Final Day of the Decade

I went to the fire station and met with Brenda about the reserve timesheets. I also met up with Ryan about the map tests and the upcoming fire academy. I am going to be making the timesheets for the reserves this year. I also was integrating the timelog into the timesheet Excel workbook. But more importantly something I have been working on is the ability to fill out the timelog and have it automatically fill in the timesheet. That is now completed. I also let Ryan know about some of the things I didn't like about the academy in the past. I also let him know the map tests are worthless for proving guys know the roads. So often they pass the test with one-hundred percent, but still are clueless when they get on the street.

I went home and started to work on the new spreadsheet. I had the basic stuff done for the timecard. I just did some tweaking on it to make it closer to the ones we currently use. The timelog has some updates to it. Then I started to put the two together.

I was trying to create a master workbook that would have every one's name and employee number. It would also include the pay. Then if information needed to be updated on any reserve it would only have to be updated in one spot and the workbooks would get that information by linking to the master. But I was running into problems. That is because I didn't want to hard code each firefighters workbook, I wanted to be able to have one spot where I put the firefighter number in their workbook and Excel would then take that number and concatenate it with the column number in order to get the correct data. But that is not nearly as easy as it sounds. I found a function called INDIRECT, but it only works when the master spreadsheet is also open. That is not going to work for what I want to do.

Finally I had to give up on that idea for this year. I just made a master in the workbook and the data would be updated there. So it is still only one place to update the pay information for people. But if four people need their pay information updated it will require opening up four spreadsheets rather than one. But I got the whole set done. I hope the guys like it. I know several thought it was cool with mine, because I was testing out the process. Now that I know it works I asked Heston about doing it for everyone. He said go ahead. Several of the guys who saw me using it this last year wanted me to do that for them. So I am sure for the most part guys will like it. But as with all change there are some guys who hate change and will complain about it no matter what.

I went to the Deuce and met up with Suggy for working the WSU Men's Basketball game. They were playing Oregon in the Pac-Ten opener. The first half was not very solid for the Cougs. But in the second half they started to come alive. They had an eight-zero and a ten-zero run. Soon it was tied up. With about thirty seconds to go the Cougs had the ball. But they ended up wasting too much time on the clock. That caused them to have to take a poor shot and it was missed. That put the game into OT. In the first OT the Cougs had a five point lead, but it came down to a dunk by Casto in the final second of the game. The Cougs were up by two and the crowd went crazy. There was three-tenths of a second left on the clock. But the Cougs were assessed a technical foul for celebration. They gave the Ducks to free-throws. The guy made both and they tied it up and went to a second OT. The second one was closer. But the game ended when the Cougs had the ball with less than ten seconds to go. It was tied. The Cougs missed the shot. The Ducks got it and drove hard to the bucket. They made it and got fouled. They celebrated without penalty. They made the freethrow going up by three with, again, three-tenths of a second. But the Cougs couldn't come back and lost. I was so mad. It was crushed. It felt the highest of highs only to be crushed.

During the game I talked to Kuhrt and he was seeing what I was doing for New Years. I told him that I had no plans. He said I should come over. He said he would get in touch with me after the game. I went home and completed my project to work on the timesheets. I got a text from Kuhrt to come over. I headed that way. When I got to his place we watched some TV and talked shop. I asked him questions about the way he learns and remembers traffic laws. We had a couple drinks. At midnight we toasted the new year. It was a nice evening with the Kuhrt's and their pets.

Another Day Patrolling in the Snow

Melcher and I met up at seven in the morning to patrol. It was pretty quiet. We were stopping a lot of cars. It was sort of a ticket day as we wrote a total of five tickets. When the day started it was snowing lightly and the roads were snowy and icy. When I was up on One-Ninety-Five I had a car go by me at seventy-five. I turned on it. With how icy it was we had a hard time doing the turn quickly. We were slipping and sliding. I told Melcher if the car kept going that fast we would not get caught up to it because I wasn't going to go that fast to get it. But we did catch up to it. I wrote the driver for that one.

Later had lunch with BKoe and KStew. It was a pretty nice day over all. We didn't have any calls to deal with. I am pretty much a call killer.

Christmas Vacation is Over

This morning I got my rig packed and got ready to drive to Pullman. I got to Colfax around three in the afternoon. I worked on the reserve hours for the sheriff's office. I went to Colfax Fire and hung out there for a while. Scott and I talked for a while about D-Twelve getting a Colfax Ambulance.

Later we had a coroner's meeting. Anna brought in a cake for my birthday. We went over some cases and got our coverage set up for the month of January. It was a normal two hour meeting.

When I got home I downloaded a program for my cellphone that turns it into a wireless hotspot. That way I can use my laptop when I am not at home nor near other hotspots. I hope to get it set up to use while I am patrolling.

Seeing Mr. T.

I went to Issaquah to return my extra set of router bits. I bought some blades for my saws and a couple various tools. Then I met up with Mr. Thuot in Issaquah at Starbucks. We were there for several hours talking about life and health. We talked a little bit about ICS systems and his speaking tour that he did where he went to several cities to talk about dealing with major events at a school setting.

I hung out with Dave this evening. Tomorrow is his birthday. We went to Shari's for dinner. I had pizza with my mom so I just had some pop. We sat there talking about life and work. Then we went to see the movie The Hangover. The Regal Thirteen theatre is now a second run theatre. They had lots of older movies there. When the movie was done Dave and I said our goodbyes and I headed home for the night.

Seeing Pond After Ten Years

I went to Burien to meet up with Chris. He was taking me on another ride along. It is so a great pleasure to be out there with Chris. I love to see him working. He has found his calling by being a cop.

It was pretty quiet over all. We responded on some minor calls, nothing too major. A call for harassment, a truck that hit a fence when it rolled after it popped out of gear, there were a couple warrant checks on people, and we looked for a car that flew by us. We found it parked next to a house. The guy lied about the car. He said it didn't run, but it was warm. Then he said it runs, but he doesn't drive it because the tabs are expired.

After riding with Chris, I drove South near Spanaway to see an old roommate. I had not seen him for about ten years. It had been a long time. We had been roommates at one time while I was staying in Pullman for the summer when I was first staying in Pullman for the summer. He is a mo. He always was interested in me, but I wasn't so interested in him because back then I was not a big fan of being gay. Not that a lot has changed, but I am a little more comfortable. But I still have issue with being with another gay guy. I would love to find someone who I would love to be with, but I have yet to find that guy.

Softball in the Winter

I thought my softball stuff was put away for the winter, but there was a softball pick-up game in Seattle that I was able to play in. It was put on by a guy who plays softball in the ECSA. Several others who played also are in the ECSA. Two of the guys really caught my eye. One was an athletic guy. He play shortstop for my team. He had the couple-day facial hair growth going for himself. I would have placed him in the cute category. The other guy was a little more of my kind of guy. He was blonde hair and blue eyes. He had a nice smile and also was athletic. He wasn't over weight, but he had some bulk about him. He wore a baseball hat with a well rounded bill. He was ten-six-seven.

We played about an hour and a half of softball total. I was hitting the ball well. I had a fielding error. I let a ball go under my glove. But I had a great time.

I headed up to Bellingham to see Joe and Doug. I was also doing a ride along with Joe. I got to their place and we chatted about their house and about their cats. Then Joe and I hit the road. It was a pretty quiet night over all. I got a chance to see him do a DRE evaluation for someone suspected of being on drugs. I headed home at three in the morning.

Merry Christmas!!!

When I got up this morning my stepdad was making brunch. We had bacon and crapes. I helped to clean up then we opened gifts. I made out pretty well. I got cold weather underarmour, patrol gloves, router bits, patrol boots, tennis shoes, US Mint proof set, Apples to Apples, Trivial Pursuit, and a new shower head. It was pretty much every thing I asked for on my list. I have two pair of patrol gloves and two router bit sets. I am going to return one router bit set. I may return the patrol gloves for a different pair or get something totally different.

I sent and received lots of Christmas wishes. I also received an invite to play softball tomorrow. I am looking forward to that!

I went to my room and watched TV. Billy was coming over for dinner. He got here just before five. I was watching Quincy so I waited until that was done before I went down stairs. We were having fatback with gravy and potatoes. It was a good meal.

We all watched some TV together. Around nine o'clock I went to my room and started to watch some more TV as I was falling asleep. I wanted to stay up later than I did so I could be more ready for my ride along tomorrow.

Christmas Eve with the Family

This morning the plan was to go shopping for some stuff for my mom and stepdad. I decided to brave the mall and go to Southcenter. I posted that on facebook and people were sending messages about me wearing kevlar and to R.I.P. Southcenter is a little more rough than when I was younger, but it didn't seem bad at all yesterday.

As I navigated through out the mall and some of the stores I found myself face to face with ten-six-sevens. There was one that had a perfect face with perfect skin. I was in awe. Maybe that helped to make the trip there so nice.

But as I walked around from store to store looking for ideas I was coming up blank. I couldn't find anything that I wanted to buy. It sucked. So I texted Jon who said I should get mom a gift card. I ended up getting one for Bill as well.

I got home and watched the Rockford Files then headed to Jon's for dinner and the gift exchange. We had Chinese food and everyone sat around talking. We talked about guns and computer programming.

I got router bits and patrol gloves for Christmas. I also got a birthday present of Office Two-Thousand-Seven from Jon and his family.

I headed out around ten o'clock to head home. It was a nice time with the family.

I'm an Eagle

I went to the SO today to drop off my stuff from my last two coroner's cases. Then I went to report writing to write up a ticket that I wrote on Monday. After that I went into the jail and made the calendar for late night requests. I have been making that calendar since ninety-nine. I also updated the photoboard with for the year of two-thousand-ten. The board had years that ended in ninety-nine. I have been fixing it since the turn of the century.

Then it was off to Renton. I got home and then went to the Eagles. I was getting initiated today. I had dinner then waited to be initiated. After the initiation I went to Fry's Electronics to get a radio for Jon for Christmas. I looked at some computers while I was there as well. I have been thinking about getting one, but the one I currently have really is just fine. The fan is loud, but I can fix that for a few bucks and I would save myself from spending a ton of money on a computer right now.

Movie Night: The Hangover

I was supposed to be on my way to Renton today, but due to the coroner's case last night I stayed in town an extra day. I worked the coroner's case for part of the day. I went to Moscow and got a Christmas gift for BKoe. I also got myself a copy of the movie the Hangover.

I was asked by Reed to cover him on the fire department. So I invited Melcher, Rose, and Gecas over to watch the movie with me at my place. So it was an impromptu movie night. The guys came over and we watched the movie.

The only calls we got were all for a fire alarm at the Village Centre Theatres. We were dispatched there three times tonight. We only ended up responding once, but we kept getting toned out and waking me up.

Three Hats Today

This morning Melcher and I hit the road. I was working out there until five o'clock. I am on call for the fire department starting at six. We hit the road and ran some traffic on twenty-six. We met up with BKoe, KStew, and Monte for lunch at Cougar Country. We ran a fresh arrest to Colfax for BKoe. Then we went north and ran more traffic. We made a couple stops along the way. We got back to the station and I was out of there around five. I got to the station and rig checks were done.

Robinson and I hung out at the station for a couple hours. But we didn't have any calls while we were there. I went home and I was online chatting with someone on facebook when a call came in for an injured person with blood. As I got to the station I heard the person wasn't breathing and was cold. We got cancelled quickly as it turned out the person was dead.

It wasn't very long before I went to the scene as a coroner. I told Pete that I was on call for the fire department and I might need to leave if a call came in. I worked the case for a couple hours on scene and then at the funeral home. After I was done with the funeral home the tones went out for a fire alarm. I went to the station and we headed out on it. We were cancelled nearly right away. That was all we had for calls, but because of the coroner's case I didn't get to bed until late.

Hanging with B-Shift

This morning I was going to bed at seven o'clock in the morning. I got up just before one o'clock PM. I went to the fire station and gave them some fudge to try. When I was there Chia asked if I wanted to stay for a movie. I did. We watched Inglorius Basterds. That is a pretty good movie. I watched it a while back in the movie theatre as well.

When the movie was done I went home and put in a couple loads of laundry. I wanted to get that done before my trip to Renton on Tuesday.

I had planned on watching my Sunday night shows, but that didn't happen because they were re-runs.

A Cop on a Car Accident

I went out on Patrol with Melcher today. It was sort of a last minute thing. I wanted to go out and I made the call. He was up for it. We met up and hit the road. Today was "ticket day". We were going to hit it hard. Turns out we wrote one ticket on about six stops. That is pretty par for the course. I was really getting hungry, to the point where it felt like I was getting some reflux going on. We went to Subway and had some dinner. Just after I completed my last bite a call came in for a rollover car accident with road blockage. We were the closet cops there. We got on scene first and started to check stuff out. I went to run the plate on the vehicle. I said "Idaho plate, through... [I started to realize I was going to say something stupid] Idaho. Well duh! I already said it was through Idaho. The Colfax Rescue guys got there and poked some fun at me after the call.

Melcher and did traffic control around the accident for about two hours following the ambulance's leaving. Then we were on our way in to town. We heard one of the deputies asking for a couple more units. He asked them to expedite. We made our way there after asking if they wanted us. That was our final task. We spent the rest of the evening at the hospital dealing with a person who had been transported there from the jail. We were mostly just standing by. I was there until six-thirty in the morning when I things were finally winding down for the most part. I was tired. I wasn't expecting to be out that late for sure!

Happy Thirty-Sixth Scotty

This morning I had a critique for a car accident. It was the one where the guy hit the two pedestrians. When the critique was over I stuck around for a little while talking to some of the people there. A couple people wished me a happy birthday. I was also getting a lot of birthday wishes on facebook as well.

Ryan met up with me at my house right about eleven. We took my truck to get the alternator worked on. Then it was off to my place. We made some fudge. But the first batch was not right. I cooked the base ingredients too long. It was dry. I tried a second one and more or less did the same thing. So I messed up back-to-back batches. We went to Moscow to Hastings to look at some movies. I wanted to buy the Hangover. We then went to Walmart. But they didn't have the unrated version available.

We went to my place and I tried a third batch of fudge. But because I was scared to cook it too long, I think I went too short and it was a little too creamy for what I like. But overall it is going to work out.

We then got ready to go bowling at Zeppoz. I met up with the Young's, Richards, Gollnick, Keeton, BKoe, the Caessens'. Ron and Heather came down as well as Dan and Michele. Jessie also came by. She brought me some crack for my birthday. We bowled several games. I wasn't bowling very well. But BKoe did awesome. He had two games over two hundred. He also got a game with no open frames. After bowling for several hours we called it a night at Zeppoz. Ryan had to leave to drive back to Spokane. Richards, Gollnick, and I went to Sports Page. We played several games of pool over the next couple hours. In the first game I played I nearly ran the table on John. I was sinking all my shots. But as the night went on I got worse and worse, without the help of alcohol to get worse.

It was a good birthday. I was happy to get a chance to be with friends. They make it special.

Recovered...

It took several days but I think I am finally getting back to normal. I have been running pretty hard for the last several days and I needed to just relax and not work or do much of anything. That was today.

I was going to meet up with the guys from the Reserve class but it turned out being cancelled. So I got to the station and no one else was there from the class. I hung out with the guys from the station for a little while. I invited them to come out to my bowling party tomorrow.

Happy Twenty-Fifth Pritch

This morning we had a critique for one of the two recent fires at Terrace Estates. It really didn't bring out a lot other than some communication issues and dealing with the cold.

Later on I had a transfer in the city with Chuck. I got a rescue crew to come along to help us with lifting. It was a round trip to the hospital and back to her residence.

After the transfer I had some time before I had to head off to the Rimrock Search critique. On the way down I called Chia to see what he was doing on Friday. He then said they were out with Pritch at Zeppoz for his birthday. They said I needed to come. But because I am going to the critique and on call I didn't think I would make it out.

I was near Zeppoz when that conversation took place. I popped into Zeppoz and wished Blake a happy birthday. I said hello to the other guys who were there before hitting the road for Colton.

This critique was a lot more involved than the one from this morning. We started with a slide show the Sheriff put together. Then they talked about how the search was started. Then on to things that went well. That was pretty brief. Then we talked about things that didn't go well. There was a bit of a longer list.

Several of the things they came out with were valid. One was communication problems. One was not having an ambulance or a visible designated EMS team for the searchers. Then there were a couple things that caused some grief that I was involved in. One was the use of the Spokane mountain rescue team to help with the recovery. I spoke up as to what my thoughts were. Pretty much when we are in recovery mode, there is no hurry and safety is of the utmost importance. Then there was one issue I brought up where I blocked the only pathway to get people out of the area where they searched. I got committed and I couldn't move. That caused some people to get upset because they wanted to get out of there and they were forced to wait. I explained what my mistake was and how I intended to correct it in the future. Pretty much, it was, me being the last unit out of an area like that.

When the critique was over with I think people were overall happy with the command and the decisions made. We learned a little.

I came back to Pullman. I called up another guy on the fire department to see if he would cover for me so I could go out with the guys. I was able to get coverage. I went to the hill. I met up with the two Blakes, Chia, Chuck, Timmy, and Mully at the Coug. I had two beers while there.

Later we went to ValHalla for some more action. I didn't drink anything there. Ross was working and we talked for a while before I made my way to the other guys. Chuck and I were talking about his upcoming promotion to Senior Firefighter. Chia was getting ready to go so we said goodbye to him.

After we left there we went to Mike's. While at Mike's a guy who Ben introduced me to a couple weekends ago was there. He saw me and came over to say hello and wish me a happy birthday. He is ten-six-seven and a very nice person. I enjoyed playing pool with him when we were at Mike's before. He told me to remember him when it came to softball season this Spring. I told him I would for sure.

Blake, Chuck, and I went to TLD after we left Mike's. We got a burrito to go. I went home and went to bed.

Daytime on the Road

I worked the road today with Melcher. We met up at ten o'clock and hit the road. We took a nine-one-one hang up. That was about the extent of our major responses. We hit lunch in Pullman. I drove for a while. We drove south towards the state line. I also drove us by the search area on Rimrock Road.

I was going to make a stop. But the driver stopped just after I got turned around and we were in a dead spot. I was able to get out as I was making the stop, but nothing more. So soon they were sending units to check on us. The Sheriff, the chaplain, Colfax Police Chief, and a trooper were all coming. Melcher took the stop and wrote a ticket as fast as possible. Then we got into radio communication where we were able to let them know we were okay.

I was supposed to have a meeting on the phone with the company I am doing the contract work for. But before the meeting time I got notified that it was cancelled. So Melcher and I stayed on the road longer. I got back in time for board and business at Colfax Fire. We covered the end of the year things such as the Fireman's Toybox and the yearly elections.

After the meeting I went to the SO and worked on some reports that I had to complete from previous nights out on patrol.

Rimrock Search Day Two

I came because of what Trevor said... See you tomorrow. After he said that I felt I had to be there. I got up and put on my stuff. I was bundled up well. I got to the command post at seven-thirty. There were more then one hundred people there. They were getting set up in groups to search specific areas. There was a morning briefing then the group leaders got a briefing and were sent out. There were a couple helicopters there as well.

It wasn't very long after the teams started to go out that a hit had been made. There was a ton of radio traffic. I knew they were on to something. Then the Sheriff called me into the command vehicle. I heard him talking to someone on the phone as he was giving them instructions to find Pete. That is when I knew they found the hunter. That was not good news, because if they are looking for Pete that meant he had died.

I went sent in as the coroner. I got to the area where he was found. He was about two-hundred-and-fifty yards below the hillside from me. The teams worked to get him back up. It was a long process. After we got to the top the searchers got into two lines and we drove between them as they paid their respects.

There was a lot happening around the basecamp. People were asking how I was doing. They got me some food. I went to Adam. We shook hands and did a hug. I thanked him for helping me out. I said my condolences to Trevor. We also shook hands and hugged. I was stopped by a family member who gave me a hug and thanked me for the work I had done.

Then it was off to the funeral home for me. I worked with Pete for a couple hours to figure out what happened. I left around four to go home and get cleaned up before I was on call for the fire department. I got some dinner and went to the station to eat it before doing our daily rig checks and Monday night training.

It was a long couple days for me with the fire department and the searching. It was a sad outcome. It was the first time I had been part of something like that. It was a huge incident and it was great to see everyone who came out to volunteer their time to help search.

I started out the day as a sheriff, then changed to a coroner, and I ended the day as a firefighter.

Rimrock Search

After my brief sleep and the long night of running calls with Pullman Fire I was up and getting dressed to head to Colton for the search for the hunter. I met up with Rich and Craig in Pullman and we had a caravan down there. When I got to the basecamp there were only a dozen people down there or so. It was early on. I was teamed up with three young men. It turned out it was the son of the missing man and his friends. They wanted to put a member of the SO with each team going out searching. We were sent down the road a ways to start our search. The son was leading the way as he knew the area well. We made our way along some level ground. There was about four inches of new snow. It was covering rocks on the ground so we had to be careful where we stepped.

As we went along we got to the hillside and started to work our way down. We split up into two groups to cover two sides of a large draw. I was teamed up with a friend of the son who is in the military with him. We made our way slowly down some steep hillsides. There was brush that was hard to see through so we sometimes had to go lower on the hill to look around it. The hillside was steep enough that we had to slowly make our way down it sliding. Then we found a point where a creek made its way down the draw. It was frozen over so we were walking on the ice trying to get down in a safe way. We had to slide down parts of that. At one point we got to a place where there was a twenty foot drop. We couldn't go up nor down. So we had to go up this side hill. There were no good hand and foot holds. It was steep and we needed to make sure we didn't slip or we would go off the twenty foot cliff. I was really scared. At one point I didn't have any good hand holds. I was laying on this hillside that I thought I could be a hurting unit if I messed up. There was large clumps of grass to hold on to. But those were higher up than I was. So I had me to get up to them. I was with a young man named Adam. He helped me get past that point. Then we worked our way down some more, but it was very steep still. I was thinking that we would have to make our way back up this hill side after we got to the very bottom. But the other group had already been there so we started to work our way up the hill. It took another hour or so to get up to the top. It was a relief to be up top.

We got back to basecamp and I worked on what help they needed there. I didn't get sent out on another mission after that point that day. We had been gone for four hours as it was. Adam and I spent some time talking. I also got his facebook profile up and added him as a friend.

I was at the command post until four-thirty. I wasn't sure if I was going to come back on Monday so I went to the son and to Adam and said goodbye to them. The son said "See you tomorrow". I think that really help me decide that I would need to come back tomorrow.

I went home and stayed up until ten. I had to fight going to sleep, but I didn't want to go to sleep at five in the afternoon and be up and sitting around at three in the morning.

Christmas Party at Chucks

What a day, I got up to go get the photos of the guys from the new recruit class, but they were dismissed from class at noon, just about when I showed up. So I didn't get the photos of anyone. I went into the kitchen and talked with Tractor and VanNess about both my article in today's Daily News as well as some history about Pullman Fire and the opening of the downtown fire station.

I was at home for a while waiting until it was time for me to head down to the fire station for daily rig checks. I got down there and worked on the rescue and engine. It was starting to snow and the roads has some snow on them.

The plan was to head to Chucks after rig checks. I got to Turner and I was dispatched to a call. So I turned around and went back to the station to run the call. After that call I went to Chuck's. It was going well until I got a call. I had to head from Chuck's place and it was an Echo. But it didn't take long to find out it was a nothing call. When that call was done Turpin said he wanted to see Togs and I. He gave us each a Christmas Gift. It was a very surprised by the gift.

We went to the call and got cleared when we got there. We then went towards a second call for a gas leak, but we were cancelled. So we went to the station and I went back to Chuck's. I was able to stay there for a couple hours before being called away. I left the house with no intentions of coming back. It was getting late.

I got a call from the Sheriff asking if I could help with a search for a missing hunter. He said I would need to head there around six-thirty in the morning. I thought it would be necessary for some sleep. But the calls would not cooperate.

I was getting called to service in a very steady fashion. There wasn't anything that was kicking our butt, but it was just a constant stream of calls.

I finally found my bed at three-thirty in the morning only to get called one hour later.

Making the County Safer

Tonight I met up with Rich to patrol the county. We cruised around for a while. Then we were asked to go on a detail with Cooper and some other deputies. They were going to check on a trespassing complaint. The information said the person wasn't supposed to be there and there could be some drugs in the place. We went there but no one was around. Rich started off the night driving.

Later on I was driving. I was on the Pine City-Malden Road when I went by Boozer Road. I saw a car on it. I turned around to get a twenty-eight. But I didn't pass the vehicle and it also wasn't on Boozer road. So I hurried up to catch up with it. But after about a mile I hadn't seen it. I turned back again and went to Boozer road. As I was going down Boozer road I found some dust in the air.

I went around a corner and saw it was darkened out in the road. I stopped and it moved off the roadway. I came behind it and debated whether I had a social contact or a stop. I decided a stop. So I turned on my lights. I made contact. Both people had glassy looking eyes. I asked about drinking. They denied it. I did a modified HGN. I saw one sign of lack of smooth pursuit, but it wasn't very obvious. I asked him to do the PBT. He did and it was zero's. I asked some more questions before letting them go.

I then talked to the other guys to find out if what we did was right or what we could have done differently. It sounds like everyone had a different idea of what they would have. No one said what we did was wrong.

Coming in Early for the Meeting

I went into the SO early to meet with Cooper to cover the things that were going on in tonight's association meeting. I have a CISD to go to so I cannot be at the meeting. I showed him my gun was clean. Then I gave him my idea for training for this upcoming year. Cooper was asking everyone if we had any complaints so we could air them out one on one. I didn't have any to speak of.

I went back to Pullman and to the CISD. It was for the suicide in Pullman from a couple weeks ago.

Gun Cleaning Party

This morning I worked on my column for the Daily News. It is about how people substitute the word Holiday for Christmas and pretend nothing has changed.

I got a transfer to Lewiston around three. I went down with Pritch. When it was done I went to Papa John's to get some pizza. The profits are going to be donated to the Lakewood police officers' families.

I got home in time for the gun cleaning party. Only one person showed up to clean his gun. That was perfect because just after cleaning our guns the tones went out for reserve callback. I went to the station. I was there for several hours chatting with one of the new guys. We joked about lots of different things. He talked about his oral board and how the room was set up. He said it was pretty intimidating.

After I left the station I went to Kuhrt's house. We played video games until around one-thirty in the morning.

More Flooding

This morning I was dragging but I had to hurry to make it to the staff meeting. But what I found was it was cancelled in favor of shift meetings with the chief's. So I called up Ben and we started his engineer drive time early. We drove around for a couple hours to help knock out the drive time he needed to be an engineer.

When we were done I went home and started to watch the funeral for the Lakewood Police. Within a couple minutes a call went out for a smoldering cushion. I didn't want to go, but I had told the others I would be responding and I didn't want to not show up. While we were getting to the station to go a second call came in. We ended up going on that. It was for a water flow at an apartment building. We ended up working that scene for nearly two hours trying to mitigate the water flow as well as get some of the water out of the apartment.

When the call was done I got to see the very end of the funeral before going home to get ready for HazMat training. I went to the station. I helped get some stuff set up for Drew.

The new reserves were having their training. I gave Tyler a bit of a hard time for missing a call. He said he was having pager issues. I looked at Chuck and said "Chuck, how long were you on the department before you decided to skip your first call?" Tyler took the ribbing well.

The HazMat training started to get interrupted by multiple calls. So finally we just cancelled the rest of the training.

Drew left, but then called to see if I was interested in going out for a beer. I took him up on his offer. We were at My Office. We had dinner and a couple beers while talking about all sort of things. But one of the major topics was the changes going on at the fire department.

I hadn't talked to Drew about it before so it was interesting to hear things from his perspective. It was a nice evening hanging out with Drew and shooting the breeze with him. I thanked him for the evening as we left.

A Very Long Day

This morning I had planned on working out but due a horrible night sleep I turned off my alarm clock, but I was woken up by the coroner pager going off and a phone call from Pete. I got out of bed and I was on my computer when I heard Pullman Transit talking about someone being on the ground and needing an ambulance. I heard it get dispatched out. Then when I heard more about what was going on I went to the station. I called Victor and he came down. A car had hit two people. They were about one block apart.

We got to the scene and helped with one of the patients. He was taken to the hospital and I helped to clean up the ambulance before leaving. It was a very long call.

I went to Moscow to get the food for Gribbon's last day on the fire department. The plan was to do it at The Deuce. But after talking to Mark we ended up changing it to station thirty-one. I dropped off the food and went home. A fire alarm came out and I went to the station. Turned out to be a broken sprinkler due to the cold and water was flowing. We helped clean up for about ten minutes.

I went home and then back to the station to start with dinner. Due to a call I was stuck trying to do everything by myself for a while. Help finally arrived. I was able to get to the station to pick up the engine and get it back to station thirty-one for dinner and then training. Due to the cold we were not going to do any spraying of water like had been planned. So it was a classroom training only.

After that was done I went back home to complete working on my computer. Earlier in the day I upgraded my IE from six to eight. So the CSS from the duty calendar website needed some upgrades. I worked on those upgrades in order to get the page to appear correctly. Just before I was done a call went out for a structure fire at the trailer court where we had a fire last week.

We got to the place. It wasn't a large fire but it took us a while to do all the overhaul. When it was done it took another two hours to get everything totally back in service. The cold weather was causing havoc with freezing.

I got home and I was in bed for an hour and a half before we were dispatched to a fire alarm. That totally sucked.

Mr. Lightweight

I got a phone call this morning to go over a couple work related things with the company that is looking to give me a contract. That was only a five minute phone call.

I got cleaned up and put on my Class-B uniform for the fire department. I got my boots and headed to the Deuce. I needed to show two new guys around Beasley because we had no one else to work the events with the badge pinning ceremony going on.

I spent the time when I got there shining my boots and watching TV. I waited around watching TV until the guys got to the station to start the training. I showed them what equipment they needed and headed to Beasley with them. I helped them get the beds set up and walked around some of the places they needed to know about. As it got close to two I had to run out to the badge pinning ceremony.

When I got to the Pioneer Center I gave my camera to Ryan who was shooting the pics. We started to get our seats and the ceremony started. It was one career and about twelve reserves getting their badges. I had asked Gollnick to pin me but he wasn't able to. I also asked Chia, and he wasn't available. I then asked Turpin. He did it. The whole ceremony took just over thirty minutes.

I went home and Victor gave me a ride up to the WSU police station. We were doing the Wet Lab drinking in the old WSU Fire station. We played some cards and ate a little bit while drinking drinks as Matt made them for us.

I was supposed to be the most drunk. After a double-shot, I was blowing a just under a point-zero-two. I was going to have a long way to go to get where Matt wanted me. His plan was to have me at a point-one-two. But as I was getting towards the point-zero-eight, the legal limit in Washington, I was really feeling the effects. I am a bit of a light weight.

We made our way to the CUE. I was feeling pretty good, but Matt also had me get a couple more shots. While there I had a point-seven-three reading near the start and a point-seven-eight at the end. I wasn't legally intoxicated, but people would argue I was under the influence. I hardly could stay in the starting position.

I knew my eyes were not doing well, I could feel them spazzing out at max. dev. I figured I would not do too well when they decided whether to arrest or not.

Sure enough at the end they saw I had six clues in my eyes. That is the most possible. I also had about two to four clues in the other tests on average. Most people put me at a point-one-three or so. I was nearly half that. When they heard what level I was they burst out in laughter. It was a good time.

When we were done I got a ride to ValHalla to meet up with Ben. He was in town for a turf club Open To Close event yesterday at the Coug. I got to ValHalla and start to drink water. That was my drink of choice for the rest of the evening. We at ValHalla with a couple others guys Ben knows. Brandon, was one of the guys with Ben. He plays softball with Barge's IM team. Ben is telling me I should try to steal him.

Brandon was very nice. He was easy to chat with. Ben said he is competitive and a good player. We walked to Mike's and played some pool there. I could see Brandon's competitive edge come out. We stayed at Mike's until just before two o'clock.

I walked back to ValHalla with the group but I broke off with them. Ben gave me a hug and said good bye. I went downstairs and waited for my taxi to show up. I ran into Mully and Pritch. We all shared a taxi to get home.

Almost Wrecked a Patrol Car... Darn Deer

I stopped in at Pullman Fire for a while and chatted with Reiber and the guys for a little while. Southern came in with some goodies that he got from an event the city of Garfield put on.

This afternoon Melcher and I had planned on hitting the road. I got to the SO around four-thirty. We got our car ready and hit the road. We first tried to do some paper service. A car went by us at ten over. I turned on it, but it disappeared. We think it made a quick turn on a side road and darkened out. We drove some side roads but didn't find anything.

We went to the SO and then to Subway with the others for dinner. Then we hit the road again. We went up north and worked Tekoa. Then we worked a bunch of county roads. It was very dead on some of them. We didn't see any cars for several hours.

We were finally heading into Colfax. I was driving down Buck Canyon when all of a sudden Melcher said something. I see the deer running right in front of the car. It is bigger than life. I thought for sure we were going to hit it. We missed it, but as the deer kept running it got tagged by a box van. It was laying in the middle of the road bleeding and kicking. It didn't take long for it to die.

The box van sustained minor damage, but not enough for it to meet the damage threshold for being reportable.

It was pretty much the end of the night. We drove to the Albion road and then back. I rinsed the car because it got pretty dirty on the county roads before going home.

Engineer Training with Victor

This morning I got ready for a trip to Pullman a day early. I was going to work with Victor. I went to Three Pigs to have lunch with Jon and the other guys.

Then I hit the road. It was a typical trip there. Nothing of note happened.

I got to Pullman and got ready for Victor's training. I got some engineer calculations ready for him to do. Then I waited for him to get there. First we worked on the calculations. I helped him go through them.

We hit the road and drove around. We did about an hour and a half of city drive time.

Another Shot in the Ankle

At my doctors appointment today he saw the swelling that still existed. He decided that I needed to have a shot of steroids in order to reduce swelling long enough to allow some of the tissues to grow back. Then the swelling would be reduced over time. I asked him about complete recovery time and he said it can take upwards of ten months.

This evening I was on the boat patrol. The ankle was feeling good because of the shot. I am a big fan of not having ankle pain.

While I was out on the boat I had a chance to drive for a while. I hadn't driven the new boat yet. It went smoothly. The Christmas Cruise went off without a hitch.

Christmas Cruise Ought-Nine

This morning I got up and started to get ready for my trip to Seattle. I was doing some stuff around the house. I responded on a call to the fire department, but no one else showed up for it.

I home and packed. Then I went to the bank to deposit a couple checks. I needed to stop by the fire station to get a photo of our new Training Officer, Ryan. I stopped and chatted with the guys there for a while. I stopped and got some pizza slices on my way out of town.

The trip itself was uneventful. I listened to a lot of talk radio, where the subject was mostly about the shooting of the Lakewood Officers.

I got into Renton. I stopped at my parents' place and dropped off my clothes. Then I went to the Eagles for dinner. I forgot how far I was from Mercer Island. Normally not a big deal, but there was a major back up on Four-Oh-Five from Newport to Renton. So I had to take surface streets. I found my way behind all sorts of slow cars. I would finally get out from behind one only to have a new one move into my way.

I got to the police station with about ten minutes to spare. I got my uniform on and headed to the water for the Christmas Cruise. I was pretty tired. But the cruise was uneventful. We went to Lake Union. There were about fifteen yachts following along.