Ought-Nine in Review

January 1st, 2010

JanMr. President – I wanted to be the class president. There were two possible candidates that most likely would have been voted for. Myself and one other guy who works in the jail right now. He also would have been a very fine pic. But it is something I want to do. The vote was held by Ross putting out the ballots. When the counting was done it was nearly unanimous. I am now the Ought-Eight Reserve class President.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Another Day Patrolling in the Snow

December 30th, 2009

Melcher and I met up at seven in the morning to patrol. It was pretty quiet. We were stopping a lot of cars. It was sort of a ticket day as we wrote a total of five tickets. When the day started it was snowing lightly and the roads were snowy and icy. When I was up on One-Ninety-Five I had a car go by me at seventy-five. I turned on it. With how icy it was we had a hard time doing the turn quickly. We were slipping and sliding. I told Melcher if the car kept going that fast we would not get caught up to it because I wasn’t going to go that fast to get it. But we did catch up to it. I wrote the driver for that one.

Later had lunch with BKoe and KStew. It was a pretty nice day over all. We didn’t have any calls to deal with. I am pretty much a call killer.

I’m an Eagle

December 23rd, 2009

I went to the SO today to drop off my stuff from my last two coroner’s cases. Then I went to report writing to write up a ticket that I wrote on Monday. After that I went into the jail and made the calendar for late night requests. I have been making that calendar since ninety-nine. I also updated the photoboard with for the year of two-thousand-ten. The board had years that ended in ninety-nine. I have been fixing it since the turn of the century.

Then it was off to Renton. I got home and then went to the Eagles. I was getting initiated today. I had dinner then waited to be initiated. After the initiation I went to Fry’s Electronics to get a radio for Jon for Christmas. I looked at some computers while I was there as well. I have been thinking about getting one, but the one I currently have really is just fine. The fan is loud, but I can fix that for a few bucks and I would save myself from spending a ton of money on a computer right now.

Three Hats Today

December 21st, 2009

This morning Melcher and I hit the road. I was working out there until five o’clock. I am on call for the fire department starting at six. We hit the road and ran some traffic on twenty-six. We met up with BKoe, KStew, and Monte for lunch at Cougar Country. We ran a fresh arrest to Colfax for BKoe. Then we went north and ran more traffic. We made a couple stops along the way. We got back to the station and I was out of there around five. I got to the station and rig checks were done.

Robinson and I hung out at the station for a couple hours. But we didn’t have any calls while we were there. I went home and I was online chatting with someone on facebook when a call came in for an injured person with blood. As I got to the station I heard the person wasn’t breathing and was cold. We got cancelled quickly as it turned out the person was dead.

It wasn’t very long before I went to the scene as a coroner. I told Pete that I was on call for the fire department and I might need to leave if a call came in. I worked the case for a couple hours on scene and then at the funeral home. After I was done with the funeral home the tones went out for a fire alarm. I went to the station and we headed out on it. We were cancelled nearly right away. That was all we had for calls, but because of the coroner’s case I didn’t get to bed until late.

A Cop on a Car Accident

December 19th, 2009

I went out on Patrol with Melcher today. It was sort of a last minute thing. I wanted to go out and I made the call. He was up for it. We met up and hit the road. Today was “ticket day”. We were going to hit it hard. Turns out we wrote one ticket on about six stops. That is pretty par for the course. I was really getting hungry, to the point where it felt like I was getting some reflux going on. We went to Subway and had some dinner. Just after I completed my last bite a call came in for a rollover car accident with road blockage. We were the closet cops there. We got on scene first and started to check stuff out. I went to run the plate on the vehicle. I said “Idaho plate, through… [I started to realize I was going to say something stupid] Idaho. Well duh! I already said it was through Idaho. The Colfax Rescue guys got there and poked some fun at me after the call.

Melcher and did traffic control around the accident for about two hours following the ambulance’s leaving. Then we were on our way in to town. We heard one of the deputies asking for a couple more units. He asked them to expedite. We made our way there after asking if they wanted us. That was our final task. We spent the rest of the evening at the hospital dealing with a person who had been transported there from the jail. We were mostly just standing by. I was there until six-thirty in the morning when I things were finally winding down for the most part. I was tired. I wasn’t expecting to be out that late for sure!

Daytime on the Road

December 15th, 2009

I worked the road today with Melcher. We met up at ten o’clock and hit the road. We took a nine-one-one hang up. That was about the extent of our major responses. We hit lunch in Pullman. I drove for a while. We drove south towards the state line. I also drove us by the search area on Rimrock Road.

I was going to make a stop. But the driver stopped just after I got turned around and we were in a dead spot. I was able to get out as I was making the stop, but nothing more. So soon they were sending units to check on us. The Sheriff, the chaplain, Colfax Police Chief, and a trooper were all coming. Melcher took the stop and wrote a ticket as fast as possible. Then we got into radio communication where we were able to let them know we were okay.

I was supposed to have a meeting on the phone with the company I am doing the contract work for. But before the meeting time I got notified that it was cancelled. So Melcher and I stayed on the road longer. I got back in time for board and business at Colfax Fire. We covered the end of the year things such as the Fireman’s Toybox and the yearly elections.

After the meeting I went to the SO and worked on some reports that I had to complete from previous nights out on patrol.

Rimrock Search Day Two

December 14th, 2009

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Rimrock Search

December 13th, 2009

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

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

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

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

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

Making the County Safer

December 11th, 2009

Tonight I met up with Rich to patrol the county. We cruised around for a while. Then we were asked to go on a detail with Cooper and some other deputies. They were going to check on a trespassing complaint. The information said the person wasn’t supposed to be there and there could be some drugs in the place. We went there but no one was around. Rich started off the night driving.

Later on I was driving. I was on the Pine City-Malden Road when I went by Boozer Road. I saw a car on it. I turned around to get a twenty-eight. But I didn’t pass the vehicle and it also wasn’t on Boozer road. So I hurried up to catch up with it. But after about a mile I hadn’t seen it. I turned back again and went to Boozer road. As I was going down Boozer road I found some dust in the air.

I went around a corner and saw it was darkened out in the road. I stopped and it moved off the roadway. I came behind it and debated whether I had a social contact or a stop. I decided a stop. So I turned on my lights. I made contact. Both people had glassy looking eyes. I asked about drinking. They denied it. I did a modified HGN. I saw one sign of lack of smooth pursuit, but it wasn’t very obvious. I asked him to do the PBT. He did and it was zero’s. I asked some more questions before letting them go.

I then talked to the other guys to find out if what we did was right or what we could have done differently. It sounds like everyone had a different idea of what they would have. No one said what we did was wrong.

Coming in Early for the Meeting

December 10th, 2009

I went into the SO early to meet with Cooper to cover the things that were going on in tonight’s association meeting. I have a CISD to go to so I cannot be at the meeting. I showed him my gun was clean. Then I gave him my idea for training for this upcoming year. Cooper was asking everyone if we had any complaints so we could air them out one on one. I didn’t have any to speak of.

I went back to Pullman and to the CISD. It was for the suicide in Pullman from a couple weeks ago.

Almost Wrecked a Patrol Car… Darn Deer

December 4th, 2009

I stopped in at Pullman Fire for a while and chatted with Reiber and the guys for a little while. Southern came in with some goodies that he got from an event the city of Garfield put on.

This afternoon Melcher and I had planned on hitting the road. I got to the SO around four-thirty. We got our car ready and hit the road. We first tried to do some paper service. A car went by us at ten over. I turned on it, but it disappeared. We think it made a quick turn on a side road and darkened out. We drove some side roads but didn’t find anything.

We went to the SO and then to Subway with the others for dinner. Then we hit the road again. We went up north and worked Tekoa. Then we worked a bunch of county roads. It was very dead on some of them. We didn’t see any cars for several hours.

We were finally heading into Colfax. I was driving down Buck Canyon when all of a sudden Melcher said something. I see the deer running right in front of the car. It is bigger than life. I thought for sure we were going to hit it. We missed it, but as the deer kept running it got tagged by a box van. It was laying in the middle of the road bleeding and kicking. It didn’t take long for it to die.

The box van sustained minor damage, but not enough for it to meet the damage threshold for being reportable.

It was pretty much the end of the night. We drove to the Albion road and then back. I rinsed the car because it got pretty dirty on the county roads before going home.

Cops Executed in Lakewood

November 29th, 2009

This morning my alarm clock goes off then I decide to sleep a little more. I got woken up by a call from Melcher. So I was now running late. I rushed around to get all my stuff on and meet up with Melcher.

We got to the SO and started to get a car set up. We are planning on working part of day shift and some of night shift. Just before we were going to get going Rob came out and told us there was a police shooting over in Seattle and we should come in to the SO and watch the news. We went inside and saw that four Lakewood cops had been ambushed and executed in a coffee shop. They were in uniform and getting close to going on duty. There was now a big manhunt for the killer.

We hit the road. The goal was to hit a bunch of small towns looking for banks and schools. We hit Palouse, Garfield, Farmington, and while we were en route to Tekoa we got called for a civil standby in Rosalia. We handled that. Then looked around the town.

Melcher took over as the driver shortly after that. He made a stop and it turned out to be a suspended driver. Lucky for Melcher. He got an arrest out of the deal. We cleared the arrest and started to head out SR Twenty-Three. We were getting a lot of high speeds. We made some stops on our way to Lamont. We looked at the school and drove a couple streets in town before I took over driving again. I headed to the county line on Twenty-Three to see where it was. As we were coming back I got a guy at twenty-one over. I stopped him and gave him a ticket.

I hit Twenty-Three for a while and then switched back to Melcher. He made a couple stops as well on our way to One-Ninety-Five. We made our way to the SO for a short period of time.

We got some tape and put it over our badge. It is my first time I have done that as a cop. It was a powerful statement to me.

While there a suspicious call came out in Tekoa. We had one deputy in the area. Melcher and I left from the SO and headed that way. En route we were told the call was unfounded and we cleared. We drove down SR Twenty-Seven to Pullman to get some lunch. We went to New Garden. On the way back towards Colfax we ran into a couple more speeders. We made a couple stops and I got one guy at eighteen over. He got a ticket too.

We headed out SR Twenty-Six and worked it for a while. Melcher found a spot on the side of the road and we stopped people. Melcher got one ticket and I also got one. Both were for seventeen over. By this time we had worked more than ten hours and Cooper sort of was calling us back without ordering us to come back over the radio.

When we got to the SO he said that we can only work ten hours unless on a case. He said it in a very nice way. I would like to have the option to work a few extra hours and not be limited to ten hours every time.

When we got back we got the equipment out of the car. We worked on our paperwork before heading home.

Patrolling with Kramdaddy

November 25th, 2009

I went to the SO around four to get a car set up for patrolling tonight with Rich. I had grabbed a bunch of civil papers to serve. We were able to get two of them served out of six. We did a Cougar Country run for dispatch. Then it was dinner for us. We went to AppleBees with Phil. We were there for about an hour having dinner before we hit the road. We worked SR Twenty-Six for most of the evening. We were getting some good speeds.

One thing I have found is when someone is pulled over and they have five expired registrations and four expired insurance cards inside his glovebox which is full of other crap, I get annoyed. I would suggest to throw away the old items. Have your paperwork readily accessible and quick to get to.

I wrote some tickets and gave some warning through out the night. When we got done patrolling, we went to the SO. I worked on my paperwork and got it turned in. I got the meeting minutes from last meeting written up and e-mailed out. I got home and in bed around five in the morning.

Patrolling with Melcher

November 22nd, 2009

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

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

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

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

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

SWAT Training Helper

November 19th, 2009

Today is BKunz’s Thirty-Second birthday. I met Brandon when he was eighteen. He was a freshman at WSU. I have had such a pleasure being Brandon’s friend. He is a sincere and honest guy. He went to school to be an engineer which he did for some years, and now he has become a fireman. It is great to talk to him. I also love playing softball with him. I had the opportunity last summer. It was incredible!

I worked with the SWAT team to play a bad guy for their scenarios. I was slightly uncooperative. I was able to get beat by these guys a little. They only went as far as I did. If I cooperated they didn’t have to work to keep me in line. I had a lot of fun. We did it most of the day and ended with one last scenario after it got dark.

It was a good day out doing the training.

Perfecting Applications

November 5th, 2009

This morning I got up with enough time to get my Toyota to my mechanic. Not that I should be spending any money right now on the Toyota, I want to be able to drive it around this winter. It might save me some money in the long run. But I doubt it.

Anyway, I had to be at the Mechanic at eleven-thirty. I know… Call me lazy. But it has only been real recent that I have been going to bed so late so I want up so late. I am not doing anything important. Just screwing around. Last night it was listening to old recording of Paul Harvey on YouTube. I really miss listening to Paul Harvey. Every now and again I see it is noon and quickly look for a radio to tune him in, only to realize that he won’t be on. I learned about Paul Harvey when I was a freshman at college. He was on the radio station the Roto had playing on their speaker system at lunch time. One girl in the group I use to chow with pointed him out. I started to listen and fell in love with his story telling and his comments. So I wanted to make recordings of those so I could listen to them in the rig from time to time. So I was doing that plus colorizing my county map and that kept me up until nearly four in the morning, which is why I got up so late.

A fuel line that was leaking was fixed plus a vacuum line was fixed. I was able to get the noise happen for him. He listened with a mechanics stethoscope and he was able to determine that it was my alternator. It sounded like some bearings were going out. I am not sure if I have replaced it since high school. So it has had a long life. Anyway, I might have to put out a couple hundred more.

From there I had to go to the WorkSource office for a perfecting applications class. It is part of my unemployment training I have to take to be eligible for benefits. The classes are setup to help people learn how to market themselves. But I think the classes are geared towards people who have no college education. Many of the topics we dealt with were very basic. I think it was good training for some of the people, but for others I think it was probably just telling them something they already do and already know.

After that class I buzzed down to Colfax for a meeting with the prosecutor to discuss search incident to arrest of a car. It is a new topic that affects those in law enforcement. So he met with the SO to tell everyone his opinion of the case law out of the Washington State Supreme Court.

Following the meeting I went home and had some dinner and watched TV. Richards from the fire department called and invited me out to have a beer. I took him up on his invitation. We met at My Office. I had a couple beers and played some pool. Young also showed up. It was a good time. We were out until about one in the morning. I really like spending the time with the guys. I am happy that they haven’t stopped doing stuff with me. Every since I left being a full-time guy I have tried to keep the relationships going with those guys. I don’t want to be forgotten.

Oral Board Interviews

October 4th, 2009

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

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

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

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

Hitting the Road with Cooper

October 2nd, 2009

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

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

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

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

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

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

Last Day Working for NU/MH

September 25th, 2009

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

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

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

Three Hats Today

September 23rd, 2009

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

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

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

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

Two Losses in IM’s tonight

September 20th, 2009

The day started with working on my report for the coroner’s office. While there I saw Ron updated his station on facebook to say he had some chili on the stove and invited people over to watch football. I went over to his place and had some chili and watched football until just after one. Then I went to the SO to work on my case reports for my arrests this weekend as well as the tickets.

I got the reports done first and started to get the tickets written up. When Cooper got there he reviewed one of my reports and he had some suggestions and things that I left out that needed to be added in. But because it was close to game time I went home and got my softball uniform on.

Ryan came down from Spokane to play softball. We had about thirteen people show up, but we were missing a key outfielder. So I have to put our right-fielder into left field. We played a team that was hitting the ball well and was killing the outfield. At first they played deep and the balls dropped in. Later we were playing in and they started to hit some bombs. We were not hitting the ball well and quickly got way behind.

Bruce let me know they were using a USSSA bat which was illegal in ASA play. We brought it up, but it was very late in the game and the damage was done. They were mad at us and started to chip at us.

When the game was done they had one. We shook hands, but three guys from their team wouldn’t come out and shake our hands. They were still mad at us from last season when we knocked them out of the playoffs.

The second game the team was using an illegal bat. We brought it up, but the IM office was using an old list of illegal bats. They said the bat was okay to use. We let them know they were using an old list, but there wasn’t anything we could do about it.

We lost that game too. When the day was done I was disappointed that we lost both games. I also felt like we were being a bunch of whiners about the bats too. I thought the bat shouldn’t matter because we should have been hitting better than we had been anyway.

After the game Ryan and I went to Cougar Country to get some dinner and ate it at my place. We watched some TV and hung out talking about Ryan’s future job prospects.

At about midnight I went to the SO to complete my reports. After the re-write Cooper looked over it and said it was better. I got both completed and turned in. It was a little after two in the morning when I got home.

Working with Jordan

September 18th, 2009

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

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

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

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

SWAT Training

September 17th, 2009

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.

EVOC Slow Course

September 13th, 2009

This morning I started with the slow EVOC course. Melcher and I were trading off with the one county car. The others had their own car. It was taking a long time between each of my runs. After my second run Melcher went a second time. Then it was decided that he would continue to do it until he was able to pass it. There was a lot of backing and it was pretty involved. As it was getting close to the time that the class was supposed to be over I was able to get into a WSU police car in order to get some practice because the other cars were still being used.

I did the course once in the WSU car and my time was good, but I hit a couple cones. I did it a second time and passed it seventeen seconds over the minimum time needed. I was the second guy to pass and I did it in the least number of runs. It was pretty cool.

We left and went to McDonald’s for lunch. We watched some football and talked war stories while there. When the training was done I went home and got my stuff ready for softball practice. I was meeting a couple of the new and old guys at the city playfields for some practice and BP. The two new infielders are both nice guys and good players. Both hit the ball well and throw it well. We are going to be a lot more solid. We were there for a couple hours total.

I went home and got ready for our first softball games. One of the infielders wasn’t sure if he was going to play with us or a different team who was trying to recruit him. He decided to play with us. That was great news for the team.

I pitched the first game and did just fine. We won the first game by one run, but we were not hitting too well. The second game was a lot more of a slaughtering. We ten-runned the other team. We started off the season two and oh.

Working the Palouse Fair

September 10th, 2009

This morning I was up by six o’clock in the morning to head to Colfax. I got some maple bars from Chuck’s and topped off my fuel. I hit the road and made reasonable time. I got to the fairground just after eleven o’clock. I gave out the maple bars to the people there. I got my shirt and stood by at the first aid booth. We pretty much did about the same as normal when I am there. Minor things like bee stings was about all we had happen. I was there for about five hours. It was nice to hang out with the others there.

I left to go into Colfax around four in the afternoon. I got on the computer and I saw a bunch of E-mails that had been flying around all day. One was from my manage who was getting frantic about things not saving. But that wasn’t on my end. Everything I had done was fine, but for some reason he thought it was. Later in the e-mails I saw there had been a network issue that actually caused the data to not get saved. Part of me is sort of looking forward to being done there because of stuff like that.

After doing the e-mails and taking care of some of the photos in the coroner’s office I went upstairs to the SO. We have our monthly meeting tonight.

I got some paper and went to the meeting room. I took the meeting minutes. I was also the highest ranking officer there so I was in charge of running the meeting. We had one vote come before us, so I had to run the vote.

After the meeting our training was building searches. I did a with Macy. The last time we searched together I ended up getting us killed. This time I found the guy but I didn’t do it the best way possible. We also learned some tactical things about moving around the building. It was a good training.

When the training was done I typed up the meeting minutes and sent them out. I also got the hours for August typed up and put into the Excel spread sheet.

I headed home and picked up Gunner. He came over and we watched some TV together. He was here for a couple hours. It was getting close to one in the morning and I was getting tired so I took him home and I went back to the house.

Paperwork is the Hangover of Police Work

August 23rd, 2009

This afternoon I went to the SO to work on my paperwork for the tickets I wrote and my DUI that I got. I was down at the SO for a couple hours getting all the paperwork filled out for the DUI. The tickets didn’t take as long, but I had several that I had to write up.

I left there around ten o’clock to head home. It was a pretty lax day overall.

Rosalia Motorcycle Show

August 15th, 2009

This morning I headed up to Rosalia to work the motorcycle show. I was working it with one other reserve. I started by getting a patrol car from the office and getting some equipment loaded into it. I got to Rosalia and met up with the guy I was working with. He had come out of Spokane and just wanted to meet there. We staged at the fire station. We got the Rhino and drove down to the park.

I parked the car there in a visible location. Then we rode around the park in the Rhino. We chatted with some people along the way. We would wave and smile at everyone as we passed. It was very friendly policing.

We spent time going from the rodeo grounds through the camping area. Down to the fire station and then to the park. We would walk around the park and check in the beer garden. Some Goldwings were part of a drill team. The performed first on the main drag through town.

We watched that show from across from the fire station. The next thing was the motorcycle rodeo. When we got there we found our self a spot for parking. There were a lot of big burly motorcycle riders. Men of all sorts of different ages. At a distance I saw a potential ten-six-seven. He was a younger blond and he caught my attention. Unlike everyone else there he stuck out both because of the fact he was ten-six-seven, but also because he didn’t look like the others. He didn’t wear blue jeans and leather chaps. He was free of obvious tattoos. He was like the guy next door. He also did very well at handling his motorcycle. So for the rodeo I had something worth watching, other than the show itself. The rodeo lasted several hours. When it was done we went back to the main park.

We continued to make our rounds and talk with people and interface with people. While at the main park there was one more show of people on crotchrockets were doing stunts. They lasted a while. It was done inside of a small basketball court that was fenced. I guess the helped make those watching the show stay safe.

While sitting there I was surprised with another ten-six-seven. He came over in a group of other guys to watch the stunt show. He was a short haired blond with blue eyes. I wasn’t able to enjoy the scenery as long, but it was just as good as the first one.

The rest of the evening was pretty much the same. We did get called to a motorcycle accident, but it turned out to be minor. We cleared it and went back to the park. I was there until just after nine o’clock. It was pretty quiet most of the day. We didn’t have any problems the whole night. We had lots questions about wearing helmets, alcohol laws, and whatnot.

I went to the SO after clearing Rosalia. I got my tickets from two days ago written up and turned in. Then I went home and got ready for bed.

Slow Night on the Road

August 13th, 2009

The big thing today was to do a ride with Brown, a fellow reserve, and the reserve meeting. I got my uniform on around three and headed to Colfax. I had to get a new battery for my motorcycle. I stopped in at Napa down in Colfax.

I went to the SO following that. I got the meeting minutes from the last meeting typed up and sent out. I also got the reserve hours printed out and turned in to Cooper.

We had our meeting. It was short. The training was going over the accident report forms. We all had to fill them out for a fake accident that we “investigated”.

Then I hit the road with Brown. The first stop I had was for fifteen over. I was going to write then I saw it was his birthday. So I gave him a huge break. I made one more stop before it was time for lunch. We went to Zips with the other guys.

We then went to help two guys with a case in Oakesdale. We interviewed everyone involved. There was no crime so we cleared. I ran traffic until midnight then we called it a night. It was a pretty slow night. I am pretty much a call killer like I am when I am at Colfax Fire.

I got home and worked on my battery. I had to pour in the acid. Then I hooked it to the battery charger and went to bed.

A Real “Vacation”

August 10th, 2009

After getting off work this morning I went home and dealt with what was waiting for me at the computer job. There wasn’t much. I had wanted to go patrolling tonight, but I decided to skip it and just enjoy the day.

I went to Chris’ house to meet up with him. I had hopped to catch a ride down with him to the river. Blake and Blake were also meeting us there. We loaded up our stuff and headed down to the river. It was a nice trip down to Boyer Park. Once there it was pretty warm. We got the boat launched and headed to the Dunes. Once we anchored we got out and enjoyed the warm thigh-level water. I had some pop and the others had their drink of choice. We just hung out in the water talking. It was a nice time. It was relaxing. John and his boys showed up. Jon also came down for a while. The Chia’s and their dog made it down.

We had a football and threw it around for a while. I was taking photos during some of the action. I was able to get some very nice shots of everyone having fun.

We hung out most of the afternoon in the water throwing the ball around, playing with Chia’s dog and then finally we did some tubing when the wind died down a little bit. Blake went on it first. He took several strolls around the river. Then him and I went for a ride. Finally I did a couple rides myself. But before we were done we looked up at the shore and the other Blake had been escorted away. It turns out they frown upon glass bottles being used at the river. So he got scolded for using one.

We went back to shore and made fun of him. Then we started to say our goodbyes. Chia, the Blakes, and I were going to have some dinner together in Pullman. At first we were going to go to Cougar Country. Chris was going to Rancho for his son’s twenty-first birthday. We joked about crashing the party.

On the way home I drove. Chris asked if I would drive so he could have a couple beers. I had no problem with that. Before we got home we saw John and Chia’s rigs pulled over. John’s hood was open. They were having a problem with the hose on the radiator. It came off spraying a lot of fluid around. We worked on it for a while before finally getting it put back into place. They we used some of our water to refill the radiator. We were finally back on our way.

When we got to Pullman it was decided that we would go to Rancho with Chris. We met up with Denise and some of Chris’ family plus the guys who went to the river. It was a good time. We had cake and bought Chris’ son all sorts of drinks.

When the night was done Chris picked up the whole tab. That was certainly unexpected. I hit the road and went to the Sheriff’s Office. I had to complete a report and two tickets that I had issued while patrolling. I got those completed and turned in. Then I came home and watched some TV before making my way to bed.

Today was so fun. It was like back when I went to the river all the time. It was relaxing. It was the first time I really had a real vacation day all summer. It was great!

First Night Out with Another Second Class Reserve

August 8th, 2009

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.

Co-Ed Mush Ball Tournament

July 26th, 2009

Today was a second tournament in Lewiston in as many days. We were playing a mush ball tournament. Today it was co-ed. We were able to scrape a team together. It was several guys from yesterday and a couple women that we play with.

I was able to play first base all day. I liked that. I also figured out how to hit the ball yesterday and I was hitting the ball with some power and I was getting basehits.

After winning the first game we had a game break. As it turned out we had a one game break between every game. After winning the first game we lost the next two. Both games were a one run loss. So we went on to a consolation game against the team we played in the first round. The second time through we crushed them. I hit a homerun. Bill had offered anyone who got a homerun a ring-pop. I was the first one to step up and get it.

When the game was done I hurried back to Pullman to drop of Faber and then down to the county to write up my DUI that I got the other night. Jordan was there to help me. It wasn’t as much paperwork as I thought it would be, but my stop was straight forward. It took more than an hour and a half to do it it all.

First Two DUIs

July 24th, 2009

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.

Second Class Reserve

July 9th, 2009

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.

FTO Book Turned In

June 26th, 2009

I went to the SO to get the final sponsor signature for my FTO book. Then I turned it into Cooper. I will have to go through a board review in order to pass along to second class. Once in second class I will be able to ride with any other second class or any first class reserve. I am looking forward to that step. I have worked hard to get there. I am sort of holding off on riding anymore until I get my new status so I can apply my hours towards the needed check offs to move to first class.

I hung out at the fire station for a while. Whimpy was out and I played with its siren a little bit. It has a growler-like siren on it.

Tomorrow is the softball tournament in Othello so I am going to go to bed early.

Got the FTO Book Done

June 22nd, 2009

I had a goal to complete my FTO book today at the SO. I was with Zehm. We spent several hours going through the final couple pages getting the final check-offs completed. With that done I can apply to go to second class status. I will be the first in my class to do that. In second class status I will get a chance to work with another second class reserve and the other first class guys. Then I can work my way to being first class. It is at that level I will be able to take my own car out and be on my own. I think that I can get there in the next three months or so.

After we were done with the book we hit the road. He said I could do what I wanted. So I went out twenty-six. I saw someone walking down the road. I stopped and spoke to the person. They were not doing anything wrong, but I barely could see them due to the darkness. So I tried to talk them into taking a ride with me to someplace to get them off the road. It took a while but I was able to do it. I gave the person a ride to Dusty. But I made a couple mistakes along the way. I didn’t search the bags for weapons as well as I should have. I didn’t get the ID as quickly as I should have. I should have run the person right away rather than waiting to run it after I dropped the person off. Then at Dusty I opened the trunk to let the person get their things but I turned my back and they could have gotten to a weapon case I had in the trunk.

We talked about all those things on the way from the call. I knew about some of my mistakes, but I wasn’t sure about what I was able to do in some other ones, like running the person right away. At the end of the night Zehm said that I really didn’t do bad. He said I did fine, but he still had to put that down on my evaluation. Even though I have a lot of ride time in, I had not dealt with something like that before so I didn’t know all the things I should and could do. This was a great learning experience, because I still went home that night.