My Weekend at Brush Prairie.

===-Friday-===
I got up early to do my laundry at the laundry mat. I had to get my uniform clean for the trip to Brush Prairie. Soon I was finished, but the time was ticking and I had 15 minutes to get to the Colfax City Hall for the interviews for my IT Manager job I am leaving at the end of summer. We had five people to interview. It was good to be on the interview board, I saw the wide range of how people are and how they act. I saw the things that impressed me, and the things that made me raise an eyebrow. First off, clothing... It ranged from someone wearing shorts, tee-shirt, and sandals to someone wearing a suit, minus the suit jacket. Secondly attitude... It was sort of clear that some people were eager and enthusiastic and some were confident, almost like, they felt there were a sure thing. Clothing did not make a huge difference in the end, not nearly like I was expecting. I guess that might have come into play had other issues not been more critical. Third thing was their talkativity. I was surprised how much or how little someone spoke made a difference in my impression of them. Most so than their attire. One guy would answer the question, and the ramble on. One guy was so short with his answers it made him appear to have no personality. Lastly, was their ability to answer questions, especially technical questions. It was clear that number of years of "computer" experience does not equate to ability to do networking and server administration. The people who have been doing it in the past answered the questions clearly, and to the point, those who did not know tended to ramble on a little bit, and add fluff that sounded good. A side light to all of this is longevity. We wanted and looked for someone who was going to be around for a while.

In the end the panel was looking at 2 people. And the issues involved technology abilities versus their outgoingness or niceness. I argued that technical ability is more important. In the end the guy I wanted was hired. I think the city of Colfax will benefit from it. The other guy would have given some benefits as well, but I think the bigger benefits would come from the guy hired.

After the interviews we had to evacuate the City Hall since a bomb was outside and the Spokane Bomb squad was there to deal with it. So, that was a little bit of excitement. I got my truck from the parking lot, even though it was supposed to be off limits. I headed to my house to get ready for my trip to Brush Prairie. Jason and Garrett was going to ride down with me. They got to my place we loaded my truck and away we went.

We headed down there taking the gorge in to Portland. Then we went across the river to Vancouver into Brush Prairie. Along the way we stopped at Bugerville in The Dalles. That was a nice little stop along the way. Chatting with Jason along the way, I was impressed. He talked about things and sort of a history of certain areas, or information about areas. I was surprised to see someone that age, about 26, to have those cares.

We arrived around 7 o'clock at night and settled in. I went to Fred Myer's with Garrett and I bought some beer, food, and a lawn chair. We headed back to the camp site and sat down and drank and partied most of the evening away.


===-Saturday-===
Our first game was at 9:15 in the morning. We had 4 games to play. Three are seeding games, then onto the double elimination tournament. I was up and getting ready by 8:30 in the morning. It was game time and we were not ready. People were flat. No one was chattering nor really having a good time. It showed in our game play. We scored 1 run. Needless to say we lost. We had an hour break before our next game and most everyone went back to the camp to drink a little and wake up. We had a ceremony where all the bats and gloves were exercised of the back spirits so we could have a chance to win a little bit. So after tossing some beer on the stuff we were ready for some action. And we scored a few more runs, once again however, we did not win. In fact as the day wore on, we did not win a single game. Talking about disappointing. We played better and had a chance at winning some of them, but we did not play well enough.

After our last game Garrett and I went to get some pizza. We ordered for about 7 or 8 people. We brought the pizza back, ate the pizza, drank some beer. Afterwards I was a little restless so I asked if Garrett wanted to throw the ball around. He said he did. Then I mentioned we should play pepper if we could get enough people. And about 7 people wanted to play, so we played pepper for about one hour or so. At one point Ron and Lisa were going for a ball, and neither was looking at the other one, they ran into each other at a running speed and Lisa bounced off Ron and fell straight back. We all laughed our asses off. It was quite humourous. As it got too dark to play we went back to sitting around and drinking beer. I had three shots of tequila in the middle of the beer consumption.

We played a game were each person around the circle would say one word and then the next person would have to say a word that would have to make sense with the previous people's words. It would string the words together for a story. It was fun. We of course use the opportunity to make our fellow teammates the butts of most of the jokes. Garrett and a girl who was on the team were getting a lot of crap from everyone. The girl seemed to be latching on to Garrett. She is 18 and Garrett is 22. So the age difference is not a big deal, but it seemed like she was hitting on him harder and harder through out the tournament. She would carry his bat bag, she would also sit with him and be close to him. Everyone else saw it too, so everyone was teasing them about it. A few people there know me better than some of the others. And I was able to make certain jokes that the others did not pick up on but made those who are closer to me laugh their assess off.

Around midnight I went to my truck to get it ready for bed. I was using the cab of my truck as my "tent". I sat down and was so tired it was no time that I fell asleep. I woke up about 3 am and I was so hot, that I was sweating really bad. I got out to cool down, and then went to be my bat bag which was left unattended outside. I hit the bathroom and then came back to camp. There was Garrett and his little girl, I asked where they came from, and he said they were out in center field talking. Hmmm... makes you wonder what they were talking about.

I got into my truck and started up the air conditioner. That helped a lot, but as the night wore on, once again I started to get really hot and sweaty. Since we had lost all our games our first game on Sunday was at 8 am.

===-Sunday-===
The morning came early and I was sweaty even with my truck door open most of the evening. I am not sure why, but that was the case. So, I am getting ready to play some softball. This was a must win game for us. I was pitching and having some troubles with my accuracy. After the 3rd inning Heather went into pitch for me. I was catching. One guy, who we decided was a "tool", would stand less than 6 inches from the plate and wave his bat around like he was going to be bunting the ball. He was getting mad at the umpire calling ball's when he team was pitching, say that he needed to call more of them strikes, yet he seemed very content that the umpire call all our pitches balls. He was a tool.

Anyhow, in the last inning with us trailing, we were up to bat, and we had two out, down by one run. The last person in the batting order, Dukie, was up. She got a walk, so we one person on base. Garrett was up next and the Tool came in from 3rd base to pitch. He pitch 3 straight balls to Garrett, and then Garrett did what the Tool had been doing to us. He acted like he was going to bunt. The ball came in, Garrett pulled the bat back and it was ball four. Garrett went to 2nd base, and since there were two outs the next girl also got a free walk. So, the bases are juiced for Dan. Mr. Clutch himself steps to the plate with the bases loaded, in the bottom of the 7th inning (last inning), two out, and down by one run. A solid base hit would score at least one, and maybe two for the victory. He see his pitch and parks it over the second baseman and in front of the right-center fielder. Dukie and Garrett score, My Office wins the game. The team cheered, and we were off to the next game. In the loser's bracket, where we were, we would have played eight straight games if we were to win the whole thing. That would have been the best day I have lived through in a long time if that were the case. What better than playing softball for 8 plus straight hours?!?!

Unfortunately, we went out against the very next team and came up one run short. We were upset about the early exit, however I found it to be an opportunity to get back to Whitman County. If I worked on Monday, I could go boating on Friday, and that is what I wanted. So, I left. Most people wanted to stay the extra night to party and camp out. I had to leave, so I did. I went to Seattle and saw my mom and step dad Bill. I picked up some wood deck furniture for my house and then headed to Colfax. I arrived about 9:30 at night. I got some dinner and headed to the fire department. I chatted to Carl for a little while. We talked about the hiring of the IT guy and the bomb. Then I told him that I would come down for calls should there be any. I went home, and I was tired as all get out. So, I went to bed.

Around 2:32 in the morning a call comes out for a guy with heart problems. But I was so tired I could not force myself out of bed. A few minutes later the pager goes off again asking for crew members to respond to the station, so I got up then and drove to the station. I got there just as the ambulance was ready to leave. We went to the Arm's Apartments and gave a guy a ride to the hospital. When we got back to the station I assisted in refilling the supplies on the ambulance. I left to go home still wearing my coveralls. Once home, I took off the coveralls, I had to take a leak really bad. I took care of business and went into my room and emptied my pockets. I was about to lay down to sleep when the pager hit again. This time there was a female laying on the sidewalk downtown. So, away I went. I got everything back into my pockets, donned the coveralls and away I went. I got on the ambulance. We go to the patient who was said she had been hit by a car two hours earlier. She could not find a phone to call anyone, because she was being chased by people, 6 girls to be exact, who wanted to beat her up. In fact, they had found her and they all beat her up, and hit her head into the ground. My EMS side said, that I am here to help you, no matter how you got into this problem. My Law Enforcement side said that she was only tell half of the story and they there was something more than meets the eye with her. We gave her a ride to the hospital and dropped her off too. I helped to get the cot and ambulance back in service. I finally got home and managed to get some sleep.