Seeing Wakeman

Today the plan was to spend time in the office before heading back to Pullman so I could get to work on Saturday morning. I was able to get some stuff done at the office but I didn’t get anything resolved with the bugs. I loaded up my computers and some books and headed out.

I texted Wakeman about meeting up on my way through Ellensburg. He called me up and said he didn’t live there anymore, but as it turned out he would be in town doing some moving. He told me to call when I was close to see if he was still around.

When I was about ten miles out I called and he was still in town. I met up with him at The Tav. He and his friend were having some food and beer. I sat down and we talked about what each other was doing. It was nice to see him. He is the one who pulled me aside one day at the fire department and asked if I was gay. Many people at the FD know and some would spread it around, but very few have ever asked me. He said that he had heard, but wanted to ask me. I really respected that about him from the beginning.

I enjoyed my time working with him and I sad to see him go. For one summer before he left we were running daytime calls all the time. He never cared about the response level of the call he would go on everything like I would.