Poker Night

I was spending a part of the day to myself just relaxing. A while later I got a text from John about playing some poker.

We got together at Keetons house. Denise and Dan both played as well as John and BKoe. We played dealers choice. I did pretty well winning about eighteen bucks total.

Met a New Man

The plan for the day was pretty simple, go to the Colfax football game and meet Gunnar. The first part went well as did the second part.

I heard the ambulance leave Colfax on their way to the game. So I talked to one of the guys on the Ambulance and then headed to Martin Stadium to watch the game. It was a semi-final game between Colfax and Asotin. Early in the game a player of Colfax got hurt. I ended up transporting him to the hospital. In the end Asotin was too big and over powered Colfax. They lost.

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

Then we went to Blockbuster. I bought a couple movies but we didn't find Scream. We went to Video Quest and found it. We rented it and went to my place to watch it. Following the movie we sat around and talked as the TV was on in the background. In all we talked until nearly two o'clock in the morning.

We talked about a lot of different subject. It was very easy to talk to him. He is twenty-one years old and going to WSU and is planning on going into law. We have that in common. Well more so that I wanted to go into law. We talked about our homosexuality, but that was not a huge part of the night, it was just a small part.

When it was time for me hit the hay, I gave him a ride home. He was impressed that I was real and was true to my word about who I was and the way I acted.

Setting up a Get Together

After getting off work today I did have much work to get done. I wasn't sure what my plans for the day were but I would just see how it goes.

I had been e-mailing Gunnar back and forth for a while. We are setting up a get together for tomorrow. It should be interesting. I am looking forward to meeting him. I hope something clicks.

I did come in on some overtime. I did a transfer for the fire department. It wasn't much. But that was about all I did today.

Thanksgiving at the Fire Department

This morning went by very fast. We didn't have to work the whole day because it was a holiday. So all we did was rig checks and cleaned up the place. We got called out on three calls, one after another. Mine turned into a slight trauma. It was interesting.

I was working on making some more stuffing because I didn't make enough the first time through when I made it yesterday. We also were making some breakfast for everyone to enjoy.

As the evening started to get closer we were getting set up for dinner. BKoe and two other cops were invited. They all came in as well as the guys from the Deuce and their families. It was a good dinner.

We had a couple hours of "My Time" after the dinner. We sat around talking and joking and laughing. I had a really good time.

Preparing for Thanksgiving

This morning we had to wash the rigs after only a couple hours of sleep due to the trip to Spokane last night. Once I had the rigs washed it was quitting time I went home and got onto my computer. I spent a couple hours to get myself caught up. I was away from the house for the last seventy-two hours doing a three-day tour of duty.

I spent some time getting the photos for the photo board at the fire station. I had several new photos to end and print off.

I made a trip to Safeway to get supplies for my Thankgiving meal assignments. I am making the deviled eggs and stuffing. I am doing both by a recipe that I have never tried before, but also that gives no information about ingredient amounts. Just says to add this or that.

I boiled the eggs, but having looked up on the Internet how long to boil the egg. Then I had to peal them. That was a pain in the butt. I lost a couple eggs because they were getting damaged as I was pealing them. The filling turned out okay.

The stuffing was the same way, but I think it turned out okay. It took about two and a half hours to get everything prepared and cooked. When I was done I was not in a mood to cook for dinner. So I just threw in a frozen pizza an called it a night.

Late Night Transfer

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

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

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

First Twenty-Four Hour OT Shift

Today is the first day that I had a full overtime shift. I was working on A Shift. I helped to do the rig checks. We had some hose testing to do.

Because I was working an OT shift I bought dinner for both stations. I also invited BKoe to come down and eat with us.

He stopped in and ate pizza with us. After dinner I cleaned up the dishes. Brandon and I went into the training room. I was showing him some of the video from the SWAT training. We spent time talking about different defensive tactics. Then Keeton got all of us to play some video games. We played several rounds but that was about it. It was pretty late by the time we started to play.

I Get to go to the Game

Today is BKunz's birthday. He is turning thirty-one today. We lived in Stephenson together as next door neighbors. That was when he was a freshman at WSU. Over the years we played sports together and hung out. He was married a couple years back and I went to his wedding. Now here we are thirteen years later. He is a great person and also a fellow firefighter/EMT. I called him up to wish him a happy birthday, but I only got his voicemail. I still left a message for him.

I went to Pete's for the Palousitics lunch. We have five people there and just talked about some of the recent election news and one of the topics of discussion was aircraft, including military aircraft and some stuff about WWII in the Pacific. It was a nice lunch.

I went to look at the Jeep Grand Cherokee. It is a nice vehicle, but the back is not roomy enough for me to store my stuff without having to put it sideways. It has a comfortable seat, but I need something that I can fit all my stuff in easily. So I am still at the Durango or maybe something from Chevy or Ford. But I really like what the ought-eight Durango has to offer.

I got called for a transfer to Spokane around seven o'clock pm. I went to the station and ended up working it with Drew. I was the attendant and he drove us to Spokane. It was an uneventful trip up.

We went to dinner. While at dinner we were talking about the Apple Cup. We are both working the game. He prefers to stay at the station and not go to the game. I much prefer to go to the game. So we switch positions. I was supposed to be stuck at the station. He was supposed to go to the game. Now I will be going to the game and I am very thankful about that. I am excited!

The Ladders Were Switched

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

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

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

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

Running to Spokane

After getting off work this morning I was so tired I wanted to go straight to bed. We were running calls all night. Enough of a break I would get an hour of sleep or so, but enough length that I didn't get much sleep either.

I was in bed sleeping until the tones went off for a transfer to Spokane. I took it and traveled to Spokane with Young. After the trip up there we stopped to get some lunch.

When I was back at the station I figured out that the training tonight we all could go to. So I stayed for an hour at the station before the training started. It was OTEP on head injuries. It was a good training.

It lasted a couple hours. Following the training I spent some time chatting with Wilcox and Clark. We were talking about working out and whatnot.

A Long Night

I was feeling a lot better this Sunday compared to last Sunday. We did our rig checks, had a nice breakfast, and washed the ladders on the PL. While washing the twenty-four foot ladder we found a City Of Colfax sticker on it. So I am going to have to see if they have our ladder.

The day was pretty quiet. We only really had one call along the way. But as the evening went along we watched some football. We had ice cream riding on it. Everyone picked the winners of the various games. The overall winner got to choose the ice cream. The overall loser had to buy the ice cream. Everyone else would just enjoy the ice cream.

After going to bed though we started to have our calls. They would come out and it would last about two hours when it was all said and done. By the time I was in bed we would get about one hour of sleep until the next call came in.

A Quiet Day at Colfax Fire

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

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

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

Feeling Sort of Ill

I was feeling sort of sick this morning when I got up. It goes along with not feeling well most of the day yesterday. I was sort of slow moving around this morning as we were doing our morning tasks.

Around noon there was some callback due to multiple calls. I cam in for that. I also worked on the photos of the new reserves. It was a pretty laid back day for the most part.

Seeing Keith

I just didn't feel wonderful at all today. I got into work and started to help with the rig checks. But I was just a little blah. It caused me to move along ever so slowly. I was able to help out, but I just didn't feel like I was worth a darn.

Once we were done with everything I still hadn't eaten, but I didn't have much of an appetite. I had some soup. Then I went to my room to lay down and watch some TV. I did that for most of the afternoon. I spent some of the time do photos for all the new reserves.

I got a page that someone was here to see me. I went walking out to the kitchen and it was Keith from the Marine Patrol. I had not seen him in months, maybe more than a year. He was impressed with my weight loss and commented that I was looking good. He was in town to talk to some of the criminal justice classes and he was going to talk to the reserves about the marine patrol as well.

I went back to bed and watched some more TV until dinner. I ate pretty well at dinner then back to bed after everything was cleaned up. But the problem was I was tired enough I missed some of the Sunday night shows I was hoping to watch.

Beat The Boys at Tecmo Bowl

After getting off work this morning I had to make my way to Colfax for reserve training. At lunch we went to the sheriff's office and did our sit ups and push ups. Then it was off to the track at the high school.

We had to run the mile-and-a-half. I ran it with Jessie and I made sure we kept pace so she could pass it. We did it right in the nick of time. It was great that she got it passed.

After the run we went to lunch. We hit Zips again. I am going to suggest some other place for lunch next week. After lunch we went back to class. Waltz was teaching traffic stuff. I think he was surprised to see me in the class acting as class president.

After class I went home. I had some dinner with Jon and the boys. Then we sat around and talked. I rough housed with the boys and then went on to play them in Tecmo Bowl. I beat each of them. I was starting to feel a little sick to my stomach and wanted to get to bed. Plus I was getting tired. I had to be at work in the morning and I wanted to be rested.

Garage Cleaned for Poker

I spent some time today cleaning up my garage for the poker game tonight. I got my table as well as work bench all cleaned up. It makes me feel good that it is done. I got the table set up for poker. I also got my chips ready and counted the cards. Now it was just waiting for everyone to show up.

It was scheduled to start at six o'clock. We had a full table pretty much the whole night. That was nice. A couple people came and busted out pretty quick then left. The whole thing broke around ten o'clock.

There was one hand where Travis went all in, on a bluff, against Matt. Matt had been calling all the way down. Matt had a high pair, but there was a lot of stuff out there that could have beat him. There was no way he put Travis on the bluff. But he called an all-in by Travis and won.

Everyone at the table was amazed that he made that call. Travis didn't know what to say. There were other hands like that, that it became clear it was going to be hard to buy a pot.

Worked An Event

I did some studying of the stuff for the reserve academy with Jessie. She came over and we went over a lot of the slides as well as the objectives of learning to see how well we knew everything.

We did our studying until around four. Then I had to head off to the fire department to get ready to work a basketball game for Beasley. The women's team was playing an exhibition game against a team from Australia. The other team had high school students on it. Our women's did well and beat them.

During the game I spent a lot of time reading and studying for my reserve academy.

Exhausted

After only two and a half hours of sleep I got woken up by back to back calls on campus. We ended up transporting both. I was lucky that we were starting class an hour late. So after the calls I went to Colfax for training.

I spent some time studying. Then our instructor got there. He tore into us a whole lot more. As a class we are getting into trouble over what a couple people in class are doing. If this continues I think it will be time for some of us students step up and have a chat with the people not pulling their weight. I really don't enjoy getting yelled at by the instructors over someone else.

We did a re-take of the written test from the other day. Everyone seemed to do better on it. I know I improved my third-best score to something even better. The class covered search. I was really tired and as the class was coming to a close I was really having a hard time staying awake.

When I got home I stayed up for several more hours because I wasn't all that tired anymore. Plus I didn't want to go to sleep at eight o'clock at night. That would throw my sleep patter totally off.