Final Day of Academy Classroom

After nearly five and a half months of training tonight was the final class for the academy. We had a video for EVOC and the final test. I scored the highest on the test so I was happy about that.

Earlier I came down to Colfax. I was able to go on a call to Spokane on the ambulance. It was a pretty straight forward transfer. I spent a lot of my time talking with the patient on the way up.

After the class was done I was going to the Zuu for a celebration of the end of class. I invited everyone else to come with me. All the Pullman people ended up showing up for the celebration. We had beer and tacos. I also sang a couple songs. I got one with Peter and one with Jesse Two.

I was at the Zuu until nearly one-thirty in the morning. While we were there a lot of homoerotic joking was going on. One thing happened with Jessie. I jokingly said that I would switch for her. One of the D-Twelve guys, Neils, was there and heard me say that. He made mention that there have been rumors around D-Twelve and Eleven about me being gay, but he didn’t know it was true. I sort of laughed it off. I am not too surprised that they know, but I guess I am also a little surprised.

I think that at least some of the people at Colfax have to know because I heard about one person there saying that during the wildfires last year that she found my blog and they were reading it while sitting on the fireline trying to pass the time. If they have read it, then they had to have found some of my posts that point out my gayness.

Pizza Day

This morning I was tried due to staying up late for playing poker. But I got up in time for class. I got cleaned up and then went to Dissmore’s and got some donuts for the class. Today was the final day for Radar. Plus we had CPR and first aid training.

We did the first-aid training in the morning. It was what I expected. At lunch Jessie, Michael, and I went Subway. Then back to class for doing the radar estimation training. We went to One-Ninety-Five. We watched cars and estimated their speeds. Then we would use the radar to see what the speed was. We spent about thirty total minutes on that.

We went back to class and did the CPR portion of the class. That went pretty quick. We did some practice and called it a day.

I went home to change and then to Papa Murphy’s for some pizza. I was buying for everyone on the shift. I got pepperoni and a cinnamon wheel.

I cooked it up and shared with everyone. I helped to do the clean up as well. It was a pretty slow day overall. I got some projects finished that I had been working on. Including updating the phone list and speed dials. Plus I also got some Powerpoints completed for the upcoming meeting for the new facility.

Radar Class Day Two

Most of the day we were running on fire alarms. Outside of that I was working on a couple projects as assigned by the chief. Actually it was just updating the phonelist with the latest reserves.

Following that I went to Colfax for Radar class for the reserves. We are almost done. It has been a long road. We are down to about six classes. We are so close to getting out on the road, I am very excited.

At the end of the class we had our written test and now all we have left for tests is EVOC and the final.

Conclusion of Video Editing

I spent the majority of the day going through the video, tweaking things, editing the swear words, and more. It is a very slow going process. I suppose it would be quicker if I was more advanced in doing it. I am self-taught, so it is very slow going. I did figure out something today on Premiere. It is a way to take an image and have one color disappear to make the words display on the screen and the to do the opposite and make video only appear where the words are.

I am mostly done with the video. I need to re-do the photos. I think I am going to just make it a more simple video. Instead of changing photos on the beat of the music, which looks awesome when it works, but horrible when it doesn’t work, I am just going to have the photos change every half second or so. I am now just trying to figure out what music I would like to play.

I went to Rico’s and had beer with Davolt. He was in town this weekend. He is currently working in Vegas for his company from Montana. He said he will be there for at least a year. He invited me to come down in June for the World Series of Poker. I wouldn’t mind doing that assuming I had the money and time.

Video Editing

I went to the fire station today to talk with Reiber about Pat’s land I looked at yesterday. He pointed out a couple things to me about the property and what it is worth and some other information about living out in those parts.

Before I left we had some call-back. I stuck around for that. Then I went to Safeway to do some shopping. I got a lot of groceries. I took some ice cream back to the station because of my photo being in the newspaper for the Town Crier.

Later on I went home and started to work on my video. I went through a lot of the videos decided what clips I wanted to use. Then I started clip the videos and started to get them put together.

Close to Being an Engineer… Again

I spent some of the day doing some engine driving on Engine Thirty-Two. On top of that I got cleared to become an engineer without having to finish off the PL drive time first. That is something important to me. I was in a situation that I couldn’t get the drive time as easy as I would have liked because of my temp status. With the the recent development I can become an engineer on my own schedule and then work on the PL as I have been. This will stop holding me back.

I went to the county and had the coroner’s meeting to start with. But I didn’t get a chance to talk to Pete about the things I was hoping to speak to him about. Specifically about the fact that I want to be the next Whitman County Coroner. But I want to make sure things are still on track for that. I want to keep the actual conversation on the down low so I didn’t want other around for what we talked about.

Today’s class was radar. It is day one of three for radar. Today it was just background and lecture. Next time we will cover more on the radar itself, and then in two Saturday’s we will do some practical stuff.

Done with Mock Scenes

Today was the final day of Mock Scenes. We had traffic stops and high=risk traffic stops. I went first for the regular traffic stop. I forgot to use the spotlight, but overall I got a good grade. I was told that I was a bit quick to break the contact when I was being asked if I had ever made a mistake. I didn’t know what to say so I cut it off by saying “have a better day” and then walking away.

I did my high risk stop very last. It was nearly ten o’clock when we started. I knew I would be late getting back to the fire station today. But I did well on the high risk stop. I didn’t have any negative notes added about what I did during the stop.

Final 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. In the morning we were going to work on DV’s, FI’s, and building searches. In the afternoon the schedule was going to be traffic stops and high-risk stops.

As it turned out we never made it to the final two things. With the scenes lasting as long as they did and some of the fails that were happening we spent pretty much the whole day working on the first three items.

In my first scene I was getting dispatched to a domestic violence scene. I was called in as a backup officer. We started at Rosauers in Colfax. We drove down Mill street to the scene. It was at the Fire Station in Colfax. I got down the road to about one block from the scene. We parked our patrol cars there and walked in.

I thought about the staging of my patrol car. I have been going on police ride alongs for nearly seventeen years. One thing I have noticed is whenever the car is left somewhere typically it is left running, but the door is locked when they leave it. We were only given one key to the car so I couldn’t do that. We never went over this stuff in the class, so I left the car running, but wasn’t able to lock the door.

I went to the scene. We dealt with a husband and wife who had been in an argument. I dealt with the male half and found out that he had been slapped by his wife. I passed along that information to my partner. She asked the wife about the slap. When it was confirmed we arrested the wife. The husband was not too happy about that and started to get mad and started towards my partner. I told him that he needed to sit down and I would explain what was going on. I finally got him to sit down. He no longer was my “buddy” and didn’t want to talk to me.

We took the wife to the patrol car, gave the husband the domestic violence paperwork and went to clear. When I went to my patrol car it was not where I parked it. I knew right away that it was “stolen”. I was mad because I thought we nailed the scene and that I would now fail it. Cooper asked what I was looking for. But I knew he knew what was going on. I said the car. He asked if I locked it and I said no. He then said that wasn’t good. I then saw him get on the phone and I knew we was going to tell the grader for my scene to fail me. I was not a happy camper. I was hoping I would be wrong about that, but I didn’t have good feeling.

A little while later I went out to the field interview. The problem was that I still didn’t know if I passed or failed the DV. I know the scene I did well, it was just the issue with the patrol car.

On the field interview I watched the suspect from a distance for a bit to see what he was doing. The call was for a suspicious person in a parking lot doing something to a truck. While I was watching the truck hood was open and he was standing near the front of the truck. I made my approach and ran the license plate. We were not allowed to wear ear pieces, so I didn’t want the return to come back over the radio so the suspect could hear who the truck belonged to incase he was trying to steal it.

When the dispatcher came back I said hold the return unless there was criminal information I needed to know. There wasn’t so I contacted the suspect. I got him away from the truck where he had a hammer, pliers, and a couple other tools laying out on the truck. I asked him if he has any weapons. He said he had a knife and started to go for it. I told him to not touch the knife. I put his arms behind his back and got the knife and patted him down for other weapons. I found a screw driver in his pocket as well. I removed the weapons and then continued to contact him. At first he gave me some information that was not correct because I ran it and it came back no record found.

I talked to him some more and found out he gave me his first name and middle name backwards. I still didn’t know what the problem was with the situation. It came back that he was clear. I made my way closer to his truck making sure he kept away from the front of it because of the tools that could be used as weapons. I looked in the back and then in the windows of the truck. I couldn’t see anything that concerned me. When I got to the front I found a small gun. I took it and ran it to see if it was stolen. I then tried to see if he had a history of DV’s, which would make it so he could not possess the firearm. Nothing.

I was still lost. But then I thought about the ID again. I thought he could have been lying about it. I asked for physicals. It turned out it matched the suspect. So now I was really confused. I started to go down the road that he was near the jail with a gun. I was thinking that maybe it was something down that path, but that was also a dead end.

I though maybe I should get a tow truck to have it towed away because it was blocking a driveway, but that was a dumb move as soon as I made it. The tow truck driver was there and he wasn’t helping the situation. I got him to leave but he wanted me to sign his paperwork saying the sheriff’s office would pay for his response. Then the suspect said if I was not going to arrest him he was going to leave. I didn’t have anything to arrest him on. So I let him walk away.

I was standing in the parking lot holding onto a gun with a truck with the hood open and tools laying around trying to figure out what to do. The grader came up to me and said that the guy was now in a car on his way to Spokane. He then said the RO of the truck called in saying it was stolen. I was thinking that I totally blew it. He asked what I was going to do now. I said that I would be writing an arrest warrant. He concurred. Then he asked if I thought I passed. I said no. He walked through what I did and said that I really did the big things good. I was safe in my approach and dealing with the guy. I found the weapons. I got his name and confirmed his information. I got the bad guy away from the scene and stopped the problem from happening. I also knew who it was so I could get a warrant for him. He said that I did pass it. I felt good that I passed, but I felt so silly for not getting it while I was on scene with the bad guy.

I then talked to Cooper about the car being “stolen” from my DV scene. I explained what I did and he said why I was wrong. I went back to the staging room to wait for my next scene. When the grader from the DV scene came down he pulled me out to explain the grading.

He said we did excellent. He said that we passed everything and did it right, but due to my patrol car being “stolen” I failed. I was mad because my partner left her vehicle the same way and passed. I felt that if they checked one car they should check everyone. It wasn’t fair only to check some people on things and not others. So I tried to tell that to the grader, but he said I needed to talk to Cooper.

A little later Cooper came down and talked to me. I pleaded my case. He explained what I did wrong and why I deserved to be failed. I understood where he was coming from, but I still didn’t agree with the whole assessment for the failure.

Just before lunch he came back and called me out one more time. He said that he felt I understood my mistake and that if I wanted, instead of redoing the scene, he would pass me on the condition that I write a fifteen-hundred word paper on why it is important to always lock the door of the patrol cars. I took the paper for the pass. I felt a little better. I think that is a decent compromise.

I went to do a building search with Rich. We went to the area of the building and spoke to the RP. I was the lead on this call. We went to the building itself and I knocked and announced. After doing it twice we made entry. Rich went down an area between two old fi
re engines and a wall. It was so small I stayed near the door to offer cover from there. I had moved away from the doorway. I never cleared behind the door. When Rich came back he saw someone in the small space behind the door. He yelled at the guy. I turned around and I guess I turned white. I didn’t realize that someone was even there and he could have shot me easily. We got him arrested and taken outside.

I stayed near the door on the outside to watch Rich and to monitor the building as well as I could. I could hear some noise, so I looked inside and I saw the suspect getting off the top of a fire truck from across the building. I started to yell at him to come to me. He didn’t. I got down to see where he went but I couldn’t see him after he went to the far side of the patrol car at the far side of the building.

I had to decide whether I would wait for my back up to complete the search or to go for the bad guy before he got into a barricaded situation. I decided to go for the bad guy and I made my way to his position carefully, but when I got to a place where he was I would put myself in pure danger getting to him. I decided to stop there and retreat until my partner caught up. Once he was there we ordered the guy out of the room and arrested him. I searched him and found all the things hidden on him.

We went back into the building and did a complete search and found no one else. We radioed dispatch that we were clear and complete. That was my final scene and we passed it. So I was done, but we had to wait for others to finish their scenes as well as their re-dos. When it was done it was after six in the evening. We are going to have to do the traffic stuff on Tuesday.

We completed the day by doing two hundred push-ups because someone forgot to give some of the props back after a scene and that was the punishment for the class.

It was a long day and I headed home. I stopped at Cougar Country for a treat for myself.

NU Meeting with MB

I had to be in Seattle for the meeting with the company that is thinking about buying the NU part of the company. I was there for about four hours. I was there to help answer questions. It turned out my part of the four hour meeting lasted about fifteen total minutes. I went a long way to get there from Pullman for such a short need, but I think it showed well with the guys from the company that I am going to stay with. It shows that I am willing to do what I need to in order to show them that I am willing to do what I need to in order to make things work.

What was weird was to sit in the same room with the company that had been our biggest competitor over the last four and half years I was working for the company. So to have them sitting with us and talking with them felt really weird.

When the meeting was done I made a trip back to Colfax for the reserve training this evening. It was a long day for me.

Feeling Horrible at Times

Today started out like most other days. I woke up at the fire station. I got ready to start the day. I went to the dayroom and did the dishes, made coffee, and got the newspaper. I was watching some TV. While watching a TV show, Tom and Jerry, a young guy who has been on the department about a year and a half walked out and said “we are not watching cartoons.” He then took the changer from me and turned it to the news.

It just makes me so mad being in the situation where I have been on the fire department for nearly 10 years, but because I was a reserve it means nothing to anyone. So as far as they are concerned I am a lowly, lowly, worthless guy. I just want to say something but I have to play the game. But it is a game I think is stupid. It is like high school all over again. I like the job, but I don’t always like the side effects of having it. There are some ways I would rather be a reserve. At least there I meant something to the guys I worked with there. I actually felt like I sometimes had a voice and could speak up.

I have found some of the guys I work with are so anti-reserve it is sad to me. I have seen one guy who refused to shake the hand of any of the new reserves who were trying to introduce themselves. I think that is a bunch of crap. Most of the full-timers do not count reserves when talking about responses and number of firefighters who will be coming to the scene during a response. It makes me feel like they have zero appreciation for the reserves and the work they do. I make it a point to thank the reserves for their help after every call. I want them to know I appreciate them.

So I am a little bit in a bad mood to start off with, as can be seen above. Then I got to the Sheriff’s Office. They had decided to start the class at eight o’clock today instead of nine, but it was never totally understood by everyone. So many of the guys got there around eight-thirty. I got there at eight-thirty because of work. I lead the group to the basement of the jail. I then went to the report writing room to see if our instructor was there. He started to chew me out for being late. It was in front of some of the other cops and my classmates who were there at eight. I told him I worked until eight and I got there when I could. He then said that he knew. That also didn’t help how I was feeling.

We went to the basement and he torn into the others a little bit. When they left the room one guy said that someone should have found out for sure if we were supposed to be there at eight. Someone else said “the president”. I knew I should have. Everyone else knew I should have. I failed. That also made me feel worse.

I did my first scene and I worked with a guy who is a very nice guy, but he tends to be very naive. His performance in the scene wasn’t the greatest and it hindered us overall. We ended up doing what we needed to, in other words we made the arrest, but it took way too long and there were some officer safety issues that he had.

I went back into the room with everyone else and I was not happy. I sat there without talking for a little while. Finally I started to feel a little better and then moved along.

But when we went to lunch I had no desire to eat with everyone else. Jessie and I went to Rosauers. As it turned out everyone else had gone there. I put my cup of pop on a table by itself. One of the guys in the class said I could sit at the table with him and one other guy. I thought about it for a second and then I went and got my pop and joined them.

After lunch I went to do my next scene. I did okay, but there was some miscommunication about where we were. It was outside the jail, but they didn’t mean to have the scene to have a jail near it. I wasn’t told that. So in my mind we were near the jail and I acted as such. That caused me to go down a path they didn’t think we should be going down.

I then did my next scene and I didn’t do that great, but I didn’t get killed either so it could have gone worse.

While in the room after my two scene’s I was starting to get my partner from the first scene a hard time. I have been doing that since two Saturday’s ago. I have been unhappy with him since two weeks ago. He called me by my first name, which I had never introduced myself to him as. I have always been Scotty to him, but for some reason he didn’t call me that. It just set me off. So he has been going through my wrath.

It is very unfair of me. He is a very nice guy, and I shouldn’t be doing that. After today I felt pretty bad. I really was laying into him. I was jokingly, but not nicely jokingly, telling him he shouldn’t be a cop. That he should quit. That he shouldn’t be there. I was very horrible to him, really.

I think today’s bad mood really set me down a path with him I shouldn’t have gone. When we were done for the day I was thinking I shouldn’t have said what I did. It really made me look like a big jerk. I don’t think he knows for sure. I believe he thinks I am totally joking with him, but it wasn’t even close to being nice. I need to pull him aside and let him know it was not a nice thing and that I am sorry.

I just need to head to bed and get this day over with. I am working at the fire station again tomorrow and I hope things will be different.

This is my Rifle

This morning I went to the burn house from my time to go through the training. We were going inside the house to see fire behavior. We were also learning how to tell if the flames were overhead even if you could not see through the smoke.

After we were in the house we waited for our next lesson which was door ops. We were learning a different way to think about and make entry on a fire. It was interesting to listen to and try out.

After the training I went home. I was going to go to Colfax early and pick up my AR-Fifteen. I am excited about getting it. I bought it late last month. I called up the FFL dealer and make a plan to meet up with him. I got to his place and did the paperwork. I opened it up to inspect it. It is a nice looking gun. I can’t wait to get a chance to use it for target practice.

After getting the gun I went to get dinner and then to the SO for training. We are doing mock scenes. It was a lot of fun today. I was a little nervous, but the first one was a good ice breaker and I learned several things. I was able to apply those lessons to my other mock scenes.

On my last scenario I was dealing with someone who was not very compliant. I had to push him against the wall to cuff him. Then as I actually placed him under arrest he was pulling away from me. I had to put him against the car hood so he wouldn’t keep pulling away so I could keep control.

Overall the instructors thought I did a good job on my mock scenes. I made mistakes but I am learning from them. I was told I did the best search of any of the students on the last guy. The one thing I need to work on is being so trusting and willing to believe what people tell me. I need to be more along the lines of not believing anyone until they prove themselves as being honest instead of waiting to catch them in a lie.

Starting Mock Scenes

This afternoon I went to shoot hoops at the rec center with Connor. We played some two on two with a couple other guys. The game went down to the final point. We were tied. I had the game winning shot and it didn’t go down. The other guy shot one and they won.

I hurried home and got in my uniform for the academy. I picked up Melcher and Ross. We went to Colfax for training. Today was the first day of mock scenes. We did a traffic stop. I did well at that, but there are some things I need to work on when contacting the driver. Mainly the things I say when I am explaining the ticket.

Then during the building search I went too fast around the room and missed the guy I was looking for. He came up behind me and shot me. That meant I failed that mock scene. But right now we are in the learning stage. As the instructors said, now is the time to make mistakes.

Helping in the Jail

I went to work in the jail today before the class today because they were having an all staff meeting. So I ran control for about two hours while they were meeting. Then I went off to my reserve academy class.

Thompson Is Back

I got an E-mail from Parrish asking me “What Now?” He mentioned that there was room on A-Shift. It turned out that Thompson is back at work. I am working for him. But he is not on shiftwork yet. I figured if I was going to get pushed aside I would be told. The fact that I haven’t been told means that I will probably continue to work on shiftwork while Thompson goes through some training to get caught up to us.

The idea of going back to being a reserve is good and bad. I like the money that I am bring in right now. But I would love to work with my crew again. I was really looking forward to all the training I would get to do with everyone. I could always quit the full time thing and go back to being a reserve, but the problem there is I would probably burn the bridge of being a full-timer someday down the road.

I went to the bank to deposit a check. I was going to stop by the station and ask what was going on, but I decided against it. I went home only to find I got another check in the mail today. That always happens. the day I go to deposit, it seems like a new check comes in the mail. Not that I am complaining.

I went to class tonight with Ross and Melcher. We had the final test for the Crisis Intervention class. We also made up the ethics class that was missed last December due to the snow. We are supposed to do the pepper spray on Thursday. I don’t want to get sprayed again. I have had it happen. It doesn’t need to happen again. Everyone is joking about doing it, but I have already been trained by Whitman County. So I shouldn’t need to do it again.

Better Shot Left Handed

After going to bed last night around eleven o’clock PM. I was woken up at one-thirty in the morning for a call at the police station. That would be the official start of my day. I would not get back to bed due to calls and training and friends.

First I dealt with two calls at the police station tonight. After dealing with the first person, I more or less was the lead on patient care and I got the refusal. As I was leaving the PD, Khurt said that BKoe was in a foot pursuit. I am going to have to hear more about that when I can.

When we got back to the station we were not even backing into the bay when a call went out for a fire alarm at a frat. We got up there first and started command. I ended up running the call and worked as command. When we got back to the station the Captain said he would write the report on the call so I could do my EMS report.

Just like Chia and I talked about while we were getting dinner food yesterday, I had just got into bed. I put my head on the pillow. Then I readjusted the pillow for maximum comfort when the tones went off for another call. It was in our part of town so away we went. We transported on that one. Before we left the hospital we called back to the PD.

I helped do some of the patient care. The guy didn’t want to work with us, but I talked to him and got him to consent to working with us. During that time I found out BKoe got a small abrasion on his knee from the foot pursuit. I gave him a bandaid and an alcohol wipe to clean it up. We transported from the PD to the hospital.

After getting back to the station I was started to restock the ambulance. But I had to go to the bathroom pretty bad. It was a good thing I did because I got back into the stock room when the tones went off for another fire alarm on campus. I grabbed the stock supplies and got them on the ambulance.

The fire alarm was a bit of a cluster because we did not have the key to get into the room where the problem was. So we waited around for a while until we were finally cleared by fac-ops.

We got back to the station in time for me to wash the ambulance and change into my uniform for the academy. I went to Ace to meet up with Melcher to carpool down to Clarkston. Today we were going to qualify on our handguns. We spent the morning doing more practice.

After lunch we did the qualification. I shot number four in the class. I passed on my first time through. Two people didn’t so we had to give them a second chance. I did a qualification again, but I shot it left handed instead of right handed. After shooting it I found I scored higher left handed. Plus I held up both targets and showed them to people. I asked what target overall was better. I didn’t tell people which one was which until they said what one was better. It turned out everyone thought my left handed target was better. One of the instructors said I should think about getting a left handed holster and practice drawing from it so I can switch over to the left handed holster. I think I should do that. I feel most natural when I hold the gun left handed.

After we qualified we did some other shooting practice with different scenarios. One included holding onto the slide and frame of the gun while shooting it. That didn’t seem like a good idea because I figured we would hurt our hands. But it doesn’t do the pain that I thought it would. It does cause some very minor pain, but for the purpose we do it for, it is worth the pain.

After the shooting was over I got home and I wasn’t all that tired. They did a career callback to the fire station. I went down on it and got some overtime. While I was there I got a message about several people meeting up to celebrate the two D-Twelve guys passing their First Responder test. I said when they head to the Zuu to call me. I was tired by that time because I had been up for nearly thirty-four hours with only one and a half hours of sleep.

But I have a rule that friends are important and when you have a chance to hang out with them you should. I know that if I want to keep getting invited to things I need to show up. If I never show up to anything people will stop sending invitations. I went to the Zuu and spent a couple hours up there. I had some pop and water. I also sang a song with Larry. It was a good time over all. I finally went home around eleven o’clock pm to go to bed.

Gun Not So Clean

At the class this evening all guns were checked for being clean. I had cleaned my gun, but it was still a little dirty and it was discovered. I was made to do twenty-five push ups. That sucked. I was mad that it was dirty. The class got out a little early today. We talked about suicide and para-suicide. Then we went over the test.

Today was Peter’s birthday. It always brings me up to a dilemma. I have a situation that has been going on for years. I am too much of a wuss to actually ask Peter point-blank what happened.

I met Peter when he was a freshman at WSU. We became friends then best friends. We were always together. Going to football games, playing basketball, watching TV, playing on the computer, talking politics, and even doing the radio show together. I actually came out to him towards the end of the school year. That was tough because he was a Southern Baptist and very conservative. But he said he didn’t care and had actually figured out I was gay long before I told him. He said “you don’t become as good of friends as we are without figuring out that kind of stuff.”

The following school year things started out okay, but then one day he stopped calling, responding to e-mails and voice mails. He just stopped communicating with me. Once in a blue moon I would get a hold of him, but he would blow me off. That went on for a long time. I didn’t know what was going on and I was very sad about it.

To this day I still don’t know what happened. Why he did that to me. Since that time we have hung out more after he moved to Bellevue. It is sort of like it never happened, but I still am very self conscious about it when I am around him. I have a hard time looking him in the eye. I need to know why he did it. During his twenty-one run several years ago he invited me out on it. After the end of the night he was very drunk and he said that he was sorry for being such an “asshole” to me. I wanted to ask him more at that time, but I never did.

I wished him a happy birthday and he said that when I am in town next time we need to hang out. He said it has been too long since we last hung out. I want to get with him, but I have to get the courage to ask him what happened. Why he just stopped being my friend and dropped me like a dirty whore.

Poker Party

It was decided at work today that I would go to Zeppoz this evening with Blake and Young. I am looking forward to that. When I got home I was tired. I went to bed and fell asleep for about two hours. It was a nice nap.

I got ahold of Jessie. Her, Ross, and I got together to watch some video’s from the defensive tactics day. We worked on that until around four o’clock. I also got some of my guns cleaned. Brandon came home and suggested a poker night tonight. Ross said he would come over. I was planning on contacting others.

I went to Zeppoz and met up with Young and Blake. We played Spanish Twenty-One. I was winning at that pretty good. Then I played in the tournament they have. I didn’t do to hot there. But I wasn’t planning on going well. I wanted to just screw around in it. I talked with Loren for a while. I invited him to come over and play cards.

I was at Zeppoz until a little after nine o’clock. Then I went back home and got my house ready for the poker game. Before long people started to show up. Weese, Ross, Loren, Blake, BKoe, and Kevin all played. It was a great time. We played a dealers choice game. We ended the night around four in the morning. By then it was Loren, BKoe, and me.

Qualified… For Now

Started this morning at fifteen of five o’clock in the morning due to an EMS call. Due to the fact we transported I didn’t get a chance to go back to sleep. I knew I would be tired during training today because I had only slept for about three hours.

I picked up Ross and Melcher at Ace and we headed down to the shooting range in Clarkston. Today is the first day we are doing any shooting. We started with some shorter distances. My very first shot was at five yards. I hit the small “X” in the middle of the target. I thought I should call it a day because it couldn’t get better than that. But I still had to keep shooting.

As the day went along the targets were moved back more and more. Finally ended up at twenty-five yards. My first ten shots at twenty-five yards were bad. I was all over the place only hitting the target four times. Jimmy worked with me and had me work on my trigger pull. That made a big difference.

We spent some time doing some weak-handed shooting. I was doing very well left handed leaving a decent grouping at seven yards.

The last thing we did was shoot a practice qualification round. It involved fifty round at distances between three and twenty-five yards. I was doing really well. I ended up shooting the third best in the class. I got four hundred and six points out of five hundred. That was good.

When we were done shooting we headed home. I was tired but I stayed up for a while watching some TV to include COPS. I talked to Ryan for a while on the phone. He was in Seattle and had seen Russell. He heard about the boyfriend. But I told him the whole story to include the fact we are not together anymore.

Almost Threw Up

It was a pretty busy day starting out with EMS rounds at the hospital. It was packed there and I had a hard time finding parking. The rounds went pretty fast. Only about an hour. We went over several cases and had a topic of discussion. It was pretty much a standard EMS rounds.

I hit lunch and then went back to the station for the Table Top exercise. We had a building that was on fire and as things went along we needed to work on setting up command. It was a good training.

After that was done I went home and started to get ready for the academy. Tonight the Sheriff came and we went on a run. I was hurting more than normal during the run. I don’t know if it was the air or what, but I felt like I was going to throw up at the end of the run. I don’t normally feel like that. I was sweating a lot after it was done as well.

First Duty of Class President

I took the Durango to Dodge to get the wind noise looked at. It appears that I will need to get some new weather-striping. While I was waiting I wrote a letter to Grandma Anderson. I went to the post office to send that off. Then it was to the bank, Safeway for fuel, Schucks for windshield wiper fluid, and the fire station to turn in my receipt for the meal from yesterday’s transfer.

I got home only to go back to the fire station to get some OT for call back. They had multiple calls going back-to-back. I got a good number of things done.

I talked to Nick a little about softball to see what his plans where. I was being told he was planning on doing a team on his own. That is not the case, or so it appears to me. So I will either be playing with him or McCoy. This is so much more complicated than in years past. A lot of it is because it seems like JStew seems to be telling people things that were not totally correct. Then assumptions were made from those. We are getting to the point of fixing that stuff though. At least I am trying.

I picked up Melcher and Larson to head to Colfax for class. We are doing Crisis Intervention for the next several classes. Today is the first day outside of firearms training where we are all wearing our belts.

I was asked my McNannay to work on getting everybody’s money. Several people owe money from the duty belts that were purchased. It is now my job to work on getting everyone to pay. I got an E-mail from him detailing what everyone owes.

Mr. President

This morning the first thing we did in class was vote for the class 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. You can just call me Mr. President.

When I got home I contacted Dan. He was taking me to the WSU Cougar Basketball game. The cougs were playing against Stanford. I spent some time talking with KStew about softball. I also spent some time talking with the guys from the FD. Then I made my way to my seat.

The Cougs kept the game close the whole way. Then as the game was going down the stretch we were in a battle back and forth for the lead. Finally Thompson made a dunk over one of the Stanford players. That caused the whole team and crowd to go nuts. That seemed to be the big turning point. It was at that point the Cougs seemed to really know that it was our game. The Cougs went on to win. It was the first Pac-Ten win.

Armed

At class today we were issued our sidearms. We all got Glock Model Twenty-Two forty calibre pistols. We covered all the things about the guy, the safety of it. We spent time practicing with it. Doing some dry fire as well as practicing the draws of the gun.

Later I updated my facebook status to say “Scotty is armed, but not dangerous, because he is such a nice guy… and anyone who disagrees will get shot.”

Christmas Break is Over

Today I was pounding through the final testcases for the NU/LP interface. Those are nearly done. While doing that we got a tone for all available reserves and career to help with a snow detail. It turns out we had to clear all the snow from the roof at station thirty-one. There was seriously tons of snow and water on the roof in all. We shoveled for hours. It was back breaking labor.

I left around four to go home and get ready for the academy. I did some studying of my notes from the previous classes. Ross and Melcher carpooled with me to class. It was a short class started an hour late and ending an hour early.

When I got home I did the final testcases and have them ready to get sent off tomorrow. I am excited to have all this completed.

Yearly Jail Duties

I went to the jail to work today. I did my normal end of the year things like making the new calendar that records what unit received their late-night request for the week. I also updated the photoboard with the Ought-Nine year.

I helped on some rounds and ran the doors as well. I had my Colfax fire pager with me but I wasn’t able to make the call they had. IT was a pretty tame day in the jail overall.

A Review of Ought-Eight

Jan – Body for Life – While I was researching that [number of calories in a Big Mac] I hit upon (I should say hit BACK upon) the Body for Life site. I am going to give their twelve week program a try that combines weight training, cardio, and nutrition into a program that lasts twelve week. That is eighty-four days.

Feb – NU Sold to MH – Today was the day I was going to get fired from NU. But it was one where I was told I would be fired. It was more of a formality than anything. They had to “terminate” everyone to close out the books. Then start the new company. I was hired back on.

Mar – Truck Traded for a Durango – I test drove two of the Durangos. One was a Ought-Seven and one was an Ought-Three. I like the color and seats of the Ought-Three. Plus the cab reminded my of the look and feel of the old Dakota. But the Ought-Seven was nicer over all, had many less miles and some other things I just couldn’t pass up. Plus it wasn’t a ton more than the older Durango.

Apr – Last Radio Show… Ever – This last semester or two the show has suffered from my lack of time preparing for the topics, getting guests, and whatnot. I don’t have the fire in my gut like I did. I just don’t have things to talk about like I did at one time. … I decided it was time to pull the plug on the show.

May – Multiple Softball Tournaments – Brandon came to the camp site and I got to see him for the first time a while. He got his uniform from Kelly and went to put it on. The team went to do some warm up hitting. I didn’t do so hot there. Brandon was crushing the ball as normal for him.

Jun – Snow and Fire in June – I opened the door and saw snow. I thought to myself “Am I more shocked over the fire or the snow?”. Then I looked up and saw heavy brown smoke coming from the south-east area behind my house. On the way to the station the guys leaving Station Two quickly called or a second alarm. I drove by the scene and saw the whole front of the building involved in fire.

Jul – Pullman Fire Temp Full-Time – I went to Heston’s office and said I that I am going to take it. He shook my hand and we scheduled my first day to be Monday of next week. I am going to only have three more shifts as a reserve. I am sad about that. I am going to miss working with those guys. I am now in a little bit of a haze as this is a big event in my life and I have a lot to think about now.

Aug – Playing in Nationals for Softball – We didn’t score enough runs and lost the game ending our hopes at the Western ASA D-league Nationals. It was fun to be here and I have my t-shirt to show for it.

Sep – Passed my Physical Test for Sheriff’s Reserves – I crossed the finish line in thirteen minutes and fifty-eight seconds. That was so huge. I passed the test. It felt great. I finally did it. We had some rest, then we had to run a sprint. That was seventy-one seconds for three-hundred and thirty yards. I knew I could do that without a problem.

Oct – I am a Sheriff’s Reserve – The first day of class I got a chance to meet up with some of the other students. We had the Sheriff tell us about ethics and what he expects from us. It was mainly a day of introductions and laying some of the groundwork of the academy. I am excited for the academy to get over with so I don’t have to worry about getting days off from work and then I can go out on the road and work on becoming First-Class solo patrol.

Nov – Met a Man – When the game was done I met up with Gunnar. We have been e-mailing back and forth the last two days and decided that we wanted to watch the movie Scream. So he called me up. We met at Starbucks. We sat there talking for a while. He is working on a project and he told me a little about what he is doing.

Dec – Treating Myself Well – I don’t usually splurge in the way I did over the last week. I have spent thousands of dollars on a new Tempurpeadic Rhapsody bed, a fifty-eight inch plasma TV, a new TV stand, and a new Sprint Touch Pro cell phone.

Looking back over the year some months I had a hard time picking out one thing because several things could have been listed as big events for me. But if I had to pick out three major things from the year I would say being a Pullman Fire Temp, a Sheriff’s Reserve, and making it to Nationals in Softball were the real big events.

Intriguing Coroner’s Case

This mornings plan was to focus only on my NU work. I wanted to go to Safeway and buy some pop. They were having a great sale. I picked up twenty-twelve packs. Then I went to my house.

I was put on notice that there could be a coroner’s case in Palouse. As it turned out there was. I went up with Anna. It turned into an interesting case. The information I was getting from the police who interviewed neighbors was not adding up to what I was seeing. So I started to put my sleuth hat on and went to work.

I was able to come up with some information that started to point to a time of death that was more inline with the condition of the body. It was pretty interesting. I had to dig around a lot of different sources in order to discover what I needed. It also helped I have my computer skills. I was able to use those in order to come up with a possible date of death.

That case took us several hours to complete. Then I had enough time to rush back to my place and get changed for my reserve class. The class itself got out early.

I was going to meet up with Clark, A. Wilcox, and the other guys from the fire department but I ended up doing some call back first. I was told I would get a message if they left Pete’s. But when I got there no one else was there. I went home and sent a text message to A. Wilcox and Clark. Clark called me back saying they went to Mike’s because they got cut off at Pete’s. I told them that I was already home. I was pretty upset that they left me hanging.

I have always had the feeling that they really isn’t anything more than a slight working relationship. Even at that, if it wasn’t for the fact that I was a crew leader of theirs they would probably not talk to me at all. Since leaving the reserves I never hear from them. Many times when we are around each other during different functions or calls I pretty much have to initiate anything. This kind of stuff just proves what I was thinking all along.

Doing the Run

After getting off work from the fire department I was very tired. We ran calls all night long. I got about an hour of sleep before it was time to get up and do the morning chores.

Later on I got some more sleep before we went out to do with the run with Ross. I met up with the other guys at the Bubble on campus. We did the run. I was a little sore in the groin section, but it wasn’t that bad. When it was done Ross passed and we all went to My Office to celebrate. Ross bought everyone some food and beverages. It was nice to sit around and hang out with everyone.

After the class I went to my house and worked on the stuff for NU. I am getting close to being done!

IC on Second Fatal Wreck

I was down in Colfax for my reserve class. I was sitting in Ross’ truck waiting for class to start. I was reading my notes for the test we had coming up. A phone call came in. I looked and saw it was Jessie. I was going to give her a hard time when I answered it because I figured she was running late. But I didn’t.

She said that someone spun out in front of her, she T-Boned them. She said to get the ambulance and rescue and get up there now. I ran to Colfax fire. I jumped in the first out ambulance and we went to the scene.

It wasn’t long after we were en route that we were getting updates. I wasn’t clear whether we had no injuries with all the patients, or one non-injured with others being injured. But I did get notified that there was one death. I started to feel really horrible for Jessie.

When we got to the scene I set up command and made sure our resources were coming. I had two people, including myself, check on the deceased to make sure. We got everyone transported and then I went back to Colfax so I could get to class.

We had Anderson doing the teaching. The class went by fast. We got through everything shortly after the two o’clock hour. So we got out of class early.

I got back to Pullman and we were busy there. I got on an ambulance and went to the hospital so Blake could finish one of his reports. But then we started to get more calls. It was a very busy day.

We had a very good dinner together. We ran calls together. Blake bought everyone a Blizzard from Dairy Queen. It was a stressful and long day.

Communication

Today’s class for the reserves was about reports and communication skills. It was sort of slow and dry material.

It is funny that this class is on communication and I am writing one of my shortest entries ever.

Criminal Procedures

I went to the store this morning to get some donuts for the class. I also bought some of the fire department. I saw Malakowski at Dissmores. He ended up buying the donuts for the class. I dropped off the donuts at the fire station and got in with Ross to go the class.

The class was good today, but towards the end I was starting to get really tired. I was dragging for the last couple hours of the class.

After the class was done I got back to the station and I went to get some dinner with Blake. We were just getting back when I heard BKoe say he was arresting the “female half”. Within seconds another cop was calling for an ambulance. After getting there I gave BKoe a hard time about being a bully.

I had one more call around two in the morning. It was a night without a lot of sleep.

No Rest!

Started this morning hitting the floor running. I was doing rig checks and other related work around the fire station. I had some time to sit at lunch and then it was off to the races with training then a call then more training.

I got back to the station in time to go to training for the SO. We ended up having to do two-hundred-and-twenty-five push-ups because people didn’t know how to spell the Sheriff’s last name.

When class was done I got to the station grabbed some dinner and did the dishes that needed to be done. I just sat down to do some stuff on the computer when another call came in. Following that call we had another. I finally was able to get to bed around two in the morning. It was just a crazy busy day.

Search Training

I spent a portion of the day yesterday looking up information to find out a way to prove to the city I should be making holiday pay. From what it looks like I am being told I don’t fall under the contract with the fire union at all because I am a temp. But there are provisions they are going by. So either I do fall under the holiday pay provision of the contract, or I will argue that I should be going by the city’s policy and procedure manual which says a work week is forty hours.

If that is the case then I am going to argue the city owes me lots of overtime hours for those weeks when I worked more than forty hours in a week. That would actually make me earn a lot more money over all. I think I have a pretty strong case with this one. I have to be careful, however, because I don’t want to this to screw me in the long run.

I had my reserve training tonight. We spent time doing searches of people. I was doing okay. I missed a couple items on the searches, but I am trying to learn a new way to search because what we learn to do on the street is a lot different than we do in the jail. I am going to have to learn a whole new technique.

Late Night Transfer

It was a quiet day, but busy night. We did some training up at the training house. We were practicing pulling people out of a hole from the basement to the first floor. This training went along very well.

After training I started to get ready for heading to Colfax for training. I helped to get some of the dinner items ready before meeting up with Ross and heading off to Colfax. We did more on patrol procedures. It was a good class. Cooper is doing a good job.

Following that I got back home. The guys were out on a call. I had some dinner before they got back. But before long they were back and I would be on my way to Spokane for an emergency transfer. That made it so I would be up for a fair amount of the night. We finally got back and in bed around three in the morning.

The Ladders Were Switched

This afternoon I went to the fire department and did the walk-throughs of a couple buildings around campus. As we were going from building to building I got a chance to drive the PL. I need to get ten hours of drive time. I was able to knock out another half-hour of it. It was fun to get a chance to drive it.

After that training I went to Colfax and Tim was working. I asked him what rigs had a twenty-four foot ladder. He said only the ladder truck. I asked if we could pull it out. He asked why. I wouldn’t tell him, but I said it would be worth it.

When we got it out, I said that we were looking for a one-inch long piece of black tape. Sure enough it was on there. The twenty-four footer from our PL and Colfax’s ladder truck got mixed up sometime last year during the Whitman County fire academy. We had a good laugh about that.

I went to the reserve training afterwards. Cooper is teaching now. We are learning patrol procedures. This is where things start to get more fun. More hands on.

A Quiet Day at Colfax Fire

I spent most of the day at the fire station in Colfax, but as is the case when I am around, we didn’t have any calls come in. So I spent most of the time talking with Tim and waiting for my reserve training to start.

I also talked with Bill from the PD. We were talking guns and he offered his up for sale. I asked how much. Sounds like I will be the proud owner of a new gun. It will be the first time I have bought a new one in about a decade. It is a forty-five. If it fits in my holster, I may see if I can carry it instead of a forty for being a reserve.

The class was good. Waltz has been doing a great job with the teaching. I think most of the people in the class have been happy with his teaching style.