Bruce’s Goodbye Party

November 14th, 2010

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

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

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

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

I am a Bad Guy

November 13th, 2010

I couldn’t sleep very well this morning.  I sort of tossed and turned and I was up about five hours after going to bed.  I sent a text to KStew to find out if I would be inside or outside doing the mock scenes for the interns.  He said I would probably be inside most of the time.  I decided to wear shorts.  KStew asked me to wear a long sleeve shirt. 

I was supposed to be there at noon, but I got called in early.  I grabbed some pop and went to the WSU PD.  I was paired up with Brock.  My first role was that of a really drunk guy who was going to need detox.  I was supposed to have very little interaction with the interns.  I was just supposed to lay there and make noises.

One intern was asking me questions.  I didn’t really answer.  Once in a while I would give a one word answer.  In once case he asked when I was born.  I was February.  Then he asked what year.  I said two-thousand-and-ten.  He then said “you’re pretty big for nine months old.”  I started to laugh.  He was the only one who made me break character.

Then I was in the role of a drug dealer.  When I get contacted by the police I am supposed to drop a baggie and walk away.  I am supposed to keep walking until they stop me.  Something I made it a couple steps.  Other times I was able to get outside of the building.

It was fun to somewhat mess around with the interns.  I would try to lay down some clues and see if anyone would pick up on them.  I also had props hidden on my person to see if the interns would do a good pat down to find them.

While I was doing that Ryan was texting me with updates about the Cougs.  The Cougs were beating Oregon State when I left WSU.  It wasn’t until I started to listen to the game that the Cougs stumbled for the first time in the game.  There was a fumble followed by a touchdown for Oregon State.  I got home and watched the rest of the game on TV.  The Cougs won.  It was the first Pac-Ten game since Apple Cup ought–eight.  That was a span of sixteen Pac-Ten games.

I got my uniform on and went to the SO.  I got a car ready and was going to hit the road.  I was with Jordan for a while outside chatting when a Colfax cop was going to a call.  We went to back him up.  A couple others came as well.  We ended up staying with our cars because two Colfax cops covered the call.

I went back to the SO and I ended up helping Sgt. Anderson with a presentation for the Reserves.  I helped him create some PowerPoint slides based off some of my notes from my Reserve Academy.  By the time I left it was almost ten o’clock.  I went to Pullman for dinner with Matt.  Boyd and Harris were also there.  I was later than them so I ordered and ate my food quickly.

We talked about the random stuff that we always seem to chat about in some sort of way.  We joked and ripped on each other.

After dinner I worked the road for several hours.  It was a pretty slow night.  I got one guy for a big speed and he had several other problems.  When it was done I could have tagged him for almost fifteen hundred bucks.  But I only wrote him for speeding.  So he was very thankful to get a two hundred dollar ticket.

I went north and hit some roads up there.  But I didn’t see much of anything.  I called it a night and wrote up my ticket around three in the morning.  When I got home I watched some of my recorded TV shows before I went to bed.

Cougs Lose a Winnable Game

November 6th, 2010

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

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

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

Paperwork Hang Over

October 31st, 2010

For being a Halloween I was not in the festive mood.  Mainly because I was going to be crazy busy today.  In fact I had to put things on hold.  It is all due to working my butt off on Saturday night.  I didn’t get home and in bed until nearly eight in the morning.  This caused my hold day to be off.  I wasn’t able to do my second load of laundry.  I wasn’t able to get some computer work done.  I pretty much had time to get up and go to the Halloween event at the Pioneer Center.  It is an event I have worked before.  A bunch of little kids come through in costume and they get to play games and get treats.  A bunch of college co-eds were there to help out, like they do every year.

When that event was done I got my things together and went to Dissmores to get some dinner.  Then I went to the SO to do my paperwork.  I had a DUI, an Assault, and a couple other reports I had to write up and submit.  There are two I am going to postpone until next time I am over there.  I just didn’t have enough time to get everything done.  I was there until just after eight o’clock writing my reports.  That is the thing about law enforcement.  It is fun, but there is always lots of paperwork to do in the end.  I don’t mind the paperwork so much, but it can sometimes be a drag when you just don’t have the time, but you know you have to get it done.

I then hit the road.  I made decent time even though it was raining hard from the time I hit the pass until Renton.  That did cause some slowing.  It has been rush, rush, rush all weekend.  Now it is hurry up to get to bed in order to get as much sleep as I can before I have to be up and at work.

Letting in More People

October 28th, 2010

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

New Reserve Class

October 19th, 2010

After I got done working I got my uniform on and headed into the county.  I was going to help out with the academy then patrol for a while.  But instead a call came in where help was needed in Colfax.  I responded and ended up taking the lead.  I made an arrest.  A press release was posted about it.  The press release told about a domestic that the male half assaulted his ex-girlfriend and made her drive him north from Clarkston. 

I had enough time to make it over for the begining of the academy and show my video.  Then I had to leave and go finish my report for the arrest.  I got on the road around eleven at night because of the time it took to do all the paperwork.  When I was on the road it was totally dead.  I didn’t do much of anything outside of the arrest at the start of the shift.

Ticket Writing Machine

October 17th, 2010

I am not one to write a lot of tickets, but this shift I ended up writing five tickets with two warnings.  I took a couple calls for service and I had to make a phone call on one of them and went to meet with the person on the other one.  Those were my only two calls for service.  I didn’t have any other calls for service, so I just patrolled the streets and stopped a lot of people who were going really fast.

Cougar Football Saturday

September 11th, 2010

Today is the first day that I worked as a deputy at a football game.  I was excited for that.  I got to the SO and got a car ready.  Elllsworth and I went to WSUPD for briefing.  I was assigned to work with Hansen on the field.  That would mean I wouldn’t have many contacts with people but I was going to be taken care of.  Before the game we went to the pressbox and hung around up there for a while.  We got stuff ready for the command post for the game.  Then we took our position on the field.  It is my second time being on the field for a football game.

Being September Eleventh they had the honor guard from PFD and PPD work with the ROTC guys to do the flag.  They didn’t have a huge production like I was expecting.

At half time we ran the refs to their locker room and then escorted them back to the field.  In the third quarter we went to command and Hansen took it over.  We were there until near the end of the fourth quarter.  We got some food from there as well as warm cookies.  It was good stuff.  Before the game ended we went back to the field to escort the refs back to the locker room. Then our job was done.

The Cougs looked flat for most of the game.  It wasn’t until the fourth quarter that the defense stepped up and made some big plays.  It was because of that we were able to stay in the game and score some points.  We ended up winning by one point.

When the game was done Ellsworth and I went back to Colfax.  I went to Rosauers for some dinner and then out to the fairgrounds.  I was working out there until the morning doing patrols.  I was pretty tired, but for the first couple hours there was a dance and stuff going on.  But shortly after the dance thing quieted down and it got boring.  Matt and I watched some movies and the we did a round.  There was nothing going on.  It was very cold outside and we used little heaters to help keep the command post warm for us.  I stayed there until about seven-thirty in the morning when I left to go home.  I was very tired and ready to go to bed.

ASA Western Nationals Day Two

September 5th, 2010

This morning we had to get up early for the first game. We were playing at eight o’clock in the morning.  The game did not go well at all.  We couldn’t hit as a team.  I hit the ball well having two doubles.  But as a team we were more or less skunked.  The team we played hit the ball well and crushed us.  Our run in the nationals tournament came to an end at nine in the morning.

I went back to the hotel and packed up and left.  I went back to Pullman and because I was back so early I decided to work the road.

Intern Mock Scenes

August 21st, 2010

I went to the WSU Police Station to meet up for the Mock Scene’s that I am helping with for the Interns. I was playing a suspect in a couple different scenerios. I was having a lot of fun with it. I would pick on something about the officer and then try to get to them through my verbal attacks. One short guy came up with his partner. I looked at him, then he partner, and said “Is it Take-Your-Son-To-Work day?” One guy I was telling him I slept with his girlfriend. One guy I kept calling Ponch. I really was having a lot of fun.

When I was done there I went to the SO and worked the road. I started by washing my car. Then I went to St. John to serve some papers. But right when I got there I was called to Tekoa to be a backup for a call for a possible gun call. I got there and it turned into nothing. I then went to the SO. While there we got called to La Crosse. But just as I got going on that. I got diverted to Little Goose Dam for an illegal fire. There was no fire to be found. I ended up getting my car extremely dirty.

I ended the night with some traffic stops. It was pretty quiet for the most part for me.

Party in Endicott

July 31st, 2010

I worked the road today. I started with traffic out Twenty-Six. I made a couple stops and wrote two people. I cannot stand it when people lie anymore. I am more willing to give people who are honest a break.

I went to dinner with Bryce. While at dinner I got information about a big party happening out by Endicott. So I decided I would patrol in that area of the county. I made a few stops and I was around when there was a medical call that came out at the fire station. But overall the night was pretty quiet.

I got off the road just before three in the morning. I got my tickets written up as well as my report for the medical call.

Another Dead Day with BWil

July 30th, 2010

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

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

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

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

Got my Motorcycle Endorsement

July 24th, 2010

I got up this morning and I was tired. I was up late last night. I went to do my motorcycle driver’s test. I passed it. That made me happy and now I have my endorsement.

I went home and got some sleep. I was working tonight in the jail. I have my final graveyard shifts. This is the first of my final two days.

The shift in the jail was sort of slow. But I spent the shift writing up my case for the fire on the bridge from last night.

Good Thing it was Just a Party

July 23rd, 2010

This Friday I decided to work the road tonight. I decided to head up north. There were several people working the roads. I chose to run some traffic on the Pine City-Malden road. I was inside Pine City reading through my RCWs watching as cars went through town. All the cars going through were all doing the speed limit. Many times during the day I find people flying through town.

I saw one vehicle pulling a boat trailer. Because other cars were going through I watched their speed. Then I noticed the boat trailer had turned on Stephen Road. I couldn’t tell if there were tail lights on the trailer so I tried to catch up to it. I wasn’t able to. While driving down Stephen Road I saw Hole in The Ground road and thought to myself that I hadn’t been down there in a while. I didn’t find him.

I went back to running traffic. I had two trucks about half a mile apart come through town. The second one was speeding and it stopped next to me. I was told the other truck had been shooting from the road over the property of the people in the second truck. I tried to run down the first truck. I let Whitcom know what I was doing. A couple other deputies started to come my way. I told them what way I wanted them to come in. I was unable to find the truck. I talked to the RP some more and closed out the case.

I went back to Pine City with the other deputies. We talked about what had happened. They left to go find some more action and told me to have find in Pine City. I bid them farewell. I got back into my position and then I decided because of how late it was I was going to not run any more traffic.

I went to Hole In The Ground. I thought I may find the person who was doing the shooting. While going out there I was worried about how well the radio would work. Also I was thinking that if there was a guy shooting down there I might want to be careful.

As I was going along it was dark and I was surrounded by trees and a small narrow gravel road. I was thinking to myself how I wouldn’t want to run into some devil worshippers having some huge conference. It was pretty desolant out there so I had no idea what I might run into.

As I was going down Belsby Road I could see the reflectors of a lot of cars and I saw a fire. I was thinking to myself I found something and I had no idea what it was. I came closer to the bridge and I saw the fire was on the bridge. There was a red SUV next to the bridge and several people around the fire. I radioed that I was out with the fire and made contact.

As I was walking up I saw a beer can on the SUV. I said aloud “probably not tha best place for a fire.” One person responded “Should we put it out?” I said “that would be a good idea.” I saw another pile of beer cans and beer bottles.

After the fire was put out I started to talk to the people around the fire. I interviewed them one by one. One guy admitted to buying the beer and four others who were under age admitted to drinking the beer. So I had four criminal offenses. I gathered the information and sent them on their way.

I went back to the Sheriff’s Office and talked to Cooper about what I did and what my findings were.


Part of Article from Whitman County Gazette

First on a Double Fatal

July 16th, 2010

I was patrolling this afternoon. It was going to be a shorter day because I had to work the fire department this evening. I worked the Wawawai / One-Ninety-Four area for a while. It was slowish. I about just over an hour before I was going to check out of service. I figured I would go to Albion and work there for an hour.

As I was was traveling past the pumps on Twenty-Seven I heard my radio come to life. The dispatcher started to say “Dispatching Fire District Twelve, Pullman Ambulance, Delta Response…” I was thinking to myself that it was going to be in my general area because I was in the D-Twelve area. The dispatcher continued “… Injury accident Four-Six-Four-One Pullman-Albion Road.” I was just over a quarter mile away. I hit my lights and went to the scene. I checked out just seventeen seconds after going en route.

I was first on scene by a long shot. On my way the dispatcher said it was a motorcycle versus vehicle accident with obvious injuries. I didn’t know what was meant by that. I figured that it could be anything from a minor cut to something worse. When I got there I gave a size up. I knew it was very serious by the way people were standing around and by the way the scene presented itself to me.

I gave a size up and then I got out and checked out the injuries and gave an update for the ambulance. I grabbed my gloves and started to work in an EMS role. Once the ambulances showed up I did a face to face with them and went into cop mode. I met up with some of the other deputies who showed up.

At the Back of an AmbulanceStanding at the back of a Pullman Ambulance

I spent the rest of the time on the scene doing cop stuff. I helped with the measuring of the scene and finally helped get the road re-opened.

I went to the funeral home and met up with Pete and Annie. I took an opportunity to exam the injuries to better understand what had taken place. Because of the motorcycle wreck I was going to be last getting to the fire department. I had someone cover for me. It turned out he covered me the whole night.

I spent some more time on the road and helped picking up a runaway in the North park of the county.

A Week of Work

July 13th, 2010

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Lots of EMS Calls Today

May 27th, 2010

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

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

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

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

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

Decent Day in the Jail

May 26th, 2010

My only plan for the day was to write my column and work at the jail this evening. I got the column written and submitted. I wrote about the Arizona immigration law.

I was catching up on some TV shows when I got a call saying that I didn’t need to come in if I didn’t want to. But I had already planned on it and scheduled my day around it. So I went in.

It wasn’t a bad day at all. I sort of enjoyed being there. I did a hearing on a write up an officer had. I did some rounds and helped to serve dinner. They were also giving out some Hep-C tests for the corrections officers if you wanted one. I figured working in the line of work that I do, it would be a good idea to get a baseline.

Final Grave

May 24th, 2010

Today is the end of the second and the beginning of the third day that I am going to be working graveyard. I got off work and went home. I watched some TV then slept for four hours. I watched more TV and got some Pipeline. I went back to bed around five in the evening. I slept until nine and started my day.

I went to the jail working the final of my three graveyard shifts. I was working with Mark. It was a laid back night. I pretty did four rounds and that was about it. There wasn’t a lot that had to get done around the jail. I left at six in the morning and headed home.

Just Like Back in the Day

May 23rd, 2010

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

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

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

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

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

Oops, No Sleep for Scotty

May 22nd, 2010

This morning was cold and windy. I had a softball game first thing in the morning in Moscow. I am playing in a softball tournament. We were doing well on the first game and at one point had a lead of nearly twelve runs. But as time went on we allowed a lot runs for the other team. We were not scoring like we should have been. We soon gave up the lead and couldn’t win. We had a one game break and then played again. We won that game. Then we had another break of two games. We played again in Moscow. It was not to be. The rain started to fall. We were all getting wet and it was already cold. We lost the game by getting twelve runned by the Coor’s Light team.

When the game was done I told Matt I would work the road with him. I want to help the guys who need hours to get out there. I got my uniform on and Matt came over to pick me up. It was a long time since I put that thing on. We got to the SO and got the car ready. It turned out my map book and log book were in the car still. It has been nearly a month since I last worked. That car only got two hundred miles on it in the last month.

Just after I got to the SO, Cooper came into the Chaplain’s office where I was getting equipment. He closed the door and asked me what was going on. I wasn’t sure how much I wanted to tell him. He told me that if I have a problem that I can and should come in and talk to the guys. They are there for me. He said that a lot of the guys had been asking about me. They wondered why I hadn’t been working. They also saw I wasn’t quite my normal self. It is clear that he was good about keeping my wish of not telling people about my situation. He said Rick wanted to know what was going on and Cooper kept it quiet. I was very happy about that. Talking with Cooper was very helpful for me.

Matt and I went to dinner with everyone and then went to Albion to work there for an hour. We headed towards Pullman when my phone rang. It was the jail and they wanted to know where I was. It turned out my graveyard shift that I thought I was doing tomorrow night was supposed to be tonight. That royally sucked. I hadn’t slept since the morning. I wasn’t going to get any sleep at all and I knew that would mean I would be up for a long time. Also, because of all the softball on Sunday I figured I wouldn’t get a lot of sleep and I would be hurting.

I went home and put on my jail uniform and headed in. I was working with Brett. I was doing well for the first several hours. But as four o’clock in the morning was rolling around I was starting to get really tired. I had to be there until six in the morning. It sucked.

Alexithymia

May 20th, 2010

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

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

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

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

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

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

Final Seattle Interview

May 18th, 2010

I had an interview this morning at one other place. It was in Bellevue. I really want to get this job. I like the location and I like the size of the company. They sat me at a computer and had me do some SQL queries. I was going okay on some of them and not too good on other ones. They allowed me to do some searches for the answer if I didn’t know for sure. When it was done I don’t think I was as fast as they would have liked. I didn’t have the best of feelings when I left, but I am hopeful. I hit the road and headed back to Colfax. Because I was in my interview clothes I stayed in those to work the jail. I ended up staying in control for the whole night. I didn’t have to do any rounds. That was a nice change.

Final Thunder Football Game

May 15th, 2010

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

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

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

Freak Snow Hits Parts of the County

May 6th, 2010

I headed into the SO to work in the jail. I went in a little early to. On my way out the Pullman-Albion Road I went by a car accident. There as a one mile stretch that was snow covered and nasty roadway. One firefighter was on scene and I asked if he needed help. He said no and I continued to the SO.

While at the jail Chia and I sent some text messages back and forth. He was happy I finally talked to him about what was going on. He also sent me a friend request on facebook. So he actually deleted me as a friend. I asked him when he did that. He said about four days ago. I haven’t accepted the friend request yet.

I wasn’t too busy of a day around the jail. I entered a couple warrants and I booked one person. The other part of the time I did some rounds and served dinner. I was in a better mood compared to yesterday, but it wasn’t a ton better.

I got off at about ten and headed home. I didn’t do much around the house before I went off to bed. I was tired and I needed to be up around eight in the morning to go to Blake’s going away party.

I still have not heard about the job yet, and I am very nervous about getting it.

In a Off Mood

May 5th, 2010

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

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

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

Lots of Softball Today

May 2nd, 2010

I met up with Matt and headed down to Lewiston to play in the softball tournament. We lost both games yesterday. We played with nine guys all day yesterday. The first game was the exact same. We only have nine guys. I ended up getting the nod to pitch. I have to say I did fine. No walks. It felt good to do that with Billy watching so he can see I have the ability and maybe I will do something other than just pitch. It was a close battle with the game going either way multiple times. But we ended up winning.

The way today was going to go is that we would continue to play until we lost, then we would be done. The second game we played against a team from Oregon. We actually played them really tight. They had a couple guys who liked to go up the middle a lot. I don’t like that so much.

In the fifth inning we switch to a five man infield. I went to first base. The final play with us on defense was a double play. With the ball being thrown into the dirt. I made a good dig. Once again I was happy to do that in front of Billy. I just don’t want to be stuck as a catcher all season.

We were down by two runs. Then we gave up a couple more and were down by six. We needed to score a lot of runs, but we were not able to scratch any out and lost the game. It sucked to lose that one because we very well could have won it.

I went home and worked on the alternator for the motorhome. I have to put a new one it. I worked for a while to get it unbolted and the electrical wires unplugged. They were all gunked up making it take a lot longer. But once I got it unplugged I could not get it out of the engine compartment because of how tight things are.

I decided to go get a new bolt to replace one of the one I took out. It is partly striped out and I don’t want to put it back into the new one. I drove around yesterday looking for a replacement, but I couldn’t find one. I am going to have to search more tomorrow.

The evening I got a text from Ross about working the road. I said I would. So I ended up setting up the DVR to record the Simpson’s and the Family Guy.

Before working the road I went to play some co-ed softball. We are supposed to play B-league this season, but our team was doing well. We won nineteen to one. It was a blow out. After seeing the score I am afraid Kurt may put us in A-league. We have got some new women on the team and they are pretty good.

When the game was done I went home and got into my county uniform and headed in to work. Ross and I hit the road. We went to do some time in Albion. I was letting Ross do everything and I just sat there because he is working to get to first class. We made several stops during the evening. We called it a night around one in the morning.

I stayed at the SO for a little bit longer and worked on a template for Rick. I was able to get it completed and tested it a little bit. It worked nicely.

On the Road and at the FD

April 30th, 2010

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

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

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

On my Laptop

April 21st, 2010

I hit the road right around noon. I drove to the SO and then over to the IS building. I was getting my computer set up so I can use it at the office when all the other computers are in use. I don’t like to waste time sitting around.

I hit the road some more. I typed up a couple tickets and a case report. I got most of the case report completed then I went to the jail.

I worked there for six hours. It was a long day. It seems like every day at the jail when I am there for six hours it kills me a little bit. I would rather be on the road or doing something else.

When I got off work I went home and cleaned my gun from the firearms training we did two weeks ago. I had been slacking on that.

Don’t Lie

April 20th, 2010

I spent the first part of my shift doing some follow up on two cases I was handed by the full-timers. One was a dog-bit in Oakesdale and the other was a trespassing in Pine City. I met with everyone I needed to and got statements. Then I did my own patrolling. It took me nearly two hours to get back to Colfax because I was stopping cars.

I went to lunch with Paul and Courtney. We went to Taco Del Mar. We spent time talking about the State Patrol and their upcoming hiring.

I went south on SR One-Ninety-Five, but it was pretty slow down there. So I went on the Pullman-Moscow highway. I stopped several cars. One thing is that if someone lies to me and it is really blantent, I am more likely to write the person. In this one case the guy said he works in Pullman. I knew he lived in Moscow, so I know he drives the road daily. He was doing eleven over. I was going to cut him a break, but he just was so dishonest about everything.

Then shortly after that another person doing eleven over did the same thing. This guy tried to claim he realized he was speeding and started to slow down, but really he was going fast until he saw my car and then hit his brakes. But bythen it was too late. Busted!

Early Playoff’s Exit

April 19th, 2010

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

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

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

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

Number Two Rides Along

April 16th, 2010

It was nice and early and I was on my way to the jail to work dayshift. It was a long day in the jail. I did a couple rounds and spent most of the time in the control room. I was answering phone calls and opening doors. I couldn’t wait until four o’clock when I was going to get to hit the road. I had a rider scheduled for this evening.

Number Two, B-Wil, rode with me. He is an Intern who would like to become a reserve. He asked me a while ago to ride and it was his turn. I had promised my first ride to a different Intern. B-Wil got there and I got the form filled out for the ride. Then we hit the road. We made a stop of a car that one of the deputies told us had been speeding already. Because I caught him speeding I ended up writing him.

We went back to Colfax and I was asked by one of the part time Colfax cops to help him with a disorderly male at the city hall. We went there and spent about two hours dealing with that whole situation.

Then we got a radio battery for one of the reserves in Pullman. We dropped it off with him went to McDonald’s to have dinner with some of the other guys. BKoe stopped by and ate with us.

I ran some traffic on the Pullman-Albion road and then we headed up north. There wasn’t a lot of traffic on the road but we made several stops during the night. We called it a night right around two-thirty in the morning. With softball tomorrow it was a good time to call it a night.

No, I’m not Mad

April 15th, 2010

I hit the road this morning. I have been putting in a lot of hours at the SO. I was out on the road until four o’clock PM because I had to get to the jail. I only work two days a week at the jail for a total of twelve hours plus a shift here and there for coverage.

I got a message on facebook today from Chia. He asked if he did something that made me mad. He said it has been a while since we talked and he was hoping all was well.

I don’t know what it is, but since leaving my full-time post at the fire department my inclusion in the things they do has really fallen off. It is almost like was never downtown. I use to get invited to the things they do, but it has been months since I did anything with them and I can’t believe they haven’t done anything over the last four plus months.

There were many times that they were doing something and I was an after thought. I would message someone who was out with the group and then I would get invited. I didn’t like that too much. I guess I believed we were friends. It seemed like we were close while I was there, but it didn’t take long for them to forget who I was.

I am not mad at Chia. But I considered him a friends, more-so than many of the people who were there. We hung out at work and got along well, but we didn’t do a lot of stuff off work hours. But Chia seems to have fallen in with that crowd. Many times the only time I am contacted by Chia is when he has a question or wants to do something. Not to do things like friends. I remember he use to call when he was in town to hang out for a while or to get some chow. But not any more.

Another Arrest

April 12th, 2010

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

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

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

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

Last Night of Regular Season

April 11th, 2010

After working all night last night and yesterday I left myself sleep in. I got up around eleven and got going on the day. I realized I need to get the rosters turned in to the city for softball, so I worked for a couple hours to get signatures from various people.

I went to the SO and did some patrolling. First I got my report completed from my arrest on Friday. I also had to get my tickets written up. Paperwork is the hangover of police work.

I went to my place and got ready for softball. Tonight is the final night of the regular season. We played one team and tied them. That sucked. It was only five innings because the time limit hit. before the game started I heard one guy on their bench say “oh it is that team”. They recognized us. I couldn’t hit a ball to save my life in the first game. The second game we won easily. I had a stand-up triple.

When we were done I went back on duty. It was slow. I did Tekoa time and drove on some county roads. I ended up making one stop on the evening.