Busy, busy, busy... I will miss that.

Today was the end of my first of the last two weeks at work for the county. I was told by one of the commissioners that he did not want to see me go and he was going to try to get me a raise so I would stay. That puts a new wrinkle into the mix. I have a hard time thinking about what way to take it. Should I take the job in Seattle and be happy with the extra money. Heck I could sell my old boat and get a new one. Or I can stay in Whitman County and keep the old boat. I would like to get a new boat in a lot of ways. That is for sure. I really like the boat I have, but it would be nice to get one I could leave in the water for a week without sinking.

I am going to let it work itself out. Fate has a way of working. I always believe that no matter what I do to change things or do things the way I want, that fate really is at work and I have no real control. The only thing that comes out of getting worked up over things is stress. I am going to attempt to avoid the stress.

I went to Pullman because I was on call for the fire department and it was my first practice with the football team. I was going to be able to suit up. Before football practice there was softball practice and before that I had to meet with Pat about the business. I was going to tell him about leaving the area.

I talked with him and I was running late because we talked longer than expected. Then I tried to get to the Valley Road Playfields. The traffic was horrible because all the mom's were coming into town for Mom's Weekend at WSU. It took almost ten minutes to go from Military Hill to College Hill. That really sucked. I got to practice in time to do some batting practice. Then I left and headed for Moscow.

I got to the Kibbie Dome with about ten minutes to spare but I had to put all my pads in the uniform and get everything on. There is no better feeling that suiting up in full football gear and going out on the field. Makes you really feel like a man. I love it. I walked on the field and found it was a helmet's only practice. So I took off the shoulder pads and only wore my helmet and football pants. Practice was sort of long. People were worried about me playing because I am getting off my ankle injury. I want to play, but I am still gimped up. When I try to run it is obvious I have a problem.

After practice I went to Ryan's apartment to hang out for the evening. I changed into my fire uniform from the football uniform. Ryan doesn't have cable so we were not going to be able to watch Third Watch. I decided that we could try to watch it at the fire station. We grabbed some chow at McDonald's. At the fire station we ate our dinner and talked with the guys down there. When Third Watch was to come on, the others let us watch it. So we saw it. We left shortly after it was over. My cellphone battery was almost dead because of all the talking I had done on it through out the day. I had it turned off and sitting in my truck.

When we left I turned it on to see if there were any messages. There was one from Whitcom asking for me to call. I was not the on-call coroner that night but they could not get a hold of Patti so I was asked to do the case. It was about eleven-thirty pm. I was going to have to come back to Colfax and get my camera to do the job. I told that to Whitcom who passed that along to the deputy. The deputy asked for my number. He called me up and said I could use his camera.

I headed to the scene which was down near the Port of Wilma on the river. I was told to go down the Spiral Highway" because the main grade had a big wreck on it. I cruised down to the scene. One of the deputies waited for me outside. He gave me a briefing and then I took over. I was on scene for a while doing my investigation. The funeral home removed the body and took it back with them. I accompanied them to the funeral home and did some more investigation.

I was pretty tired and it was almost three in the morning. I was ready for bed.