Twenty-Seven to speak of. We went all the way to Rosalia and back. I was going to call it a night sort of early because I had to be at the FD in the morning. But a good song was on the radio and I thought I would drive until it was done. We were nearly in Pullman. So we continued in. I went through town and I was going to head to Airport road again via Valley Road. The OIC was at McDonald’s. He asked or us to come back and road side him.

Just as we were pulling in to McDonald’s he left going code. So did the other reserve. We were going to follow. As I was pulling out a Pullman Cop came down going code. We got in behind him. It was a burglar alarm at Rite Aid. We stood by for a while watching one side then we got cleared. I drove around Pullman until after two in the morning and then we headed back to Colfax via Albion. I didn’t get home until four in the morning.

More Blog Readers

This morning I was called into a coroners case in Pullman. I was listening to the beginnings of it on the scanner because the fire department had been dispatched to it. Anna and I went to do the investigation. She took the photos and I took the lead. It was an interesting case and we spent some extra time on scene trying to sort out everything we were finding in the apartment. I also spend nearly an hour making phone calls with various people trying to get information.

When I was done with the case I went to the fire department to do the Night Out in the Park up in Palouse. It is a year event. It brings in the Red Cross, the SO, the Posse, the PFD, Palouse fire, and some local high school kids’ bands.

I was manning the ambulance and talked to the kids who wanted to come by and look at it. It was a pretty easy gig compared to some of the events that we do.

Whitcom also had a booth there. One of the dispatchers said they her and one other dispatcher read my blog from time to time. She said one thing they didn’t know was what I meant when I write ten-six-seven. I got that question a couple weeks ago by a friend who saw it on my blog too.

At first I wouldn’t tell her what it meant. Later I let her in on it. She was hoping it was going to be more exciting than it was, but now she knows. When I have a friend or someone I work with tell me they found my blog I always ask how they found it. I don’t have links to it from anything I have. You have to be told where it is, or find it via a random search. I also wonder how much of it they have read. I don’t write about being gay a lot, but enough that if they read enough of it they will find out that I am gay. It is one of those things I don’t advertise. I never ask if they know, just in case they didn’t see the posts that include that information, but I am guessing they know. I got that impression when she asked how the ten-six-seven related to hot guys. So, yeah.

I have been writing this blog since ought-three. It is pretty interesting to go back through some of my old posts. There has been a lot of stuff that has happened to me over those years. Job changes, boyfriends, new vehicles, and becoming more comfortable with being gay and letting more of my friends in on it.

Monthly Coroner Meeting

This morning before I left the fire department we got a transfer for eight-thirty. I took it with Young. We went to get the patient. We were deciding where we were going to have lunch. He said “Where ever you want.” I said “Rocky Rococo’s.” He said not pizza. Then I pointed out how he said anywhere and then when I suggested a place he said no. So then he said we could go there.

After we completed the transfer to Spokane we went to the pizza place. I tried to get Ryan but I was unable to reach him so he was not able to eat with me.

We went back and I worked at the house trying to get a couple things completed before it was time to go to the coroner’s meeting. While I was at home I got a call to work on a computer for the TF. They had several computer issues they need worked on. I went to their office and picked up a couple computers to work on. There is one I will need to go into the office and work on.

From there I went to Colfax for the coroner’s meeting. I stopped my Steve’s Glass and went to look at a motorcycle. It is a Suzuki that is an enduro style motorcycle, more or less a street legal dirt bike. He wants just under two grand for it. It isn’t a bad looking bike. I am thinking about it. I am not sure if I am going to do it but I very well might. I talked to Steve about the house he bought from me and the boat his son bought from me.

I went to the meeting. We covered several items and a case that was pretty interesting. It was pretty involved and we discussed it for a while. We got our schedule set up for the next month and a half as well.

When I got home I worked on one of the computers. It was a simple problem where the admin password had been forgotten. I was able to reset it and we were good to go on that one. The next one will probably be a bit harder. I am going to work on that on Sunday or Monday.

Bi-Weekly Columnist

I was added as a bi-weekly columnist for the Daily News. I got an e-mail asking me to call the Daily News. I was told the guy who is doing it now with the right-leaning tilt is leaving. They are looking for a replacement and I was offered the job. I was told the editorial board met and my name was brought up and kicked around. So I accepted the job. I will not do my final Town Crier columns and I will start with my first column in a week and a half. Then every other Saturday from there on out. I will get paid twenty-five bucks a column. They are going to introduce me in the paper this Saturday. They also put information about me taking over the duties in the newspaper’s blog.

We’re welcoming Scotty Anderson to our Opinion pages as he takes over the every other weekend slot opposite Pezeshki. Actually, Scotty’s arrival to the page isn’t entirely new — he’s been contributing as a Town Crier for the last couple of years. His tenure as a Crier was coming to a close so we brought him on board with a regular gig after longtime columnist Michael O’Neal announced he was done.

Scotty’s been a resident of the Palouse since 1992. He works as a software engineer and is a community volunteer who had a radio show until last year. He describes himself as “a workaholic who plays softball to unwind.”

On the political spectrum, Scotty says he’s torn between conservative and libertarian views, which should make for some lively contributions to the Op/Ed page.

Scotty’s first column will run Aug. 8, and I look forward to his contribution to the community discussion.

It was a pretty quiet day at the fire department for the most part. We did some more walking tours of the buildings on campus. We ran a couple calls, but nothing after we went to bed.

Walking Tour

We had a small walking tour of buildings around the engineer part of campus. We were checking out the locations of the FDCs and fire alarm control panels. We spent several hours walking through the building and getting a better idea of the lay outs.

I shot some hoops today with the guys. I didn’t win either game. But in one game Blake had to shoot the ball from the foul line, hit the rim without making it. He threw it hard for the front of the rim. But he was about three feet below the rim. I was laughing so hard I started to tear up.

Mush Ball Tournament

This morning I was up after only three hours of sleep. I went to get some Five-Hour Energy and breakfast. I followed Joe down to Lewiston for our softball games. We were playing in a mush ball tournament. It is softball with a ball that you can squeeze in about a quarter inch in all directions. When you hit it off center it tends to pop-up and hit the ground and bounce. It also bounces a lot on the ground. On defense you have to catch it just right or it can bounce out of your glove.

We won the first game and then lost a couple other games along the way. I was EH in a couple games. When I looked back, all the games I was on defense we lost and the games I was EH we won. It was not because of my bad defense, but it was funny that it worked out that way.

The first two games I really struggled at the plate. I was having a hard time figuring out how to hit the ball. I switched bats and everything trying to find something that would work for me.

When the fifth game was done it looked liked we got second place. I ran off to get to Pullman for working the Indian All-Star football game at Martin Stadium. We got to the field and parked the ambulance. I met a guy who turned out to be the brother of a guy I was in the reserve fire academy with back in Ninety-Nine. He had been a cop for several years and then quit and went back to WSU for a new degree.

The game was okay, there were not a lot of big plays, but what sucked is the game was almost played totally on the opposite side of the field due to the quarters and turn overs. So we were never very close to the action.

I found out that we had actually won the tournament in Lewiston due to run-differntial. So we got t-shirts!

First Two DUIs

I worked some overtime this morning at the fire department because some of the guys were getting their yearly physicals done. I helped to unload and re-load all the five inch hose on Engine Thirty-Three and Engine Thirty-Two. That was a lot of work. That is big and heavy hose. It takes several people to do it all. So I earned my money today.

I wanted to go patrolling tonight. I called Keller and Cox. Both had a rider, but Cox told me that Jordan was coming out tonight. I called him and got set up to ride with him.

I went to the SO and got a car all ready to go out in. I waited for Jordan and then we hit the road. We started towards Lamont. Before we got all the way out there we were told everyone was meeting up for dinner in Colfax. So we headed back to meet with everyone. After dinner we went to the SO for a couple minutes. Shortly after we left we made a traffic stop. As we were clearing a call went out in Garfield. We were going code to the call, but got cancelled en route. We lowered code and drove into town. We drove around the town for a little while then headed south on Twenty-Seven.

We came across a car driving poorly. Stopped the person and talked to the driver. We found it was DUI after some tests. We we went to the PPD and did the rest of the work there.

When we left we drove around Pullman for a bit. I was getting ready to leave town. We were on the edge of town when I got a speeder. I talked to the guy and I could smell alcohol. We did the tests with him. It was my first time doing them. I did it like I was trained. We had a second DUI. We took him to the PPD and did the rest of the stuff there.

When that was done it was so late we just went back to the SO and called it a night. It was after four in the morning when I finally got off duty.

Two Bigs Wins

Today is Ryan’s birthday. I called him up on the phone and we talked for a while. I wished him a happy birthday. He told me he got an iPhone for his birthday.

In the evening we had a couple softball games. We are in the losers bracket. We had to win both games to move on. We were playing Sports Page first. They beat us in all but one game this season. We went out and hit the ball very well. We ended up scoring twenty-two runs against the four they scored. It wasn’t really ever close. We just played very well.

Then it was to play the Bomb Squad. They beat us every game this season except for the first playoff game. They beat us by one run. It was a much closer game. We did go on to win, but it was only by three runs. We played good defense in both games.

It was great to win and now we have the semi-finals next Tuesday.

No Sleep

Today at the fire department there was not going to be any sleep. With a call in the wee hours of the morning as well a two chlorine alarms I was able to put about three total hours of sleep under my belt. I really would have preferred more sleep than that.

Men’s Playoffs Start Tonight

I decided that I would be on pager today. That pretty much means that anytime there is a call I go to the station to staff it. There are a couple call types we don’t respond to when on pager, mainly low level EMS calls and fire alarms. As it turned out we had a lot of calls happen yesterday. I ended up coming down to the station six times through out the day and night. It kept me busy outside of the work I was doing for MH.

I had completed some work that I turned it, but it didn’t appear to work. I knew it should be working. My boss was really worried that it wasn’t working because my code was dealing with live leads for real estate. I told him that it should be working so we got a conference call. Before long we found the problem was not with my code, but it was because a certain mailbox wasn’t set up correctly. Once it was fixed all was good. That was a load off.

Tonight is the first night of our softball playoffs. We were playing Bomb Squad. We have played them about four times this season and beat them each time. If we won we played again. If we lose we go to the losers bracket and don’t play again on Thursday.

The game started off well and we scored three quick runs. But then we went to heck. We went four straight innings without scoring a run. Our defense was awesome. We were making the outs we had a chance to make. But the longball cost us as they scored seven of their nine runs on the long ball. We lost by one run.

When I got home I worked on my MH stuff a while longer. At around two in the morning we got a call. I went to the station. I was so tired I just went to the recliner and went to sleep.

Battling the Beast

Just before noon we were toned out to a structure fire at a trailer park in Pullman. We got on scene with the PL. I was on the attack team. I had to “donkey” kick the door in to make entry. The fire was incredible small, but it was putting off tons of smoke. We put out the fire and then ventilated the building.

I was acting as the attendant today. We had a couple calls where I was the attendant. Nothing was that big. But because there was no way I was going to get a full night of sleep we got paged out around two-thirty in the morning and the call lasted about an hour. So that made it so I was not going to get myself a lot of sleep tonight.

No Softball and it Sucks

This morning Tony and I went on a transfer to Spokane just went we got off duty. It was a pretty quick trip there and back.

The rest of the day was pretty slow. There was no softball today with the season being over. I just didn’t know what to do with my time. It sucks that the season is over. Before long the men’s season will be over. Then we have fall co-ed and IM’s. Then I will have no softball for about five months. It feels like the seasons go so much faster than they use to.

No Time to Eat

At the fire department today I bought everyone breakfast. We first went to look at a couple parking structures. Then we came back and started breakfast. Before we got far into it, we got toned out to a call.

When we got back breakfast had been made and was starting to cool down. But it was still good. After breakfast I sat in a recliner with the other guys and watched the end of a show that we started to watch while eating. This is the first time I have sat in a recliner. I was waiting until I put in a year. My one year anniversary was on the fourteenth.

We went out and worked on the ambulances for the weekly checks. Once done some guys took a nap. I stayed up.

For dinner we were having burgers and tater tots. I got three bites into it and we were sent on a call. I got back to a cooled down burger. But that happens.

After dinner we cleaned up and watched some TV. The plan was to watch COPS and have some ice cream. I just finished my ice cream when we got toned to another call. It seemed like every time I had something I wanted to do I got called away.

I also spent time talking with James a mo from Moscow. He and I spent time talking online for quite a while. Then he called me and we chatted on the phone for a little bit. He is a nice guy, but he was hard to understand on the phone.

I was getting tired after watching the Red Green Show and went to bed.

Lots of OT

The tones went out for people to respond to the station for stand by because they were working a gas leak that was going to take a while. I came in and ended up running nearly the whole time I was here. We had to run three straight EMS calls. We did have a bit of a break, but it was very busy.

When I was done working I went home and made sure my update for my MH stuff was put onto the server. It was put on, but I don’t know if it is working or not yet.

I watched some TV and got some pizza for dinner. It was a pretty relaxing night over all. I watched Rescue Me in the evening before I went to bed for the night.

Working on a Software Update

I am working on some stuff for MH. There are some new e-mails that come into the automated system. So I need to set up the parser to parse the e-mails and put the data into our lead system.

It took some time to do that, but once I got going, things just came along nicely. It was fun to do that kind of work today.

I also put in some time at the fire department. They called for people to man the station. I came in and we never ended up going on any calls while I was down there.

When I got back from the station I continued the project and got it done around midnight. I packaged it up and sent it off.

Second Place

This morning came early because I was going to work at the FD for a couple hours to cover for a test they other guys were taking for the LT position. I picked up Blake and took him to the station so he could get his truck. I worked without incident, but I was pretty tired due to being up so late the last two nights.

I went to get my cell phone switched over to my new one. It finally came back from getting fixed. The screen had started to have problems. So I got the phone switched over and I am using the new phone again. That is pretty cool.

Then it was over to Blockbuster. I am not very happy with them. There was a movie that was rented a few months back. Someone was supposed to return it for me, but it wasn’t returned, as I found out. Well they just charge you for the movie and you keep it should you not return it after a certain period of time. So I had this charge on my account.

Rather than send me an invoice or anything that said I owed them money, I got a letter from a collections agency saying I owed money. I was all sorts of upset over getting this letter.

I paid for my bill and then I told the guy they need to do something other than just send bills to collections. It is hard to pay bills when you don’t even know that you have one. After I paid the guy gave me a receipt to show that I paid my bill, then a second print out comes through the printer. He started to grab it saying I received a coupon for a dollar-ninety-nine rental. I was walking by him and I said “don’t need it” and walked out of the store.

I think I will be going to Video Quest when I want to rent video’s in the future. I am very disappointed in how Blockbuster dealt with this.

After having a good couple games on Saturday our time on the field Sunday was cancelled due to rain. The rescheduled game was made for tonight. We had a solid core of guys going out to play, but it was not to be. In the first game I started at third base, but I was in a lot of pain with my neck. It hurt to turn it. So playing a fielding position would not be that good. Eric got there and I had him take over for me at third. But we could not string the hits together like we did on Saturday.

Sports Page took the first game by a homerun in the sixth inning. They won by three. In the second game they had a couple big innings and beat us pretty good. We ended up in second place in the post-season tournament. I was disappointed by the finish. We had the ability to win it.

After the game Sheila and I spent some time talking before I went to the Sports Page to chat with Jessie.

Lack of Sleep Before the Party

I was hoping that I would get some sleep this evening because I stayed up late watching Rescue Me. It was a pretty laid back day. We ran a couple calls, but nothing big.

I went to bed at nine thinking I would get some good sleep. I was the driver for Chia’s bachelor party and I thought that if I got good nights sleep I would be good to go for tomorrow. I was wrong.

It was eleven and I got called upon to do a transfer to Spokane. I also had to be in the back. It sucked because I was going to lose out on a lot of sleep.

When I finally got home and to sleep I was only going to get another four hours. That would mean I would probably have to get a nap sometime during the day tomorrow.

Second Class Reserve

Today is the first day Captain Thompson was back on the job in the last sixteen months or so. I had been working for him. Now I am working for a different firefighter. So I am continuing working as a temp full-timer. It was pretty quiet, but all of a sudden all heck broke loose and we ran several calls back-to-back. But that was it for the day.

I left to go to the reserve meeting. It was pretty short. Following the meeting I had my review board for moving to second class. I was nervous about it at first. But for this step it is a little less formal than moving to first class. I was asked why I thought I should get moved up. The situation where I made some errors was brought up. I explained what I learned during that call.

I was given advise from the deputies. The biggest thing they brought up was when I have questions and am not sure what to do, to call someone. That was a big point they emphasised.

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

Back to Back Wins!

A little bit after I got up the tones went off for a transfer to Spokane. I called in to take it. I worked with Chelsea. In Spokane we went to Red Lobster for lunch. It was very good. We talked about my position as a reserve deputy on the way back, then we talked about the fire department and ways to make it better within the budget that we have with the city.

This evening brought on the final two softball games of the season. It didn’t mean a lot in terms of standings because we are about half way down, but we wanted to beat these teams because we are a competitive team. We were playing the A-League champion who hasn’t lost a game all season. We were also playing the number two team in the league.

In the first game we were playing Coors Light. They were unbeaten. We came close the first time we faced them going into extra innings. This time we put nine runs in the first inning and lead the whole way. We let them get back into the game, but we kept the lead the whole time and the time limit of the game hit in the bottom of the sixth inning with us up to bat. I had three balls pitched to me when the umpire called the time limit.

In the next game we were playing the number two team. We took a big lead but let the other team work their way back into it. But we were home. We had given up the lead in the top of the seventh inning. We were down by three runs. We scored a couple runs. Then with the bases loaded Jered hit a double scoring two more runs for the win.

After the game Brady broke out a couple beers to celebrate our win. Brady, Cole, Faber, and I shared the beer.

Melcher, Jessie, Faber, and I went to My Office. We shared a couple pitcher of beer. Then we went to Sports Page to hang out until a little after one in the morning. It was a good end to the season.

I was thinking that I would be going to McCoy’s team next season, but I am not sure if he is still interested in adding me. I will see in the off-season. If he wants me I think I will go, I am tired of running the team with guys that seem to be undercutting me all the time. I just want to go and play. Plus McCoy is good about getting his team into the tournaments.

No Fires for Me

Today I am scheduled to work the fire station. I was really hoping to be able to go to the park and work up there, but it turned out that no other career guys wanted to work. I was going to be stuck at the station. It was a very quiet day for the day hours.

When we went to the park to set up the ladder we were close to the time of the flag ceremony. We were going to stay through that. I planned on getting photos of the fire department honor guard doing their thing. But ten minutes before the ceremony we got an EMS call. So we had to run off on that.

When that was done we went back to the station to work on dinner. When dinner was done we cleaned up and watched some TV as it was getting closer to fireworks time. The captain said that if we go up on the hill behind the station we could see the fireworks from the park.

More or more people were lighting off fireworks. I was getting excited. Before the fireworks were supposed to be shot off we got call to a call outside of town. On the way back to Pullman it was very close to the start of the show. I was heading towards Pullman and I saw the first couple things shot off from the park, but I didn’t get a chance to see anything else.

As we were getting back to the city all sorts of calls went out for grass fires. We hurried to get into service. Once we were in service the calls for the grass fires stopped. At the station we got toned out for one around midnight. But before we got close it was said to put out. We were cleared to return to the station. That was it for the fires. I didn’t get to see one at all. We ran two EMS calls and I didn’t get to see the main fireworks show at all.

Leg Two in the Books

A day without a single call is how this day would play out. We did go help Craig from Kimball’s with a funeral set up item. He only had one other person to help lift a heavy item and requested our help. We went to help him.

Paul was on OT as well. We decided to supply lunch to the guys at the Deuce and dinner for the whole shift as well as the reserves who were working that night. Because it was technically a holiday today we only had to work the first two hours of the shift and then we had downtime.

We spent time hanging out and talking. At one point I was getting really tired. So I went in and took a nap. I needed it after having a call in the middle of the night last night.

We made Pauly Burgers for everyone and hotdogs. We chowed on that plus chips and many other fixings. It was a filling day. Turpin’s wife brought down a spinach dip that I really like. It was very nice for her to do that.

After dinner we cleaned up and had dessert. The guys from station one left. I got on my computer. Mark and Paul played the guitar for a while. It was nice to just sit back and listen as they did that. We stayed up until around eleven o’clock PM.

First Leg of Seventy Two Hours

I have an OT shift tomorrow so this is my first leg of a three-day long shift. But the overtime pay will be nice on my July paycheck. This day has more or less drug along. There were not really any calls to break up the day. We just did administrative stuff around the station most of the day.

We did get one call at dinner time. It didn’t last long, but it made us have a slightly cold dinner. After dinner I worked on the computer looking at craigslists for motorcycles. I have been wanting to get a street-legal dirt bike. I have found a couple in Idaho for sale, but I am not sure if I should get one.

We did get one call that came in during the middle of the night so that ate my sleep and now I am going to be tired going into tomorrow. The nice thing was that tomorrow is a holiday so I will not have to work past ten and I should be able to get a nap in.

Lost a Must-Win Game

This evening we were playing against Sports Page. We needed to win both of the remaining games against them. Plus we needed them to lose one other game for us to take second place. But that was not to be. We had a hitting battle back and forth. But in one inning they broke out and and scored twelve runs. That effectively sank us. We tried to come back, but we were just unable to do it.

I also had Sheila come and watch. I wasn’t able to show her my skills very well. I had one very nice solid hit. Two other hits were pretty lames infield grounders.

After the game was done I went to the fire station. We got a call around one in the morning. It turned into a nothing call. We cleared right after getting there pretty much.