A Day at the Science Center

Staying up late is always a good idea when you have to get up early. Today I am going to the Palouse Discovery Science Center with the fire department to help with show off the PL. I got to the station around eight-thirty like I was supposed to. I hung out there for a bit until we loaded the PL with stuff to give away and went to the science center.

Once we got there we set up the equipment and got ready for all the people to stop by. It is a free family day. There were a lot of young kids coming through. We showed them around the PL and answered questions.

The cops were close to us and set up a pitching backstop and radared people throwing the ball. I was able to get it up to sixty miles an hour. Sometimes it would be less, so I would throw harder and I would get one mile an hour more. I was complaining because it seemed I threw hard and got one speed. I threw a lot harder and only got one mile an hour more.

We were there until four in the afternoon. It was really hot and uncomfortable. Following that I helped to get everything taken down and got the PL back in service. I decided to head to Colfax for the night. I went to the fire station and hung out with Rick who was working. I was there until close to ten in the evening. Then I went home and watched some TV before going to sleep.

Finishing my Pump Time

I started the mid-afternoon off by helping Keith move from Orton to his new apartment. We loaded a bunch of stuff in his rig and drove to his apartment. While we were moving the stuff upstairs we were getting close to being on duty. I left to get my stuff on then we went to the Deuce.

I contacted Dearth about finishing my pump time on the engine so I can take my test to be an engineer. However, before we made it to the tower we got a call. It only took about an hour then we went to the tower. We went with the new guys to pull lines and spray water around. We were there for about an hour.

Following our time at the tower Keith and I went to get something to eat from Pizza Hut. We were planning on playing some card this evening when we were done working. We went to his apartment where some of his friends showed up. We had the pizza then Keith and I got called out on another call. It was a fire alarm. It was at the Nez Perce apartments, the same building that had a fire a few weeks ago.

After that call was complete Keith and I went to play some cards at Mike’s place. We were there until a little after two in the morning when we got a call for a small box on fire. I left up about ten bucks. Keith had won a quarter.

We did not roll on the small box on fire. James got on the radio and said the fire was stomped out and that all units were clear.

Winning in the Eighth Inning

I have been pounding out bugs at work like crazy lately. It has been really nice to get things off my plate and completed. Chris asked if Jon would like to come back to Netupdate. I told him I did not know. That Jon would require a lot of money. After talking to Jon, I don’t think there is any way Netupdate can compete with what Jon wants.

We had our final regular season softball game today. Only ten guys showed up, but that was all we needed. It was looking bad early on. We could not get a rally going and ChipmanTaylor was scoring runs. They were up by eight when we finally decided to get something going. We scored more and more runs to finally tie it up in the bottom of the seventh inning with a two out homerun by Eric. I went to the plate having had three solid contacts that should have gone in for hits, but the outfielders made great catches to get me out. The ball just was not dropping for me today. That actually dropped me from one of the highest batting averages on the team to about sixth of seventh over all. But I was still hitting near six-hundred.

We went to the eighth inning against them and managed to get a guy on third and first with two outs. Ben hit the game winning single down the left field line. He was on fire today getting four hits in five at bats.

After the game we had jersey night. We started at My Office where we had a couple of pitchers of beer and food. Our next stop was ValHalla. We were there until closing time. We had some more beer and some rounds of shots. About four rounds total. It was a good night to hang out with the team.

Over Critical

Something I feel like Chuck is over-critical in things he says or does as a crew leader. It feels like if you don’t do something exactly how he does it he was admonish your decision even if there is no real difference in the outcome of the action. In some cases it is more like being a micro-manager. He directs people who have been doing this job successfully for years to do things different or to do it his way. That is my rant for the day.

Case in point on the way to a call today we had to get to Colorado. The quickest route to where we were going was Monroe to Ruby to Colorado. Just after I turn on to Colorado he says “How come you went that way?” So rather than focusing on driving, parking, and getting into the scene, I am being questioned about my choice of roads. I didn’t know what he meant. I was thinking he thought I should use Howard and Garfield street to get there.

So after the call is done I ask him what he meant. He thought I should have taken Monroe to Colorado because Ruby is not a “major” road. I sort of chuckle inside because neither is Monroe. I said because Ruby was shorter than going all the way to Colorado from Monroe.

He concern was that if school was in session and it was a weekend there could have been extra foot traffic on Ruby. I then added I wasn’t going code and there were no issues with the way I went. But the bottom line is that kind of thing could have been discussed after the call, not while we are pulling up on the scene.

Now, I am really done with the rant.

I went to Mike’s today and we played some cards. We only got to play for a while before I got a call for a fire alarm, the one on Colorado that I spoke about above. Following the call I decided to go to the office, because I knew the poker game broke up when I left.

I was on the computer looking stuff up for a while. But it was getting late and I decided to go to bed. I wasn’t totally asleep when we got called out to another fire alarm. That one we went to the scene and just sat there for a while until we were cleared. That was about all that went on for calls. We did have the medical call around seven in the evening. But that really did not turn out to be much for me other than driving.

Second Place at Best

After the softball game tonight where we lost to Zeppoz we had to hope for Palouse Tavern to lose both games tonight. That would put us a half game back. Then with a victory on Thursday we would be tied for first place. When the head-to-head record was accounted for, we would be in first place. However, Palouse Tavern lost only one game so we are now playing to stay in second place.

We did not have a good game. Only nine guys showed up for this A-League game and that sucked. In the game Matt got hit hard in the chest with a hot shot up the right side. He got a big bruise and got the wind knocked out of him. Later in the evening Joe saw him and told him he had to go see the doctor.

Russell and I were on the phone for a while and we were talking about Brian’s possible move over here. I was telling Russell my issues with it. I decided to go see Matt at work. Russell said he would come along. We went to Zeppoz, but Matt was working at Pete’s. So I went to Pete’s and he already went to the doctor.

I went to the hospital and Russell, Joe, and I talked for a couple minutes. Joe was brought back to the ER area to help Matt get checked out. We all went back to Pete’s for an hour. While there Brian called. He had been out at the bar and had some to drink. A two in the morning call is not something I want when the person on the other end is drunk and repeating the same conversation we had just a few days prior. I was getting very annoyed with him. It is that kind of thing that makes me really worried about having him come over here.

He seems to have drama and more drama. Nothing works for him and everyone has to do things for him to make things work. It is like he is helpless.

Hose Load Training

Today our training was to learn about the hose loads on all the rigs. We are standardizing the loads so we can deploy them and reload them no matter what rig you’re on. It was a good training as we have new people on the department and some of them have never seen some of our loads before.

I was there for about an hour when a call came in for someone who fell. We stayed at training and only the ambulance went. The ambulance crew called for us to help the patient get to the ambulance.

After the call we went to station one. Chuck spent time talking to Gollnick about a car that Chuck is looking for. Tyson, VanNess and I spent time talking about PARD and WalMart. We were waiting for Chuck for a while. Finally when he was done we did some drive time with Tyson, but because it was so late we only drove for a half-hour. On the way back Chuck and I got into a discussion about issues with the union and the reserves. I talked to him about the fact that there are certain things the union does in the name of job protection that I think is not in the best interest of the city.

My biggest issue is that there are EMT’s on the department who could respond on an ambulance when things go sour, but instead they would rather ask for an ambulance in another state to come help. They absolutely refuse to allow reserves to work an ambulance. At what point do the needs of the city and people who need help outweigh the needs of the union?

I am not sure how the citizens would feel about the whole situation, but I know if any of the reserves ever tried to make this a big issue, they could pretty much say goodbye to their career as a reserve firefighter.

I personally don’t have any big issues with the union. I just wish we could be more of one team rather than two teams. Afterall I believe we are here to serve the community and help people who need help. Chuck tried to explain that the reserves are not held to a high standard like the career firefighters are. He said that reserves are not professional like the career guys. It is a huge difference that he know because he has worked on both sides.

So granting him the point and assuming that he correct about that we can do two things, we can make the reserves held to a higher standard or we can continue to allow them to be substandard in the view of the career staff.

It was interesting I was talking with the new paramedic who was a volunteer for many years. He claimed that he doesn’t have a problem with the volunteers and/or reserves. He said he does not forget where he came from. I told him that I would like to ask him that in a year to see if he has changed his mind on that.

I have seen reserve after reserve become career and they all seem to forget what it meant to be a reserve. They would all love to see the reserve program go away. I question how they can feel that way. Chuck I would argue is the same way. He is a self-hating reserve. He has been career and even since coming back to being a reserve he doesn’t seem to identify with us as much. There have been a few times, but more often than not I feel like he would rather not be one of us.

When I am with Colfax Fire I have run EMS calls from start to finish. I have done the reports, and worked with patients. I am not incompetent, but it seems that while I am a reserve I am not good enough to be an EMT. But I don’t think it is necessarily that I am not good enough. The argument is that if the city feels that they can hire someone at ten bucks an hour to do the work of a career firefighter then the city will opt to hire more reserves and not hire career guys.

I would argue that the city will hire the number of career guys necessary to run the fire department and account for the public safety of the people within the city, and then augment those number with reserves who work part-time and can help with things get busy. Who can be extra manpower who can run the third ambulance when we already have two running calls. I don’t think that would be too far fetched.

When the time comes and the city grows enough that we really need to staff three ambulances full time, then hire more career firefighters and the reserves can be the ones who man the fourth ambulance, etc. But the career firefighters believe that once you allow a reserve to run an ambulance that they city will never hire another career guy.

A day on the River

I finally get to go out on the boat. I am worried about it starting up. But I invited Russell and Keith to come out with me. I first dropped off the laptop to the customer then I went to Safeway. We got some fuel and food then headed out. The boat at first did not turn over at all. I thought even though the battery was charged that it did not have enough juice. Then it finally started to turn over. It started quickly. We headed out and drove around for a while. We got Keith on the tube. He did really well on it. He left me throw him around a fair amount.

We went to Granite Point and Russell jumped off the cliffs a couple times. We cruised around a lot and just enjoyed the sun. The sun also caused me a pretty good sunburn on my forehead.

We left the river around five in the afternoon. I went to Dairy Queen for some dinner and ate it at the office. I went to my apartment and picked up some of my things to stay the night in Colfax. I watched TV for about an hour when I fell asleep on the couch. I was darn tired. I was woken up around one in the morning by a call from Brian. I did not answer it because I was so tired. I did get up and move to the bedroom, however.

Phil’s Retirement

I started the day by working on the laptop some more and not getting anything completed on it. It is getting BSOD’s all the time when trying to boot into Windows XP or when trying to reinstall Windows XP. However I can install older Windows on there just fine. I am not sure of the problem. I would like to write zeros to the drive, but the stuff I have to do it consists of bootable floppies and she does not have a floppy on the laptop. Finally I ran out of things to do and I called to let her know that I failed with the equipment I have to do it.

I went to the senior center at city hall for Phil’s retirement for the fire department. He has been with us since nineteen-seventy. Some former firefighters showed up to bit Phil farewell. I took a bunch of photos and I got some of them ready for the website. He got a proclamation from Mayor Johnson declaring Phil Anderson Day in Pullman.

I was meeting up with a different Phil to help him with his wireless network in his house. I got it fixed and working. He and his wife are very happy to have it going. Then Phil and I went to the playfields for some batting practice and homerun derby. I did not hit any out. Eric however during the derby got eleven out of fifteen out. He is a hitting machine.

Just as I was done with that I played some poker over at Mike’s. We were having the tournament he wanted to do. It lasted nearly six hours and we started after eight o’clock pm. I ended up leaving in forth place. I went to get some pizza’s from Pizza Hut. I brought them back and we ate pizza and played cards. When the tournament was done we played a cash game. We were there for many more hours. Andy and I were the last ones playing. I kept planning on stopping, but I just kept going.

It was after five in the morning when we got done. I went to Colfax and got my boat ready to go. I went back to Pullman and finally got to bed around eight in the morning. We are going to meet at eleven in the morning to go boating.

Laptop Troubles

Yesterday while playing cards Craig called up and told me about problems with the laptop computer he was working on. It was not something he had been able to fix so far. He worked on it for a while without fixing it. I told him to bring it to me and I would work on it. I spent most of the day, evening, and night working on it off and on as I would get my other work or other things done.

We had our dev meeting today and I was able to show my stuff is getting completed. The dev meeting went well and it looks like we are moving ahead on our stuff. I also sent Chris an e-mail to let him know that if we move up the date of our release of our stuff to let me know ASAP so I could change my days over there. I told him that so I could be there for code complete and code release. He said that he would prefer that I would be there the week of code complete, because code release is not as important as everything is done and there is not a lot of work to do there.

I am sort of wondering what it will be like when we switch over to OP six.oh. I think I will work out a full month over there, or close to it so I can get a lot of time there and make sure I know exactly what I am doing and make sure that there is no question that I can do the work.

Brian called up and we talked for about an hour and a half in the evening about him coming over here and living with me. He said he talked to someone who lived here while going to WSU and that person said the Pullman/Moscow area has a good music scene. After working on the laptop until about three in the morning I gave up on it for the night and went home.

Playing and Winning at Poker

Spending the day working is never much fun, but today was not too bad. I got an issue resolved with the reports. I really hate the reporting system we built however long ago. It seems overly complicated for what it does. It took me a while to figure it out and get it going. But I did finally manage to figure something out and got it checked in.

I was thinking about making my way to Colfax tonight, but ended up not going. I got the phone call from Mike about cards. It would start at eight in the evening. I made my way over there and picked a chair. I was the first one to show up.

I won a few hands early one. I was up a fair amount of money when Mike called an all-in bet. He had more than seventeen bucks. The pot was reasonable sized as well. I thought about it for a tiny bit. I had a pair of kings (because of the board) and I was one card from the second nut flush. I called the all-in. Mike showed pocket queens. I was in the lead, and ended up winning the hand on the kings.

I ended the night up about thirty-five bucks. We stopped playing a little after midnight. I went to the fire station to make sure I could copy my pictures to the O-drive. That worked. I then headed home to go to bed.

Keith’s Drive Time

Chuck and I spent a couple hours going over equipment in Rescue including the Lucas tools, powerunits, and generators. We talked about how to start them, and operate them. We showed them how to use the lights on Rescue.

Keith needed his drive time in Rescue as well. We had him drive for a couple hours. We took him all over the city. He was doing really well. After driving, Keith and I went to Cougar Country for dinner. We left a little after eleven o’clock PM. Within about ten minutes we got a call for someone who needed help getting up.

It was a non-transport call. Following that on the way back we heard we were getting dispatched to a possible suicide attempt. We were within one block from it. We even beat the cops by a minute. We talked to the RP when the police showed up. They took over and made entry.

When they were done we were invited inside. I started by talking to the man. He was just fine. It was pretty much unfounded. I directed Keith to get some vitals on the guy. I looked at his med bottles. Then I handed him over to Sugden. We left without incident.

That was about it for the night. It was quiet for the rest of it and I made my way to bed.

Happy 230th America!

One of my favorite holidays, today is the Fourth of July. But unlike years past this did not seem like it was. The build-up did not seem to be there. It just sort of happened.

I started out the day with a call out to Johnson for someone who fell. Chapman and I went out there in Rescue. It was my first call to Johnson. I helped with patient care to the hospital. I was working in the back with Meow. Following the hospital trip Chapman and I washed the rig and put it away. We got our paperwork completed.

I was about to leave when Chapman came in and announced he knew what happened to the missing dumpster. Someone had pushed it over the hill. I thought we could use Rescue’s winch to pull it up the hill. I got Rescue out and operated the winch. We gently pulled it up the hill.

I went home and got ready for the Fourth of July in the park. I first got some lunch from Dairy Queen. I went to the station to eat it. The other reserves started to show up around four. I was going to drive the ambulance to the park with a couple recruits with me. But before that I was called out to drive the new Rescue to the park. It drives nice and has A/C. I was enjoying that. I got Rescue parked and helped get the flag set up on the aerial. When that was completed the full-timers and I went back to the station. I got my recruits and the ambulance and drove back up to the park.

I got the ambulance parked and started to set up the stuff for the kids to put on. We had people stopping by. I had my camera and ended up taking about two-hundred-and-seventeen photos on the day. It was mainly of firefighters and kids trying stuff out and getting in the rigs. I also got some photos from the top of the aerial.

A Sunset from the Aerial

A View of the Park

Because of lightning we lowered the ladder for a while, but closer to show time we put it back up. I got a photo before we put it all the way up.

The American Flag and Me on the Aerial

It was nearing show time. Keith, Aaron, and I went to the main field and listened to and watched Glenn play with the Kingpins on the song “Shout”. It is a tradition that he does that. The show was ready to start I was looking for a good place to sit. I got to the top of Rescue when it started, but within seconds I was told they had to leave on a call. I spent the rest of the show on the ground. It was a great show. Good music and lots of fun fireworks.

Following the show I helped to get things taken down. I was told of a patient and I was asked to take care of her. I looked at her, but there was nothing I could do. I did talk her into going to the ER however. We waited around for a little bit while the traffic died down. Then we went out Old Wawawai road to One-Ninety-Five. We came back into town via the South Bypass.

I only had one recruit with me on the way back. We stopped at the hospital. We got some new linen and picked up the backboard from the call from this morning in Johnson. But calls started to fly. I had Cy get back into the rig and we took off quickly to get to the station in case we would be needed. But as soon as we did stuff died down for the most part. I got the ambulance parked and made sure it was back in service and cleaned up.

I was ready to leave when VanNess asked if I could stay per Drew’s request to man the ambulance in case another call comes out. I stuck around, but no other calls came in. Soon Engine thirty-Two and Rescue came to station one. I helped them reload hose on the engine before I went back to the Deuce to call it a night.

Patient Care in P-Town

I came down for some daytime calls. One was an echo response, that turned out to be nearly nothing. We did not even help transport the person to the hospital. On the way back to the station we got called to Pioneer Square for someone who fell. I tool patient care and ended up keeping it all the way to the hospital.

I had to go back to the station to do my report on the computer but it was getting closer to the time to be on call and I needed to go home and get ready to be on call. I put my paperwork aside and went to my office. Shortly after I got there we were called out on another person who needed help. Once again we did not help transport. I was able to get home and get ready to be on call.

Chuck and Brian took Rescue out for fireworks patrol. I was supposed to be with them but a reporter from the Daily Evergreen went with them. I stayed at the station with Tyson. He worked on his maps and I worked on my paperwork. When I was done I watched some TV.

We got a call from station one about going to Cougar Country for some ice cream. Tyson and I went with the guys from the Deuce in Engine Thirty-Two. We were riding with them until Rescue was done with the fireworks patrols. While we were at Cougar Country, Sugden told me that he thought I did a good job on my HEAR report. When I first started to talk he was wondering who was on the radio. Then he figured it out. He said it was one of the better ones he heard in a long time.

Back from ice cream, we were sitting around the station when a call for a dumpster fire came in. Tyson and I got to the engine and got our stuff on as did the full-timers. Chris and I got our packs ready to go as we went to the scene code-three. We got on location with the fire extinguished by a fire extinguisher. We still put some water on the fire. It turned out that there was a very small amount of garbage in the dumpster, so there was not a lot that we had to do.

It was not long thereafter that Chuck got back with the Rescue. We all left the Deuce. But we did get called back for a victim of an assault. Once again, as was the theme of the day, we did not go to the hospital with the ambulance.

Golfing in the Hot Sun

Tired and all I dragged myself out of bed to get to Colfax for some golfing with Ron and the crew. We were going to start at nine-thirty in the morning. I paid and got a golf cart. We set off. My first round I had at least one shot on each hole that put me on to the fairway… the fairway of the hole next to mine, however. I shot a fifty-nine on my first nine holes. Then we did all the holes again. I improved a lot. I was hitting the ball better and getting better chip shots. It took until nearly three in the afternoon for us to finish eighteen holes.

Following golfing I got a load of clothes in the laundry and then went to Colfax fire to hang out. I watched TV with Tim and we even got an EMS call. Following that call I stayed until just after eight o’clock pm. Finally I had to get home to get my laundry going. I put a second load in the washer.

I watched the rest of Men of Honor and I also got into a two hour conversation with Brian on the phone. We talked about him moving in with me. It is one of those things that I think I would like, but I am also afraid of losing my freedom. He seems receptive to it as well. We are going to think about it more and talk about it. But there is a chance that by this time next month or the month after it that he will be living with me.

The New Recruits

Ron called me this morning and invited me to come to his place for poker and a BBQ. It was to start at one pm. Ryan had also come to town. I needed to spray some weeds around the house. I got my weedsprayer and the mixture mixed up. I sprayed all the weeds in the area of the driveway and the gravel areas. I got cleaned up and headed to Pullman. Ryan and I met up for a little bit. He was there to remember Ryley who died one year ago today.

I went to Ron and Heathers. We watched TV and started to play some cards. The first tournament we did was a free on. We all got some chicks and played. I ended up third place. Food was nearly done when we were done with that tournament. I ate, but it was getting near six o’clock and I had to get ready to be on call.

Today is the first day our new recruits got to respond. But they are not able to go into IDLH environments as of now. I met up with them all at six o’clock pm at the Deuce to go over rig checks and a shift orientation. We started on rescue and then went to the engine. Just after we started on the engine we got toned out to a call where a guy had an accident with a circular saw. Chuck showed up and he asked who wanted to go with us. Keith was the first to raise he hand. We went code-three to Palouse.

When we entered Palouse Scott from Colfax Fire was there. He jumped up and yelled “GO TWINKIE”. I waived at him. Chuck asked who that was, and I told him it was Scott from Colfax fire. The patient was package and I returned to Pullman in Rescue. I stopped for a minute and chatted with Scott and David.

I picked up Chuck and Keith from the hospital. We made up the cot and got some gas for Rescue. After getting back to the Deuce we finished up the rig check of engine. Chuck went over all the compartments with them and talked about the equipment. It was at that time that we were supposed to be out doing some drive time and checking the city for fireworks. We were supposed to do that until ten o’clock pm. It was just about nine-forty when we got toned out to a structure fire. It turned out to be a real one. It was rather small as it was discovered early.

We had a good turn out of people. Chuck and I got our packs on and went to the scene of the fire. It was out, but I got to put some water on the hot spots. We set up the generator and lights for Dragoo for his investigation.

We got Rescue back in service and called it a night for training. I got with Ryan finally. I got some dinner and went to my office. He watched a bunch of Homestarrunner cartoons as I got the release about the fire posted online.

I took him to my apartment and he hung out for a few minute before he had to go back to Spokane. I wanted to get to bed early tonight because I am golfing tomorrow, but it turned out that Ryan was here until after two in the morning.

Falling off a car

There were a lot of things I had to do after I got off work today. I could work at the jail. I could do some work around the house, like mowing and weedeating, or I could go to the fire station and hang out. I stayed in Pullman until nearly eight o’clock pm getting some bug completed as best I could.

Then I went to get some dinner at Little Caesars. I decided to go to the fire station. I saw some pictures from the burn they did recently. I also talked to Carl about his final days being a full-timer.

I went home around ten o’clock pm and watched some TV. I got into a show when a call came out around one thirty in the morning for someone who fell from a moving car in LaCrosse. I decided that I would go on this one.

I got to the station and drove the ambulance to the scene. While en route LaCrosse EMS called Whitcom to launch the bird. The patient was combative and it was a wise move. We got to LaCrosse and loaded the patient into the ambulance and drove to the football field. They got the lights turned on and the bird landed about fifteen minutes later.’

By the time we got back to Colfax it was well after three in the morning. I got some pop from the gas station and Third Watch was on. It was an episode I had never seen before. I decided to watch it until it was done, which was at five in the morning. That is when I finally got to sleep.

SCSAA

I didn’t get up until noon today. I called VanNess and let him know I would not be able to get to his house until Friday to work on his computer. Then I got into work and spent the next few hours banging away at one of my bugs. I had a meeting with George and Darnell at SCS about the alumni association. This is fall out from Tory’s funeral where we decided to get something like this set up.

I got to the IT building around four in the afternoon. We talked for about an hour about the ideas and did some minor brainstorming about this project. We are thinking about a portal where messages, news, events, photos, and whatnot can be posted.

After the meeting was done Darnell and I chatted about programming. Then he took me to his office and showed me SCS Tulz. It is quite the application. It is really impressive all the things it can do. They are working on a Tulz Lite program and selling it to other departments for part time workers to use to track hours. SCS may actually get into the black ink.

After we were done I got some dinner from Cougar Country and went to the office to finish the bug I had been working on all day. I was able to finish it off and get it checked in around eleven o’clock at night. I also got some more work done on the fire prevention website.

Third Night in a Row Playing Poker

In our last few games of the softball season, we are looking at needing a win in all of them, if possible, to allow us the opportunity to win the B league. Right now we are not in control of our own destiny. We were going against Otto’s Grays tonight. Jeff, an old manager from the Treaty Ground Rock Hounds, was playing on this team. Jeff had kicked me off the team after five games back in the summer of ninety-nine for batting four-twenty-nine.

We crushed his team winning twenty-two to five. I hit a double, a homerun, I had a walk, and a single. I also got a couple RBI. It was a pretty good day for me. I wanted to shine a little more, but I am happy with it.

After the game I went to My Office to buy a pitcher of beer for hitting the solo homerun. When I hit it, it was one of those ones that felt perfect. It was off the sweet spot of the bat. The second I hit it, I knew it was going to be a homerun. There was no doubt about it. It went to center-field. What was funny was their left-center fielder went running for the ball and hit the fence and tumbled over it.

After being at My Office I was invited to play poker at Mike’s again. I went over there just after nine o’clock. I sat in what is now known as the Wild Bill seat. Because your back is to the door.

Tonight, just like the last two nights, I started my nights by losing money and rebuying. Finally after thirty bucks of buy-ins, I was down to forty cents. I had a six-three suited. I went all in. A six and three hit the board and I won part of the pot. So I was up some money. Then I went all-in a while later and won. Then I just kept building and building. Pretty soon I was up quiet a bit from the forty cents.

We ended the night with Omaha like normal. I came back in my money, like normal, but this time we did not play long enough for me to come all the way back. I lost about twelve bucks on the night, but I am still up over the last three days.

Hose Testing Day Two

I spent some of the day calling all of the recruits to see if they would be coming to our hose testing tonight. I did not get a hold of most of them, but I left messages. Due to my calling around several people showed up. It was nice to have all the bodies there to help the process.

We only had two guys show up to the first hose testing, so I made a big deal about it in front of the other guys. I mentioned when everyone else was listening to it did not go unnoticed that they were the only two to show up.

This time around we had all but one guy show up. We tore through testing at a pretty good clip. We got the hose reloaded on the truck and were done with everything in about three hours. After it was done I thanked all the guys who showed up. I told them their help was appreciated.

Once that was done I went to Mike’s for more poker. Tonight we played until three o’clock in the morning. It was looking bad for me as I was not getting my hands. We actually played some seven-card stud followed by Omaha. It was not until Omaha that I started to make my comeback. I ended up leaving the night winning another thirty bucks or so. Most of it on one hand.

I had garbage. My best cards were the nine and queen. A nine and queen were on the board. I announced to the room that I was on a huge draw. That I had nothing unless the right card hit. Someone had gone all-in. I called it, then Mike raised five bucks. I called that. Then the turn was a nine. I announced I got my card. Then I sat back in my seat and called all-in. It was about twenty-one bucks. Brian called me. Mike folded. The river did not help Brian and I ended up winning the whole pot, which is what gave me the winnings on the night.

The Cone Course

This morning seemed to come early. I got up and went to the Deuce for engineer training. Chapman gave me the keys to the gate and send me up there to start to set up the road course. He and Reed had to take the Engine to station one before showing up. I got a lot of the cones set up before they arrived.

I was the first one to do the cones I hit one cone along the way. It was only because I did not realize that we could re-position the Engine. That would have been the only time I needed to do it. When I was done Reed did his cone test. We both passed on the first time. Afterwards we put the Engine inside the tower and sprayed water. I had a chance to practice being the Engineer setting up the rig and pumping water.

While pumping water a grass fire call came out. We unhooked the stuff and got ready to go. Only to be cancelled as soon as we went en route. We went back into the tower parking area and reloaded the hose. I had to leave to do the homerun derby, but I did not think it was going to happen.

Joe, Matt, and I did show up, I let Joe know about Eric’s E-mail about postponing this until next week sometime. We all left. I got lunch and went to the Deuce to wait for Chapman and Reed. They decided to do weekly rig checks. I helped them out with it. Just was we were getting close to being done we got called out to a natural gas smell.

We went to the scene but just waited around in Rescue. Andrew came out at the end and came to Rescue. He said that we are going to block off a five-hundred foot radius and give Reed a flare and see if he can find the source. We all got a chuckle out of that.

We were put back in service. I left the station shortly after getting the final touches on the weekly rig checks completed. I went to the city playfields to watch the Zeppoz Co-Ed team play ball. It was the My Office team, but they switched sponsors. A lot of the My Office guys are on the team as well as couple old My Office guys, such as Dan and Carl. It was great to see the team out there.

It was around eight-thirty and I planned on going to Davolts to play poker. I bought in for ten bucks and lost that over some time. I bought in for another ten bucks. I was playing really loose. Later we switched to Omaha. By that time I was starting to win money. Then in Omaha I won a lot more. I ended up leaving with forty-five buck total. I had one hand where I had the best hand when someone called all-in. I knew he was on a draw. But I called him, hoping the draw would not hit. This is the same guy who hit the Royal Flush on me last week.

After we were done Kristin and Andy talked about the old times at High School and all the drama in their lives, etc. It was pretty interesting to hear about all the problems and family issues of the other people. I did not leave until almost three-thirty in the morning. I was so tired I went fast asleep.

Getting closer to being an Engineer

Today is the final day of the five.four.one release for new code. I spent some of the day figuring out problems with the code. One problem is a bugger because each time you do one thing to fix it, something else seems to break.

But finally I got the problems solved and I think life is good. Tonight Chuck is out of town so Chapman and I are on. I asked Chapman if he would be willing to do my final engine drive with me. He said he would. It takes about an hour and a half to do the whole thing, but we got it done.

I was also invited to come to engineer training tomorrow with Reed and Chapman. I am going to do that.

I was at my office when we got toned out to a call in town. Chapman and Cy rode in to the hospital. Cy was doing his ride along time for being a recruit. It was his first call ever. I had him do the radio traffic.

Following that call I was down at the station. I was going to do some more stuff in my engineer’s packet. I had already finished doing the photo board this morning and got it put up. I also finished my packet by doing the engine equipment location.

Around midnight we got a call to Palouse. I looked up the location on the map. I ended up driving on that one. When we got to the house, it was a PUHA situation. The ambulance with code-three to the hospital. I took a wrong turn and went to highway ninety-five in Latah County. So it took me extra long to get back to the hospital.

I got Chapman and we went to the gas pumps to fill Rescue. On our way out of the gas pumps we got called to Bishop Place. We went code there and transported that person to the hospital. As we were done for the night, it was nearing three-thirty in the morning. You could see the light just barely starting to fill the horizon.

Very Busy Night

I covered for Dearth at the fire department tonight. It was just Ross and me. It was actually pretty tame for the first five hours of the shift. Bien was doing a ride along until eight o’clock pm. But it was quiet, so we just talked and had a good time.

I was planning on watching Rescue Me at eleven o’clock when it came on. I was watching other shows until then. Finally Rescue Me was on. We were about twelve minutes into it when call came out. Ross came down and we went to the scene. We transported to the hospital.

During the transport to the hospital I was listening to the radio. There was a pursuit going through Pullman that started in Moscow. I listened until they finally caught the person at the Pullman Grill and Bar.

Following that call we were getting the ambulance back in service when an Omega call came out for someone who needed help up. The ambulance guys told us to go on it because they were not ready yet. It was only a public assist, so we probably did not need an ambulance to go anyway.

We went en route and the ambulance form station one went as well. They were running short of people so they had already done a career callback and they also did a reserve callback. While on the scene of the public assist another call came out for someone who was unconscious. It was in the campus housing. We stayed on the public assist, and Engine Thirty-Two went from the deuce because we were tied up.

The ambulance from the hospital responded to that call. They cancelled engine thirty-two. We cleared our scene and went to get some gas. On the way to the gas station the ambulance on the call for the unconscious person called for our help. We went to that scene and helped with the transport.

Finally when we were done we went to the gas pumps and back to the Deuce. Ross and I got our paper work filled out and walked to our vehicles. Just as we said bye and shut our doors a call came out. We ran in and got ready for it. I drove code to the scene. It was about six miles West of town. En route to that call another call came out for a car accident. I was hoping to go on that one instead, but we continued to our call.

Chapman got on scene of the car wreck and called for a second ambulance and extrication. So we left the scene we were on and hightailed it to the scene of the accident, which was about fourteen miles away. The IC on scene thought that Palouse would get there quicker so he called for them. They went en route around the time we were going through Pullman. I knew at that point we would beat Palouse on scene.

We pulled up and were positioned right by the car. Ross and I got out and set up the extrication stuff. I cut the B and A posts then sent the cutters to the other side of the car. I then helped get the person packaged and out of the car. The other cuts were made and we rolled the roof of the car forward. Ross and I cleaned up our stuff and gathered all the Pullman Fire equipment then went to station one to drop it off. We went to the hospital next to drop off the sheets and blankets that were left over.

We had to go get gas again. We were finally done with the calls at about three o’clock in the morning.

Fun Softball Action

At my softball game tonight I was hitting the ball really well. I putting the ball all over the place and the ball was hit with good power. I even got my first homerun of the season. That felt really good. What is funny is before the game I was at My Office with several others from the team. As I looked around I noticed that all of them have hit at least one homerun except for me. I mentioned that. Then in the game I hit one and everyone was joking about how I had said something about my lack of homeruns. We went on to win pretty easily.

After the game I was on call for the evening. It was a very quiet night. I was able to sleep through the whole thing.

Cleaning up the Jail

I got into work and got some bugs closed out, so I decided to leave at three in the afternoon and go work the jail. I wanted to be there for all eight hours today. I had some dinner when I got there then I helped serve the meds during the dinner round.

When six o’clock rolled around I took a crew onto the floor and we washed all the windows and cleaned the walls and doors. It was really dirty. It was a pretty quiet night. No bookings came in. There was one that was a hang over from dayshift, but the Sgt did that one.

We cruised the web a little bit and did our normal BSing while in the control room. I left at midnight to head home and watch some TV before hitting the sack.

First On Scene.

I am covering for Reed at the fire department tonight. I went to the station after getting some work done. Dearth, Tadema, and I went to station one for Death to do his class. Tadema and I took the Rescue to get some gas. We stopped at Cougar Country for me to get dinner. While there we got a call for a car accident. We took off and were first on scene. I did my scene size up and took command. We ended up transporting the person in the wreck.

We went back to the station and I was able to eat my food and it was still pretty warm. We waited around for Dearth to finish his class part. Then Heston taught stuff on driving safety as part of the firefighter safety stand-down day.

Following the training I went to Davolts for some poker action. I was not doing too great. The game was doing the normal breakdown later in the evening. There were four of us there when we switched to Omaha. I had a K-J-Five-Three, the K-Three were suited. I called. The board was Kh-Jh-Jd. I has a nice full house. I bet twenty cents. I was raise. I re-raised all-in. I was called. We flipped our cards I was up against someone with trip-tens and the Ah. So he had a one-card out. He had to have the Qh to hit and give him the Royal-Flush. The turn was the Queen of Hearts. Everyone yelled. I could only smile. I got beat hard-core by the best possible hand. It is so rare to see it was fun to be part of the whole thing.

We broke up the game on that note and I headed to the office to get some work done before going to bed for the evening.

Getting Crushed at Softball

I worked most of the day getting the bug from this weekend finished. I had thought about some ideas while I was driving to and from the coroners case I had last night. My ideas worked and I got closer to fixing this problem. I still had to figure out the E-mail issue, but it was close to game time and I went to the city playfields.

Only nine guys showed up to play. I was disappointed about that. We were playing Coors Light. They scored twenty runs on us in the first inning. I had a good day. I was two for three with a double, two runs scored, and an RBI.

After the game I went to the station for training, but it was nearly over so I stuck around until it was, then I watched the guys play some poker. After that was done Tim, Meow, and I were in the training room chatting about random things and watching the UFC. I left after the first fight and went to my office to finish up my bug.

It took me until around two in the morning to get it done and get ready to check it in, but I ran into problems because of the merge. So I sent an E-mail to Ricky and went home for the night.

They come in threes?

So today I found out about Brandt, as seen in my other post, and this week I also found out about Tory. So if they come in three’s then I have one more coming my way. Let’s hope that is not the case.

I finally went to bed around nine this morning so I slept in until three this afternoon. When I did get up I got some lunch and then went to the office to try to get some work done. I wanted to have something to show for all the work I put in yesterday. But it was not to be early on. Finally I changed focus on my bugs and switched to something else. I was able to solve that one and get it checked in.

I decided that I would go down to the fire station at six o’clock pm and help C-Shift with their truck checks. With only two people it is a pain in the rear. Having more people really helps. It took about two hours to get them done. I was invited to Station One for some ice cream. I went down POV because I was on call for the coroner.

While at the station I got a call for a case out in Hooper. To get to Hooper you have to leave Whitman County into Adams County and then re-enter Whitman County a few miles down the road. I got fueled up and headed to the scene. It is about sixty miles from Pullman. I cruised out to the scene and did my investigation.

Once I was done I went back to the SO and typed up my field notes, printed the pictures, and counted the medications. I got done with the case at nearly three o’clock in the morning. I went back to Pullman and went to sleep.

Another Kick in the Gut

I met Brandt through Garrett a couple years ago out boating. I have written about him in my blog before. He loved to go balls to the wall on the tube. He was fun to have around boating. I have been trying to find out when he is coming back to the area to get him out boating again. I was searching through the web trying to find him, and I ran across this:

Brandt Eugene Gehrke

LEWISTON, Idaho — A celebration of the life of Kirkland, Wash., resident Brandt Eugene Gehrke, 26, will begin at 2 p.m. today, Nov. 5, in Lewiston Community Center. Private family burial will be in Asotin, Wash., Cemetery.

His body was found by search and rescue teams on Oct. 24, 2005, at Merritt Lake Trailhead, near Leavenworth, Wash.

Born Feb. 28, 1979, in Lewiston, he was the second oldest of four children of Penny O. (Wilson) and David A. Gehrke. During his high-school years in Nevada, he excelled in all sports and was state champion in wrestling. He graduated from Asotin High School in 1997, with high honors and a grade-point average over 4.0.

He enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1997 and served in the 82nd Airborne, 2/505th Parachute Infantry Regiment. From May through August 1999, he was a Quick Reaction Corps peacekeeper in Albania, Macedonia and Kosovo. He served his last six months in Egypt and was honorably discharged in February 2001 at the rank of sergeant.

He lived in Pullman, Wash., from 2001 to 2005; and worked full-time as a bartender at Valhalla’s Restaurant and Lounge. On the Washington State University president’s honor roll all four years, he earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology with a minor in business.

He met his fiancee, Jacquelyn Potwin, in January 2004 while they were students at WSU; and, in July 2005, moved to Kirkland to be with her.

An avid extreme sportsman, he enjoyed rock-climbing, parachuting, surfing, on-line gaming, modeling, snowboarding, and spending time with his sisters.

Survivors include his mother and her fiance of Asotin; three sisters, Lisa D. Millikin, her husband, and two nephews of Glendo, Kelly E. Gehrke and her fiance of Lewiston and Brianna I. Gehrke and her fiance of Clarkston, Wash.; maternal grandparents, Orine A. and Dr. R.D. Wilson of Clarkston; his fiancee; and several uncles, aunts, cousins, nieces and nephews.

He was preceded in death by his father and paternal grandparents, Joan M. and Eugene O. Gehrke.

Memorials may be made to the Scholarship Fund for Children of Special Officers Killed in Action; search and rescue organizations; or the National Center for Missing Persons.

Ward’s Funeral Chapel of Leavenworth is in charge of arrangements.

PFD Photoboard

I spent the morning and early afternoon working on the photoboard for the fire department. I finally figured out how to post the pictures. I am going to take a thick type of paper and cut them into strips. Then I will glue them into place. That will create a pocket for the photos to sit in. I was mostly done when we got a call for an injury accident.

I went to the deuce to go on it. On the way I called Reed to make sure he was going to come out and play. I got to drive code to the scene. On the way we were told to go by the van from the car accident to pop the door. When I got there with Rescue they decided the guy can self extricate. So we did not get to use the powertools. I did get to have some patient care.

After the car accident was taken care of we were cleared of the scene and were en route to the Deuce when VanNess asked us to meet him at station one for equipment exchange. When I got there I worked on the photoboard some more while waiting for VanNess to show up. It was a little bit before he got back from the hospital.

I went to my office after that and worked on an enhancement. It is a rather large one. Some of the things are easy, but there are somethings they want turned off. The system I am converting is made for public use. But they want loan officers to be able to use the system. When the loan officer uses the system some of the behavior needs to change. The problem is the system was not built to do that. Because of that I have to figure out a way that I can let the system know that I am a loan officer adding the application and not someone from the public.

I keep running into dead ends. As the night wore on I stayed at the office. It was getting later and later. Pretty soon it was nearly five in the morning. By that time I was tired of running into dead ends. So I started to search the web for Brandt. I wanted to get ahold of him to see when he would be back in the area. What I found instead was his obituary. I tried to find more information but I was unable to. Finally after eight in the morning I gave up and went to the apartment to get some sleep.

Wakeman’s Goodbye

Starting off the day I thought I would have to go to Wakeman’s going away party being on call meaning no beer. But I found out hours before the event that I could go and have some fun with them.

I went to the station around five in the evening to see when people were going to go to the bar. Wakeman was having some dinner and we were talking. I was getting hungry so I went to My Office and got some lunch and played some trivia.

The others started to show up around eight o’clock. We had a good turn out of people there. I had my camera and took photos of everyone with Wakeman at one point or another through out the night.

Chris, Wakeman, and Paul Enjoying Beer

Meow and Wakeman Enjoying Beer

Wakeman and Chris Being Tough

Wakeman Having One of his Many Shots

We were there until a little after midnight. I went home and had some pop tarts before going to sleep.

Wakeman’s Last Duty Night

Today’s is Wakeman’s last day with the fire department. We are having a get-together for him tomorrow at My Office.

I had a softball game today. I am on duty as well, so I let Chuck know that I would be responding following the game. The new recruits were going through Rescue today therefore it would be used while that is going on. We got spanked by the Tax Dodgers. Our worst loss ever to them. We scored twelve runs in the whole game, and they scored that in the first inning alone. It was not pretty.

When the game was done I went to the station and talked to the guys down there. They asked me how the game went and I could not say anything other than we got crushed.

After that I went to my apartment and got ready to be oncall. I went to the station and hung out there until the Rescue got back. I stayed for a little while and finally decided it was time to leave.

I did not really get more than an hour of sleep when our first of three back-to-back-to-back calls on Nye street came out. Two of them were to the same guy. Following those calls I went home and within two hours we were back at the station going on a call for abdominal pain. Just as we finished that we got a second call for abdominal pain. On Wakeman’s last night we had five calls after midnight. Some of them we got to run code on. It was a decent last day for Wakeman.

I was well after seven in the morning when I finally got home and got some sleep.

Golf Meeting

I got the photos for the fire department photo board printed out at Rite Aid finally. We had problems with the size of the photo. The machine would not just print the photo to the size I had it leaving the rest of the paper blank. It wanted to print from edge to edge. I finally had to redo all the pictures making them to a four by six size and just filling the rest with a green color. Once they were printed I used the paper cutter to get them to the correct size.

I also got the names typed up and we were able to decide on a font to use for them. My idea of how to hold them to the board is not any good when it comes down to it. It will hold the photos and name tags, but I am afraid that moving the photos around will become a hassle. I am trying to come up with a better way. I am thinking a piece of soft plastic glued to the back of the board making pockets for the photos to sit in may be the way to go.

For the coroners meeting today we met at the Tekoa Golf Course. We got a couple carts and made our way to the first tee. The ground was pretty wet and the greens were very soggy. To the point that at times when stepping on them a large amount of water would come to the surface. I lost several balls along the way as well.

When it was over Pete beat Patti and me. I came in second by a single stroke. It was a fun meeting. Afterwards we went to Pete’s house and had some pizza and talked about some of the recent cases. We set up our on-call schedule and that was about it for the meeting.

HazMat Suits

Aside from learning about Tory today I talked to Brian and Dan about it. All of us had worked together at SCS and Brian was a roommate of Tory’s while at WSU.

I was on call with Wakeman at the fire department. We went to Hazmat training. We were getting into the suits and doing some activities to get practice at being as nimble as possible in the suit. We had to stop some leaks, look through a spotting scope, write some information down, and use books to look up information.

When we were done with that I took Wakeman out to dinner. This is his second to last shift on the fire department. He is leaving to go to Paramedic school at Central at the end of the week.

Wakeman during EMS Week

Kicked in the stomach

While I was at the survival outing this weekend I had heard that a twenty-nine year-old person had died in Pullman. That is all I knew about it.

Today I went to the city of Pullman police department website. They have all the things that they respond to listed online. I found the report for the unattended death and that someone had called it in and it was on Merman Drive.

Later on there was a medical call I was going on with another reserve. I asked if he went on the unattended death call. He said he did not go. I asked if he knew anything about it. He said that he knew the guy had had several previous heart attacks. As soon as he said that my mind started to race.

I thought about Tory. He fit all the descriptors. He lived on Merman, he had past medical problems and he is about twenty-nine. So I got this sinking feeling in my gut.

When I was on scene of the medical call I was feeling sort of sick to my stomach. I saw a cop was there. When he was free for a minute I asked him if he was on the unattended death call. He said he was. I asked him if it was Tory. He said it was.

He is someone I use to work with at SCS and I would go over to his place once in a while and hang out. He was into many of the things I was in to. It was pretty shocking that he had died. Though he told me a while back that his doctors told him he was living on borrowed time, I still was not expecting something to happen.

Winning at poker

I spent much of the day working on VanNess’ computer. He is running Windows ME and there was some problem with it and error messages. At first I was thinking spyware. But as I got into it I found the problem was a missing system file. From looking on the web I see that is a problem with a lot of people. I found out how to fix it. I had to get the CAB file and extract a file. It took a while to find the CAB file, but I finally was able to get it done.

We had hose testing today. One one person from my shift and C-Shift showed up. All of B-shift was there, but it was their night to be on. Only two of the eight new recruits showed. I was pretty disappointed by that. I was able to help them out until it was time to play some softball.

We had a game against Lefty’s. It is an A-League team. We were not able to hold pace with them, allowing them to score ten runs in the first inning. After that we held them well, but we were unable to score. Only getting three runs when it was all said and done.

I was invited to Mikes to play some poker. I was bouncing around a lot until we switched from Texas Hold’em to Omaha. Then I started to win a lot of hands. When it was done I had won about forty bucks on the night.