Going to Florida

I got a call a few minutes ago from Andy Savage. He said someone dropped out and I will be on the Short Bus to make my way to Florida. We will hit Denver, Kansas City, New Orleans (and Mardi Gras), and Jacksonville. There will be fun and stops on the way. My feeling is that I would rather get kicked off early, rather than make it half way across the country and then lose out.

I got home from work and got my bags packed. I was excited. I set my alarm, and went to bed pretty early to make sure I would get up and not miss my chance to go on the bus. Because of that I will not post until I return. Then I will give a full rundown of the action.

Rena died.

At work today I spent it going through some of the bugs I will work on in SR-Two-point-Five. It was a pretty easy day.

I made a post on the Shack about National ID Cards. I posted the outline from the Peter Eichman Show as well. Then I downloaded the audio from the show and listened to it. It was fun to listen to it. I love to listen to the old shows.

I talked to Joe about the website that I am going to work on for him. I am also going to get some paperwork that will redo the deal with Joe. I am the Vice President of Information Technology. I will also get a percentage of the sales on the site I build. It could be a pretty good deal for me if the site does well. I am going to cross my fingers about that one.

My mom called to see when I would get home. I let her know I would be on time. Then she told me Rena died today. She is a friend of the family. She was not feeling well this morning when she asked her husband for help. The medics were called and she went into cardiac arrest. They worked her at the house and she died there.

It is weird because I have been on a few cases like that recently. Both were elderly ladies who died. One was similar to this one where the lady was at home and then died while the medics were working on her. I feel really bad for Ricky.

I had dinner and then watched TV for the rest of the evening.

Looking bad for the Short Bus

The last three people who were getting invited onto the Short Bus confirmed the would go. So Andy told me it is looking bad for me to go, but I did talk to him on the air and he said I can still show up just in case someone drops out at the last minute. I plan on doing that.

I got to work and I was supposed to work out with Jason today, but a meeting was called when I was supposed to be there. So I called Jason and let him know I was not going to be there. I went to the meeting. I found out one of the guys I work with had his father die last night. After the meeting I went back to work on the bugs we talked about in the meeting.

Around two pm I went with Terry to this employee's house to get his computer set up so he could get stuff off of it. But we were unable to do so, so Terry took the computer to his house. I drove Terry to the bus station in Bellevue. On the way Terry was talking about some of the problems with society. He was talking about the distribution of wealth and how it is way out of balance.

He talked about five of the top ten richest people are from the Walton family of Walmart fame. He said that when the frames made the constitution they had inheritance taxes to make it so the same people did not have all the money and different family's would be rich and not rich so there would always be new and vibrant people running the country. That is not the way it is anymore. He talked about the police are not there to fight crime as much at they are there to keep those who have the money from losing it. If you look at places like Seattle, LA, Detroit, Washington D.C., and other large cities there are already places where the police have no control. It will only be a matter of time before that spreads.

As America keeps shrinking the middle class the extremely wealthy will be close to losing everything to those who have nothing. I would think he is more or less talking about a class warfare. It was a pretty bleak picture. Our government and military rely on things made over seas. Think about that our safety is reliant on what is made outside of the country and made in places like China, Japan, and other places. That is not in our best interest.

I went back to work after getting some lunch at the Three Pigs. I ate a late lunch early dinner at my desk and got on G-Shack. I had about two-hundred and forty posts to get to ten-thousand. Richard was twelve away from getting one-thousand. People thought I would beat Richard. But he was so close I wanted to get closer to ten-thousand. I started to post and things were flying. It turned out that I got all I needed for ten-thousand. I posted a super long post acknowledging each person on the Shack I had interacted with since the beginning.

Then I went to THF to do my twenty minutes of cardio. I got on the elliptical trainer. I did my time on that and did some lifting. Then I went home and heated up dinner. I watched some TV before finally going to bed.

Tossing and Turning makes me tired

I spent what felt like the whole night tossing and turning. I did not get a good nights sleep. When my alarm clock was telling me to get up I ignored it for about three minutes. Then finally I started my day. I was off to the races making my way to Bellevue in record time. I failed at that mission but I still made decent time. The fog was really thick between SR Three-Ninety-Five and Othello. So it was super slow going. I was cruising along. It was the cars in front of me going slow. I would get out from behind one slow person only to end up behind another slow person.

I listened to the Andy Savage show on the telephone while sitting on hold for about an hour, until I could pick it up through the air.

Work was ho hum. Nothing really major to speak of, but it was something to do for the day. When I was released, no actually, when I left I went home and relaxed. Sounds like a normal day. I watched some TV and spent time chatting online.

A day of failing and success

With the morning came sleep. With the afternoon came time to wake up and get going on the day. I wanted to get my four wheeler and the Bumblebee up and running.

The Bumblebee at Ocean Shores in ninety-Four

The Bumblebee is a Nineteen-Eighty Toyota Four by Four. It was my brothers truck in from nineteen-eighty-three to nineteen-eighty-nine. We he got the truck, it was plain yellow. He designed the stripes and had them painted on, the roll bars, the tube-bumpers, and the sun roof. I had a new engine put in after I got it. It was my first car and I still have it. It was my daily driving vehicle until the mid-nineties. I got a SAAB. But I wanted to go back to the Bumblebee. I did and it again was my daily driver until I got my Dodge Dakota back in two thousand before moving to California.

Since that time it has been driven very little. It is getting very old and I want to get it back into shape and drive it more often. That truck is near to my heart. So I gave it a jump and it started up quickly. I let it run for a while, but the battery did not get much of a charge. It did not have enough juice to start the truck again. I put a battery charger on it, but the charger would not charge it. I think I may need a new battery. So I failed in my task. I did not get the four wheeler's battery charged either. I am oh for two.

I met one of my contractors in Pullman. I got her signed for another three months. I also got her a key to the office. I set her up to get Dell jobs as well. I went back to Colfax. I hit Rosaures for dinner and went to the Sheriff's Office.

I had to get my report printed off and turned in. While I was there I worked on my form some more and made the layout even better than I had it on Friday. Things were sectioned together to make it more logical. I printed off several copies for using in the field.

Rick was there and needed some computer help. He needed some help setting up computer to run Spillman on the USB port replicator. Then I helped him with a few other computer issues he had. He said it is hard to get help like they use to before I left.

After helping out for a while I was there longer than I planned. I went home and watched some TV and had dinner. I went to bed and set my alarm clock so I could get up and get to work in the morning.

Peter's 21-Run

Today is Peter's 21st birthday. I met him in August of two-thousand-one. He was a freshman from Colorado. Scotty and I were at the Bar-B-Q before the school year started. We were sitting in a field among hundreds of other people. This young man walked up to us and said "Do you mind if I sit here?" We did not mind and from that point on our friendship had started up. From that time we grew into being best friends. He was like a brother to me. Then one day it just ended. I still don't know why, and I would love to know for sure. I still like the kid. I figured he was young and wanted to explore things and I was standing in his way. I did not want him to miss out on the college experience. I did not want him to regret not doing things. Anyway, more on that later.

I went to my office in Pullman. I worked on my report for the corners case. It took a little while. I also worked on redoing my form. It was ugly and I wanted it to look better. I spent a few hours perfecting it. It looks a lot better if I don't say so myself.

Ryan talked to me online and we decided to go see a movie. We went to Assault on Precinct Thirteen. Peter also called and told me that he and the others were getting ready to go. I told him Ryan and I were going to get some dinner and then I would call him when I was done to see where he was at.

Ryan and I went to McDonald's. Right as I got my food a worker had two extra hot fudge sundaes. She game me one. I sat down with Ryan and we ate. Then we drove to the movie theatre. The movie itself was pretty good. It had Ethan Hawke in it. I don't think it was necessarily a sequel to Training Day. It was a pretty good movie. I drove Ryan to Safeway and then called Peter. They were at his dorm room getting ready to start the night. They were going to Pete's Bar and Grill. I met them down there. It was Moe, Tara,Neil, and Peter there when I arrived.

NEIL, TARA, PETER

The came from outside of Pullman to spend time with Peter. Peter had already had a drink at Rancho Viejo at dinner and then back at the dorm room. At Pete's he had a Wiley and two other shots of Hard A. Wiley's are large drinks, worth about six drinks. He was feeling sort of ill so he went to the bathroom and threw up.

PETER with Wiley glass pointing to his "21" button.

When we left Pete's we were waiting for Moe in the parking lot. I gave Peter a Field Sobriety Test.

PETER doing a one leg stand and counting.

We drove back to Rancho Viejo. We got Peter a Mexican Flag. It is worth three drinks. It is a flaming drink and very good tasting. Then I saw Aaron and Steve. They were having a drink and bought one for Peter. It was another flaming drink. When we left there Neil was stumbling drunk so was Peter. We helped them get across the street without getting hit by a car.

We went to My Office Bar and Grill. Peter had a shot of tequila there. He got a shot for everyone else. Then we left and walked to the Sports Page. I showed Peter some of the stuff in the Sports Page. I had to hold him up for the most part. He was really not doing too well. He went to the bathroom and threw up again. Then he went out and finished his beer that he was drinking. We had some popcorn and played pull tabs. We left and really needed to help Peter walk. He found a trash can and threw up a tiny bit. Then he fell and the trash can fell over with him. He picked it up and got the trash put back into it.

Then we walked to Rico's. We were about to go inside but Peter had to throw up. He threw up in the flower garden right in front of the place. We were laughing, telling him not to do it in front of the window, because they would not let him in.

We got inside the place. We found a table to sit down at. I got Peter and Neil a water. Then Peter needed to go to the bathroom. I lead him up there and he put his hands on my shoulders and we did a two-man conga line to the bathroom. He went into the stall and puked some more. He was not doing well. Neil also came in. Then him and Peter were in some weird conversations. Some guy walked in and started to laugh saying that was the weirdest conversation he has ever heard in a bathroom before. On the way out Peter went between the two pool tables. He was so drunk he tried to sit on a barstool and fell over it.

We went back to our seat and were there for another few minutes. Peter was pretty much done for the night. I helped to walk him outside. He was bumping into people saying "don't worry, it's my twenty-first birthday." Then they would wish him a happy birthday.

Once outside he sat on the bench and started to puke a bunch more. We started to laugh some more. Then we took him back to his dorm room in Waller Hall. I got there first and waited for him. The car showed up with him in it. He got out and laid down on the street. Someone helped him up. He got me the keys for the door and I opened it. We walked him to the bathroom. He felt like puking some more. He was pretty much hugging the toilet and had his head laying on the seat. He spent about a half hour in there. I was with him the whole time. Some of the others who lived in the hall came in there to enjoy watching Peter at such a low moment. Neil was running his hand in the cold water because he burnt it a little bit with his cigar.

We took Peter into his room and on to his bed. He laid there but did not feel well. I took him back to the bathroom. He said "I have to puke, but I can't because I am throwing up." I was laughing my butt off at that comment. Then he said he appreciated that I was there for him. He said he was happy I came out on his twenty-run with him. He said that he was sorry for being such an "asshole" to me over the last few years. I did not get into it with him at that time. But I think if I had asked he would have been honest with me. He had no ability to lie to me at that time. I never asked though. I still wonder what it was and before the end of the school year I will have to ask him.

As he was laying on the bathroom floor he was breathing hard for a tiny bit, then he totally stopped breathing. I sat there watching that happen. I was the only one in there. Would it make me a bad person to say that I thought about walking out leaving him like that for hurt he had caused me over the last two years? Well, I didn't and I wouldn't. I shook him and he started to breathe again. When I got him back to his room I made sure that Tara and Moe, who were staying with him, knew what happened and made sure that he did not stop breathing again. I don't want to see him die. I still really like the kid.

Another Coroners case and lots of work

I was woken up a little after nine am. There was an EMS call. I got cruising down there when the ambulance went in route. I turned around and went home. I met with my real estate agent around ten am. I gave him some paper work. He had me sign more stuff. He had a few people that wanted to see the place this weekend.

I got my jail uniform on and drove into Colfax. I talked to Adam, the new computer support guy. He was an SCSer. We talked for about thirty minutes. We talked about SCS, ISMan, and a new computer for the coroners office. I talked to Sharon, Bev, and Brandon as well. I left to get some lunch and head to the jail. When I got there a deputy wanted to see the guy we arrested last night. He went in to talk to him.

I came out and talked to Tom for a while. Then I went to the control room and ate my lunch. We had a booking come in. I needed to go get my license for the Bumblebee. I got that and then went to the assessors office. Joe was there. We talked about my job at WSU. Then a fire call came out. There was a grass fire in January. I went with Ken in one of the rigs. We got on scene as the first rig that had arrived put the fire out. It was only about an acre in size. I helped to clean up and then we went back to the station.

I went back to the jail and the cops who had taken our arrestee from last night to court in Colfax. When he got back in I went to pat him down. He was being passive resistive. I was also told he plans on giving us a hard time. Then I went to Control. Perry and Tom where there. Perry and I went to start booking a fresh arrest. As I got going with it a call came in from Pete. There was a coroners case in Pullman. An elderly lady was found in bed. She was dead. So I left and went home to change and drove to Pullman.

I went to the place where she was. Dan from Pullman PD was there. He briefed me and then I went in to look at the body. I determined that she died about one in the morning on Thursday. I processed the scene and talked to her son. Then the funeral home came and picked up the body. I went to the funeral home and checked over the body once more. Then I left. I went to the fire station to talk with the medic who had come on scene. After that I cleared Pullman. I got some dinner at Cougar Country. I went to Colfax fire and downloaded my pictures from the case.

I went to the jail. I was going to do my report and help out there. I was there for about six hours trying to do the case report and help by running the doors. As three am was getting closer I was having a hard time concentrating on what I was writing so I stopped. When one of the corrections officers came back to control. I told him I was going to take off.

First coroners meeting of the year

I was working and I wanted to get out of town at about one pm. I did not get going until a little later. We were closing up our final code changes for the SR-Two work we were doing. Because I was not going to be there on Friday I had to get my stuff done before I left. I got an issue with LTV values not calculating correctly. Then the other issue I needed to talk to someone else. She was not in yet. It was getting close to one fifteen when I finally was able to talk to her and figure out how she wanted the problem fixed. I talked to Terry and he said to do it. I thought it would take some time, but the problem only took about five minutes to fix. I checked in my changes and got going.

I stopped to get some lunch and gas then I was off to the races. I made it to Colfax in four hours. The roads were great and I was cruising. I had very few cars get in my way the whole way. I got to Colfax about thirty minutes before the meeting. I changed into my Colfax fire clothes because I was going on a ride along with Bryce and I figured if a call came out I would go on that.

I went to the Sheriff's office. We ate dinner and had our meeting. We reviewed some recent cases. We also covered my case from Saturday. We set up our coverage times for next week. We got some new forms for reporting time and cases.

After the meeting I went to Colfax fire. I was talking to Ken when Bryce showed up. He ate and then we hit the road. I was with him until about three am. No one was speeding through town so we just drove around. We were looking for a few people to arrest with new arrest warrants. We found one of them. A guy who always fights with the police. Today he went with little to no resistance.

We took him to jail. Then we hung out in the office for an hour or so talking to the deputies and having a good time.

Last full day of work for the week

I went to bed sort of early last night. I was tired so I was able to get going at a reasonable hour. I still got to work about nine-thirty. I had some issues to finish up. I helped figure out a problem with Oregon and Indiana. Those states' are shortened to OR and IN. Those are words that mess up SQL statements. So we have to do something to make it work.

I got home and we were having tacos for dinner. It was very good stuff. I also got the CD burned with my coroners case from last Saturday. I stayed watching TV and chatting online for most of the evening.

Major bug breakthrough

Today I had a major bug breakthrough. I was working on my secondary marketer E-mails when I finally realized why we were getting bad data on unlock/relock requests. It was the way the system would sort through the database. I added in some code that would get the correct record and the display that information. It was a great feeling to get that figured out.

I headed home instead of going to THF. But we were having tacos and I love them so much. We fry the shells ourselves. Either flour or corn. Then add all the fixings. They are very good.

I also found out my sister and brother-in-law's motorhome burnt to the ground last Thursday in Spokane. I guess it happened shortly after talking to my brother-in-law. It was burning in the back as he was driving down the road. Some people warned him as they drove by. He was able to get out without major injury. But it was a total loss. It was burnt to the ground. It was really cold over there too. The water they used to put out the fire caused ice to form on the freeway.

I checked all the news sites in the Spokane area for any reports about it. I could not find anything. I guess they did not put anything about it on their websites.

A heck of a day at the pass

I was up and gone from Colfax by about five am. I was getting towards Vantage when my cell phone let me know I had a voicemail waiting. I checked it. My mom was telling me the pass was closed. I figured that it should be open by the time I got there.

As I was going up Vantage hill it was pretty icy and I would start to go slide-ways a little bit, so I threw it into four wheel drive and that fixed that problem. When I got near Ellensburg I was listening to the traffic information radio network and it said that Snoqualmie pass was open, but all vehicles had to have chains, even four wheel drives. I kept going. I did not have chains and I was hoping when I got to the pass it would be open to four wheel drives. No such luck.

I turned around and drove to Rickville. I did not stop because I saw a truck there and I thought that maybe someone was there. So I went into Cle Elum. I called around looking for chains. I found that Ellensburg Les Schwab had a set for my truck. I had to get back to Ellensburg. There were only two sets lets. It was about twenty-four miles away. I was going as quick as I could with the road conditions the way they were. I got to Les Schwab and they were sold out. I drove to NAPA and they had some. They were also twenty bucks cheaper. I got them and started to head to the pass. In Easton they made the road go to one lane. There was a huge back up and it was very slow going.

When I got there they lifted the restrictions on four wheel drives. So I did not have to chain up. The road was not too bad, I think all the people with chains broken things up nicely. I got to work at about two o'clock PM. About four hours longer than it should have taken.

I spent the rest of the day not doing too much. I stayed until around seven pm and then I went home. It was a heck of a long day.

A day of rest

I slept very late into the morning. I did wake up a few times, finally getting out of bed a little before one. I wanted to plow the driveway, go to the fire station and pay for my clothes I got, go to my office and pay rent, and finally go to Lewiston for the football practice. I was up so late I was only able to do the last thing on that list. I drove down to Lewiston. As I got closer the roads got better. My truck was getting covered in dirty ice. They were growing out of the side of my truck like stalagmites growing from a cave floor. Some of them on my truck getting more than an inch in height. I got to where the practice was supposed to be and no on was there. I called the team owner and he said the practice was cancelled. So I learned something new. Call first!

I drove back to Colfax and got my four wheeler started but the battery was so dead that it did not want to keep running and operating the plow. I spent about an hour trying to get it to work by charging the battery with the new battery charger I got for my birthday. But it would not charge something with less that one amp. The battery was less than that. So I finally gave up. I went to the fire station and paid my money for the shirts.

My next stop was Pullman. I got to my office and wrote a check for the rent for my place. I also got online and checked my E-mail from my techs. Then I was off to Ben's apartment. We were playing poker at his place. We did eight dollar buy-in's winner take all. I was taken out at the same time as one other person. So it was down to Ben and Taylor (a guy from the UI who went to the USC football game with Ben and I). Taylor had been doing well, but Ben ended up winning it all. I took off. I wanted to get to bed at a reasonable hour. I also had to got to the jail and finish my coroners report.

I got to the jail at about nine-thirty. I wrote my report, printed it out. Printed out the pictures and then turned in my report. I went into the jail and got the one-thousand word essay the guy had to write as a punishment from Friday's shakedown. He had until ten pm to get it done. He got it done just in time. I read it and then went to the store.

I got some cereal for breakfast and some milk. I got some chew and de-icer for the stairs going to my deck. I put the de-icer on and it started to break up the thick ice.

Rather than going to bed like I was supposed to, I spent a while watching TV. I finally went to sleep around mid-night. I was mad that I wasted my chance to get extra sleep. I set my alarm clock for five am and drifted to sleep.

First Coroner call of Ought-Five

This morning my phone rang at ten-thirty am. I saw that Pete was calling. I figured that meant there was either a call or he needed to tell me something. He said that he was paged and there was a call. I need to call Whitcom and get the information. Plus tell them that I would be the on call coroner for the rest of the weekend.

I was told about a call in Rosalia. There was a CPR call and the person had died. So I got ready and got into my truck and headed off. I got gas on the way and made my way north. I arrived to the address where I was supposed to be. I did not see the police nor EMS there. So I called Whitcom and I was told the EMS was back at their station. I drove down to the fire station. The person was in the back of the ambulance.

I talked to the EMS responders and got all the information I needed to gather from them. Then I inspected the body and made notes and photographs. I let the body go the funeral home and went to the home of the deceased. I talked to the family to get medical information. I spent about thirty to forty minutes there getting all the information I needed. At one point I told one of the son's the "body" was at the funeral home. As I said it my whole body winced. I did not mean to say body. That is so cold sounding. But he seemed to take it well. The rest of the time I was there I could not stop thinking about what a bone-headed thing I had done by saying that.

I left the scene and drove to Colfax. I went to the fire station and got the photo's downloaded so I could get them ready to turn in. While I was there I went into the TV room and watched a little bit of the Steelers vs Jets football game. There were some firefighters and a state trooper there. I was there for a little while. I left around three pm.

Ryan and I planned on seeing Coach Carter in the theatre. I was almost at Ryan's and I called him to let him know. He said he was not ready. He had not showered or anything. We did not have time for him to do that and get to the theatre on time. So I went to my office and started to get the report written for the case I was working on. I went over the medications and logged all that information. Then I started on my report. I talked to Pete and told him my findings. He agreed with what I had done. I called the family. There was no answer so I left a message to have them call me when they got home. I was just going to give them the final determined cause of death.

I called Craig. He is one of the techs who does subcontracting for me. He came to the office and we set up a new contract for him. He has been really helpful so I gave him a bigger percentage on the work he does.

I left the office and picked up Ryan. We went to Subway and got some dinner. We ate there and we were planning on going to the movie following that. We went came out of Subway and it was starting to snow. They said we could get up to five inches of snow. We drove to the theatre.

The movie was pretty good. I liked the ideals and the things that Carter said in the movie. It is funny how peoples' priorities are so messed up. The parents were mad that Carter wanted his basketball players to go to class and get at least a C+ average. The team did well but lost in the state tournament. It was all based on a true story.

We left and there was little more snow on the ground. We drove to Safeway. Ryan needed to do some shopping. He got more than a hundred bucks worth of groceries. When we came out of the store it was really starting to snow hard.

When we got back to Ryan's apartment I helped him get his stuff in to the house. I also had some dishes that my mom got rid of. We watched Third Watch from Friday night that Ryan had recorded. I was right about one thing, CT Phinney committed suicide on the show.

Following the show we started to play Madden football. I played my game first. I was having a hard time scoring in the first half. I finally got some going and by the end of the game I was on a roll and scored a lot of points. I think my quarterback, Brett Farve, will get offense player of the week again. I am hoping that he will get it from wire to wire. He has earned it the first two weeks so far.

Shaking the place down

I learned something today on my way to Colfax. On Tuesday I got new, larger tires on my truck. When I was in Whitman County I had the cruise control set to seventy miles per hour in a sixty-five zone. Around La Crosse I see a cops lights go on and him stopping quickly. I knew I was getting pulled over. I saw who the cop was by his license plate. I was wondering if he was pulling me over because it was so cold and he thought five over was too much in that weather.

He got to my truck window and started out with his introduction, then he saw it was me. He cracked a smile and stopped his introduction and said "how are you doing?" I told him I was doing well. He said I was going a little fast -- Seventy-Five. I thought for half a second and said seventy-five my speedometer said I was doing... ohhhhh wait. I just got new tires. He said what did my speedometer says I was doing. I said the cruise was set for seventy on the nose. He said that the larger tires can add three to five miles per hour. So, I learned something today. My new tires made my speedometer off at high speeds.

As the conversation was happening I thought back to doing five to seven miles an hour over while driving to Whitman County. Then I realized I was doing ten to twelve over the speed limit. That would have been a ticket. I was thankful I was not stopped until Whitman County.

I continued to Colfax and tested out my water. It worked! I have water. I am so happy about that. I got my jail uniform on and went to the jail. I got there about six o'clock and worked until about two in the morning.

My night started out with a quick dinner followed by booking a one day commit into jail. It was pretty quick and Sam came down to help me. There were three other officers working with me today. So a total of four of us were there. We decided to do a shakedown of the maximum security unit. We found the typical things -- lack of cleaning, too many books, food in the cell, and some odd items. Those people all got locked down for a few hours depending on how much stuff they had. One guy had so much stuff I ended up making him write a one thousand word essay on what he had done wrong. He also got twenty-three hours of lockdown. Two people ended up getting hearings because of what they had.

Towards the end of the night a couple fresh arrests came in. Both of the guys were about one-forty pounds soaking wet. They were wearing size thirty-eight pants. So when I took their belts their pants would not stay up anymore. Both with gansta's! One of the juvenile officers was a state trooper in the Seattle area back in the seventies. We talked for a while about the progress and growth of the area and how it is not like it use to be.

Feeling the burn

Today at THF I was doing a lot of lifting and upper body stuff. One of them was the simple bench press followed by using the medice ball. It was at chest level. I extended my arms and the brought it back in keeping it parallel to the ground. That went on for one minute. It was burning hard core. Following my work out I set up my next session on Monday.

I keep telling myself to "keep my eye on the prize". Meaning that I have some goals that I want to obtain, but I cannot without keeping them in focus and working towards them. That is what I am trying to do. I am not working out as much as I wanted to. I could change that, but then I would never get home to see my mom at night and I am always gone on the weekend. So I am not sure what to do. I guess I can keep going as I am and having it take longer for me.

Not MY governor

Christine Gregoire was confirmed and sworn in as the governor of the state of Washington. I am upset about it. There are so many questions about the election. She thinks that is a clear victory for her, yet there were more votes cast in King County that there were voters. There were felons who voted. Dead people even voted in the election. She won by less than one-hundred and thirty votes. So there is reason not to believe the results. But the Democrat-held house decided not to step in.

There are court challenges by the Republicans and some citizens. I don't know what will come of those challenges. I am worried the court will not step in because she is now sworn in. She plans on making her way around the state to try to heal the discontent. If I were to go to one of her rallies I would hold a sign that says she is NOT my governor. We should know by the end of the month if there will be a new election or if it will remain how it is right now.

Other than that political issue I did my normal stuff at work. I tried to get my bugs solved and tried to make things less broken.

The Butterfly Effect

I am down on myself for not going in and doing some sort of work out. I need to get into the situation where I will hate myself for not working out. When I got to work I finished off my last bug. A few minutes later I checked and there were six new bugs. AARGH!!!

I started to get a few of them underway and then I met Jon and Jim at Three Pig BBQ for lunch. We ate and talked about office politics.

I went back to work and started to get some of the bugs taken care of. I also talked to a different Jim about taking a trip to Florida for a trade show on the same weekend that I would be going down for the short bus trip.

At home I decided to watch the Butterfly Effect. It is a movie I have seen already and wrote about in my blog. It is a movie about a guy who figures out how to change an event in the past. Each time he changes something his life gets changed as well as those of the people around him. Sometimes it seems good then goes bad. Sometimes it is bad and gets worse. Finally he gets it more or less okay, but not perfect. He decided to leave it as it is and burn his movies and notes so he could not change it again.

His friend questioned him doing that. He said I don't need those things, he knows who he is and he doesn't need those as a reminder.

Hard workout

On my way to work I stopped and got some new shoes that were a wide width rather than medium. The smaller shoes were killing my feet. A little before eleven I headed from work to go to THF. I did some warm ups and got ready for my work out with Jason. We did a lot of upper body stuff. I was starting to have a hard time at the end. We also did a few leg exercises. I am still learning some of the different exercises I can do. The burn was good. When I was done with the work out I got some vitamins and some power-bar type items.

The rest of the day I did work and tried to get all my bugs finished. It seem like everything I see light at the end of the tunnel it turns out to be a train. But the trains are getting shorter and shorter.

I went home and had some dinner with the family. I spent time chatting online and did some posting on the Shack followed by some of my favorite TV's and bed.

Doing Laundry

It was nice today. I did nothing expect for sleeping in. Then helping out with the laundry. Finally watching some TV before I retired for the night.

Multiple change of plans

My day was sort of planned, but the plans kept changing. I started by going to Jon's house and we watched the Seahawks. Sadly, the Seahawks let St. Louis score the winning touchdown with a small amount of time left on the clock. Then to top it off when we drove down we were dropping passes. Like we had been all game.

During the game a bald eagle was flying around and we saw it go in his neighbors back yard. It was only about thirty feet from the window I was looking out. It was pretty cool to see it so close.

After I left Jon's I planned on going to THF and do some cardio. I pulled into the parking lot and I was filling out some of my logs and whatnot. Then my phone rang. I was invited to Outback Steakhouse for dinner. I had to go from Bellevue to Eastgate. That was not too bad. A lot of freeway driving. I arrived and went to get a padlock. Then I got inside and got us a table. There were a lot of Seahawk fans there. The place was packed. The food was good, but a lot of it was spicy. I am not a big fan of spicy food. Actually, I don't like spicy food at all.

During dinner Dave called to see if I wanted to hang out and go to the casino. So I hoped on the freeways and took them from Eastgate to Renton. I made some deposits and go to Billie's Casino. Dave and I played at the Four-Card poker table for most of the time there. I also had called about movies. White Noise was playing across the street. So after playing cards we went to the movie. It was packed. A lot of people came to our showing. We were in the very front row on the left side. So I was looking up and over for the movie. The people looked sort of distorted. The movie was one I would see once, but I don't know if I would watch again, unlike Blade-Trinity. That is a movie I will watch again.

There were a times in White Noise where something would happen and a lot of people would scream. It was funny.

Hanging out at home

Ahhh! Friday! I got to work to get some stuff done. It was a typical Friday where I stay in Seattle. I just relaxed and got some stuff taken care of.

I was on the Shack when a girl on there was going over board calling people names and getting pretty personal. She was banned by an admin on the site for a week. I am glad to see that because she went over board.

I went home and hung around the house all night. I watched TV and chatted online. Third Watch was on and I had to watch that. It is a show I really like. I am curious if Sully is looking to get off the show or if he is going to dodge a bullet.

Talking to Andy Savage

On my way into work I was listening to Andy Savage when I heard him say in a little bit we are going to talk to some people who have entered the Short Bus contest. Within about one minute my phone rang. It was the Andy Savage show. They asked if I would go on the air. Andy asked why I wanted to go. I knew I had to be fun and exciting. I had to be bubbly, sort of. I explained to him that it would be a lot of fun and remind me of my Rose Bowl trip a few years ago when me and six other guys shared a mini-van ride.

He asked if I realized that I would have to take a Greyhound bus home if I got kicked off. I told him that does not concern me because I will be winning all the challenges. Steve spoke up and said if you did take the Greyhound I would probably have to sit next to some girl who, and then he went on to describe a girl you would not want to sit next to. And I quickly replied, "Oh, Jody will be on the bus???" Andy and Steve started to laugh like crazy. Andy was pretty impressed with me and I was in the running to get a seat.

Work of course was work. Bugs and more bugs. The good news was I was working my way to the bottom of the list of bugs. I am still getting bugs returned to me based on the system E-mail that gets sent on a price search. I am getting tired of that. Sooner or later we will be done with it. I cannot wait until that day.

At eleven am I went to TFHF for my workout. I did some stretching, I walked at a brisk pace for ten minutes, then we started to lift weights. It was quite a workout. I did some weight lifts differently than I had done in the past. It was doing the hard work reverse as to what I was use to.

When I got home from work I had planned on watching CSI like normal on Thursday. Dave called and asked if I wanted to go to a movie. I told him that I did. He said we could go see Blade: Trinity. I did not really want to see it but I told him I would go. We met at Billie's Casino and played cards for a while. I lost some money. Then we watched the movie.

It was way better than I thought it would be. I really liked it a lot. I will probably buy it when it comes out. Ryan Reynolds was in it. He is a ten-six-seven. In Van Wilder he looked real skinny, but in Blade he had a six-pack in full effect. And they showed it several times.

After the movie Dave and I went to the Silver Dollar Casino which is right down the road from Billies. I lost some money there playing Let It Ride. I did get five decks of cards they give away for free there. I will have to get some more. We went back to Billies. Dave played a little bit more.

I went home and watched CSI which I had recorded. I was so tired I was missing bits and parts by sleeping. So finally after three am I gave up and went to sleep.

Signing up for the Short Bus

On my way into work I was listening to Andy Savage talk about the Short Bus that is going to the Super Bowl. I heard him ask someone why he wanted to go. The response was not very exciting and what not. Andy said he doesn't want that guy because he is boring. When I got to work I signed up for the Short Bus. A little bit later I got an E-mail saying my one hundred word or less reason for wanting to go did not come through. So I was going to have to send that in.

I spent the day doing my normal thing. I just was doing some coding and fixing of bugs. I can't wait until we get SR-Two complete so I can focus on something else.

When I got home tonight I spent time online and watching CSI:Miami. Pretty much a ho-hum day, but that is why today is called humpday.

Superbowl bound???

The trek from Seattle to Jacksonville, Florida would be about Three-thousand and forty-two miles. It would take about Forty-seven hours give or take.

A radio station I listen to has a contest for 8 people to ride on a shortbus from Seattle to the SuperBowl. Along the way people would be kicked off, Survivor style. The winner gets to choose one of the remaining two people to go into the game with them.

If you lose you are off the bus and you take a greyhound bus back to Seattle. I am one of the people who may be chosen to go. If I go I would be away from the shack probably for a week or more, but if I did well I would end up in Florida. If I did perfect I would watch the SuperBowl!!!!!!! If I end up doing it, I will try to take notes and I will give everyone here a day by day account of what happened during the trip.

It would be a lot of fun and a loooooooong week at the same time. You would sleep on the bus and stay on the bus except during certain times. You can only have the clothes on your back, a blanket, and one luxury item. I would try to bring my pocket pc. Or a notebook with pen so I could record my thoughts and have something help me remember my week of hell... er... fun!

Getting my first training session

I met with Jon for lunch at Three Pigs BBQ. When we were sitting there I saw John Carlson from KVi walking out the door. It was too late to say hello. So I E-mailed and told him that I saw him. After that I went to get my hair cut. I had almost three inches of hair on my head. Now I have about a quarter inch. It felt good to get a cut.

After work today I went to Twenty-Four Hour Fitness. I had my first session with a trainer. We were just going over the worksheets I filled out last night. He entered all the data in to the computer. Then we talked about what I wanted to get out of everything. I told him I would like to get into better shape and a little stronger so I could play softball better. Be a better hitter. Be a better runner.

He said we would work on exercises that would help me with that. We did a body fat calculation. It looks like my body fat is about fifty-four and a half percent. That is a lot more than I would like to be. So we are going to work to get that down to about twenty percent as well as work on running and strength. The system said that it would take between nineteen and twenty-three weeks. I don't think it will go so fast, but the trainer said once we get things going I will see the fat practically melt off. My first work out with him will be Thursday.

I went home and ate some dinner and then I spent time watching TV and chatting on the computer.

Driving four hours to work

I work up with my alarm clock but I was tired so I laid in bed for another forty minutes and finally got going. I am glad I cleaned my truck out last night to get ready for the trip. I went to Rosauers and got some breakfast and headed out.

I arrived in Bellevue a little after I spent the day trying to be busy and get work done. I had hoped to get tickets to the Seahawks playoff game. But I failed to get them for a decent price.

After work I went home and unloaded my truck. I ate dinner with the family and spent the evening chatting online. I also got my forms for tomorrow's meeting with my trainer filled out.

Getting work done.

After I got up I met up with Ryan. I went to his place and got him. We went to Moscow. There was a book he wanted to get. I teased him about it being a girly book. It was a book his girl friend wants him to read.

We got some lunch and went his house and played Madden. I got some regular season games going. I played two of them and I won both of them pretty easily. One of my players had eight sacks and set a sack record.

Around seven o'clock I left Ryan's and went to my office and started to get some work done on moving around my data on my extra hard drive. I spent about four hours getting it done. I was almost done with it. I was happy about how quick it was going. I still have more to do, but it was late and I wanted to get home. I was going to be driving to Seattle tomorrow and I wanted to get up early enough to get there around ten am.

When I got home rather than sleep I stayed up and watched TV for a little while.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

I made it to another new year! If things had gone differently with my job in Pullman, I probably would have spent this one in Seattle spending time with the family before my trip back to Pullman. But as it turned out I am staying in Seattle so I figured I would go through with my plans to work and stay in Pullman this weekend.

It has been one heck of a year. Here are some things that were big for me through out the year and a small quotation from my blog about the event. This is only one thing from each month. This is not to say these are the only big things, but looking back they were pretty big and they cover many of the different aspects that make me who I am today.

Jan - First Fatal car wreck - 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.

Feb - Surgery - After the IM softball season in Fall 03 I went to the doctor. He had some X-rays taken. It showed that I had indeed broken a bone back in 1999. Really what had happened is that when my ligament was stretched it caused an avulsion of my bone. The bone of course did not heal correctly. It was causing inflammation and pain for all these years. The doctor referred me to a specialist. The specialist had me get an MRI and then scheduled a surgery for last Thursday, Feb 5th.

Mar - New Truck - I told him what I was looking for and what my situation was. We went to look at the Dodge Fifteen-Hundreds. After checking the out for a little while we took one on a test drive. It drove pretty darn well. It has a Hemi. Then we looked at just about every other Fifteen-hundred on the lot. I was going to go for one truck when my eye was caught by one I had not looked at. It had everything my Dakota had sans the leather seats. It was blue as well. It was a dark blue however.

Apr - New Job - As I was getting to Pullman I got a call from someone from a computer company in the Seattle area. He talked to me a little bit. He asked what it would take to get me over there. He asked me when I could start. He wanted me on Monday. That was just too quick. I needed to give notice and think about it. I was offered about one and a half times when I am getting now at IS. That is big. Plus it will be a change of career's working in the computer business. It will be a programmers job and with time and experience I can move to bigger and better pay. It will mean however that I will have to leave Whitman County and all the things I have for myself. It has taken a long time for me to get all my jobs out here.

May - The Palouse Thunder: Semi-pro football - After the game we did a big team prayer. Both teams were in on it. After the game one of the guys on the Yakima team told a teammate that the team was behind it. It turned out his brother was killed in a car accident the night before. The kid had played his heart out in the game. He had an awesome game against us. After I got changed I was in the parking lot. I saw the guy whose brother had died. I went to him and said sorry to him. I shook his hand and then we had a friendly hug. He said thank you.

Jun - Softball player of the week - I went to the ECSA website and found my player of the week blurb."Scotty Anderson, Maulers: Although Scotty was out all night helping out at a community function [I helped my old high school teacher with a over-night survival outing], he was a key contributor to the Mauler wins on Sunday. He pitched in 2 games and also played 1st base in 1 game. He hit 6 for 7 and drove in at least 5 runs. He is always upbeat and encouraging to his team mates and the other team."

Jul - My Bestfriend Ryan Gamble - Ryan said he was happy and that he did not take that lightly. I am happy about that. Ryan is one of those guys who I have been friends with through thick and thin. He is the guy who if everyone else on Earth died, that I would want to have with me. Over the years I have shared so much of my life and my growing with Ryan. He looks past my faults and weaknesses and still loves me as a friend.

Aug - Boating with friends - We got going at about one pm. We cruised a little bit before doing some tubing. Russell was out there. He did awesome. The first crash sent him about ten feet in the air and about fifteen feet flying through the air without the tube below him. I have never seen someone crash like that before. At one going he was riding the tube. It was going to wipe out I saw it coming. He was sitting in the tube. The tube was on edge going perpendicular to the water. It was amazing. I had never seen anything like that. He stayed on the tube!

Sep - Now my mom knows - I certainly was not ready for that day to be today. Thankfully she told me she loved me and did not care about my choices. She wants to be part of my life. She also told me she would not tell anyone else in the family. I know she will try but someday it will slip out. Someday the homophobic part of my family will find out about me.

A little bit later I was cleaning up after dinner and getting the left-overs ready for the dog. My mom was going up stairs. Then she came back. She said she loves me no matter what and gave me a kiss on the cheek.

Oct - Edgar's Day- At the beginning of the 9th inning I could some people standing and pointing. I hear some murmurs go across the crowd. I was looking around trying to see what they were looking at. I had hoped Edgar would get one more chance to play the field. Then I looked at third base and it was Edgar! The stadium announcer made the announcement "Your attention please, now playing third base, number eleven, EDGAR MARTINEZ!" The crowd went CRAZY. I was so happy. The first pitch was a ball. Then Willie Bloomquist came out to replace Edgar. The crowd first booed, then they got into one of the loudest standing ovations of the day. Then the crowd went into a fast Ed-Gar chant. Soon Edgar appears out of the dugout for a curtain call. The crowd went nuts again.

Nov - Apple Cup Victory - The punt was a good one. I worried that it would be blocked. We stopped them on about the ten yard line. The Husky's ran two plays and then the game was over and the Cougs won the Apple Cup. The band played the fight song as people started to stream onto the field. Soon half the field was covered in Cougar fan. The band played the fight song again with the team and then they played Jaws followed by the fight song again. I sung along as well as the fans on the field. It was so wonderful.

Dec - Turning down a job in Pullman for money - I said okay to the base sixty-five option. So I will stay at NU and I will make in every paycheck the same amount that I use to make in one paycheck at the county. However I get paid twice here for every one time at the county. So I will pretty much have twice the take home than I did at the county. This should get me out to debt very fast. I hope that within a year I will only have one debt source. That would be my truck. Once out from under that, I will do things the right way. I will save for it and buy it when I can afford to pay it off. I will have twenty percent down for a house before I buy one.

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This morning I woke up and headed to Ryan's. We was going to help me clean out my storage locker. But I could not get the lock off without the proper key. I looked for bolt cutters all around Pullman and Moscow. With today being a holiday many places were not open. Of the ones open there was none to be found. We gave up on that headed to get some lunch.

We went to Ryan's and we played some Madden football. I played a couple pre-season games. My guys were doing bad. I thought for sure I was going to lose a lot of games. I was getting mad. It turns out the two pre-season games I play I lost.

We went to John's at about six o'clock to play poker. I won the first pot and lost after that. I did really bad. It was not my night. I ended up losing about twenty dollars. At about one am we left. I dropped off Ryan and went home myself.