Rolling with Colfax Fire

I went to Colfax Fire to hang out a while today. Ken was working. We watched the movie Be Cool. During the movie we got called to an unattended burn. We went to it and put out the fire. The cops came up and wrote the guy who started it a criminal citation for reckless burning because the guy had done about six different things wrong, including not getting a permit, not being there, not having a way to put it out in case it grew too big, burning non-yard waste, and having it too close to the house.

When we got back we recharged the water can from the engine and continued to watch the movie. I was about ready to go when another call came in for a water problem. I went with Ken on that one as well. We had to call the city public works guy to come fix that problem.

Then I went to Pullman because I was on call. I helped to do the vehicle maintenance. I also talked to James about wearing civi’s to the station when coming down for a call. He said there is nothing in the SOP against it, and Heston’s E-mail was in reference to us going out in public to do training and wearing the uniform.

We got a couple calls today. There was only three of us working and no engineer so we just used Rescue all night. It turned out there were no engine calls anyway. We rolled only on medical calls.

I spent some time not at the station working on the Thunder website. We are getting to crunch time on it, for sure.

Movie day at work

Today is the final day of Five-Point-Three. There was nothing to be done at all, so around noon the guys (Shawn, Ricky, and Noah) came to my desk to see if I wanted to go see The Chronicles of Narnia. I did not know if I would like it, but decided to go. It turned out to be a good movie.

After the movie was over with we went back to the office. I got some gas, food, and pop. I headed to Colfax. The trip did not take a really long time. It was the normal four hours.

I stopped at the fire station then I went to my house. I hung out there during the evening. I went to Taco Time and Rosauers for some food and then relaxed at home for the night.

Office Break-in

I got up as early as I could with as tired as I was. I went into work and got some pop along the way. I was going to work on a problem I found out about with something I did last week, but because the company thought I was going to be gone all week they had assigned it to Andrew. He got it fixed. So there was nothing that had to be done for this release.

I went to Noah’s office. He got Bill’s office, because Bill was moved to a new office down the hall. We talked poker for a while. Then I had to make my call for the radio show. It was Thursday. We talked about the port deal where the UAE was going to be operating the ports. We also talked about some local WSU issues that affected the students before we were done for the day.

I went back to work and hung out there for the day doing stuff, but not really getting a lot done as there was nothing to do.

Around five I was going to leave, but I stuck around a little while longer. It was about six that Ricky came and said a window was broken out in the conference room and the stuff was missing. I went there and found some of the items on the floor but the window, but the laptop was going. The office had been broken into. Ricky had told Sue who called Janel. She came back to the office.

The cops were called. They came and looked for fingerprints. Nothing was found. The cops left and then Ricky and I closed up the building and headed home. I got home in time for dinner. My mom was home too. Mom, Lee, and Janet had driven back from North Dakota.

I ate dinner and played with Amber a little bit. I spent the evening surfing the web and watching some TV.

Being with Grandma Anderson

I was able to sleep in a little bit, but I was woken up pretty early because we were going to go to breakfast with Doug. We went out to the truckstop again. Jon paid for it with the money he won playing Four-Five-Six last night.

When we got back from breakfast we hung out at Tom’s place for a while watching TV. We were going to meet Grandma Anderson around eleven o’clock. Our plan was to go to lunch with her and hang out.

We went to Grandma’s apartment. It was very nice in a retirement community. It sounds like that have a fair number of activities for everyone. She keeps herself pretty busy. We looked at some old pictures including of my great-grandparents on both side of the family. She also had a picture with her in it that had five-generations of people. I thought that was pretty cool.

Then she gave Jon and I some of my dad’s stuff. She gave me his old wrist-watch that my mom gave to my grandma after my dad died. I also got one of his dogtags from the military. Jon got the other one. I also got an ashtray from the place he use to work.

We drove to The Homesteader, a restaurant that my grandma likes to eat at. We had lunch there and talked about stuff with grandma. Jon paid for lunch with his winnings form Four-Five-Six from last night as well.

After lunch was done we took my grandma back home. Then Jon and I went to get something for the boys. I also got a deck of cards for the trip home.

We went back to Tom’s and got ready to go to the airport. He dropped us off around fifteen minutes before our flight was to start boarding the plane.

We got on and flew to St. Paul. Again it was a three hour layover. We got some dinner there and waited for the plane to come. We played some Texas Hold’Em. Jon got into a conversation with a guy who works for Microsoft. They were talking about a phone they both have in common.

I talked to a worker about getting an exit door seat. They have a lot more leg room. She put me on a waiting list. About twenty minutes before boarding my name was called. I got one of the seats. I was able to board with the people from first-class.

As it turned out a ten-six-seven was sitting behind me. I could not get enough of the eyecandy. It was very pleasing. I spent the flight reading some of my reading materials I brought and listening to music with the pocket PC. The batteries got low on that so I had to stop. But we were pretty close to Seattle.

Once we landed I was able to check out the ten-six-seven a while longer. It was nice. We only had carry on stuff so we did not have to wait for the luggage. We went straight to the place to get a bus to take us back to where we parked my truck. Once we checked out I saw the total time in the parking lot was forty-eight hours and one minute. So it was almost exactly two day to go to Minot and back and do everything we did. It seemed like I was there longer than I was.

I dropped Jon off at home and went home myself. I went to bed after checking my e-mail and relaxing a little bit by playing with Amber. It has been a long couple days.

Grandma’s Funeral

We sat near our terminal for about an hour and watched the light come up. Then we went down this really long terminal to get some breakfast from a McDonald’s. It was good to get some food.

We went back to our terminal area and were told there was a medical emergency on the plane. So an ambulance and fire engine were waiting by the gate. The took a guy who obviously had some sort of heart condition happening.

That was our plane so once everyone was off we got on and started the short ninety minute flight from St. Paul, MN to Minot. Shelia and Amanda were also on our plane. So when we got to Minot Tom was there waiting to pick us up.

We went to Tom’s house. We were both sort of tired. Mom was there. We took Tom’s car to get a brunch at the truck stop. Amanda, Mom, Gaylen, Jon, and I went to it.

After brunch we went back to Tom’s. We sort of sat around a little bit, then started to get ready. I got my suit on and Jon got his on. We drove to the nursing home that my Grandma was last living in. They have a chapel there and that is where the funeral was being held. When I got there I saw a bunch of relatives that I have not seen in several years.

I spent time saying hello and moving around talking to people. I found out my Grandma Anderson was there. So I went to talk to her for a while. Then they said it was time to start. I sat up front with the families.

After the funeral was over a handful of us went to the graveyard for that portion of it. She was buried next to her husband and daughter who died as a child. We walked her casket to the gravesite. There was a graveside memorial as well. It was short.

We drove back to Tom’s house and I got out of my suit and helped Tom set up for the after-party. People started to show up and we were using his garage. He has a heater in it so it was nice and warm. All the smoking was done in the garage and the people in the house were able to stay smoke free. As it turned out everyone wanted to be in the garage because that is where everyone else was.

Jon teaching people to play 456

Lee, Doug, and Steve

As the night wore on we were playing for higher and higher stakes in Four-Five-Six. Everyone was always rooting for me to lose.

I went to a store to get some cough medicine and I met up with Derek from G-Shack. He is from Minot. We talked for a while. He was a nice guy.

I stayed up until after midnight with everyone else before finally getting so tired I just had to get to sleep. I had been up for more than thirty-six hours with only my thirty minute nap on the plane.

Catching the Red-Eye

I let myself sleep in on this holiday from work. I wanted to be as rested as possible. It was about noon when I did get up. I went down stairs and really didn’t do anything at all. Mainly watched TV and got on my computer and posted on the Shack.

But around two I decided to make a bank run and get money for my plane ticket. I stopped by the closest bank and got as much money as I could from the ATMs there. I also stopped at QFC to get money from that ATM. But I could not get any at all.

I went back home and cancelled my MBNA credit card. They had upped my interest rate to twenty-nine-point-nine-nine percent. I thought that was very outrageous so I decided to close my account and be done with them for ever. Their short-term greed cost them a long-term customer. I will make sure everyone I talk to knows about that.

Bill got some chicken from Albertson’s for dinner and brought it home. I got packed and hung around the house some more watching TV and chatting online. I was going to meet Jon around eleven-thirty to go to the airport.

I thought I would stop at Safeway on the way to Jon’s house. I got some pop and water as well as some reading materials. I was dismayed at the time it took to do so. I got in the only open line with three people. The people in front of me had a basket full of stuff. I was hoping they would let me go first. They did not. So I waited while everything was scanned. Once that was done they had a problem with the payment. Their cards were not working.

I waited nearly ten minutes in line for them. I was getting edgy. Finally their purchase was suspended. I got through the line. But then I was hitting all the red lights from there to Jon’s house. I was getting mad. We hit the highway and went to drop my truck off at a place for parking. We took their shuttle to the airport. We had to take the subway to the terminal we were using. We were running late as we were getting on the shuttle they called final boarding call.

Jon and I were using my pocket PC to listen to music along the way. I did not really sleep at all. I could feel the plane starting to descend. I thought it was strange as we were only in the air for about three hours and I was expecting a five hour trip. I found out that the times I was looking at were all posted in local time not pacific time. So with the time difference we got there in three hours, which showed to be six o’clock central time.

The Drive home

This morning I woke up around six o’clock. I decided to make my way back to Colfax and sleep in my bed. It was nice to get into it.

I slept for several hours. I was debating on staying in Colfax for the night or going to Seattle today. I decided for going to Seattle. I figured it would give me a day to relax before flying out to North Dakota.

The drive over was really fast. It took less than four hours total. There was not really anything of note on the trip. I got home and had myself some dinner plus I watched my Sunday night TV shows.

Ryan got his new vehicle

I decided that I was going to sleep as long as I could. I woke up about seven hours after going to bed. But I went back to sleep until noon. I finally got up and started to get ready for the day. I made some breakfast and then called Ryan. He told me he had gotten some calls from the dealer but did not answer them. Some messages were left for Ryan that they had a better deal for him.

I went to pick him up and then he called the dealer back. It turned out they were able to get a much better interest rate and it caused the amount of money for his rig to decrease by a lot of money. He is more satisfied with the deal and wants to do it.

I told him we would go there, but we would have lunch first and talk everything over. He wanted to sign right away. I let him know we would work our way there and we stopped at Ted’s Burgers to get some lunch. We talked over the deal some more and contacted his insurance company to get that settled. I told him we should test drive it one more time. He did not think it was necessary.

We went to the dealership and he asked to test drive it one more time. He thought about it and decided to go with my suggestion. We went for another drive and got one more good feel of the vehicle. Ryan was still happy with it, so we went back to the dealership and decided to make it happen.

We went to the office of the closer and started to talk about the final things and worked on signing papers. We were still doing some dealing with the extended warranty and the gap coverage. I was able to see Ryan did not need gap coverage and he declined that. As he was signing his paperwork I got a call from Chuck. I am on the Rescue tonight. I wanted to be on Rescue, but I was supposed to be on the engine.

I went back to Pullman before Ryan was done signing everything, but he was nearly done. I had to be back to be on call. On the way I heard something going on that sounded like we would get called. I got to my office to get my uniform when the call came out. I went to the station and Bryan still thought he was on Rescue so he went on the call. I hung out at the station.

Chuck was there and we were talking about some of the issues going on at the department with engineer training and response nights. I was talking to him about some of my reservations about the way we do things. Ryan and I has also decided to get Pizza Hut for dinner. I was going to meet Ryan there. But I was in the conversation and I got held up.

While at Pizza Hut I hatched a plan to get Bryan on Rescue for the night. I put it in motion and I was able to get him moved to the Rescue. A call came in around four in the morning. I was wearing my department tee-shirt and shorts. Chuck gave me some grief about that. He said I should be in uniform. I asked why, I am on engine and I would have to put on my turn-outs before we left, so what I have on under them should not matter. He said we are expected to wear our uniform.

I explained that if we always had to wear our uniform when we were getting paid it would be impossible to do daytime calls unless we wore our uniform all the time. He said he did not want to argue about it. I think that we need to get the problem settled. I think that we are being required to do things that are above and beyond what we should be required to do. I am going to talk about these things at the meeting we have with the chiefs when it happens in the near future.

Grandma Dalen Died

After about thirty minutes of trying to sleep the pager went off for a call. But it was about seven in the morning so I decided not to go. I was way too tired. About fifteen minutes later I got a phone call from Mom. I had a feeling what it would be. I was correct. My grandma had died over-night. So now I had to figure out how to get to North Dakota.

Instead of going to bed, which I tried to do I kept getting phone calls and the pager kept going off so I just got up to start the day. Chris said I did not have to be at the dev meeting today. I checked in my last change for this release. Ryan got a hold of me to see if I could go with him to get a car.

I went to Paradise Ford. He planned on getting a vehicle he did not totally want, but it was what he could afford. Then I saw a really nice looking year-old Explorer. That is what he wanted, but he wanted a new car. We looked at it anyway and took it for a test drive. Ryan was really liking it.

So we went in the dealership office to start to deal with pricing and what not. After getting the credit information from Ryan, we went to Taco Bell for lunch while we waited to hear back. Finally we got word they had something that would help Ryan get the car.

But as we looked at the figures it was bad. They were talking a thirteen percent interest with more than a four-hundred dollar monthly payment over six years. Interest would be nearly ten grand. I was pretty much doing all the work for this. Ryan was letting me do the negotiation. I had talked to John on my way over, because he had been a car dealer for a while. So I got a lot of information from him. With what he gave me I was able to deal.

The guy would not reduce his price at all. He was set on the twenty-grand for the car and Ryan was willing to do it, even though it was a very bad deal. I kept Ryan from doing it. We told them we were going to leave and look everything over. I called John back and told him what had happened. He told me some things the guy there told me were wrong. John said that we should expect a call from the in the morning.

Ryan and I had decided to go see a movie. We went to see Date Movie. The movie had its moments. There were some good laughs. Mostly early on in the movie. The nailgun to the head was my favorite part of the movie.

I went to my office after dropping Ryan off. I was working on the Thunder Website as well as playing some poker. I was there until about midnight. I was tired as I have been up for more than thirty-six hours with only a little thirty minute nap this morning.

On the way Ryan called to see how I was doing and if I wanted to talk about my grandma. I was telling him how I felt. I hate to see people die. I hate to give up on life. I am glad my mom decided to allow my grandma a chance to fight to survive. But there is also a relief for my grandma. It was exhausting in her condition. It seems that it was her time.

My phone cut out before I had a chance to really talk to him because the battery died. So I got home and threw it on the charger. I called Ryan back and talked to him about some car stuff. I had also looked up other Ford Explorers online while I was in the office. I was letting him know what I found and he was telling me what he found. We decided to get together tomorrow.

A long night of work

Aside from working on my normal job I spent time trying to figure out how to make the Thunder website even better. I was also on call. I tried to go on a couple calls today, but people kept beating me to it. There was a car accident that went out at five o’clock.

I had been down at the station to talk with Rich about the Knox-Box brochure that I have been working on. I also spoke to James about the fire department website. I am now working on that as well. I got several things completed on it, including adding all sorts of stuff from my reserve academy to it.

We ended up getting a couple more calls through out the night. I stayed up all night long working on the Thunder website and playing some poker. I did not really plan on staying up all night but I did.

No one showed up

Today we were supposed to have a coroners meeting, but when I showed up, I was the only one there. So I waited around a little while before decided on leaving and heading to Colfax Fire. Carl was working. We were talking about Pullman Fire and a call came out. I went on the call.

Then I went to the EMT class. I helped a couple people get through their check offs for some of the skills. We were also talking about triage and some pretty bad car accidents we have had in the area that qualified as an MCI. We were there until about ten o’clock pm. I headed home after that and watched CSI-New York before going to bed.

Long Board and Business Meeting

Normally many board and business meetings at Colfax fire go quickly. Tonight, however, it lasted nearly an hour. We talked about the new stair chair that we are going to buy. I really like it. It is made by the same people who make our cots. It is made to be a back saver. It should be interesting to use it for the first time. I guess the others have used it several times. But I have yet to use it.

After the board and business meeting, it was early yet, so I went home and watched House. It is my Tuesday night tradition if I can do it. House was another good episode. I remember watching the first episode. I did not get into it and I turned it off. But I gave it one more chance and I found I really like the show.

No Monday Night Training

Today was one I could relax. Our Monday night training was cancelled due to all the training we had during the last week.

Juan and I decided that we were going to catch a movie and have some dinner. So we met up around seven in the evening. We went to the Emerald for some dinner. Then we went to see BrokeBack Mountain. It was a good movie.

I had no expectations going into it. It turned out to keep my attention. It had a sad ending and when we left the theatre Juan had teared up. It was cute.

I think Juan is a nice guy. He has a thick accent so he is hard to understand, but he is a good looking guy and a hard worker. We are planning on getting together this coming weekend.

Working in the jail

I decided to make my presence known in the jail. I went in around noon to help out. I did some rounds and helped with visiting. Perry and I got in to some conversations about the rules and how to enforce them. I think that if we take time to write the rule we should enforce it. If we don’t want to enforce it we should remove it. Perry thinks some of the minor rules should not be worried about compared to the major rules. I said if you turn a blind-eye to the minor rules, the major ones will be what we battle because we will have moved the line of expectations away from what we want.

After spending around five hours in the jail I went home. I changed and then went to the store to get some breakfast food. Then I stopped at the Mexican place for some dinner. Juan works there. We had talked online a little bit and I wanted to see him in person. He is a good looking guy. He was working so he could not spend much time talking to me. But it was nice to see him.

After dinner I went home to watch my Sunday Night shows. It turned out they were all re-runs. So I watched something else for a while before going to bed.

USC goes down

Ryan, Anna, and I had plans to hang out today. But I started the morning off just hanging around the house. We were not going to meet up until it was time for the basketball game. USC was coming in to play the Cougs.

I went to Pullman a little before the game was scheduled to start. I met up with Ryan and Anna. We drove to the stadium and got our tickets. We got some good seats and stood for the whole game. The Cougs looked a lot better than they had in the UCLA game on Thursday. They were losing at half-time, but that is normal. The Cougs always make a come-back. Today they did and went on to win. It was fun to see the Cougs win a Pac-Ten game.

After the game we went to Pizza Hut for some dinner. We ate pizza and talked while we waited for the time to slip away. Our plan was to go see Final Destination Three. It was a pretty good movie. A lot of bloody death scenes as you would expect in that movie.

When the movie was done I went to my office and worked on the Palouse Thunder website for a couple hours. It is now online and I am trying to add new features as quickly as possible. I got some head way. I am happy with how it is going.

Thunder Web up and running

Today I actually got something done and checked in. I was also assigned a new bug. I am not sure how I am going to fix it, but it will give me something to do next week for sure.

Today the plans were to see Cornel West at Beasley speak about Democracy Matters. A book that he wrote. It was a lecture that was brought in for Black History Month. I listened to him for about an hour, but I got bored with it so I went to watch TV in the First Aid Room. Travis was working the event with me.

When it was done we dropped off our stuff and went to the Deuce. Chapman was there. I hung out for a while watching TV and talking to him.

Then I decided to go to the office and get some more work done on the Thunder Website. I had been working on it, and Jerry got me an account at WebHost4Life. So I could publish it. After spending a fair amount of time getting some final forms completed, I published it. It took a while to fix some of the errors. One I could not fix, even though I worked on it until three in the morning was the ability to login.

UCLA comes to the House

Ryan and I planning on going to see UCLA and the Cougs battle on the court. I was hoping for a good game as the Cougs just beat the Huskies again and the Cougs only lost by two points in LA. So the game got going and it was ugly. The Cougs could not score. They ended up losing by twenty points. One guy for UCLA was a ten-six-seven.

When the game was done I went to my office and looked him up on the facebook. I found him on there and added him.

I was also on call, so I spend the evening online chatting and just kicking back. I did not have many plans. We did not get any calls all night long, but I talked to some nice people online.

Radiation training day two

Grandma is still doing the same. She is not getting any better. The doctors think this is as good as she will get. She has not deteriorated either, however.

Pete called me this morning to see if I would go to a training class for the new computer system. I was there to represent the Coroners office. It was more of less a waste of my time. But I was able to see my old IS co-workers and a lot of others from around the county. I also got my new boots for the Coroners office. They are pretty nice. They came with a zipper on the side so getting them on and off is a snap.

After that I went to Pullman. I spun my wheels some more waiting for the radiation class. I went to the station a little early. I was covering for Dearth who was at EMT class. I went up on Engine Thirty-Two with Chapman and Wakeman. Jesse and the others took Rescue to the search and rescue training.

We went to the class and ended up getting called out to a girl who had been hit by a car. The Rescue had already gone on a call. So we got going, but got cancelled right away. We went back to the class and finished the lecture. Then took a test. I think I did pretty well on the test.

After that class we went to the search and rescue training. District Twelve was there. I got the digital camera and took a bunch of photos. We helped everyone clean up when the training was done. Then I went to station one and downloaded the pictures.

We got back to the Deuce and the EMT guys were back so I was officially off call. I went to my house to relax for the rest of the evening.

Radiation training day one

I have been having a hard time getting real work done because I cannot stay focused with what is happening with my grandma. Some people think she only has a day or two to live. So I am spending most of my time on the computer but, spinning my wheels.

This evening I had radiation training. It was day one of two. I have to do both classes to be able to go to the drill next month. I hope to make it to both.

We met at the Deuce a little before five in the evening so we could go to station one and caravan to Johnson Hall. I got Rescue parked and started to walk in when we can called to a car accident. We went to the scene and took someone to the hospital. It was nothing major. We got back to class around thirty minutes late.

After spinning a couple hours in class we went back to the station and I took off to get some food. I went back to my office and we got a call for an injured person. Walker did not show up so I stayed at the station and watched the rest of House. Chuck set Wakeman to go with me for the rest of the calls should Walker not show up. That was the case so Wakeman and I went to the rest of the calls for the evening. There were two more. Neither that were that major.

Smoke Filled Search and Rescue Training

Today I did not get a lot accomplished. I am feeling a bit unable to concentrate because I was told last night that life saving measures for my grandma are being stopped which means the chance of her dying are huge. Pretty much a matter of days now. I am tgrying to figure out how to get out there and how to get my days covered. I am just trying to get things done but I cannot get into anything very mental. Physically activity I can do.

I went on a call around four-thirty for a delta response for someone who was having problems on College Hill. We took the person to the hospital. Once we cleared from there Dearth and I went to the Deuce. I was thinking about going to the training with the duty crew. It was then I found out I was actually part of the duty crew until ten o’clock pm. I did not have my uniform. But that was okay, I did not get it all sweaty.

I went with Chapman on Rescue to drop off a generator and extension cord for the training. Then we went to station one to get ready. We were told what was going on. We were to be the second rig in. Michael was made to an engineer and I started to help set up lighting and took the role of staging at one point.

But Michael and I were sent in as a RIT team to help get a downed firefighter out of the building. We got to the door and the people pulling the firefighter out were to that point. Michael grabbed the hose strap and it came loose sending Michael falling to the ground right next to me.

I made sure he was okay. He got out of the house and I helped to get the firefighter out. I spent the rest of the time out of the house with the staging job. Once the scenario was over with we cleaned up and rolled hose. The reserves went to Dairy Queen for ice cream and then back to the Deuce.

At the Deuce Dearth and the guys from the EMT class showed up. They were in the Ambulance when a call came out for a GSW. We were all ears and Dearth was talking it up, until he had to let the cat out of the bag. It was a BB gun wound to a hand.

I went to my office following playing Dan a game of cribbage. I did some stuff on my E-mail and grabbed my phone which I left in the office. Then it was off to Colfax. I watched some TV before going to sleep.

SuperBowl Sunday!!!

Today is the big day of the SuperBowl with the Seahawks! But before I can enjoy the game I had to finish my day in CPR class and get signed off. I was the first to do my presentation. People seemed to like it. It was good times.

After the class was done it was about one o’clock so I had time to get with Jesse to get the pics for the fire department. He burnt a CD for me. I am taking some pictures tomorrow.

I went to Colfax fire and started to play cards with everyone. There was a room full of people and food. It was great to be with people. We played poker for a while and then when the game was on I stopped playing to concentrate on the game.

Just before kick off we got a call for a car wreck. I went on that and still made it back in time for kick off. No one was hurt in the car wreck.

I was upset at how the game went. The Seahawks played poorly and the penalties did not help at all. Including a call for an illegal block on a tackle. I had never heard of that before.

The Hawks ended up losing. But I did well with my cards. I won the final game we were playing of RF. I actually got an RF and won an big pot, plus two bucks from everyone at the table. That put me up on the night.

I went home and watched TV. But I was so tired I finally went to sleep around ten o’clock.

CPR Trainer Class

I was up at seven o’clock to go to my CPR trainer class. I got to the station before eight because I was told the class started at eight. It actually started at nine. So John and I hung out and chatted about the fire department and we talked to the people who were on duty about the busy night they had. They spent the whole night running calls. They had a break from about three to four in the morning. It was really busy with back-to-back-to-back calls a could times.

Two of the people in the class were on last night so they were pretty tired. We pushed through a lot of the items we had to get through. We watched some videos and practiced CPR and FBAO. We all went to lunch at The Emerald. While we were cleaning up the equipment we listened to the basketball game. The Cougs were playing the Huskies at Beasley. The Cougs were winning and ended up sweeping the Huskies in Basketball this year. It was great. It was the largest crowd at Beasley for a men’s basketball game since ninety-six.

After the training was done I went to my office and started to work on the presentation I had to put on for the class for tomorrow. I was modifying my presentation from a few years ago when I took the class. Ryan called and we decided we would get dinner and hang out. But I also had Keeton’s wedding reception tonight as well.

Ryan and I went to the Emerald and ate there. We talked cars and Ryan’s thoughts about buying a new car. I drove him to my house where I went to get changed for the reception. I only had a few nice clothing options to choose from. So I wore those items.

I dropped Ryan off at his place and went to the reception. Several guys from A shift were there. We talked some war stories and drank beer. I was there until around eleven. I called Ryan and I went to his place. We drove to get a movie from Blockbuster then back to his place to watch it. It was called “11:14”. It was an okay movie.

After that was done I was really tired and headed home for the evening.

Two Weeks Up – Head to Pullman?

With my two weeks in a row in Seattle coming to an end it was now time to head back to Pullman. The problem was with Grandma doing poorly, it may be in my best interest to stay in Seattle in case I need to fly out. I found out however that things had a slight improvement so they were going to keep fighting.

With that information I decided I could go back to Pullman. I headed out around four in the afternoon, not getting on the highway for nearly another hour due to stopping for fuel and the slow going on the back roads. The trip itself was fast. The roads were good the whole way.

I went straight home. I got my mail and unloaded my truck. I am taking a CPR and First-Aid instructor course for the next couple days at Pullman fire. So getting to sleep was important, but I did end up staying up late watching TV. I watched a movie before finally getting to sleep sometime after midnight.

Grandma is not doing well

My grandma Dalen is in the hospital and is not doing well. She has pneumonia really bad. Pretty much he lungs are filled. She is having a hard time breathing. They are giving her medications for it, but it does not look like anything is working right now. I have been talking to my mom about it. At first they were doing a little bit, but they did not want to do too much. I told her that she needs to either fight it or don’t. But don’t go half way and sort of fight it. So she agreed with me and decided to go all the way and fight this medical condition.

She flew out this morning to go to North Dakota. I had talked to her on the phone about the latest. That is when I found out things were not improving. I called Pete for two things. I wanted to hear from him about this kind of situation. As a coroner and someone who works around this kind of stuff, I figured he may have some information that could help me know what is about to happen. I am supposed to be on call Saturday. But I told him depending on what happens I may not be coming out there. He said it was okay.

I am waiting to know for sure whether I will go back to Pullman this weekend like I am planning or if I will stay out here and wait for grandma to die so I can go back to the funeral without going back and forth from Pullman and here.

Pete pretty much said in the end stages, and from what I am telling him, she appears to be in end stages. Once we see the medications are not working and decided to stop fighting and only do comfort measures. She will probably die do to heart failure in one to two days. So if they stop everything Friday night, which is what they are thinking about doing, if the medications don’t start to help, she could die this weekend.

I have some very mixed feelings about the funeral. I don’t know if I want to see her in the casket. I don’t know if I want to remember her other than how I do in my mind right now. I remember her as being alive and kicking and fun.

Also, I haven’t cried at a funeral since my grandpa died back in eighty-seven. The last funerals I was at, for my other grandpa, and my step-grandma I have had nothing. I don’t know what it is. I did not have the coroner job back that. Nor was I with the fire department. It is almost like being a jailer at the time took away that ability for me to show weakness.

The other thing is that I am worried about the money to get out there. It will be between eight-hundred and a thousand bucks to fly. Driving would take about twice as long and be cheaper. Some of the flights will take anywhere from seven to twelve hours in total because of layover and the routes necessary to go.

Dot Net Presentation

Today at work was sort of get a couple things done day. I did not get that much done. Spent some time talking to Chris and talking to Brian. Ricky and I were planning on going to the .NET presentation tonight at Microsoft.

The information we were going to talk about was great. Some of my questions may get answered tonight. But as the night goes along it is clear there is a guy who is going to stop that from happening.

This guy who is from Russia asks questions. But they are not the typical question that is of interest to some of the people there. They really don’t matter in the grand scheme of things and the presentation at hand. But he keeps asking them. We cannot get more than about ten or fifteen minutes with out him asking the questions.

He helped to derail the presentation as it took the two hours to get to the stuff we were actually there for. The initial stuff was supposed to be quick and we all knew it. But the Russian kept slowing us down and stalled everything. So the information people were actually there for we never got to. I was pretty upset about that. So was Ricky.

Ricky was saying that guy does that at all the .NET presentations. Hopefully in the future this guy wont be at the ones I go to.

RR’s Poker Tournament

Listening to KISW this morning I heard about a poker tournament that I wanted to join. I thought Steve The Producer would be there and I wanted to say hi to him. It has been one year since I met him in person when I went for the Short Bus to the SuperBowl.

It was taking place about fifteen miles from work at twelve-thirty. So I went to work and at eleven I went to the casino and entered. Then I went back to work. I left to go back to the casino for the first round. All I had to do was be the top six on my table. I was doing very well. In fact by the time we were down four people I was the chip leader on my table, but that did not mean much as we will all start with the same number of chips at the finals. We were done in about forty-five minutes. The other table had not even eliminated anyone.

I went back to work until around three as the poker started at four o’clock pm. I got to the casino and saw Steve. He remembered me and knew that I was the same guy he had been e-mailing with about being a producer for a radio show.

We talked for about fifteen minutes and it was time to get ready to hit the table. I got my seat. BJ Shea was also on my table. I was doing okay. Not really up nor down much for a while. Then I found an Ace/King unsuited. I called someone who went all in. He flipped up pocket-bullets. So I knew I was hurting. I lost the hand and most of my chips. I think I had about seven hundred bucks left. So rather than looking to go all in on the next hand or when the blinds got to me. I waited until I found my cards.

I waited and waited. Soon I found what I was looking for and went all in. By that time I only had two-hundred left. I won. So I had a little bit of breathing room, but the blinds would be coming. At the point before my victory, I was looking to be the fifth guy out of the tournament. But I knew I had to hold on longer than Steve The Producer. I did not want to get out before him.

I was a battling man. Soon the people at my table were impressed with my ability to be patient and wait for the right cards. I kept winning and battling. Just before the break I was up to nearly ten-thousand. I was now nearly a chip leader on my table. I had taken some of the big guys down to nearly nothingness. The place where I once was. I went from two-hundred to ten-thousand. Because I played the right cards and was patient. I did not force anything. I see so many people get into my position and give up.

There was no give up. It was fight-fight-fight for me. And I fought hard and was patient. But then the dreaded Ace/King unsuited came again. I decided to play. One other guy went all in, and I called him. This time he had a small pair of eights. But it was big enough as I did not get any cards to help me and I lost my fortune… AGAIN!

Now I could quit there thinking I have no chance at coming back, or I could fight some more. I am a fighter so that is what I did. Back down to my final three-hundred bucks I fought. I won a small amount of money. Enough to cover a blind or two and keep me alive until I see my cards. Before long I ended up making it to the final table. I had been there for more than two hours by this time. And I was playing on borrowed time in some ways. I should have been gone thirty-minutes into the tournament. But here I am two hours later still in it.

I found my hand and put in my last seven-hundred bucks. I was only in because of the blind. I would not have played my King-Eight unsuited, but I had no choice. On the flop came a king and an eight. The turn brought another eight. I had a full boat and I won. I was making my come back. I had a long way to go, as the lady next to me was sitting with about thirty-thousand bucks and I just made it to three-thousand from my seven-hundred.

But the blinds kept going up. Quicker than I was getting wins. So my stack kept getting eaten away. But I found a good hand. I was in the big blind with one-thousand in the pot. It was raised to four-thousand. I only had two-thousand more. So I was all-in for three-thousand bucks. Our cards were flipped up and I watched as the flop and the turn came up. I was winning. I just needed to survive the river. I would double up and be sitting pretty for a little bit. But a nine came out. That is the card this guy needed for a straight. That beat me and sent me packing. But I had been in the tournament for a couple hours and it was a good time.

I made my way home on the rain-soaked freeway and got dinner with the rest of the family.

Shutting down the Huskies!

Today was the first day post-code complete. I talked to Chris about getting me bugs from five-dot-four to work on. In the process of him getting me those bugs I also got some bugs back from the current release to work on. In total there were seven. And it was not because I did a bad job. In one case I had to undo a change that was requested. There were some other ones that dealt with tweaks to things that I was told to do. I was able to close down all my current bugs, but I did not get started on the ones for the next release.

Noah invited me to his brother-in-laws place for a poker tournament. It is a ten dollar buy in. It was set to start around seven-thirty. I did okay, but I was having a hard time finding anything with a face on it. At one point I was surrounded by Huskies. These two girls from another apartment stopped by. One of them started to talk some crap about me being a Coug. I did not hear everything she said. But I kept quiet.

Then I turned around to her and I said “That is okay, I understand you being upset that the Cougs beat you on the court and on the football field.” A couple of the guys just went “Ooooh!” And no one said another word. I could see some of them knew they had no case. It was sooooooooo sweet!!!!

A day at home

I slept and slept as long as I could, finally dragging myself out of bed around one this afternoon. I went down stairs and helped to fold the clothes. I was planning on going to Fry’s today and that is about it.

I got some food and read the sports section of the newspaper. There was some more laundry to do. I also helped wash and dry Amber as well as make some chocolate cheese cake.

Finally around five I went to Fry’s. I returned my Family Guy DVD set I got for my birthday. It was one that I already had. I got store credit for it. I got some pop on the way home.

We had dinner a little while after I got home. I helped to clean up from dinner. My Sunday night TV shows were on as well. So I watched them as we finished up the final loads of laundry.

I spent some time online and that was about it. A pretty laid back day.

The boys playing basketball

This morning I wanted to get up and go to the boys’ basketball games. That is what I did even though I was a little bit tired. I had tried to get ahold of Peter and Dave to see if either one wanted to do something but Dave was sick and I did not hear back from Peter.

I went to the first game. It was Justin’s. His team lost pretty badly, but they don’t keep score in this league, because you don’t want them to feel bad for losing. It is better to shelter the kids. Well, anyway, Justin is new at basketball and needs to learn to dribble. He tried, but did not do it very well.

After that game I had some time before Logan’s game. I went to the Sports Authority to see if I could return my golf shoes, but I have to do it online. I went to the Crossroads Mall for lunch. I ate there plus got some ice cream before going to Logan’s game.

Logan did pretty well in his game. His team ended up winning the game. But once again, no score is kept so both teams could feel good about themselves.

After the games I went home and hung out for several hours before deciding what movie I was going to go see. I finally decided to see Hostel. It is about people who are tortured. I was thinking that it was going to be a little worse than it was. Some of the reviews said it was really bad. But I thought it could have been worse. As far as torture they did not show a lot of the torture. I thought they really could have messed with peoples’ minds by showing more. But it was still pretty creepy. Over all it was a good movie. I liked it. Plus having a ten-six-seven who goes shirtless never hurts.

Poker Night!

Today at work was code complete. With all my stuff checked in, I spent the day just hanging out. Not doing anything else really. We had lunch on the company. It was pizza. We also played some Uno Attack at lunch. After lunch I spent more time just hanging out until around three. I went to get my hair cut. Then I went back and spent another hour or so at work before I finally went home.

There were plans to play some poker tonight. It was the monthly game down in my brothers’ neighborhood. I hung around the house for most of the evening, however. I decided to head down around nine o’clock pm.

When I got there I sat at a table with a lot of people I have never played with before. There was a ten-six-seven in many ways, but it was a rugged ten-six-seven. Early on I did not know their style of play, but from experience the people down there are loose. But until I knew these people I thought I would play conservative until I knew for sure. After about twenty minutes I knew these guys were pretty loose as well, so I started to play my game.

I kept winning and doing better. Soon I was exchanging twenties for chips. Then I changed a C-note. Once I was able to do that I knew I was doing well. Jon showed up around ten and the people at my table played a tournament. Jon ended up winning it. I got fourth place. Just out of the money. I left with one-hundred-forty-four bucks on the night though, so I am pretty happy how it all went for me.

Last minute bug fixes

Everything is going to be off my plate if I can help it. Some things were put on it, but I am working to get everything off. Today was the first radio show with Tom running the controls and I was here in Bellevue. I was also meeting Jon for lunch.

So I called Tom and we talked politics. Things were going well. I wish I had remembered to set up the show to record. I went to the Three Pigs to eat with my brother. I was in the parking lot on the air until Jon got there.

After lunch I called Tom back and went back on the air to talk about the Seahawks in the Super Bowl. Tom did a great job on the show. I posted on Palousitics, a message thanking Tom and letting people know how good he had done.

Uno Attack

I spent time getting the final touches on the document posting that I had been working on. I went to lunch with the guys and Roger and I played some ping pong.

I stayed at the office pretty late where Brian, Barb, and I played some Uno Attack. It was pretty fun to play. I won the first two hands but went down hill from there. I also had heard about a fatal car accident on Coal Creek Parkway. Because the road was closed down I was in no hurry to head home.

Around seven o’clock I heard it was open and I had offered Ricky a ride home. He put his bike in the back and we headed to Renton. On the way we spoke about the OP Six thoughts and ideas.

After dropping him off I went home for some dinner.

I am done… more or less

I got to work and spent time working to finish what I had been working on the last couple days. I wanted to be done with it so I could be done. Not just done with it, but done with everything that needed to get done.

But as I finish up doing everything that was required in this spec and checking it, I get three new bugs assigned to me. I got one taken care of. I talked with Brian at length about one and we decided it was not fixable as it really was by-design. Andrew took back one that had been handed to me. The only one that actually needed some sort of work to complete it. By the time I left for the day, however, I was done with everything I needed to do. To date I have completed or working on seventy-four bugs.

Back in Bellevue

I was back working in Bellevue for the week and next week. I don’t like the commute but I did not get on the road until after ten in the morning which made a pretty quick commute. That was pretty nice.

I spent the day working on my enhancement for the website. I am getting a lot closer. I have almost all the whole UI done and most of the Sprocs done. So I will have to do some more work tomorrow to get it totally working and figure out how to list the documents once I am done. We need to list documents depending on how someone puts them into the system and to whom should be able to view them. I think I am going in the right direction.

Roger and I played some ping pong around five, before he had to go. Then I did a little bit more work on my enhancement before I called it a night. I outlined those things I still need to do to make it work.

I went home and got there around seven-thirty. Dinner had just been put away. It was still warm. So I ate and then spent time playing with Amber and Jen and watching TV for the rest of the evening.

SuperBowl Bound Seahawks!!!

My alarm clock was going off to get me up, but I slept through it. Finally when I did get up I spent time getting ready to go and making sure I had everything I needed to have.

I took off for Seattle. I wanted to be home by the time the game started but that was not going to happen. I got too late of a start. But I was able to listen to the radio. The drive to Seattle was pretty quick for winter. The temp through out the state was pretty high so I was able to go pretty quick.

I was in the pass when the game started. I did not make it home until the first quarter was almost over. I watched the rest of the game at the house. I also got to see Amber and Jen.

As the game got into the third quarter and the fourth it was clear the Hawks were going to win. It was exciting to the they were going to the Superbowl. It is hard to imagine it really. They have never been there and it is almost like we were resigned to the fact we would never go. It was something like the Cougs making it to the Rose Bowl prior to the ninety-seven season.

It really hasn’t totally sunk in yet. I don’t know if it will sink in, until at least, the game starts and I see the Seahawks painted on the endzone grass.