Fan Mail?

I woke up at six o’clock in the morning.  Rather than tossing and turning for the next two hours I decided to head into work.  I got there a little before eight in the morning.  It was fun.  I was on four-oh-five and at one point I was doing seventy miles-per-hour!  Holy smokes, it felt good.

I worked on perfecting some of my data verification scripts.  I did some more automation on the scripts.  I am pretty excited about it.  As I write this I just realized something more I can do to make it even more automated.  I will do that tomorrow.  I will use the Replace() function to get rid of some of the data that needs to be deleted.

I got an E-mail from the Daily News saying they needed my address so they can sent me a piece of “fan” mail I received from someone.  I am not sure what it is going to say, but I am excited about reading it.  I should get it on Friday, I suppose.

Still Working on SQL

Spent a lot of hours at work today.  There was nothing exciting of note.  Just continued working on the same problems I have been working on all week and last week.  Mainly migration stuff.

Went I got off work I made my way home to watch NCIS and spent time on the computer surfing the web.

Breakfast for Dinner

It was a typical Monday at work.  I am working on my SQL scripts.  Now that they have been run I am working on data verification.  I am also building a toolset to automate the data verification later when we roll out for other zones.

I hit Fred Meyer’s for lunch.  They have a pretty good deli there. 

I kept was at work until just after seven o’clock PM when I went home.  My mom was just finishing dinner.  We were having breakfast for dinner.  It was very good.  I always like breakfast for dinner.  But I guess the choice was between that or pizza.  I love pizza, but I am okay with the decision that was made.

I watched House and then an interview with George W. Bush.  It was a very nice interview.  It is interesting to hear his thoughts and perspectives on why certain decisions were made during his presidency.  I am sure the hard c0re “open minded” liberals will never take Bush at face value.  They have their mind made up and there is nothing that can change the “open mind”.

Bruce’s Goodbye Party

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

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

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

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

I am a Bad Guy

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Slow Friday Night

I worked most of the day on getting some fixes to the SQL script.  I also went to Les Schwab to look at tires.  It was going to be real spendy for me, but once I get them then I will be set for the next forty thousand miles.  They have been ordered and they will be in on my next trip to Pullman. 

When I got home I was getting work done only to realize that it was close to six.  I was going to hurry to the station only to find out I was on engine tonight.  So I didn’t have to do rig checks.  I kept working on my computer. 

I went to Martin Stadium where Colfax High was playing a football game.  Colfax Ambulance was there.  I went down to the field and said hello to the guys.  Nebe, Hickman, and I got into a discussion about WSU Football and Coach Wulff.  I stayed through the first quarter and part of the second quarter. 

I went to get dinner later on and then got back to my house and made dinner and watched some TV. 

I got an e-mail saying some help was needed on some data that had gotten into the wrong zone.   There were only eight records, so I ran down all the data and made the scripts necessary to move the data.  I got that sent off.

We got one call tonight for a fire alarm.  We stood by at the station for about hour.  I went home and stayed up until around five in the morning.  Finally I went to bed after only getting one call this whole night.

Learning Something

Another typical Monday.  I learned sometime new today.  I guess when a bug is opened and there is five names that it is assigned to and I am one of them, it is important that I respond to it and say whether I can do anything about it or not.  I got more of the SQL Scripting done for a computer application that will do bulk inserts.  That may make the system doing work fast than doing it via a SQL script.

I texted with Melcher.  We are going to hang out on Wednesday.  I have decided that I am going to make Wednesday nights my night out.  I don’t want to spend so many nights just sitting around the house.  So I figured I would go out of my way to make sure I get out and do something on Wednesday nights.

First Pullman WalMart Shopping Trip

Today was a day of relaxation mainly.  I slept until eleven.  But that doesn’t really make up for much sleep loss because I did go to bed around five.  It was the end of daylight savings time, but I found to experience the “fall back” goodness of an extra hour of sleep, you have to be sleeping during that time.

I did my first Pullman WalMart shopping trip.  I got some basic necessities.  I don’t know if I saved tons of not, but I wanted to check out the store.  I found there was no bakery with fresh donuts.  I was curious to see how that would taste. 

I went home had some lunch and watched some TV before making the trip back to Renton.  The trip back was a little but slow in areas as people seemed to be on Sunday drives.  I left earlier on Sunday than I normally would so I could get back to Renton in time to watch the Simpson’s and Family Guy.

Cougs Lose a Winnable Game

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

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

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

Poor Turn Out

I spent the day time working on SQL migration scripts for a database move.  Outside of doing that I took the opportunity to get my haircut.  It was getting long and I needed to get it looking better.

Around six I started working with the fire department.  We did our daily rig checks and then we ran a couple calls.  Then we had to do parking lot patrols for fires by the campers.  We need to make sure they are following the rules around having the fire.  It was pretty dead.  Many of the parking lots were sparsely filled with RVs.  It was just pure ugly.

After doing the patrols I went home and watched som TV and worked some more on the SQL Scripts.  We got one last call around two in the morning, but even campus was pretty quiet tonight.  It was vastly different than last weekend.

Back to Pullman

Another week in Seattle out of the way.  I made my way to Pullman after I got done with work.  I went to Three Pigs for lunch with Jon and the normal Pig crew.

The trip over went pretty smoothly.  When I got home it was latish.  I watched Becker before heading off to bed.

Work and Sleep

Each and every week seems to run by so fast.  Going to Pullman is a four and a half hour trip.  When I am out there it seems like I am on the go most of the time.  I now do things in a matter of three days that I use to spend doing over seven days. 

Then I come back to Renton.  I work and go home.  It seems like by the time I get home I have dinner and it is eight o’clock at night.  Before I know it I am ready to go to bed and go to work again in the morning.

I need to start my gym membership.  That will get me out of the cycle of work-sleep-work.  It will give me something to do as well as get me into better shape.

No State Income Tax!

I got into work just before ten o’clock AM.  I started working on my migration scripts.  I went to get lunch.  I didn’t know what I wanted, but I ended up deciding on Wendy’s, but due to its location I had to drive around the block to come to an entrance.  I must have been smoking crack because I drove past the driveway I needed to get into the parking lot.  I figured that was a sign I should not go there.  I had seen a pizza place along the way.  I ended up going for pizza instead.  It was pretty good pizza. 

After work I was at home having dinner and watching the election returns.  I was so happy that the state income tax initiative went down in flames!  That is all we need is an income tax to go along with our other taxes.

The people who wrote the tax initiatives were down in the dumps over it not passing.  They claimed, more or less, the voters were duped into believing that the state would extend the tax to the middle class.  They said there was no way the state would raise taxes on anyone.  No way, ever.  It would be political suicide.  Yet, Obama admits many democrats fell on the sword for his health care plan and other agenda items.  So, I don’t believe for one minute that the income tax would never ever be extended to the middle class.  I would like to point out to all the supporters of the income tax; they should point their checkbook where their vote was.  They should send in their money.  After all they are willing to make others send in money.

Back to the Touch Pro

It was a very busy weekend and I got back to a busy work.  I was already running low on sleep and I had to cut it short again this morning because of getting in late and needing to be at work this morning.  The traffic was bad so I bypassed most of it by taking surface streets. 

Work was work today.   Nothing really to write home about.  But I did get my Touch Pro taken care of.  Josh, a guy I work with, said he could switch over the hardware in my phone to the one that had the good screen.  It took about fifteen minutes in all.  Then I had my Touch Pro working again!  I now have a battery that will last more than about ten minutes.  I have a nice phone again.  I am stoked about that.

I was at work until almost seven thirty.  The traffic was pretty light and I was getting almost every green light on the way home.  It wasn’t like that when I started the day.  It started as a bad Monday.  It seemed like there were all sorts of problems and little fires I was dealing with.  It was sucking.

At home I had a quick bit for dinner and watched the Rockford Files.  It was weird while I was making dinner I almost dropped it, due to my cat-like reflexes I caught it before it hit the floor.  Sometime after that and starting to eat I got this blinding sensation in my eyes.  It was like I looked at a super bright light.  But this was not going away.  It was so back I couldn’t see what was in the middle of teh TV screen.  I had to look somewhere else to see what was in the middle.  This slowly went away over the next thirty minutes.  It was weird to look at my computer monitor and not be able to see what was in the middle of it.

Then after that, I don’t know if this was related, I had a slight headache that would only show itself if I coughed.  And then it was only in one small area near the front left above the eye.  It was a sharp pain that would go away as quickly as it would come on due to a cough.  It was weird.

Paperwork Hang Over

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

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

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

Letting in More People

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Well Traveled Mo

I didn’t arrive at work until around nine-thirty in the morning.  I wanted to get some stuff done with the SQL scripts towards the end of the day, so I stayed until around seven.  I debated on making a trip down south towards the Tacoma area to visit an old roommate from my college days, or whether I should just go straight home.  I know his boyfriend was out of town and he wants me to come down and visit.  But it is a very long drive both ways for a short visit to watch some TV and chat.  So I decided to go home.

After dinner I watched the end of NCIS and I watched the Rockford Files as I got into a conversation with a WSU Student who is from the Middle East.  He struck up a conversation with me yesterday and we are just continuing.  He is easy to talk with.  I am amazed that English is his fourth language.  He writes very well.  I kept forgetting that he was not a native speaker.  He is a gay guy.  He has lived all over the world.  He said back in his home country it is illegal to be gay.  That is just crazy to think about for me.  I had to get to bed, but he asked if I was interested in meeting up in person.  I know he has no desires other than friendship.  For me I am interested in learning more about what it is like in other parts of the world.  I think it will be great to chat with him some more.

What Gym To Join

I have spent some time online looking up various gyms.  I want to join one that has a swimming pool that is not just crazy packed.  I went to Twenty-Four-Hour Fitness.  Their pool is actually shorter than the twenty-five yards I was looking for.  There were a couple ten-six-seven’s working out, but overall it seemed pretty packed inside and the parking lot was crazy full.

I then went to LA Fitness.  I got a tour around there.  Yet more ten-six-sevens.  I think they may have been a couple more.  Possibly because of the time of night or just the younger crowd.  But it would be a place I wouldn’t mind getting a workout done. 

They also have a twenty-five yard pool.  Parking is free and it is a little more open.  Their stuff is spread among multiple floors.  I didn’t make any commitments to either place, but I figured I would think about it and look for some good deals before I make a decision.  I am going to go back to my salesman and see if I can workout something a little better.  I am torn whether I want to pay to be able to go into multiple locations of LA Fitness or just stay at this one.  The way I see it, this one is the best location for me to get to after work.  I thought about seeing the one in Renton just to make a more informed decision.

The biggest thing for me is the swimming pool.  If I didn’t care about the pool I would just join the one close to where my parents live.  I had worked out there before.  It did the trick for me.

Poker Tournament

I played in my second ever Washington State Poker Tour tournament.  I played a couple years ago and this time around I planned on doing better.  The field was smaller than the last time I played, but I knew many of the people there are good.

I won a couple smaller pots.  I got a full-house with one person in it with me.  I also lost a couple pots along the way.  But after the first break the re-buys ended and people did add-ons.  I hoped that I would start getting some cards to play with but I still wasn’t getting a lot of cards. 

Sitting around the room were lots of guys.  It is a guys only event.  There were a couple ten-six-sevens.  There was one at my table I was trying to figure out.  He wore a light weight coat the whole time we were there.  He had tats going down both arms.  I am not a big fan of lots of tats, but there was something that kept my attention.

I finally got dealt a K-Seven suited.  Two of the three cards that hit were of the same suit.  I also paired my King.  I checked to the guy who has raised pre-flop.  He bet and I went over the top all-in.  But it was only about double his original bet.  He called.  He had pocket Q’s to go with a Queen on the board.  He had a set to my pair.  I needed a heart to hit the board to allow me a victory.  It didn’t come and I was knocked out. 

I went to the cash that was starting up.  We were playing dealers choice.  The game was Crazy Pineapple.  I got a pair of Kings and a three pre-flop.  The three and one of the Kings were suited.  The flop came and we threw away some cards.  I threw away the three.  I was sitting on two pair.  The flop had a pair of eights.  One guy bet and I called.  Then the turn brought another eight.  He bet and I called.  The river came and he put me all in.  I had a good full-house.  But I couldn’t beat his quads.  That knocked me out.

I went to Redmond High School to watch Logan play is football game.  It was a night game.  They lost.  I headed home and went to see a movie.  I chose to see The Other Guys.  It was pretty funny.  The theatre on the West Valley Highway only charges three bucks.  The ticket taker was ten-six-seven.  As I walked up he caught my eye.  He was wheelchair bound and very friendly to talk to.  I wanted to stick around and talk to him some more.  I guess that is a second reason to go to that theatre…  the other being really cheap.

Poker at Newport Shores

I spent most of the working day at the office working on a small side project to help out one of the developers.  I also was working on a migration script for the databases.  I got one completed and a second nearly completed today, but I have one more thing to do on it. 

I ran all my scripts and they ran without an error.  Now we can do some more in-depth tests on them.

I had to put almost twenty hours in the last two days to get caught up on the week.  I usually like to put in my hours early in the week and then have more free time later in the week.  But this week I was getting stuff done in Pullman during the day.

I went from work to get dinner then down to the club house to play poker.  I was doing pretty well, but the table got so full we were playing twelve handed which makes it hard to play a hand unless you have something good because you know someone else DOES!  They have a ten dollar max bet/raise, so you cannot really scare people off when there already is a hundred bucks in the pot.

I started to lose pretty bad and I was getting ready to go around two in the morning.  I wasn’t having a lot of fun because there were just too many people at the table.  And to top that off at the end this guy who is always drunk showed up.  He slows the game down and just is clueless a lot of time.

Long Work Day

Because of the lack of hours I put in over the first three days this week I want to put in two ten hour days in order to get a forty hour work week.  I got into the office after nine.  I worked on a new project I have been assigned.  I need to write some code to do some file uploads and database saves.

I had lunch at Three Pigs with Jon and the guys.  After that I was back at the office working until nearly nine-forty.  It only took about twenty minutes to drive home.  That was nice. 

I pretty much had some dinner and watched a tiny bit of TV before heading off to bed.

Road Trip with Gollnick

The other day John asked if anyone was going to Seattle soon.  I told him I was.  So we arranged for him to come to Seattle with me tonight.

I spent much of the day during work on the SQL migration scripts for transforming data to move to a new database.  I got some stuff done around the house before heading out.  I am going to be gone until next weekend.

I picked up John after eight and we headed for the Seattle-area.  It was a nice drive. We were able to talk shop and visit.  John said it was a nice fast trip without having to stop all the time like he does when traveling with his kids.  I got home a little after one in the morning and pretty much went right to bed.

New Reserve Class

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

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

Training in the Audian.

This evening I had fire training.  We were doing firefighter survival training in the old Audian movie theatre.  We did one scenerio where we crawled around the main theatre room.  There are no seats in there now.  We were placed away from each other.  We had to find our partners and then crawl to safety.

The second one we had to use the hose to find our way out of the building.  When we were done I went to the movie theatre to watch Jackass Three-D with BKoe, the Khurt’s, and Burkett’s.  We were going to have a beer, but I didn’t get done with training in time to do that.  Jackass was very funny!

Ticket Writing Machine

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

Cougar Football

Today was Cougar Football Saturday.  Today the Cougs were going against Arizona.  My article about the Cougs came out in the paper today.  I pretty much said that when someone tries to rebuild a college football program that was at the very bottom, it takes about four years to build it back.  We are seeing some shining moments out of the Cougs now.

I worked the Rescue during the game.  I watched most of the game, but we got called to one open fire that we had to put out.  Other than that there were no calls.  After the game we did parking lot patrols for illegal fires.  Fires are okay as long as they are in approved containers.

We walked through several parking lots.  We talked with people and watched some other football games on the various TV’s people had set up through out the stadium.

I was on call for the fire department as well.  It was pretty slow we ran two calls and a third one just before four in the morning.  We were cancelled en route to the final call.  It was pretty slow for a football weekend.

I am Employed

There has been a long stretch of my not writing blogs.  It has been the longest stretch since I started this blog.  It is not something I wanted, but with my old webhosting company and the problems I got out of the habit of doing it.  Then trying to get caught up makes it difficult.

Then to top that off I have been in a situation where I am undergoing a major life changing event.  I was offered a contact job at Brian’s company.  This was something I was expecting.  Actually I was expecting a full-time job offer, but it is for one year.  The thing is I would be working out of the Kirkland office.  When I interviewed with them I was ready to move to the Seattle area, but lately that feeling has changed.

I decided to take the offer, but I haven’t told anyone.  So I went to Seattle for a visit, as far as anyone else knew.  But some people were suspicious.  Now, it is a lot more obvious as I have been working in Seattle for more than three weeks now.  I haven’t been keeping the secret so much anymore.  I have told some of the people in the Seattle area.  I also told Ryan.  During my second week the office manager came into my office and said he was offering me a full-time job.  It would be doing something similiar to what I was doing, but I would be more of a tester/developer.  But I could work my way to doing dev full-time down the road.  But it sounds like they are willing to let me learn on the job.

I am going to learn some new technologies life Flex and Iron Phyton.  I get to work from home on Friday’s so I will be going over to Pullman a lot.  But I also plan on staying home on some weekends. 

Yesterday I told them I was going to take the full-time job offer.  I have also done a couple projects that they are happy with already.  So it is good that things are going well for me right now.  I am not going to make as much as I would like to make, but I figure I will go in and work hard and do a good job and earn a pay raise as I show them I am worth it.

So my plan is to try to hide it for another month and a half at the fire department.  At some point I am going to have to do something there.  I don’t know if I will have to quit or if we can work out some sort of deal.  I hope we can just work something out.  I will cross that bridge when I come to it. 

Cooper pretty much knows that I am working in Seattle.  He wants me to stay on there and just put in my hours to keep my commission.  That is what I want to do as well.  I love being a deputy.

I am going to have to work something out with Pete as well.  I let him know that I didn’t know what the future held, but I do want to be the next coroner.  So I need to do what I have to in order to make that come true.  I also need to make sure I stay up with my OTEP training for my EMT certification.

For the last couple weeks I have been in Seattle Monday through Thursday night and then I drive to Pullman where I am until Sunday night.  I am probably going to stay there on some Sunday nights and come back on Monday morning.  But I have been playing all that by ear.

So far I have been doing what I did last time I lived in Seattle.  I work all day and then come home and do nothing until the next day at work.  I want to start to find things to do, but I need to start to rekindle some of my old relationships with some of my friends.

I am going to let the Sgt know at the marine patrol that I have my stuff with me and I am around a lot more so if they need someone in short notice that I should have some availability.  But it sounds like I will be a very busy man at work as well.  Once I start working as a FTE I will be working lots and lots of hours every week.  So with my other activities I may have a hard time doing they hours they want me to.  But right now it isn’t a big deal because all I do is sit around the house when I go home.

It is also important that I start some sort of work out program.  There is some workout equipment at the office building where I work and I have access to it.  I need to take advantage of it.  Maybe I can work out following work and get on the road around seven when the traffic isn’t as bad.

Outside of that I have been a busy guy.  I played in a co-ed fall league for softball with Spellman.  I also played in a softball tournament this last weekend.  We went three and out, but it was fun to play and it could be my last tournament with the Garden if I keep the job over here.  That sucks because I do like the team and the guys I am playing with.  Plus we picked up a ten-six-seven.  We played another touranment with him.  He is blonde and blue eyes.  Plus he is very cool.

Goodbye WH4L

After spending the better part of the last decade with WebHost4Life, I am leaving them.  Really, they left me a long time ago.  In the last year I have had so many outages of my websites.  They have gone down and back up at random times.  It has been horrible. When I tried to use tech support they have been very slow.  I had a SQL Injection Attack.  After figuring out the problem I fixed it.  But their control panel was broken and I couldn’t change my SQL Password.  So I asked them to do it.  It took more than five days!  In that amount of time my SQL Server was hit again.  I did my research and found a company I am going to try.  Arvixe.com is who I am trying.  So far I am impressed with their tech support.  I am also happy with the speed of their servers.  I also like that I can have multiple domains without having to create code to reroute the request to the proper domain.  The system allows me multiple websites.  So far, so good.

I spent the better part of the day moving over my websites.  The big one will be the cityofpullman website.  I had fire training tonight.  We are going over ladders.  We spent a lot of time throwing ladders and getting more comfortable with them.  It was a good training.

When we were done we went to My Office.  We hung out talking and laughing about the various activities we have been part of over the time at the fire department.

I spoke to Bob from Imprezzio.  I asked to get a copy of the contract they offered to me so I can look it over and decide if that is what I want to do.

More Pump Training

I slept until around four in the afternoon after going to bed around eight in the morning.  I met two of my new guys to help them with Rescue pump training.  It was a continuation from the training we did last Friday.  It was just less instruction and more hands-on for them.  They are both doing very well.  They need to get to know the equipment location on rescue a lot better though.

We did rig checks following the training.  It took around two hours to get that done.  I went home and watched TV for most of the rest of the evening.

Before rig checks I went to Tesoro for some pop.  They had a deal for ninety-nine cents for any size pop.  I was charged full price.  I pointed out it should be at the sale price.  The lady said that they didn’t mean to have the largest size included in the sale and they were going to put a sign up stating that.  But I said right now it is not up and the sign says ninety-nine cents.  So I went and grabbed my refill cup and came back in.  She said that I could have the one that I already poured because there was nothing she could do with it.  I refused it and poured a new one, leaving the old one sitting on her counter.  If that is the way they want to play, then they can eat the losses on it.  I was mad.

Cougar Football Saturday

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

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

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

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

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

Got a Contract Job Offer

After being unemployed for a long period of time I got a phone call today from Imprezzio offering me a contract job.  It was not quite what I was expecting, but it is a job that will pay me and it will keep me out of debt.  I would be ten-ninety-nine status and I would get less than I would like, but it is a starting point.  I would start by working with the testing of a product that is getting ready to roll out.  I would be the contact for various companies and Imprezzio.  Then I would work with Brian on various projects.  It was not one of those situations where I was going to just jump at it, because it is not at the level of pay I was hoping for, but it is nothing to walk away from either.

I also had an interview with one other company based in Seattle.  I am not sure I am what they are looking for.  I can hold my own when it comes to programming, but I cannot show it in an interview setting.  I could have had a job a long time ago if I was able to impress in an interview.

This evening I was working at the fire department.  Tonight is the first home game weekend of the season.  We started by working the Pullman High football game.  They played Moscow and got shut out.  Then we did fire patrols in the parking lots around campus.  We had one call happen during that time.

Later that night we have three calls come in right around the same time.  Then it just got quiet and we didn’t have anything for the rest of the night.

ASA Western Nationals Day Two

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

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

ASA Western Nationals Day One

We made our way to the field for the first of softball games. It is a straight double-elimination tournament. It is only a two game guarantee. That means we don’t have a lot of room to warm up. One of the guys who was supposed to play with us backed out. But he didn’t tell us so we were not able to find a replacement. He had known for several days. So that really screwed us over. We only have ten guys. Anyone gets hurt and then we are in even worst shape.

In the first game we played the team tight. I played well with two doubles and a walk as well as a reach-on-error. We were tied going into the seventh inning. But then they scored ten runs. We were not able to mount a come back to overcome that and we ended up losing the game. A couple us went to Panda Express for lunch and then back to the field.

Now we have our backs against the wall for the rest of the tournament. If we lose we go home. I really don’t want to leave the tournament in the first day. Our second game we were playing a local team. They lost by fourteen runs in their first game. It was like a baseball game against them. We won four to three. But it was a battle to just get those four runs. We just didn’t hit the ball very well. But our defense really helped us to stay in the game. I had a very bad game at the plate. I couldn’t hit the ball to save my life. I made three outs.

After the games we went back to the hotel. I got cleaned up and met several other guys at the swimming pool. There were a lot of people there playing in the water and having fun. I was thirsty so I went to get some water and pop from the store. Then we went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner. It was some good stuff. I was completely full by the time we left.

Made it to Boise

After getting a phone call this morning I decided to get up and start my trek to Boise for the ASA Western National E softball tournament. I got my stuff packed into the truck and headed down Ninety-Five. It was a long trip. It was about a three-hundred mile trip, but getting stuck behind slow car after slow car sucked. At one point I was stuck behind a string a cars for nearly thirty miles. It was a sucky trip.

When I got in I went to the hotel and checked in. Then I went to the field and get checked in and had my bat approved. As it turns out it barely made it through the testing process. They have a machine and my bat didn’t make a sound on one spot and barely made a noise in two other spots. But it passed. I guess the less sound it makes the hotter it is. My bat might not be able to get used next season.

I went to dinner with Bruce and his family at Cracker Barrel. It was my first time there. It was good food. When I got back to the hotel I chatted online with Jonathan and Gunnar. I had a great conversation with Jonathan. We haven’t chatted much recently. We talked about gay relationships. He has a very solid one and is to the point where some time he may choose to get married to his boyfriend.

I am getting more open with Gunnar and more willing to talk to him about subjects that made me uncomfortable in the past. I think I am finally getting to the point with him that Nick was telling me about. Nick told me that it takes time but as you are with someone longer you get to the point where you are comfortable around them to the point where your modesty goes away and you are more of who you are.

Busy Day on Both Side of the State

I had an MRI this morning on my ankle. This is the fourth MRI I have gotten. I hope this will show something that can be fixed. But I don’t think there is a fix for my problem. After the MRI I hit the road and went back to Pullman. I stopped at the SO and dropped off some donuts. I spoke to Cooper while I was there. He asked me about my recent felony drug arrest. I told him about the circumstances around it.

I went home and did my laundry. I was going to hang out with Gunnar tonight. I picked him up on my way to the fields in Moscow. He watched my softball game. I had two stand up doubles and a single. It was a good day at the plate. My time in the field went well also. I played second and shortstop. I made all the plays that went my way. It felt good out there today.

We went back to my house and watched Stangers with Candy. Then we spent time talking with each other. We are getting more comfortable with each other. I was finally able to open up to him some more. I was able to talk to him about things that I had not been able to say to him in the past.