Saturday, January 31, 2004

Playing semi-pro football.

My only plans for the day were to go to football practice and clean my house. I didn't get either of those done. At about nine thirty in the morning a page came out of the Colfax Fire airwaves asking for one additional crew member to respond to the station for a fire South of Tekoa. I called Tim at the fire station and told him I would be en route. I got up and quickly got dressed and headed down. I got into the ladder truck and we headed off going code three to the scene of a grain elevator fire. We got about half way there and they called and said we could cancel since the structure we were going to help protect was now fully involved. So we turned around. Following that they wanted some foam. We went up in Carl's truck.

We got on scene and the flames were shooting out of the entire roof section of the elevator. The building was about one hundred feet tall. We set up the foam and started to spray the foam and then one of the hosed sprang a leak. We changed out that hose only to have the one we just put on spring a leak. So I spent the rest of the time there taking pictures of the fire and the progress of the building burning down. I have some nice shots.

We left a little after one pm. I headed out to Moscow to try to make it to football practice. I am on a team called the Palouse Thunder. It is a new Semi-pro team that will be in a league with about six other teams from all over Eastern Washington. I got there in time to miss the whole thing, but I was told to go to the Kibbie Dome and get fitted for a helmet and shoulder pads. I got those paid for. I also picked up a pair of turf cleats and regular cleats for twenty dollars each. It was a good deal. I got lineman gloves and a few other items for football. Then I went to Colfax. I got the pictures printed from the fire and took them to the fire station. I still had not worked on my house. At about five thirty I got a call from John asking where I was. I told him Colfax. Then I found out we were on call and I had to get to Pullman. So, I did not get any cleaning done.

I went to the fire station and watched TV for a while. We got one call. It was an alpha response for a guy who was having back spasms. We transported him. That was it for calls. It started to snow. We got about three inches of snow total. John and I stayed and the station playing cards until about midnight then I went to the office to go to sleep.

Friday, January 30, 2004

I won at Monopoly.

I allowed myself to sleep in today since I worked until midnight in the jail. But I slept a little longer than I wanted. I had to put in ten hours today. I did some rounds around the county looking for people who needed help with computer problems. I also got some of the things taken care of. I worked until about seven pm. I went home and changed. I went to Pullman and stopped by Russell's apartment. Him and Nick were there. They are going to the show in Moscow tonight. They are very happy together and were hanging on each other. It was cute.

I gave them a CD with photos and I redid some of the photo's of Nick to get rid of some of the blemishes. Then I went to Ryan's apartment. We walked over to Dan's apartment and watched Freddy Vs. Jason. It was pretty good. Some good slasher scenes. Then we went to Ryan's and played Monopoly.

I won the first game in less than thirty minutes. Then we played again. Dan won that game in about one hour. It was pretty cool. I went home and headed off to bed.

Thursday, January 29, 2004

A slow Thursday.

What a day today was. I had to work in IS and then the jail. IS was pretty uneventful for the most part. I did my normal rounds and fixed little problems here and there. This week has been just dragging on. I went to class today we had another quiz and turned in our memos. We also got an assignment to write a letter. One option was to write a company about a bad product. I am going to use the letter I made for the problem I had last summer with the Gateway computers where HDD's were crashing quickly.

I went to the jail. It was quiet. I did my rounds and helped some of the deputies with computer problems. When I got off work I went home and hit the hay. I was so tired at the jail.

Wednesday, January 28, 2004

New Radios!!!!

I have been excited all day about the coroner's meeting coming up in the evening. The day was dragging on very slowly. I started out the day badly by showing up to work almost two and a half hours late. DOH!

When I was checking my e-mail I found out Justin had seen most of the accident and had been on scene from the beginning. I also found out he lives outside of Colfax and works in Colfax. I was surprised about that. So I asked if he wanted to meet for lunch. He said that would be cool. So we met at Taco Time for chow. We talked about softball and then about the fatal car wreck that happened on Monday. He told me that he saw the tools flying through the air. He saw the white truck go into the ditch and saw the grey truck go out of control. He said it shook him up later that day. At the time he was in rescue mode and did not think about it. He said he spent about half an hour with the guy in the white truck talking to him.

After lunch I worked some more. I ended up working until six thirty to get one of the hours back. It looks like this Friday I will spend doing a lot of make up time.

My mom called and we only talked about two minutes. She said she will be coming out here on the forth to help out. She said she would be here until about Monday. I need to talk to her today to be more information from her.

I got to the basement of the SO and Pete and purchased some pizza. Patti, Pete, and I ate pizza and talked about the case we had on Monday. We showed Patti the photos and the reports from it. Pete gave us our new radios. We got Motorola HT twelve-fifties. They are pretty cool. We got a couple body bags, some hand cleaner, some blood kits, and a few other things. We signed up for some nights that we will cover on the weekends.

After the meeting I went to the fire station. Carl did some stuff to my radio to make it better. He also showed me a few things about using it. He said when I know what additional frequencies I would like to have in it, he will put them in for me. I plan on having the jail frequency added.

Tuesday, January 27, 2004

Thermal Image Cameras are helpful

I got up and again there were no calls in Pullman, so I gather my things and head to Colfax. I got into work and worked on some small project. Then I went to the SO and installed a new docking station for the guys to use. Now that most of them have laptop's they needed the extra station to hook up. I also got the CD-burner in one of the other computers. I got the RAM into a computer in the Parks office. I got RAM in the printer in Juvenile. I dealt with some issues the jail had as well as getting the photo processed of the guy arrested for yesterday fatality car accident.

The Sheriff wants to have high profile people to have their photos put immediately in the Photo Line up. I built an application a few years ago for the jail. It is an Access database and ASP web application. In the past doing a photo line up was time consuming. We had tons of photos. The deputies would go through them all to get people photos they could use in a line up. When we went to a digital camera in the jail there were many changes that took place. First off all the photos needed to be stored in a way that was easy to get them. So I made a folder for each person. The photos of that person would go in to the folder. Each time they get more photos taken those photos would be put into the folder that was created for them. But there was no easy way to get access to them if you wanted to do a photo line up. So I started a database with the stats of the person. A deputy now can make a line up by putting in the stats of the person they want to search on. All the photos of people who meet that description will come up. The deputy can choose those who look closest to the person they are doing a line up for. It works out nicely. They also use it when they want a copy of a photo of a specific person. In that case they just type in the person's name and it will come it. Because in high profiles cases the media was a copy of their booking photo the Sheriff wants to get quick access to those photos. Under normal circumstances it could be about a month after a person gets book that their photos will be added, that is too long to wait. Anyway, that is why I had to process the photo of the guy who caused the accident that killed someone.

Overall near the end of the day it was dragging on. There is that new worm running around the internet that has been hitting everyone around here a lot. People have been contacting us about that. So, I have to tell them about the virus and how they are not to worry since Anti-Virus is finding the worm and protecting them from it.

I worked until six-thirty to make up for lost time on Monday. Then I headed to Colfax for fire training. We were doing some building searches. We were using thermal image cameras to assist the searches. Those are pretty cool things. After the training Carl, Jim, Jimmy, and I stay and played cards until midnight.

Monday, January 26, 2004

First fatal car accident.

I got up this morning a little after eight am. I heard on the radio that a head-on car accident had happened on SR one-ninety-five at Parvin road. It said the highway was shut down. I went to the end of my driveway and into work. It was weird seeing no cars driving on the road by my house. They were being stopped near Eddy's Restaurant. I got to work and talked to my boss for a minute. It sounded like more people were going to be needed at the scene. So I went to the fire department. When I got there, I was told to get my turn outs and we responded in Brush Truck Eleven-Zero-One. It was the first time I had ever driven it, let alone the snow and the going code.

I had to do a third-lane maneuver several times to get there. We got on scene and there was a Ford truck across the road and a white Chevy in the ditch. There was a person who was getting extricated from the Chevy. I helped to do that. He was pinned in pretty good because of the front end damage. He also had a four wheeler which had made about a foot of impact at the back of the truck. So he was sort of sandwiched. We got him out. He was in a lot of pain. There was a lot of tools and ladders across the ditch covering about one hundred feet of area. A person had died in the Ford truck. After getting the guy out of the Chevy, I helped to clean up our equipment and then headed back to the station.

Pete had called me to see if I could come help him on the scene. So I got my truck and headed back to the scene. I took photos of the scene and helped to remove the body from the truck. Then we headed back to the funeral home to do more investigation.

After that was complete I went to the IS building to work some more. A few people went to lunch leaving me to man the fort by myself. When they got back I went to lunch. I got some stuff and went to the fire station to eat there and talk with them about the wreck. At that time a call came out for a fall. It was an Alpha response. I said that I would go if no one else showed up, but I needed to get back to work after lunch. Milt was the only one to show up, so I went. It was a pretty quick call.

I got back to work and finished out the day. I had fire training in Pullman, plus I was on call. So, I went up there and we took the rigs to the Environment Health and Sciences building and had an asbestos and lead training session. It lasted about forty minutes. We went back to the station and cleaned the rigs. I got some people to cover for me at Pullman Fire. I am going in for surgery on the Fifth of February.

I told my mom that and I think she is planning on coming out here so I have to get some stuff cleaned up for her arrival. I think this weekend will be spent doing some work around the house.

After the training and getting the rigs cleaned John and I played cards. We also watched the Blue Collar Comedy Tour. We ended up net sum zero after playing cards for about two hours. I went back to my office and checked my e-mail before finally going to sleep.

Sunday, January 25, 2004

The easy way is never chosen.

I got up about three pm and started to get ready to work at the jail. It was not all that peaceful. I kept getting a call from a lady complaining that her town marshal was a bad cop. She said she wanted to report a theft. Finally Whitcom was getting tired of the calls sent the town marshal over to her house to have her stop calling. I got another call from her. She said to stop sending the town marshal to her house. I said if she stopped calling he would stop getting sent over to her house. I could hear some knocking in the background. The town marshal was there and she would not answer the door. I asked to speak to the town marshal. She said she did not want him in the house. I asked if she could hand him a cordless phone. She did. Then said started yelling at him to give the phone back. Then she started yelling "HELP!!! RAPE!!!" I got off the phone shortly after that.

At about seven pm they went back to her house to arrest her for false reporting a few other things. I could hear the town marshal on the way in on the radio. The lady was screaming in the background. She got to the jail. I tried to get her cuffs off but she was fighting with us. So I tried to calm her down. She would have none of it. Finally I told her we can do things the easy way or the hard way. She chose the hard way. We put her into a restraint chair for about an hour while we got a PC sheet. While putting her in the restraint chair she was still fighting us. Mark called for Keith to come and help out since he had used the restraint chair before. He was at Subway with a few other cops. So they all came, because they thought that they needed everyone. We had two troopers, four deputies and a town marshal.

Finally everyone left but two deputies. We took her out of the chair and put her in a holding cell. The rest of the evening was uneventful. I had to do paperwork because of everything and I did not get out of the jail until almost one thirty am.

Saturday, January 24, 2004

The Butterfly Effect.

I sort of slept in. When I finally did get up I drove down to the IS Office. I downloaded all the pictures from last night. There were some good ones. I took one of Nick and one of Nick and Russell holding each other and opened them in Photoshop. The one of Nick alone had a quilt that Russell grandma made. It happens that the quilt looks like a pride symbol with the rainbow squares. I took the background out of the picture. Then I took the quilt and duplicated it, making it the background. The to superimposed Nick on to it. It looked pretty cool. The one of Russell and Nick I trimmed up a little bit. Took care of some red eye issues. And took out a Coke can that was aesthetically taking away from the pictures. I printed those out to give to Russell.

I went down to the fire station and hung out there for a little bit. Scott was working for Jenny. I went to Rosauer's and got lunch. Then I went back to the station and ate. As it was getting near five pm I left and went home to get ready to work in Pullman. I went to my office get a new battery for my pager.

I left my office and headed to the station where I was going to vegetate for a while. Within five minutes of getting to the station a call came out for a nose bleed on Nye street. I got the rig ready to go. Chuck got ready and I drove us to the scene. We got into the apartment and there was a lot of blood in the sink. We transported the patient to the hospital. Then we went back to the station. We washed the rig and parked it. Just as we were done doing that, the engine showed up from manning station Thirty-One. I helped to wash that as well.

I looked at Matt's computer. It was not hooking to the network there. It could ping things locally but it was not getting DNS. It was being weird.

Ryan called and we decided to go see a movie. I went to his place to meet up with him and Meredith and Eddy. We went to see the Butterfly Effect. It was a good movie. It reminded me on the conversation Russell and I had about taking a pill that would make us straight. The effects it would have on who we are today and our lives.

After the movie Ryan and I went to Russell's apartment and I gave him the pictures that I had made.

Then we went to Ryan's apartment and played Monopoly with Meredith and Eddy. Ryan ended up winning the whole thing. After the game we played with the cats. Ryan's new kitty, Nemo was having a lot of fun.

I left about three in the morning. I drove around a little bit in the snow and looked around. Then I went to the station to get my turn outs out of the vehicle. Bryan and Matt were still up. I talked to them for a few minutes and then headed to my office. By this time it was near four am. I decided to stay up. I got online and chatting with Daniel for a little while. He is a gay guy. We talked about a lot of different topics. At about five forty-five in the morning I went to get breakfast and headed to Colfax. I got home and went to bed.

Friday, January 23, 2004

Hanging with Nik

What a day. It was sure a lot of fun. I started by getting to work and putting in my time. Then I left and went home. It had snowed about an inch or two. So I plowed my driveway. It started to rain later in the day so the snow the plow did not move melted off.

I worked on going through one more box of stuff. Now the boxes are gone but I have a stack of about two feet high of stuff I need to organize. I headed off to Pullman and went to my office. I was going to be going to Russell's apartment to watch a few movies with him and Nick. Nik also came over plus Fowler was there. It was fun.

Russell and I watched the Borstel Boys before anyone else got there. Then Fowler and April showed up. April fixed dinner for Nick, Russell, Layla, herself and me. We had steak and mashed potato's. It was good. Then we sat around and talked for a while waiting on Nik. He finally showed up. I planned on watching Get Real. But I had another movie called Defying Gravity. It was about a frat guy who was gay and involved with another frat member who had moved out of the house.

They had a rocky relationship, then the guy who had moved out of the frat got beat up. It turns out that the guys who did it were also involved in the house, but they did not know who they beat up at first. It was not a very well acted movie. We all spent time making fun of the movie as it went along.

I had my camera so I was taking pictures of everyone who was there. I had a chew and Nik asked for one. He was not experienced at chewing so he only had it for a few minutes. When the movie was over Nik and I left to get Nik's boyfriend Brian. We went to Brian's friends' apartment to get him. It was next to Don's Midway Market.

We went up some stairs to this apartment. It was wild. The place was obviously old. The apartment was decorated with Bob Marley posters. It had red paint on the walls in the living room and hardwood floors. It was an interesting place. I could smell an odor of marijuana smoke. But I could not see anything. That made me a little uncomfortable. We were only there for a little bit. Then we left. On our way out, we went to this apartment next door. They guy had three boa constrictors. Nik does not like snakes so he got out of the apartment. Brian had one around his neck.

Finally we got to my truck. I drove everyone to My Office Bar and we had some drinks. I had three beers and we were only charged two dollars each for them. It was cool. We had a total of nine drinks costing twenty eight dollars. We were there for about an hour and a hlaf. Some other gay guys came down to where we were.

Nik and I talked about being gay, coming out, and the issues and problems we faced while doing so. We headed out, and I took Nik and Brian to their apartment. Nik shook my hand and told me he had a lot of fun. I had a good time too. It was nice to finally get out with him and hang out for a while.

Thursday, January 22, 2004

I've hit my Boiling Point.

Today was one of those long work days. I started in IS. Then I left for class at WSU. I met with a guy in my group to discuss what we want to do our report on. He said that he is looking at doing network security when he gets out of school. I suggested working with SCS on that. I had some extra time so I went to see George. He likes the idea and he will help if that is the way we decide to go with it.

I then left for a dentist appointment. I had to get my teeth adjusted from a filling I had back in October. The left side of my mouth was still giving me troubles. It was ground down a little bit. Now it feels better and soon hopefully it will stop hurting.

I got back to work and did my thing. At about five-thirty I left to change to my jail uniform. I had to work until midnight in the jail. We had a bunch of warrants to enter. I started to work on those. There is paperwork that needs to be started before they are even entered. It took me about two and a half hours to get the paperwork completed. Then I did my four rounds on the floor. At midnight I went home and headed off to bed after watching an episode of Boiling Point.

Wednesday, January 21, 2004

RIT training

I got the three new computers that were purchased at the end of December imaged and ready to go. I went to the treasurer's office and to the assessor's office and set up all of the computers. The users really like them, and with one or two minor tweaks they were in good.

I was at the sheriff's office when a call for a two car head-on accident came out. Colfax sent one ambulance, Pullman sent two, and Albion sent one. The accident was at landfill road on SR One-Ninety-Five.

I decided that I would go to the RIT III training tonight rather than on Thursday night. I left to go to Pullman. I got there in time to catch a ride on the fire engine. We ended up going to the Food Services building at WSU and not the old Safeway building. We learned a few techniques for doing searches using a rope. We found some things worked well for us and some did not work so well.

I got home about nine-thirty at night. I went to work on my den. I got my books all put away. I got some more magazines identified. I got more envelopes taken care of. I started to go through some boxes of random stuff. I have about five more to go. Then I still need to go through all the drawers in my desk and reorganize my file cabinets. I have a bit more to do.

At eleven pm I stopped cleaning and watched the Family Guy and Futurama.

Tuesday, January 20, 2004

Getting the house setup

Today I had my English class. We are going to get into groups on Thursday and discuss some ideas for projects for the class. There is one other MIS major in the class. We are going to get together and talk.

After class I got back to the office and worked on the Chaplain's computer. There were some other computer issues through out the day that I worked on as I went.

I decided I was going to work until seven thirty pm so I don't have to make up the hours on Friday. I got one of the new computers imaged. Now I can image the other computers off that one image. It will make short work of getting the computers deployed.

I called the fire station and told them I would not be at training because of working at IS. After I was done I went home and decided to work more on my den. I started to gather my boxes of books and magazines. I wanted to get them sorted and put away. I got all my magazines taken care of. I have Guns and Ammo from about ninety-five to two-thousand. I also had quite a few Handgun and American Rifleman magazines. I still was finding some Guns and Ammo in other boxes. My Instinct magazines were missing for a while. Finally I found them in one box I forgot about. But I am missing the issue with Derek Inglut. It is the Jan two-thousand-three issue. That is one of my favorites. I will have to find that one.

I also went through more of my old bills getting the shred stuff separated from the throw away stuff. I have about one hundred envelopes to go. I keep finding them everywhere. I went through a box with my trophies as well. I got those set up.

I still have boxes full of reading books and school text books to go through. Hopefully I can get that done soon. I want my den to be nicely set up soon, then I can work on my kitchen. Then I will work on my TV room and finally my rec. room and my bedroom will be last. There is a lot to go, but it needs to get done. I want to get my pool table and foosball table set up. Plus I would love to have my TV room setup so I can us my thirty-five inch TV rather than the nineteen inch TV.

Monday, January 19, 2004

Training at Station Thirty-Four

I got up this morning without an alarm clock. I decided I was going to do something about my den. First thing I did was get my desk put together. Then I took the legs off my metal desk and moved it into my den. At that time a medical call came out. I was not too motivated to get the work done at the house so I went on it. I did not make truck. I stayed at the station and chatted with the others. Then Ken got back. We watched the end of Son In Law and then I headed home to get to work on the den.

I mapped out the room on graph paper and tried to figure out where I wanted to put everything. After moving the things around a little bit, I finally decided on an arrangement. So, I started to move in the file cabinets and white book shelves. I sat down at my work desk and started to go through the file cabinets. I only got through one drawer of the file cabinet. It was all my bills and statements from ninety-seven to ninety-nine. I pulled all the bills and statements from the rest of the envelope. I shredded the personal data and threw the rest away.

I have a bunch more to go. Plus I will do that for all the file cabinets. Then I will do the same for the boxes of books and magazines I have. I will have to choose how to set all those things up.

At about five thirty I left my house for Pullman. I was going to play cards tonight with John and Dan. We were meeting at "station thirty-four for training". Which means meeting at my office to play cards.

I did pretty well. In fact my bag of money is so full I am worried about it splitting down the side. I got home and tossed and turned until after midnight which made me mad since I was trying to get a good night sleep.

Sunday, January 18, 2004

Working in the jail... boring

I got to bed pretty early this morning. Close it six am. I slept until about one pm. I got up and just laid around for the most part. I got a load of laundry going. I went to the office for a little while.

At four pm I had to work in the jail. First thing I did was help to hold a hearing on an inmate who had broken the rules. During the hearing he lied to us. He was written up for another hearing for lying, plus he got in trouble for this first one. Things will be bad on him on the second one since he now has history.

The rest of the evening was much more uneventful. It did nicely drag on. I took the first four rounds. Oh my, did it drag on. Finally midnight rolled around and I went to the basement and ran a mile and did an upperbody workout.

I went home and watched some TV before going to bed. It was nice that I did not have to go to work in the morning on Monday since it is a holiday.

Saturday, January 17, 2004

Nick doesn't own a weed eater!

I was able to sleep in a little bit. Not as much as I would have liked. I got my day started by going to the sheriff's office and running a mile on the treadmill. I then did leg extensions and leg curls. I stretched a bit afterwards.

I went home and played with Amber a little bit and was getting ready to start my evening. I went to my office and worked on one of the computers that Dan had been working on. I got the Window's updates installed and the video driver.

I headed to My Office Bar and brought my computer to get some homework done before everyone else was supposed to get there. But Joe, Ron, Heather, and Eddy were all there all ready (I still think already looks better).

I got the English assignment started as they played darts. I got the opening paragraph completed and then I took my computer to my truck and played a game of darts. We were playing Splat. It is a variation of the game of Three-Oh-One. If you get the same score as someone else, their score gets knocked to zero. We would purposely not get three-oh-one until the twentieth round. That is as many rounds as the game will allow. That would make our money go further. In one game I was close and I aimed for the bull's-eye. The others said I need to get a high point. I actually hit the bull's-eye causing me to get three-oh-one in the sixth round. They were all giving me a hard time about that.

We played a few more games of darts and then the others started to arrive. We all chatted and drank beer. I did not have any pop all day long and I think I was getting a caffeine headache. Dave showed up. He went to Vegas for his twenty-first birthday. He was telling me about hooking up with a chick in the early morning hours. He ended up boning her in a bathroom on the sink. I guess that confirms that he owns a weed eater. I told him the story about when I was talking to Garrett about having a gay person on the team. Garrett asked who. I told him I would not say, but if he were to watch closely he would pick up on it. He then asked if it was Dave. I told him that I would not say. At that point he thought for sure that Dave was gay. Dave laughed his ass off. He thought that was funny.

Craig and David showed up. I sat with them and talked for a little bit. They are boyfriends. Both are very nice people.

I left a little while later to see Russell at Mr. Z's casino. Dan was there with a girl. He introduced me to her and then I went to get money and played some cards. I lost money pretty quickly. Then I told Russell to call me on my cell phone when he was off work and we would talk about the wonderful evening he had with Nick.

I went to my office and went to sleep for a little while. Russell called about two thirty in the morning and said some of the others were going to go to Denny's. He invited me. We went there and I had some pop. The others ate some food. While we were there Cole showed up. I was hoping he was going to sit with us. To my disappointment he needed the pit boss who was sitting with us. He left within a few minutes. We were there until about four in the morning.

We went back to Russell's place and he told me Nick is indeed family. I was a little surprised by that. He was a very nice guy but I did not get and real hits on my gaydar. I did not know what Russell was seeing. After Fowler and I had left, Nick and Russell watched A River Runs Through It. That is when Russell put his arm around Nick's shoulder. Nick did the same to Russell. Then they held on to each other. Using one hand to caress the arm of the other person. Russell said Nick was a little surprised that Russell knew about him being gay. Russell and Nick talked about it for a while. Then Nick wondered who else knew about Russell being gay. He said everyone in the room did. Nick said, even Scotty. Russell then said Scotty is family. Nick was really surprised. He did not think I was gay at all. He said I was the last person he would suspect about being gay.

I was likewise thought the same about Nick. He was not femme at all. In fact he had a very firm handshake and he was straight as could be as far as I could tell.

Russell said about how Nick and him are so good together and how they have a lot in common. I asked Russell how he was so sure about Nick. I was not sure about it at all during the evening and I was looking for things. Russell said when they were in California for the Holiday Bowl that while Nick and he were in the hot tub that anytime a guy would get out Nick would stare, a real death stare, at the guys' package. Russell noticed that. He said that the way Nick smoked. He said that during the movie Nick would put his head back on Russell's arm which was resting on the couch back. Russell said that most guys would pull away if he knew he was touching another guy. Nick on the other hand did not.

I don't know if Nick and Russell's relationship will blossom or not, but I know Russell would like to see that happen. He said that Nick is a mature guy. He said Nick is smart, funny, and good looking. He really is a ten-six-seven. Plus Russell said Nick had a great body. He was able to see it nicely while they were hot tubing together.

I left Russell's apartment a little after five in the morning and I headed to my house.

Friday, January 16, 2004

A long day for work

I was excited about today. It is the last day of the work week, aside from working the jail Sunday night, it should be pretty quiet. I am going to be going out for a big team party on Saturday night. So, this weekend is looking to shape up nicely.

Lobo Computer has received a lot of jobs in the last two days. It has been pretty neat to listen to the answering machine and have a new message. Many of the calls have come from campus. But I got one out of the city of Garfield. That was cool. I helped the guy over the telephone. I told him quickly what he could do to fix the problem himself saving money. But I told him to call if we wants me to do it. He said I would probably get a call this weekend.

Right after eight-thirty in the morning I was working at my desk when a call came out for an unknown injury accident. I was not sure if I was going to go, then I decided to go. I ran to the fire station. We went en route to the Endicott/St. John road. En route the dispatcher said that we could cancel since the call was in the Rosalia Ambulance area. We turned off our lights and siren and within about one minute St. John units requested that we continue since we were would be closer to the wreck. We continued.

More information comes out that a patient from the wreck is at the St. John High school and one is at the scene still. Rosalia Ambulance was also coming. So we were told to go to the scene of the accident and Rosalia was told to go to the school. We got on scene and the ten-six-seven St. John EMT's had the patient back boarded and a set of vitals completed.

We moved the patient from their rescue rig to our ambulance. Greg and Scott worked with the patient and I drove back to the hospital. I had the mom of the people in the accident with me. I went code-three back to the hospital.

After the call I went back to work. The call made it so I would have to pretty much finish out the work day instead of getting off early. I got my bosses computer done, I finish the computer for the head of the Health Department. She will be coming back on the twentieth from some time off. I also got the chaplains computer done.

Then I found out a ten-six-seven football player was getting booked into jail. I wanted to ask him about some of the catches he made while playing football. I went into the booking area and I found there were two bookings to do. I volunteered to help the officer on duty by doing the bookings. I asked the sergeant if that would be okay. He said the help would be appreciated.

So, I got to booking the football player. I did not ask him about football until near the end of the booking. I had to do pretty much a complete booking. I also had to do fingerprints and photographs. I then asked him if favorite catch. He laughed and said that was tough. He said the one against Colorado. He said that it was his longest catch. He said that he was focusing on not squeezing the ball when it came in, and he squeezed too hard and almost lost it, then he had to get it before it fell. I told him my favorite was when he caught the one against Oregon State in the end zone. Where he was drilled when he caught it. I finished the booking and took him to his unit.

I did the second booking which turned out to be an auth in. It was quick. I was about to leave when I was asked to do a could UA's for District Court. The guys were brought over. They took forever. I was there about an hour and twenty minutes before I got a sample from them.

I left and headed to Russell's new apartment. He had invited a guy he met over for a nice dinner and a movie. We watched Snow Falling on Cedars. It was a long movie. It was worth watching once. I don't know if I would watch it again. I chatted with Russell, Fowler, and Russell's new friend Nick. Nick was a ten-six-seven. He was very nice.
After that movie Fowler and I both left, and April went to bed so Russell and Nick stayed to watch A River Runs Through It. I got home and played with Amber a little bit. I watched some TV before finally going to bed.

Thursday, January 15, 2004

A girl likes me?

I spent a fair portion of the day trying to get my bosses computer running. I got a new hard drive. I installed Windows XP on it and all the other applications she needs.

I had my English Four-Oh-Two class today. It was pretty cool. We were practicing grammar. There was a sentence and we would have to choose the correct word from a list of two or three words that would work with the sentence. When that was done I got back and continued to work on the boss’s computer.

I was hardly into working on the computer when an Alpha call came out for a traumatic injury. I headed to the station. They followed up by saying someone had tangled with an auger. I knew from training that auger's are bad news. They said he was free from it. It turns out his clothes actually got caught on the PTO. They wrapped up. He was hurt, but not nearly as bad as it could have been.

I had to make a few stops before it hit five o'clock. I had to get to the Parks department then I needed to see Parks in the Sheriff's Office. I got the monitor delivered to the Park's department. Then I talked to Park's in the Sheriff's Office. He had a few questions for me. I headed back to the IS building. When I got there Sharon said that someone had stopped by to see me. She said it was a girl. She said it was the daughter of the lady we took to the hospital the other night. What is interesting is the lady on the next day asked how old I am. She said her daughter was wondering. I sort of wonder what her daughter wanted. It could be interesting.

As the hour neared six o'clock PM I was supposed to be working at the jail. I was still working on the boss’s computer. I called the jail and said I would be late. I finally left my office at about five fifty-five. I was at the jail only about ten minutes late.

It was a pretty quiet night. I got to watch a couple episodes of CSI. Bryce came over from Colfax PD. He did a round with me for old time’s sake.

Wednesday, January 14, 2004

End of an Era

It was bound to happen, and it did. I was driving to Moscow from Colfax for my doctor's appointment. En route I was enjoying a dip. Spitting in a Pepsi can I had in my truck. I take the tab off the can when I use it as a spitter. I pulled out the dip and I was going to drink some pop. I had an open pop that I had just purchased earlier. I take a big swig out of the can, and I notice it does not taste like Pepsi. And it was slightly warm. Then I realized I was in the middle of drinking my chew spit. Luckily I did not swallow. That is only the second time that has happened to me.

The other time was when I was a freshman or sophomore at WSU. I was in my room working on the computer. I had several Styrofoam cups from the dinning center on my desk. I picked up the wrong one. And a big wad of of chew (at the time I was chewing Beach Nut) can tumbling toward my mouth. Not quite the rootbeer I was expecting.

I talked to the doctor. We decided I would have surgery. I told him I did not want to go under. I would get a spinal. That would make me paralyzed from the waist down. I can say I am a little bit nervous. Then I was thinking about the fact I will be on crutches for about ten days. Not a fun thought. But I will improvise, adapt and overcome.

After the appointment I went to the Bookie and bought the book for my English class. It took only five minutes from the time I put money in the parking meter to getting back to my truck. No long lines. Nothing. It was nice.

I went to Ryan's apartment and saw his new kitty. His kitty's name is Nemo. Cute little guy. I took some pictures of the kitty with Ryan, and some of the kitty. Then Kristine came over and I got one of her and the kitty.

We were going to go to dinner to celebrate Ryan's new job. We went to Applebee's. I had a chicken sandwich and a really good dessert. It was about a fifteen dollar meal. There is a reason I do not go there very often.

I talked to Jason, the owner of NachoMan. I read an article in the Daily Evergreen about a new place being where that was called Fat Ass Burrito. I wanted to see if he went out of business or sold his restaurant. He said he sold. I was surprised. So, the NachoMan Nadirs will still be around since we have the shirts and numbers, but we will search for a new sponsor soon. Jason said he probably will not be in the area to play summer ball as he will probably move to a larger city.

When we got back from dinner Ryan got a haircut from Kristine and we watched SouthPark. I went home and hit the hay.

Tuesday, January 13, 2004

Who was Billy the Kid

This morning did not go well for me. I got up late. I was into work a little before nine o'clock am. I was only here for about thirty minutes before I had to leave for class. It started at ten thirty. I had to get my truck into Neill Motors to get some warranty work done on it.

I got to class and it seems like it will be a decent class. The professor seems nice. She sort of reminds me of Mary Poppins. Another thing is she wears these large glasses and has her hair tightly made up into a bun. It reminds me of all those movies where a teacher looks like that, then takes the glasses off and undoes her hair. They she turns out to be a real hot chic.

After class was done Russell called me. I talked to him all the way back to Colfax. He invited me over to see his new apartment. We talked about helping Ryan get a drivers license as well.

I went to work. I had to get a monitor delivered. Setup another monitor for someone else in the Auditor's office. Then I went to the Prosecutor's office. I had to find out how something was fixed so I could do it in the future. Then I worked on changing some of the e-mail files around for people. We had someone leave the PA's office and some of the other people switched offices.

While I was doing that I got a call from Sharon. She wanted me to come to the Auditor's office to talk to someone who had a medical emergency. The person did not want to get any medical attention. I talked to the person for a few minutes. I was able to get the person to agree to have the Colfax EMT's come and look at her. I helped the EMT's when they got on scene. I did a BP and BS check. The BS was low. The person agreed to go to the hospital by POV. But as we were taking the person to the POV the person needed to sit down again. We then said it would be best to go by ambulance. The person agreed. I ran across the street and got the ambulance. We loaded the person up and transported her to the hospital.

When we were done I went back to the IS building and worked until six-forty-five pm. I walked across the street and went to my fire training. It was a board and business meeting. When that was done I went home and took measurements of my basement. I laid it out on a piece of paper and drew in some ideas of how to finish the basement. My initial cost for lumber and sheetrock will be nearly four hundred dollars.

While I was online today I saw that the Billy The Kid case was going to be reopened. They want to exhume the body of Billy The Kid's mom and then test the DNA versus that of Brushy Bill Roberts who claimed to be Billy The Kid back in the fifty's. He claimed that he was not killed and that in fact Pat Garrett helped him escape. The two of them killed a drunk. More or less shot his face off. That way you could not see that it wasn't Billy The Kid. What is interesting is that Lincoln County New Mexico has a silhouette of Pat Garrett on their Sheriff's Office patches. If the story is correct, then Pat Garrett is a murder. I think that LCSO would look at replacing their patches after that.

Monday, January 12, 2004

Chose to win.

I had to work on a computer in the prosecutor's office today. I was switching out an old one for a new one. It went with pretty much no incident. I also worked on closing out a few issues.

I had CPR and FBAO for infant and child training at Pullman Fire starting at nineteen hundred hours. That training took about two hours to get through everything and get practical signed off.

I went to my office and Dan came down. A check I had given to him was not signed. I signed it for him so he could cash it. We sat down and just chatted about stuff. Dan had been a great friend over the years. He has helped me with my business. He helped me set up for my party at my house. He helped me move. He helped me network my office. He has really been there for me.

We both left and I went home to Colfax. I wanted to get to bed early so I could get up and do some running.

Through out the day today I spent thinking about the NFL playoffs and the way two games ended. St. Louis and Green Bay were both knocked out. I believe both team did not play to win. They played to not lose, and that is exactly what they ended up doing. St. Louis could have used more than one minute they let tick off the clock to drive the field. Score a touchdown and win the game. Instead they chose to go for the tie and try to win in overtime. Green Bay on the other hand had been running the ball without problems. On their last drive they were doing awesome on moving the ball. With forth and less than one yard to go, I would suspect that going for it would seal the game. Punting would give Philadelphia another chance. They chose to punt. Once again, rather than taking the game into their own hands they tried to see if the other team would lose the game. Defense is important, but you will on offense. Defense will preserve that win. One thing however that will lose a game is "prevent defense". Prevent defense prevents you from winning.

Coaches are so scared of winning they play not to lose. You have a chance for a win. You need to seize the opportunity and go for the win.

In both cases I wanted the losing team to win. I was rooting for both St. Louis and Green Bay. But with the choices their coaches made, I then wanted them to lose to prove my point.

Looking in to the eyes of a killer.

Have you ever looked directly in the eyes of a killer? Have you wondered what was going through his mind when he chose to commit his act? Then look at the same person who is only twenty-seven years of age and realize that the perfectly healthy man will be executed. Look at a man who would be considered handsome. A square jaw, well formed and proportioned lips, eyes that are manly yet not ice cold.

Looking this man directly in his eyes and think about the fact for a few minutes he was a living breathing human and then sending him into a gas chamber where cyanide is dropped into acid to form a deadly gas. To breathe this gas must have been painful, but not painful for long. To have the life violently ripped from him. To see if he walks to the gas chamber and does it like a man or if he goes crying like a sissy.

Does he take responsibility for his actions and is will to accept the consequence. You look into this man's eyes and you see that he did. You see that it is a tragic life cut short. You see that he could have been something. You see that he could have lived many years beyond his twenties.

Instead you look at him and find it is hard to get past his handsomeness, past his youth, past all that and realize this man was a dirtbag. Executing him helped society. He was a thief. I hate a thief. He was also a murder. killing someone by shooting an unarmed man.

The only thing I wonder about is if I were able to go back in time and talk to this guy what he would have to say. What he would sound like. Is he as big of a monster that his crimes make him out to be? On October Second in nineteen and Thirty Five he was dead. He breathed his last breath. His soul was torn from his body.

Look for yourself and see if you think that Roland Cochran was ready to die.

Sunday, January 11, 2004

The merry-go-round of life.

I slept in nicely today. I finally decided to get up and get a few things taken care of before working at the jail. I needed to get my e-mail checked and some sent out. I went to Subway and going a sandwich. I went to my office and got on the computer. I chatted with Ryan online and I sent out the e-mail. I was working on a few other small tasks when the clock was nearing four o'clock PM. The time I had to be in at the jail for work. I headed down the street to the jail.

I was working with Mark tonight he took the first four on the floor. I sat in control running the doors and camera's. At one point right around six o'clock PM a young man came in for a two day commit. He got into booking and Mark could smell alcohol on his breath. Mark asked the man if he had been drinking he claimed that he had not. Mark asked him to do a portable breathalyzer. He refused. Mark escorted the guy out of the jail. While in the lobby the kid took off running out the front door. I told Mark the guy was only twenty years old and he could be busted for MIP. Mark told the deputies up front. But by the time they got outside he was gone. He ran off somewhere. But it is not all lost, I am sure his probation officer will have something to say about it.

At eight o'clock PM I was the floor officers. But I had thirty minutes until I had to do my next round. I watched the Simpson's. One of the funniest things I have ever scene on the Simpson's happened. I was laughing so hard. And as the evening went on I would think about what happened and chuckle again.

Snowball II the family pet cat died when run over by Doctor Hibbard. Marge and Lisa go to get a new cat from the animal shelter. She picks out a prissy brown haired cat. Lisa is in fixing the cat food. You see the cat get up on the fish tank. Then it goes back to Lisa finishing getting the cat food ready. It goes back to the cat floating in the fish tank. Then immediately it shows the back yard where Snowball I and Snowball II are buried. It showed a headstone with Snowball III on it. I couldn't stop laughing at that image. It still cracks me up as I type this.

I did my rounds on the floor without incident. It was a pretty long night since nothing was happening. Finally midnight rolled around and our relief took over.

BONUS MATERIAL!

While working at the jail I was in the report writing room. There were a couple deputies and a reserve deputy. Both deputies are under twenty-six. The reserve is just over twenty-two. Then I started to think about when I was going through the reserve academy for the fire department.

***REWIND***
Back in late ninety-eight I was working full time as a corrections officer at the Whitman County jail. I was also taking classes at WSU part time. I had just graduated a few months prior with a degree in Philosophy/Pre-law. I did not have any of my other jobs.

I wanted to be a fireman my whole life. But I never pursued it. I finally went to the Pullman Fire Department with the encouragement of my friend Kory who also was a dispatcher. I got an application and filled it out. I tested with about twenty-five other people. I did not think I stood a good chance at getting on. I was surprised when I got a letter welcoming me to the fire department.

At the same time a friend of mine named Joe was being accepted to join the Whitman County Sheriff's Reserve training. Our training classes were going on at nearly the same time. So as I was learning to be a fireman he was learning to be a cop. A little way in to the training Joe was hired as a Corrections Officer at the Whitman County Jail. Now he was working with me. One evening while we were working two young men came in saying they were bounty hunters and they have a prisoner to turn in. In all my time at the jail that is only the first time a bounty hunter came to me.

While dealing with the bounty hunter, I found out he two was in the Whitman County Sheriff's Reserve class. Joe said that his name is Gabe. As time went on Gabe and I became friends. Gabe threw small party's mainly consisting of those going through the reserve deputy training. That is where I also met Keith. We all would stay at Gabe's house listening to music and having a good time. Those were some really good times.

A few months later all of us are done with our respective training classes. I was on call with Pullman Fire. A call came out on the Airport Road near the Moscow end. It was my first time driving code and it was a long response. Away we went. When I got on scene I was suspired to see Joe and Gabe. It was the first time we all were on scene together.

It is then that I start to realize that my generation is really coming into the mainstream. We are the cops and the firefighters that are responding to peoples' emergencies. We are the people at the other end of the telephone taking the emergency calls. We are selling people things, we are fixing things, we are starting to open and own businesses. We are getting married and buying houses. This is now the dawn of our chance to make something good of this world. Not in a grand way, but in our own little way. In thirty or forty years when I am no longer working, will anyone remember my name? I don't know. But what matters is that I can look back and smile because I know that I did my best.

But I digress... Those were really good times. That was the honeymoon so to speak. Since that time many things have changed. The innocence has gone so has Joe and Gabe. Keith is no longer a reserve, he actually works full time as a cop. My time with Pullman Fire is less of a learning experience and more of a SSDD. Don't get me wrong, that doesn't mean I don't like it, but if I had a choice I would like to go back to those days in the early two-thousands where we were all together.

***REWIND OVER***

In those years I have been packing on the jobs. Before joining Pullman Fire I worked just two jobs, Student Computing Services and the Whitman County Jail. Plus I went to school part time. Then I did get the Pullman Fire job. Then I got a job working Loss Prevention at the Bon in Moscow. I was working forty hours a week at the Bon and the Jail for a total of eighty hours a week. That did not include the time I was putting in at the fire department and Student Computing Services. One a typical day I would get up at eleven o'clock PM and get ready to work the jail, I would work the jail from midnight to eight o'clock AM. I would drive back to Pullman from Colfax and change out of my uniform to street clothes and drive to the Bon and work there for eight hours, but I would be forced to take an hour long lunch so I was really there for about nine hours. I usually started around nine o'clock. I would get home and I would go right to bed. That was usually around seven o'clock PM. Leaving me with four hours to get sleep. I got rid of the job at the Bon and then as time went on I would add a job here and there. Finally getting me up to seven jobs. That is what I currently work.

All my friends from the late nineties and early two-thousands are gone. I have moved on to hanging out with other people and doing different things. I am sad about those times being gone, but as I look back through my life I see that same trend. Something starts like that. It is the best of times. I never want it to end, and then without me being able to control things, they end. And I move around aimlessly until something else comes up.

I think back on those times with fond memories, usually making me sad for what I am missing out on. I think this is why my priorities are the way they are. They are specifically Softball, Fire, and Friends (Family). I will do softball before all else. I love softball and I have not missed a game in more than three years. When I am not playing softball I am focusing on the fire department. Should there not be something going on, then it is my friends and family. I will miss doing things with my friends in order to play softball. But my friends come before work. If my friends want to go out and stay up late drinking or hanging out. But I have to be at work at seven o'clock AM. My friends will win out. Because I realize that I can always get sleep but at some time those friends and this small era in my life will be gone too. And I do not want to look back and have regrets about not spending enough time with them.

I have those regrets. When I let the job at the jail take over my life. I missed out on a lot of my prime night life from the time I was twenty-one until I was about twenty-four. That was due to working swing shift at the jail, working through the time my friends were doing things. I was invited to and had to turn down many things. I look back and I am sometimes bitter at that choice I made and the jail for making me work when I should have been making a strong relationship with those friends. Now those people are gone leaving me with only sadness and regret.


Saturday, January 10, 2004

Don't grab the turnout coat!

I was trying to sleep in since I did not have to be to work at the jail until four in the afternoon. So I had my fire pager off, but I left my scanner on. I heard a call go out for an unknown injury accident. I did not even get up to go since I knew I would not make truck.

A little while later another call came out for a transfer. I called the station and I was told I needed to be there in about twenty minutes. So I got up and started to get ready. While I was getting ready a Delta call came out for a roll over accident. I knew I would not be able to go on that since I was going on the transfer.

I got to the station and grabbed my turnout coat incase I would be outside for any length of time. I was walking to the office area of the station and Carl came out and told me that I did not need to worry about it since it had been cancelled. He asked if I heard him say it over the radio. I told him I must have been in the bathroom at the time. So, I went in and Carl and I talked about fire related stuff. We talked more about the train wreck from earlier in the week.

While the ambulance was en route to the one roll over, there was a report of another accident. We were going to dispatch another ambulance to that call. I went a grabbed my turn out coat. When I got back to the office area, Carl said that call was again cancelled.

A little bit later a call came in for water flowing at the manor. There was water on the second and first floor and it was flowing down the hill to Main Street. Carl was going to respond in the engine. Then I asked if he wanted me to come. He said yes. I said should I get my turnouts on. He said yes. So I got my turn outs on and grabbed my coat. I got over to the office area and he said we had been cancelled. I asked if he was serious. He said he was. So, I went back and got my turn outs off. I said to him, that every time I grab my turn out coat the call gets cancelled. He laughed.

The ambulance got back from the call for the roll over accident. We talked with the people from that call. Pretty soon those guys left and Carl and I decided to get lunch. I was going to go to Rosauer's and get some hamburgers for both of us. We chowed on lunch.

I hung out a little while longer then I went home and I worked on plowing the driveway a little bit more. I was getting more of the remaining snow off the driveway and I was pushing some of the snow from the sides of the driveway farther off the driveway.

It was getting close to time to work at the jail so I got my uniform on and headed in. It was a pretty quite evening at the jail. Curtis and I switched off doing rounds. At midnight our relief came in. I stuck around and chatted with those guys for about four hours. We watched Crimson Tide as well. I left a little after four am. I went home and my CD with Ronald Reagan quotes had come in. I listened to that before going to bed.

Friday, January 09, 2004

Grand Opening, and I was there.

Tonight is the grand opening of Mr. Z's card table. I was looking forward to being able to play Texas Hold'em in a casino type environment. However before I could go, I had to put in quite a few extra hours at work to make up for all the time I was gone this week getting my snow plow, the MRI, and what-not. So I was at working until three thirty pm. But before I could really leave, Brandon needed my help with a program he built using Visual Basic Six. It was not installing on a Windows Two Thousand box. I remember a problem like that, and the problem had to do with the it not getting built correctly in the package and deployment wizard. So, he looked online for a few things that talked about the problem. Then I was starting to remember more about the problem. There was a setup.lst file that needed to be manually edited. I opened it and deleted a line about installed and registering a dll file. Then I had to renumber the other lines around it. Ran the install and it went fine. So I got out of work a little later than I wanted, but I really help Brandon who had to have the application installed on some computers that day.

I headed to Zeppoz. I got there and one seat was open right next to the dealer. His name was Cole. He is from Wenatchee. He moved here because of the opening of the casino. He is in his twenties. I bought in with sixty dollars. I also got a free t-shirt for the grand opening. The first fifteen people got one. I want there about fifteen minutes after the table opened. So I was one of the first players at that game.

I won about two or three pots the whole night. I was there for about three hours. It was not very good for me. I could not get a hand. Everything was low and off suit. The few times I got a hand the board would flow something totally opposite of what I had. There were many people around the table who obviously played with each other in other casinos. I got to talking to a few people at my end of the table. They were nice guys. Finally I walked away with five dollars and playing in the casino a little bit. My luck there was no better. So I finally cashed out nine dollars. I went out and chatted with Dan, Michele, Heather, and Ron. They were up bowling. I had a beer and dinner. After they were done we went into the restaurant and I finished off my beer.

I went into the game room with Jonathon, Ron's son. We played a few video games. He beat me at the racing game. I beat him at a shooting game and basketball. Shanna, Michele's daughter asked me if I liked sitting next to Cole. I smiled and said it was nice. Cole is a very handsome guy. He had an earring in his left ear on the upper back side. He has a ring on his right middle finger. He has nice short black hair, and a few well defined face. I left around ten pm and went to my office and chatted on the computer for a while.

Then I headed back to Colfax and watched a few TV shows before retiring for the evening.

Thursday, January 08, 2004

Spraying water is more fun.

I slept in and got to work at eight am. That was not the wisest of moves on my part. That makes it so I have to work longer on Friday. The grand opening of the card room at Zeppoz is on Friday. I want to get there to play on the new Texas Hold'em table. So, I should have thought that through a little better.

I got in and started to tear through some of my issues. I had to get my bosses computer running first thing this morning. She was without one all day yesterday. I took hers into my office to see what I could do about it. I also got one of the three new ones I got from Gateway opened up and I am working on getting it ready for deployment. I worked with our new account rep from CDW-G. We spent a while on the phone talking about ordering items. I also ordered a few things for people.

One of the deputy laptops was sent off the middle of last month to get worked on. It was gone for longer than I thought it should have been gone. I was going to call Gateway up today and complain about the length of time it was taking to work on the computer. Before I did I tried to get a hold of the deputy to find out if he got it back and I had not know about it. I could not get him. Then when I came back from lunch there was a box that I recognized. It was the computer. So, it did finally get back, so it was a good thing I could not get a hold of the deputy as I would have been complaining to Gateway and the computer would be getting here as I was complaining!

I had my MRI today. I went to Whitman Community Hospital. I checked in and then went to radiology. When I was sitting there this handsome guy goes walking by. I was thinking to myself "that guy is good looking". I hope he is not the one who is going to be doing my MRI. I hate to look like a weakling (more on that in a second). So, he comes out of the radiology office and calls my name. Indeed he was the one working on me.

He walked me to the trailer where the MRI machine is at. He asks me a few questions, and I spend most of the time looking at him. Then we go into the MRI room and I lay on a bed with my ankle in a device to keep it still. He said that I can go to sleep or I can do what ever I want. Then he looks me in the eyes and sternly says "no jerking". And I with my thoughts of him going through my head. And then thinking that maybe he knows I am checking him out. That he had not said no jerking as in not to move around, for a second I was thinking he meant no jerking off! Then I realized what he really meant. It sort of cracked me up.

I laid on the machine and it was a short thirty minutes. I was starting to fall asleep. I would get those involuntary muscle spasms. I kept thinking to myself. No Jerking!!! So, I tried to hold still. Then he came in the room... Wow, from that point I could go into some wild porn scene. But I will not. He said I was done. I collected my things and left.

I went to my house and broke out the plow and worked on my driveway some more. I got it a little better, but the snow was really wet due to the rain. So I was not able to throw it as far. I got back to work around four thirty pm and finished out the day getting the computer back to the deputy.

I was on call at the fire department. I went to the station and watched the Simpsons. The guys from station thirty-one were at Dissmore's working on a water problem. Soon we were called to come down with some squeegees. WSU Fire also came down to help out. A couple Pullman cops were there as well. There was water down about seven isles. We would get three squeegees side by side to make it like one big squeegee. Then we would move down the isle. We had water about three inched high in front of us as we pushed down the hallway. We were there for about an hour and a half. Then they brought in about twelve pizza's from Pizza Hut and they told us to go grab a pop from the pop section. It was a nice reward for doing our work.

Afterwards we went to the station, washed the rigs, and John and I played a game of cribbage. I gave him a ride home. I went to my office and tried to go to bed. I was tired and yawning, but I could not fall asleep. I tossed and turned for more than two hours before falling asleep. I woke up several times through out the night.

So, on to my weakness story. Being injured is for the weak. I hate being injured. I have had ankle pain the last four years. Pretty much since twisting and spraining my ankle. My softball has been getting affected more and more by the injury. I finally decided to see if something could be done to fix it. I would not be able to run that well, and I could not cut nor change directions very well. I get some new x-rays, and it should that I had an avulsion of the bone when I sprained it. Which more or less means my bone was sliced away from the rest of the bone by the ligaments. That is what was so painful I suppose about the original injury. Now it has been causing me problems ever sense. So, I want to get the problem to go away, which mean surgery. However, I don't want to miss work due to the injury. In fact I have never called in sick to work in my working years. I don't want to start now. So, I am worried a little bit about missing work. Worse is that I will have to be in a cast more or less and then a walking boot. That is something I don't want to do. Talk about weakness. I will have to be on light duty at several of my jobs. That also sucks. So, in short I don't want the surgery due to the recovery time, but I have to look at the long term, and my sports and general life will be better.

Wednesday, January 07, 2004

Got plowed.

It snowed again today. Not as much as I was hoping for however. Only about four to five inches. I went on a train wreck in the afternoon. When I got on scene I was immediately asked to join Jamie in an ambulance with a patient. The train had gone down a hill too fast. They applied the breaks and it was still going faster and faster. They hit a ten mile per hour corner at thirty-five. They went off the tracks and rolled down an embankment. It is not something you see every day.

After that call I headed to the IS office to get my truck and head to Pullman to pick up my quad with the snow plow and winch installed. I went to Zeppoz and played cards for a while. A ten-six-seven joined me at one table. I sat there a while longer than I would have just to absorb the sights. Ron, Heather, Dan and Michele were there. We chatted a while and Ron bought me a beer.

I left about eight and went to Safeway for dinner and I stopped by the police department to drop off some money for the fantasy football league. Then I went to Colfax Fire to eat dinner and chat with Ken. We talked with some Department of Ecology guys who were coming to look at the train cars which lost about fifteen hundred gallons of diesel.

I went home and unloaded my quad and got the plow put on. It was a pain in the butt. I spent about fifteen or twenty minutes getting it done. Then I plowed my driveway a little before eleven at night. When I was done I went in and went to bed.

Tuesday, January 06, 2004

First EMS call of ought-four

I got up today and the weather was not as cold as it was on Monday morning. I got into work and worked on getting a few computers completed and ready for delivery. I delivered the last laptop that I had to the deputy it belongs to. I have one last laptop coming in.

Near noon I took my quad to Pullman for the plow blade and winch to get installed. I should be able to get it on Wednesday.

I headed to Pullman when I got off work since I was on call at the fire department. I hung out at the station for most of the evening. Watched TV and ate dinner there. At about ten forty-five pm we actually had a real call to go on. I drove code through the city. The roads were squirrelly. The Rescue would move erratically. We got on scene and assisted the ambulance crew with getting the patient taken care of.

After the call I headed to my office and went to bed.

Monday, January 05, 2004

Loading the quad

I got up nice and early and headed back home. I changed into work clothes and headed into work. When I got in I talked to a guy who does snow plowing. He plowed my driveway. I went home at lunch to load my qaud into my truck so I could get a plow blade put on it. It took about an hour and a half to load it. I had to push it into my truck myself. First I had to get it out of the shed and through the deep snow. I thought that was tough, then I tried to load it. Without a ton of traction, I started to get it up the ramp. Then I could go no more. I used a rock as a tire chock.

I pushed and pushed. My back started to hurt. Then I thought that if I had a come-along like would be better. But I don't have one. Then I thought well, I have a ratcheting tie down strap set. I pulled one out and started to use that to move the quad into the truck. It would go about an inch. I would then push on the quad and it would go higher. I moved the rock into the tire once again. I did this about two or three times. Finally I gave it a big push. I got the qaud to where the front tire were about to go on to the ramp.

I ratcheted some more. And the quad moved up ever so slightly. Pretty soon I gave up since it was not going very fast. I decided to push the quad all the way into the truck bed. I gave a big push, then a second big push and finally the quad moved up the ramp. I finally got it in the truck. I felt good. But it cost me dearly in time worked. I am going to have to come in on Friday and work now.

I got a call from Pete about covering as coroner. I will be on until Thursday at zero hundred hours.

After work I went to Pullman to play poker with John and Dan. I got to my office and John and Dan got there within about ten minutes. I was the big winner on the night. We played a ton of games as normal. I just seemed to win many of the games. It was nice. Following that, I went home and watched some TV before going to bed.

Sunday, January 04, 2004

Vacation is over.

My mom woke me up this mooring and fixed me a couple fried egg sandwiches. I came downstairs ate the sandwiches and watched the Seahawks game. I left at about half time to come back to Pullman. I had to be back for vehicle maintenance at the fire department.

I got going on what figured to be a long drive since there was supposed to be snow the whole way. It was pretty bad until I got to highway twenty-six. There were many area without any snow. So I was able to do six-five to seventy. At one point near Royal City I had my cruise control set to sixty-five in a sixty zone. I came across a cop. As soon as he saw me his lights came on and he pulled me over. He said he clocked me at sixty-nine. I was a little surprised by this. But I figured my new tires might have made me over. He did not run me nor take my insurance. He just asked that I slow down.

Once in Whitman county the road was compact snow and ice the rest of the way in. I was stuck doing about fifty to sixty the rest of the way in. It was negative degrees as well. I got to Colfax and there was a lot of snow on the ground. I was not able to make it up my driveway so I went around on the upper side and went down the driveway. I did not think I would make it to my house there was so my snow on the driveway. I did make it in four-low.

I "post-holed" through the snow and then got my shovel and scooped some of it out of the way. I measured and I have thirteen and three-quarters inches. I went to get my four wheeler so I could take it to Pullman with me. It was so cold I could not get it started. The battery is either dead or the cold weather was making it appear dead. I ended up giving up on the battery.

I got ready and left for Pullman. I got my mail and had a letter from Spokane Civil service. I found I was one-thirty-seven. Not back out of hundreds, but not great either. I only missed nine questions. I was on my way to Pullman. It was cold!

I got to Pullman and watched some of the national championship game and then we did maintenance. After that was done John and I gambled a little while. He was the big winner. We also watched American Wedding. That was funny.

I left to go to my office. I was on the computer when yet another fire alarm went off. It was at Pioneer Square. Then the dispatcher reported that smoke was seen on the fifth floor. So a second alarm was sent out. I headed to the fire station and we left on the call. Turned out to not be smoke nor a fire. We were on scene for about thirty minutes and then went back. On my way from the fire station to my office I found the local temperature was reading as negative twenty degrees! I did not get into bed until about two am.

Saturday, January 03, 2004

New Tires

My last real day of vacation. I did not get up and down stairs until about four pm. I was being a bit lazy. I watched some TV and then headed out. I had to go to the mall and get a hat with the gift card I got from Lids.

I went to Les Schwab and had new tires put on the truck. It made a nice difference in diving on the snow around the area. I went to the mall. I did not find the hat I wanted. I was told I could find them online.

I then headed to Diamond Lil's and played cards. At the table I was playing on there was a good looking guy two seats away from me. He had nice blue eyes. He reminded me of Scott. I would guess is was barely twenty. He was nice to look at as I played. I was there long enough to win about eighty dollars. I left and went home. I got some dinner and watched TV for a while. I got to bed about one am.

Friday, January 02, 2004

Tukwila ride along

I got up a little before noon and went down stairs. I ended up watching Cold Case Files on A&E all day long. It was a lazy day. I helped my mom when she asked for my help. I had to do some snow shoveling for the Christmas Party we were having tonight.

Around five pm Pat came over then a little after six Jon, Lisa, Justin, and Logan came over. We ate dinner, opened presents and had dessert. I opened my other presents. I got some shirts and sweaters. I got an external case for hard drives. This will be nice so I can store my data on it and carry it around. I got a gift certificate from Home Depot. I got a pool cue and case. I got a clock radio that looks like a car. It was a nice Christmas.

I had a small snowball fight with Justin and Logan. Then I went to Tukwila for a police ride along. I was with a guy names Rossi. He was a nice guy. We were first dispatched to a shop lifter at the Bon at the mall. We were getting ready to turn in to the mall when a call for a guy being beat up by six other people came out. It was at a Casino on the strip. We flew up there. On scene we did not find the victim nor the perpetrators. We cleared and went to the Bon. I got into the Loss Prevention office. Off the office was a room with a ton of cameras and monitors. It was cool to see how they worked. It is a nice system. I talked to one of the guys. He was a good looking guy. I like his eyes. He shook my hand as we left.

After that it was pretty quiet for us. We had about two more calls. Nothing came of them. The rest of the time we spent driving around. Des Moines police had a big event. We listened to that through out the evening. There was a shooting at a bar. Turns out two people were shot and another person was run over by a car. One of the suspects was seen getting shot in the foot. He was later found at a near by hospital.

I called it a night at about three thirty. I drove home on Cemetery Road. I got green lights the whole way. I stopped by Chuck's Donuts. I got a maple bar. It was still warm and very tasty. When I got home Amber and I played a tiny bit before I headed upstairs for bed.

Thursday, January 01, 2004

Happy New Year!!!

This was nice. I slept in until about one thirty when Amber came in and woke me up. I went down stairs. My parents were watching a football game. Purdue had come back and forced overtime. The ended up losing in overtime. Then the Rose Bowl started. They were showing the Michigan starting quarterback, John Naverre. Wow. Nice short blonde hair with what looks like blue eyes. He is six foot six about two twenty eight. He is a good looking guy, so it is weird to be there checking out that guy as he is playing while my parents are in the room with me. I am rooting for USC in the game since I want to see the Pac-10 do well in the post season.

USC ended up winning in a convincing fashion. It was a good game and I am happy the Pac-10 won. This also brings forward a national championship controversy. Hopefully we will see the Rose Bowl go back to a Pac-10 versus Big-Ten match up from now on.

It has been snowing all day long. There was about four inches of new snow through out the day. It was nice. I drove around a little bit around midnight. I used two wheel drive unless I was starting to get stuck. It was pretty slippery. I also could use new tires on my truck. I stayed around the house all day today. I was being a home body.

I was checking some of my jpeg's. There was one of two guys sitting on a park bench kissing. There was a dog next to them. It reminded me of a time while I was with a guy named Sean. We were on his bed kissing for a while and then a dog jumped up and started to get in the middle of us. The dog was licking us as we were kissing. We were laughing about it. We kicked the dog off the bed and he jumped back on the bed and starting in again. Sean was the same guy who came to my party and gave me a nice kiss on the lips as he left for the day. In the middle of Zeppoz with people watching. It was such a rush.

He in fact was the first guy I had ever kissed. I had only kissed one other person like that. It was Michelle who I was making out with many years ago. She taught me to kiss. We kissed a lot. And then one night I was with Sean. We were in my truck parked and he leaned over and kissed me. We ended up making out for at least thirty minutes. It was so fun. It was exhilarating. We were in a public place and I was worried we would be discovered. It would be pretty hard to not have people find out about me being gay. Another time Sean came to my apartment. I was sitting on the couch and he sat on my lap facing me. My roommate was in his room and we started to make out. I really liked kissing Sean. For many years I would never kiss a guy. Something about that was repulsive to me. But kissing Sean was so fun. I decided that I liked it a lot. I know that I will be kissing more guys in the future. A lot of time now when I am looking at a guy I think about if he is someone I would want to kiss or not.