A new task!

I was up and going with my alarm clock. I am glad I filled up with gas yesterday. That will save me some time leaving this morning. The ride went pretty quick with some rain from about Ellensburg to Seattle. With all the nice days in a row in February I was getting spoiled. But now I am back into reality.

There was a VI issue that I needed to deal with at work. So I am on the coding trail again. It looks like it may cause some grief. It is deeply rooted in some components. It will take some time to get it done. I did get the easy stuff done today and checked it in.

When I got home I saw the bathroom floor was torn out. We are going to put new tile in the bathroom as well as new cabinets. It will be a nice change. But now it is a wood floor. So it looks pretty bad.

Nadirs Softball practice

There was a plan for softball practice today. Several people wanted to get out and throw the ball around. I did not have all my softball uniform here so I just wore shorts with no protective equipment. I hate to pitch without it.

I got to the field and people started to filter in. Bryce, Ben, Mark, Phil, and I were there to start and Aaron showed up near the end of practice. After warming up our arms for a while we started to do some BP. I went first. My hands were stinging from the cold bat. Plus my ankle still hurt from golf yesterday.

It was a nice warm day. I had Phil and Aaron do some pitching as well. I think Aaron will be the back up pitcher. People were hitting the ball pretty well today. After we all had some hitting we talked about having a practice each week.

I went to my office and got some stuff on the computer worked out. I finished my taxes and got them turned in. I will be getting a pretty nice return. It will go nicely towards my debts. I went home and listened to some old micro-cassette tapes I had that I recorded back when I was a freshman at WSU. It is pretty fun to listen to it. Some of the things I remembered, some things I struggled to remember. I would like to record those tapes to the computer to save them in digital format for good.

I laid around the house most of the evening. I was watching more of the Dukes of Hazard marathon on CMT. Then I went down and filled up and got some dinner. I was going to watch the normal Sunday night shows, but they were not on. I decided to go to bed at nine pm. I called Nick about the movie night next weekend. I wanted to postpone it for another week because Thomas could not be there.

I told him not to return my call because I would be sleeping, but just as I was drifting off to sleep my phone rang. I was not mad. He must have misheard what I said. So we talked for a few minutes and I tried to go back to sleep. But that was useless. I tossed and turned through out the night.

Golfing!

With spring coming so early this year the golf courses are opening. Yesterday Ben invited me to go golfing with him. He called me this morning at about nine am and said that WSU was open. He expected it to be closed and we would just go hit the ball around. Because it was open he had to get a tee time. I drove to Pullman and met him, Wade, his girlfriend's dad, and a friend of Ben's.

I have not swung a golf club in about three years. I was worried about how I would do. The others had been hitting balls on the driving range but I was only able to get to the golf course a few minutes before the tee-time. I was going third. The others had some nice hits. It was my turn and I had my three-wood out. I was nervous. I was afraid with as long as it has been since I last hit a ball I would be holding back this guys.

I swung at the ball. The club hit several inches behind the ball and it hit with enough force to rip the club out of my hand and it flew about ten feet down the course. It killed my pride to walk down and pick up the club. Then on my next attempt I topped the ball so badly it did not go as far as my club has gone. They let me try again and I gave it a little wack. It took me eight strokes to get the ball in the cup, not including the two other strokes they did not charge me with. Ben pulled me aside and gave me some pointers for swinging the club. I practiced what he said and it seemed to help me out a fair amount. As we went on I was getting better hits and actually boggied a couple of the holes.

WSU has a nine hole course and when you're off the fairway it is rough, hilly, and full of gopher holes. It spent a fair amount of time playing off the fairway. Every once in a while I would get a good swing and it felt great. My putting was going pretty well and I sank some long puts. My pitching went okay and set up some good puts for me. One of the pitches hit the pin, but the ball did not go in.

After the first round we played a second round. We payed eight dollars for all-day-play. The second game we played a variation called Wolf. Each person took turns being the wolf. He would watch the initial drive. When he saw one he liked he would be on that person's team for that hole. The other two people would be the second team. If he did not like any of the drives he could call Wolf and he would be on a team to himself against the other three people. The team who had a member with the lowest score for that hole would each score one point. The person with the most points at the end of the round would win. If you chose to be the Wolf and won the hole you would earn two points.

By the time we reached the third hole my ankle was getting really sore. I could hardly walk. I was really slow. My game was also getting worse. By the end of the Wolf round I was walking about half of my normal speed. I was also not hitting the ball well. I was really sore by the time we finished the last hole I hobbled to my truck. I drove back to Colfax because I had to get the case report from yesterday's suicide.

When I got Colfax I went home and barely could stand. I limped into the house and elevated my ankle. I put some ice on it and took some pain pills. A Dukes of Hazard marathon was on CMT. So I watched several episodes. Then I went to the fire station. Carl and I talked about golfing and gambling for a while. I ordered a pizza and picked it up. Then I went to the Sheriff's Office to get my report completed.

I watched some more of the Dukes of Hazard marathon before finally going to bed.

Fourth case in as many shifts

The fire department pager went off a little after seven o’clock am. It was an alpha response for someone who fell. I scraped my windows and headed down to the station. I got there and no one else was there. I waited for a minute and I was going to radio that I was standing by when Milt showed up.

We went to the scene. I took patient care. She was a middle aged woman with MS and other problems. I did a HEAR report and it felt like it was just rolling off my tongue. Milt even said it was one of the best head had heard in a long time. I got my paperwork done there and went back to the station. I turned in my paperwork and drove to Pullman.

I had a meeting with someone from SCS to talk about what I did at SCS and what I was doing now. It was a feature that will be in the SCS Byte. It is the bi-yearly newsletter that replaced the system-wide meetings.

When that was done I went to my office and called Dan with his tax information. I checked my E-mail. I talked to Ben on the phone about doing some golfing tomorrow. I also talked to Ryan we decided to go to lunch at noon. I picked him up and we drove to Pizza Pipeline.

After lunch I dropped Ryan off at his apartment. He is sick and took the rest of the day off. I went to a customer’s apartment to work with him on his new Macintosh. I had to explain several things to him. Then I went to Colfax for Nancy’s retirement party. I went to the SO first and made her a sign about her having the brightest smile. I was at the party for about two hours. We had cake and punch. Eunice and some other people spoke about Nancy.

Just as I was going to walk over to the fire department I got a call from Pete. He said there was a drowning at the river and wanted to know if I wanted the case. I told him I did. It was down at Blyton’s landing. I confirmed exactly where Blyton’s landing was. I thought I knew and indeed I did.

I cruised on down there hoping to have some daylight left for taking photos. Night photos do not turn out to well normally. I was able to get there just before it got dark, but after the sun had set. I got a briefing and then started to take pictures of the scene. It was a suicide. I had the funeral home scheduled to meet me at about six pm. They were about twenty minutes later than I had planned. I was going to have Pete meet me at the funeral home in Pullman at seven pm.

Once they arrived we clear the body from the scene and I met Pete at the funeral home. We were a few minutes later than I had hoped, but we were doing well. My truck was running on fumes and I was worried about running out of gas. I made it there.

Pete and I went over the case and did more inspection of the body. We drew some blood and urine and then talked to Sgt. Anderson. I talked to the Sheriff of Asotin county who did the notification of the family. He gave me some of the information from the family. Pete and I left the funeral home. I got some gas. This was the fourth time I was on call this year and it was my fourth call. I am averaging one per time on call right now. Not a rate I was doing last year.

I got some gas and call John. We were planning on playing some cards. No one else was around to play. So I got some dinner from Cougar Country and met John at his house. We talked about the fire department and other issues and just general talk as we played. It was a five dollar buy in and winner take all. We played for a total of about three hours. We did very little movement of money for most of that time, and finally at the end of the night it went quick. I lost in a couple of close hands. I left his place a little before one am.

Monthly Coroner Meeting

Joe sent me the things I needed to get additional products added to the website. I spent most of my time gathering information to add to the website. I never got the data put into the system. I have a way to go with it. There is a fair amount of stuff to gather online and it is slow going. Then I have to put it into the E-Commerce website so it will be displayed.

At about noon a couple of us went to get teriyaki for lunch. It was nice and sunny so we ate outside. It was getting close to one and I wanted to get going. I planned on giving Joe the demo today before the coroner’s meeting. The trip over was pretty un-eventful. I pulled into town around five. I checked out the new vinyl floor that was installed in my house. I got my jail uniform on and shaved.

I went to the SO. Before I had a chance to talk with Joe I had to burn a CD with all the pics for the coroner’s cases I had. Pete wanted a copy of all of them. He said he wants to have the only copies of all coroner pictures for security reasons. Ron and Chris had some computer issues. I helped them as much as I could before the meeting started.

We ate some dinner and talked about getting a new computer and how we wanted to store the photos in the future. We started to go over some cases from the last week and talked about the murder and the latest on that. We filled the schedule for the rest of the month.

I headed into the jail and worked there for about four hours. I did a round and manned control a little bit. I talked to Sgt. Poffenroth about the job opportunity I had back in December. I went home a tiny bit after midnight and watched Family Guy before fading into la-la land.

E-Commerce for Joe

I got a good start on the electronics site for Joe. I am using the E-Commerce wizard that is offered by the web hosting company. It took a while for me to get things going. I had to learn about the system and get something set up. I talked to Joe about it and let him know I would do a demo for him to show him how it works. He said he would send me information about the other products that needed to be added to the site. I was getting so much stuff done on it I worked on it until about eight o’clock pm.

When I got home I had to cook a couple taco shells for tacos. My parents had already eaten and put the food away. I had to heat that up as well. I chowed down on the tacos. Then I spent the rest of the evening talking to Richard and posting stuff on Scottyland.

Batting practice

My softball team was having batting practice. This time we had a scheduled time. I helped by feeding the balls so Grandpa could be by the hitters to give them pointers. When I took my hits he had the others come watch me. After I was done hitting he said that he wants me to work with some of the others guys on the team to be better hitters. That should be interesting. I have never really coached someone at hitting before. I have always run my softball team in Pullman, but I never really coached. I let people play the game their way.

Happy Birthday, Dad.

I slept in a little bit today. When I got up I went down stairs and got some breakfast. Then I watched TV and was on the computer. They were having a Presidents Day marathon on Court TV showing all sorts of shows were people were stealing money and how they got caught. There were some interesting stories about it.

I had to clean up the yard of doggie-doo-doo. Then when I went back into the house my mom was gone. I planned on going to Wal-Mart to return my boots from Christmas that were too small for me. Just before I left my mom called and asked if I could bring the tin snips to the cemetery so she could cut down some of the artificial flowers.

I drove up there and went to my Dads grave site. It showed his birthday on the headstone. Floyd Keith Anderson, Feb 21st, 1939. Today was his sixty-sixth birthday.

Then I drove down to Renton. I returned the boots and came back home. Today was pretty much a lazy day for me. I spent the rest of the day watching TV and chatting on the computer.

Gambling with Janet

My alarm clock woke me up so I could get to my first softball practice of the spring. I drove to get Gary and then we headed to Sea-Tac. When we got to the field Grandpa was there. I talked to him a little bit and then Gary and I threw around the ball a little bit. Grandpa wanted me to work on a back-hand spin pitch today.

Everyone else started to arrive. I introduced them all to Gary. Then we did more warm ups as a team. We started doing the drills of having the ball hit to third and thrown to first and visa-versa. Then we took positions and started to do some batting practice. Gary was playing the field well. He hit left handed to make sure he did not hit the ball too well. He needs to be a low enough ranking to be able to play on the team.

They played me at third base a little bit. When I fired a ball across the field they started to worry that if other teams see me do that they would challenge my rating and I would get moved to a higher league. I said they can hide me at pitcher and first base. Grandpa said that was wasting my talent. I told him I liked to play those positions.

I did not hit the ball too well myself. I was not using my bat because it was cold, but even so, it was ugly. I had not swung the bat since last softball season so it has been a while. I would like to do some more hitting. We have a day at the batting cage coming up on Tuesday. That should help a bit for me.

After practice Don got Gary's E-mail address and I drove Gary home. I talked to him for a bit about the league and the people he would be playing with. He said he could tell some of them were gay. I told him I would understand if he would not be comfortable playing on the team. But I assured him they are a fun group of guys.

Then I went home and took a shower and then watched some TV and got on the computer. I E-mailed Joe about the Websites I am working on. Then Janet called. She wanted to go to the Muckleshoot's Casino for a forty-thousand dollar give-away. But we had to get there before six pm to sign up. I drove down there. The traffic to get to the casino and park was pretty thick. I did a couple maneuvers to get us there quicker. Then I drove around the back of the casino to get to the back entrance of the parking garage. We were able to park a lot quicker that other people.

We rushed into the casino and I got into a line that I needed to be in to sign up for the preferred players club. Then I got my ticket to get into the drawing. It took almost a half hour to get through the line. We went and played some nickel slots. I lost five dollars after playing for a while. Then I bought in some more money. I played a different nickel slot for a while and I won some money there. But for the night I was down ten dollars. Not bad considering what I would normally lose down there in a night.

We listened for our names in the drawings. It was never called. At about nine pm they called the final ten-thousand dollar winner. He was not there so they drew again. That person was there so we did not win any of the money in the give-away. Janet played some more slots. Then we left. The lines to leave were pretty big as well, however, I found a quicker way out.

I dropped her off at home and then went home myself. I was really tired so rather than going to bed I got on the computer and chatted with some people before finally going to bed.

Captial Hill Poker

I had plans today to help out Bill getting the old windows from the rental house so he could take them to the dump. I set my alarm clock to wake me up so I could do that before the skills clinic that the ECSA was putting on. Once I was done with the windows I headed down to Seattle for the skills clinic.

It was being held near Rainier Beach. I got there and ran into several people on my softball team. We watched many people looking for a team do try-outs, more or less. They did hitting, fielding, and throwing, so people could rate them and see how they would fit into the team you have. We found a few people we invited to come to our practice to see if one of them would work out.

That lasted about two hours. I went home and washed my truck. It was really bad. It had really thick dirt from the pass and the winter roads. It is all nice and shiny right now. I like it like that.

I went inside and watched TV. There were some movies on and I switched around, plus the Cougars were on TV playing against the Huskys. They Cougars did not do too well. Bill cooked my steak because I had plans to go on the town in the evening.

Eric was going to invite me to his place to play poker. He called me up and gave me directions to his place. I needed to get there at about eight-thirty pm. I left the house to get some gas and then it was off to Capital Hill in Seattle.

Eric has a really nice condo down there. Shortly after I got there we started get our money out and buying in for some chips. We had nine people playing in total. Don, Grandpa, Eric, and John for the Maulers were there. Josh, Eric's boyfriend, Woodsy, Donny, and Doc were also there. Donny was a ten-six-seven. He was very friendly.

I won two hands the whole night. I got two pocket pairs dealt to me the whole night. The I had a few times where I got an ace. Most of the time I got low cards that were unsuited. It was really ugly. But I had a lot of fun and that was the big thing. John was serving beer to everyone.

Over the next few hours people slowly dropped out after losing their money. We played until about one-thirty am. Then I said goodbye to everyone. I got in the truck and cruised on home.

Who said there is no such thing as a free lunch?

Today at work we got ourselves a free lunch. I got a wrap with ham and cheese. It was pretty good. I spent the day working on the database and one of the pages for entry of electronics. This is going to be a pretty big task to undertake. I also need to look into shopping carts.

My mom called me and said they were going to the Eagles for dinner. I met them down there. It seemed like I was behind one slow car after another. I got there in time for dinner. It was good.

When we were done I went home and talked to Dave. We decided to see Hitch. I chatted with Ryan on the phone for a tiny bit before I had to go to the movie. He is going to record Third Watch for me.

I met Dave in Renton for the movie. It was really good. It had a lot of funny points. When it was over we were walking out and I noticed every guy there was we a girl. Then there was Dave and I. I felt really out of place.

We went to Billies Casino. I had a good time there. I gambled a little bit. Dave did a lot more than me. They gave us a comp for dinner. While we were sitting there I joked about using the comp for a bet. There was no one at the table except for Dave and I. The pit boss said for the fun of it deal the cards. We lost the hand and the dealer won the comp. We all laughed about our luck. We of course kept the comp.

We sat down and I told Dave about last weekend then we left. It was getting late and Dave was getting tired.

Changing gears

I got a fair amount of work done on the website for Joe. I got a lot of the administration control panel completed. I checked my E-mail and I found Joe wanted me to change gears and work on the electronics store and let the online mall sit around for a bit. So I talked to Joe on the phone and got an idea of what he was looking for.

When I got home I found my W-Two from Pullman was here so I put that information into the system. Plus I got the information for my company put in there. It looks like after all that my refund grew by thirty-three per-cent. I was pretty happy about that. It will help me pay off my bills a little better.

First Softball Practice

I got a great amount of one of the pages completed at today. It is a pretty indepth page. I did it a different way than I have done in the past. It only uses one page instead of two or more pages. This will limit the number of pages I will have to maintain and update from time to time. But it also leaves it open to being harder to troubleshoot. So I guess there is a trade off.

After work I went to the Strike Zone in Seattle for practice. Only a few people showed up and it turned out we did not have reservations. That meant that we were not able to get in. So we cancelled practice and called it a day. Eric invited me over for a poker game coming up on Saturday. So I will be doing that this weekend.

I headed home and called up Gary. I asked if he wanted to play on the team. He is interested. I told him what we were looking for and what not. He is willing to come to practice and see what it is about. I did not tell him everything about the team yet. I figured I would tell him more the day of practice or not say anything at all.

I got home just in time for dinner. It was just getting finished when I got there. I ate dinner then went to my room to watch some TV for a little bit. One of my shows that I like to watch was not on tonight, so I watched other shows until CSI-New York came on.

After that was done I brushed Amber. Then headed to my room to go to bed. I am still tired when midnight rolls around. I use to be fine, but I think being sick and not getting much sleep over the last week has caught up with me.

Working out with Jason

Today was my last session with Jason at THF. We did several items, but it was not a strenuous day. I was getting some breaks between sets. I went back to work and got on the laptop and work away at my project. It is cruising along. Now each page is taking a while to do because of the complexity I am building into it. I have one page that does several things rather than pages with only one job.

I went home at a normal time. I called Dave to see if he was interested in going out tonight. I never heard back from him so I stayed at home and just hung out. I watched TV and chatted on the computer.

This weekend caught up to me

My morning started off at around five o'clock am to head to Seattle for the week. I got my stuff gathered. I went to Rosauers to get some breakfast then it was off to the races. It was cold outside so I took it easy on the road. I did not want to end up in a ditch. It is funny after being a patient in the extrication training on Saturday I have been thinking about the vehicles that I get in a lot more closely. I have no desire to get into something small. I would think it would be a casket on wheels and I don't want to get stuck in something like that.

When I got to the pass it was snowing pretty good. There was snow on the roadway in some of the lanes. I had it in four wheel drive and was trucking along at the reduced speed limit of forty-five miles per hour. Once I got over the pass the snow was dissipating. A few cars had slid off the roadway, but not me. I just kept trucking.

I got to work a little after ten am. We had a meeting to discuss the failed release of SR-Two again. Then we went back to our desks. Everyone had some sort of item to work on. Ricky was going to get some stuff done with the .dll's so we could have them stored in one location. We were going to rebuild our boxes after that. He hit a snag so our boxes did not get rebuilt yesterday.

Ricky and I took a late lunch and grabbed some food from Safeway. I left around five to go home. When I got home I worked on my taxes until dinner was ready. It was deep fried fish and fries. It was really good. Then I finished my taxes. It looks like I should get a good rebate coming my way. It will be well received.

I watched CSI-Miami from my room because I was so tired, and I ended up falling asleep about half way through it.

Murder in a small town

At seven o'clock am my phone rang, it was a number from Pullman. It was Whitcom and the dispatcher said "Hi there has been a murder." I thought for half a second still in a near-slumber I said "in Pullman?" referring to what Pete told me last night. I was told that it was in Endicott. I told Whitcom to page out Pete as well. I was given the address and then I was off.

I got ready and went to Rosauers to get some breakfast then I called Whitcom to get the address again because I did not remember it. I was told the Endicott road at MP eight at the bridge. I was also told that the command post was at the fire station and that the SWAT team was still on scene.

I drove out that way, and I was able to cruise knowing where all the cops were. When I got into Endicott I stopped at the command post. I saw a deputy getting supplies from a riot vehicle. I helped him carry a few things and then talked to the Sheriff about what had happened. He told me what they had so far. When he said the name of the victim I knew who he was talking about.

I headed out of town on the Endicott road. I flew out to MP eight. There was a bridge and a river, but no police. I looked around for them and could not find anyone. Then I figured it was the St. John-Endicott road. I saw a road I thought would take me there. I drove it to the end and ended up in a field and a dead-end after about five or six miles. So I drove as quickly as I could to the Endicott road and got back into Endicott. I talked to the Sheriff and he confirmed the address.

I had to get going again, but I was able to fly to the scene. I arrived and I saw the police cars and Pete was already there. I spoke with a deputy who was there. He showed me the body. And then they showed me the evidence. I photographed the evidence and the body as it sat in the water. It was thrown into an area on the river that was a little inlet without water flow so the body never went down river.

The prosecutor and Sheriff came to the scene they were shown everything before the body was moved. Then Patti also showed up. Pete called her to see the scene as well. We got the body out of the water and then the funeral home showed up. They took the body to the funeral home. Pete, Patti, and I went to Endicott. We talked to the parents of the victim. We told them what had happened. They were really shaken and upset by it. Then we talked to the fiance of the victim and saw his six-month-old son. It was a bad situation.

We grabbed some chow at a store that opened up and made food for the people on the scene. Then we went down the block to the scene. I took photographs of the evidence that was there. We never went into the house where the murder took place because the state patrol crime lab had come out of Spokane to do that. The media was there and took some video. I watched the news report about it later on and I was on it. I was also on the front page of their website about it.

After we left the scene we went to Colfax and the funeral home. We took some more photos of the body and then went to the SO. While there a city police officer allowed us to use his equipment to get our pictures downloaded and printed. He also made a CD with the photos on it for us.

Pete left and I went to Pullman. I had to do some stuff at my office. Then when I got back to Colfax I wrote up my report and turned it in with the photos in the coroners office.

It was about a total of ten hours when it was all said and done for this scene. I went home and got to bed before it was too late. I had to get up and head to Seattle in the morning and I wanted to get to bed before it got too late.

Extrication training with Colfax Fire

With only four hours of sleep I was dragging this morning, but I planned on having fun today. I drove to the fire department and got my turn outs. Then I drove to Ben's Body and saw Carl and Matt. I told Carl about my ShortBus trip and gave him a sample of my Elvis impersonation. He got a big kick out of that.

People started to arrive close to ten o'clock AM. A van showed up with WSU and Pullman firefighters in it. Wakeman, Sturm, and a few other guys. They came over and said hello to me. It was good to see them. I had not seen them in a while.

We walked over to some cars and had a chance to look at them. Everyone was briefed on what we were going to be doing. Jeff and I worked at a sub-compact hatch-back car. We had a victim inside and had people extricate the person without cutting the car. So they had to get into the car and hold c-spine. Then transfer them out on to the board.

After watching different groups do their thing we would give them ideas, pointers, and things they need to improve. We did this for a few hours and then took a lunch break. I grabbed some Subway and went back to the training ground.

In the afternoon session we decided that cars would be cut to get people out. I was put in this sub-compact coffin on wheels car. It took everything I had to get into the car wearing my full turnouts and whatnot. I was being a patients who was not easy to get along with. I was getting mad at the firefighters for cutting my car. They tried to clam me down.

Wakeman was holding my c-spine when I asked him his name because he owed me a new car. He then smiled and did a quick twist of my head like he was breaking my neck. I started to laugh. Then as they pulled me out of the car I would scream and yell really loud. At first they stopped because they did not know what was wrong. Jamie was laughing really hard.

They finally got me out of the car and I stopped screaming. She then asked if I could be a patient for the finals coming up in March. She said I am a good patient. I told her I would.

We did a few more scenarios before calling it a day. I helped to clean up the mess before heading to the fire station. Tim had a bunch of pictures that we all looked at. Then everyone started to leave. I stayed at the station and watch a movie but I was so tired I kept dozing off. Finally I hit a second wind and made it through the movie. I went home a little while after the movie was over.

I got into watching some TV for a few hours. I pretty much rested on the couch watching TV. Because I was so tired I went to be around eleven-thirty. Just as I was in the transition zone between sleep and being awake the phone rang. It was about midnight and Pete was telling me about a situation in Pullman that was going on. He said they will call if they get more information where they will need me to respond. After hanging up I was fast asleep.

Eleven Hour marathon

After waking from my short slumber I gathered enough clothing for the weekend and headed to work. I was going to go to Colfax and work for the coroners office. But first I had to go to my job in Bellevue and put in some time. We were getting ready to release SR-Two tomorrow so we were just getting our ducks in a row. We had a company meeting followed by some more time to get the ducks in a row.

I left to get gas, food, and head out to Colfax. I rolled into town just after five o'clock PM. I went home and shaved off two weeks worth of a beard and headed to the jail. I had a meal saved for me. I chowed that down as quickly as possible then went on the floor. We were expecting three commits to come in today. The first one was going to be there at six o'clock PM. He showed up about fifteen minutes late. I brought him into the booking area and started to book him into jail. One of my partners was doing a round when he was requested to go to Female Work Release to talk to an inmate. Within a minute or so he walked her into the med room which is right off of booking. I asked if he needed help with her, he said no.

I had my commit signing paperwork when I heard my partner ask for me to come into the med room. I looked in the door from across the room and I saw the legs of the inmate were on the floor. I figured she had passed out. I walked around the counter and put my hand on the commits shoulder. I guided him into a holding cell and shut the door. Then I went into the med room. I inmate had come to and was hyperventilating. I worked with her to slow her breathing down. She was complaining of tightness in the shoulder and a lot of pain. She was crying. After getting some vitals and her med file we called the jail doctor. I talked to him on the phone. I described her problem. After talking to the doctor he said that we needed to send her to the ER because of the fact she had no history of the symptoms of what she was displaying.

I called Whitcom and asked them to send over the Colfax EMT's and to get a deputy to come for supervision of the inmate while outside of the jail. The EMT's showed up within a couple minutes. They loaded her on the cot and took her to the hospital. A Colfax police officer accompanied her until the deputy could relieve him. As the ambulance was leaving a different Colfax police officer brought in someone for failing to comply in his conditions of pre-trial release. The guy was not happy about it and was more or less complaint with me but at the same time I had to issue the same order several times for him to do what I was requesting him to do. Finally I got him patted down and I put him into a holding cell.

I got the guy who I had been booking and finished up his commit. I was nearly done so it did not take long. Sam too him to Orange while I started in on a bond. A bondsman had been waiting for us to finish our problems. Once we were done I was able to get a guy released on bond. Then Sam and I started on the next commit. I did the computer work and Sam did the photographs and fingerprints. We were able to whip that booking out in no time.

I took a little break from the jail and went to the fire station to talk to them about the person they just took to the hospital. Jamie was still there. She was talking about the extrication training in the morning. I decided that I would attend that.

I went back to the jail and went to control. Dale was on the floor and Sam joined him. Dale was working on the last commit. Then he took him to Orange. There was still the fresh arrest from Colfax PD. Sam and Dale decided to tag team that booking. I stayed in control. I watched Third Watch and ran the doors.

After the booking was done things started to finally slow down. All of us were in the control room relaxing until the end of the shift which was not far away. Sam has twin brothers that work in the jail as well. They both came on shift. They showed up and Sam and Dale left. I was going to hang around a little while longer. One of the deputies got a DUI in Endicott. I went down and observed that. Colfax Ambulance was called to do a blood draw. This guy had been drinking a fair amount. In fact when the deputy was driving around Endicott, this guy drove up to the deputy and stopped him. He was talking to the deputy who noticed the smell of alcohol. He asked the guy how much he had to drink. The guy said "WAY TOO MUCH!"

When get got to the jail his shoulder was out of socket. He said it happens all the time. It sounds like he was in the rodeo for a long time and it was all messed up. So we gave him a blanket and he put the shoulder back into place. During the processing of this guy we were hanging around in booking. I was talking to the EMT's who were waiting to do the blood draw. After about twenty minutes they were able to do their blood draw.

The deputy did not book the guy but wanted someone to come and pick him up. He sat in the lobby as we waited for his wife to come and get him. The deputy said make sure the person who comes to get him has had nothing to drink. After waiting for more than an hour for someone to travel the twenty miles we figured something was up. The guy kept saying he wanted to go to the hospital because of his shoulder and because he was having a hard time breathing.

The deputy got permission from the on-duty sgt to do a courtesy transport to the hospital and drop the guy off. It was not long after that, when the wife called and said she could not find anyone to come and get him. So after a few minutes at the hospital the deputy was driving downtown to someone's house where the guy could stay.

The deputy came back to the SO. I needed to help him with a computer issue and he wanted to show the Colfax officer and me a video of a guy who was not patted down. He pulled a large gun from his waistband and shot himself in police custody.

Then I went to the store and got some breakfast. As I was driving down Main street I saw the deputy pull out to head home. Near Ace Hardware I saw the deputy turn around. There was they guy walking down the street. The deputy dealt with him for a few minutes and let the guy go on his way. I got home and listened to the scanner as I ate breakfast. It was nearly five o'clock am and I needed to be up at nine o'clock. I heard the deputy stop when he saw someone walking along the highway. I heard something about a juvenile runaway. I smiled. He was already on overtime and wanted to go home and now he had another situation to deal with, but I was able to crawl into bed.

It is coming along... slowly

When I got to work I had my laptop with me. I spent some time doing some of Joe's website. I was getting more touches on it and making it do what I want it to do. It will display things and then depending on how the user wants the output to look it will have a few different formats. It needs work on the look, but it is up and running.

Now for the fun part of inserting all the data into the database. That is slow going. I need to create an excel spread sheet with that data so I can do it more quickly. Then the next part is to relate the data to categories and subcategories. I am still not sure exactly how I want to build that section. I am leaning towards a page that will show all the stores and you choose as many as you would like and then choose what category or subcategory they would go in. I also need to make some pages to edit the current data and to remove old links all together.

I had a money wrench thrown into the mix last night. I may have to go back to the way I was originally doing it. I was only putting in the link and then adding the A HREF tags in the code, but one of the items will not allow that to happen because of where the tag. Maybe what I can do is check to see if the first four letters are HTTP if so then do it as I have been, otherwise it will display what is in the URL field without the extra tags I added. Man, I am a genius!

Bill was showing me something he was thinking about investing in. I am skeptical because of the large amount of money he would have to put into it. I gave him a few questions to ask about it to clarify things.

Starting on the website

With the database complete I wanted to start to get the website built. I got some of my other website copied to the development laptop. I am using it without Internet access so I need to have my resources local. By the time I got the stuff copied over and messed around I did not get any real development completed. I did get a solution started and a few pages added to the solution so once I start to really go with it I will have everything at my fingertips.

The last week at work has been slow, waiting for SR-Two stuff to get shipped. We all have been in a hold pattern pretty much.

I went home and spent the evening doing the stuff with the laptop and watching some TV. It was a really slow humpday.

Fixing the laptop

I spent my time at work trying to analyze the VI's that are going to be assigned to me in the next SR release. I found a large number of them were very bare bones. I requested more information from people so I could replicate the behaviour that is wrong and what they want fixed.

I decided to change out the DVD in the laptop that was bad for the one that was in the laptop with a bad motherboard. Online I was able to find instructions on removing the hard drive but nothing further.

I got a lamp from Bob's desk and went to work. I took out the screws from the bottom of the laptop. I recorded where every screw came from so I would not have a problem putting it back together. I took off the monitor, the keyboard, the top plastic piece. There were a lot of screws that I had to get out.

Finally I found the DVD drive would slide out. It turned out that one of the screws that held the hard drive in place and another one that held the top plastic piece were also holding the DVD drive in place. I tried to slide out the DVD drive but a super thin metal bracket was holding it from sliding all the way out. There were four tiny screws holding the bracket to the DVD drive. To get those screws out required me to use the screw driver at a weird angle.

Finally I got it out. Then I took apart the other laptop, but I did not have to take it apart as much because I knew how to get the DVD drive out now. When I got the replacement DVD drive in I put the bracket on. Because of the weird angles it was extremely hard to get the screws back in. I was able to do it finally. I fired it up and it worked. I was stoked. I started to load Windows two-thousand-three server on it. Then I went left. It was a little before eight o'clock.

I drove to THF and used the elliptical trainer for twenty minutes and then drove home. When I got home my parents were getting ready to go bed. I cooked up one of the grilled cheese sandwiches they made for me.

I watched House and used the other laptop I got working on Monday. I installed a few more applications on it then got Joe's website put on it. I started to create a database to store the information that was needed for the website. Tomorrow I am going to start actually building the website. It will take a while to create the pages needed for entry and updating of the data. Once I got that going I will show Joe what I have and then go from there.

I watched Pleasantville with Paul Walker. It wasn't a great movie but now I have seen it so I will not feel the need to see it again someday.

Four not five card poker. DOH!

Today, being the day after the Super Bowl, I figured I would wake up early one more time to listen to Andy Savage at six o'clock AM to hear from my homies on the ShortBus. Andy was sick and did not show up so it was only Steve and Jodie doing the show. I crawled out of bed in a stuper being tired myself.

I went outside. Things were all frosted up. I started my truck to get the windows defrosted and let Amber go potty. My water bottle in my truck was nearly empty and I had some time to kill as my windows were getting defrosted. I went into the house and slipped on the steps falling down. I caught myself with my hands before actually hitting the ground. But I hurt my wrist in the process.

Work was the same 'ol-same 'ol. I got another laptop to add to my pile of non-working laptops. Actually one has a bad mother board, one has a bad DVD, and two have no batteries. I figure I can pull the DVD out of the one with the bad MoBo and put it into the other one and have two working laptops. Leaving one for parts.

I talked to Dave on the way home. We planned on going out when he got off work sometime around ten o'clock PM. I also talked to Joe. He reminded me about turning in my packet to be mailed back to him. I told him I was going to start work on the website.

I got home and dinner was getting served as I walked in the door. It was meatloaf. I like meatloaf. It is very good stuff. I had a couple pieces of that before going up stairs to get on the computer and watch TV. I wanted to watch a couple shows that my parents did not want to watch.

I set my VCR to record CSI:Miami. Dave called me shortly after that saying he got off work and was heading to the casino. I drove down there to meet him. He was in the restaurant eating. I went inside and noticed he had a new haircut. It looks very nice on him. I complimented him on that then went into the story about the ShortBus trip. He thought the part about the Elvis impersonation was funny as heck. He said the part about Elvis being on the radio at the end of the trip was too ironic to be believable. He was laughing pretty hard.

It took a fair amount of time to tell him the whole thing. When it was done we decided to go to Billie's casino. The one we were at had the game we wanted to play shut down. At Billie's we played four card poker. Anytime a song came on he would say "have you heard Elvis' version of this song?" Then he would laugh. One of the songs was "I'm too sexy."

I got my cards and I would see that I only had four cards to a straight and I was get mad about how close I was and I would throw them away. After a little while of seeing that happen I got mad and said, look at my luck. I threw the cards face up in front of me. I said, this is just like my night, always one card off the straight. Then the dealer and Dave were saying, no that is a straight. I said, no it is not. That is a Five-Six-Seven-Eight, and this card is a Queen. They said it is four card poker. You only need four cards for a straight. I felt sick. I threw some winners. Big winners away.

This is not my month! Well I still have a twenty-seven inch TV I get to pick up from K-Rock.

Super Bowl Sunday!!!

Today is the day of the year that months of football comes down to. The big dance. The big show. The Super Bowl. I got up and started on my ShortBus story. I got a few hours on it completed. It is not easy to work on it, not because it is sad, but because my desk is a little small and the keyboard hangs off the edge of the desk.

Around noon I went to the rec room and watching National Security. I did not like it too much. It was okay, I did finish watching it, but through out the movies the race card was continuously played. It was getting old quickly.

I went to the store and got some chips and items for making a few dips. I got the ingredients for Chili-Phily, a cheese dip, and bean dip. When I got home I started to make all of them. The countdown to kick off was thirty minutes away. I took some of the dips into the rec room and put out the chips.

I was helping Bill with the laundry as it came out of the dryer. Finally it was time for the National Anthem. It was great to hear the choirs from the military schools sing. It was well performed and not upstaged by some big name singer. They sang it how it was meant to be performed. I cannot stand it when singers trying to do artistic things with it. It is wrong.

The Eagles won the toss. They got the ball first. It was a batter back and forth for the first half and into the third quarter. New England started to pull it out. The Eagles had a chance to do something to tie it up but they were not managing the clock well and the ended up running out of time at the end of the game, forcing themselves to make poor choices. They ended up losing. I wanted to see them win. At least Tom Brady did not get the MVP.

After the game I watched the Simpson's and American Dad. At first I was not too impressed with American Dad until he brought home the nineteen-year-old dog. That part made me laugh out loud. After American Dad was over with I decided to finish my ShortBus story.

I spent a couple hours typing it and trying to get detail and remember what some of my notes meant. I finished it near midnight. I was talking to Ryan online and asked if he would review it for grammar and clarity issues. I E-mailed him a copy of it. Then I called him up and we talked on the phone for a while about the paper.

Going downtown

I tried to sleep in a little bit but it was not working too well. So I finally gave up and went downstairs. I still was in the relax mode that I had been in yesterday. It was a nice day to be a bump on the log again. I did have plans for the evening. Russell, Brandon, and I were going to go downtown.

I spent some time on the computer. I have been trying to get my story from the ShortBus trip written. I have about nine pages and I am on day three. I have three more days to go before I am done.

Around seven o'clock PM I saw that I had a few phone messages. One was from Nick and one from Russell. I called both of them. Russell said that when he was done with dinner we would go out. That took another two hours.

I headed for Seattle. I called Joseph, a G-Shack member. First about the math homework that is due on Monday, then he said he is not in high school nor college. So then I said, naw, I was really calling about his car for sale. I asked what it was again. He said it was a 1981 Honda. I asked how much he wanted for it. He said a thousand dollars. I then responded ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS FOR THAT!?!?! He then came back and said he would take eight-hundred. I almost started to laugh, but I was trying to make the joke go on longer. Then he asked how I got his number. I said the sign on the car. He said it was impossible because there had been no sign on the car. Then his mom was asking him something in the background. I let him in on who I was. We talked for about twenty minutes in all.

I got to the parking garage that I use. I waited from Russell and Brandon to show up. We started at R-Place. We went to the third floor and sat at the bar. We joked around and checked out the sites. Then we decided to show Brandon was Manray looked like on the inside. We left there thinking about going to Madison Pub. They are the sponsor of my softball team. But I thought it was far away from where we were. We started to walk towards some lights that were revolving in the sky. It took us to a bar called Chop Suey. There was a line to get in. Then I saw Madison Pub two buildings down.

We walked down there and went inside. It was like any other sports bar. They played music that I actually knew. There was a pool table. They had NTN trivia. We all got a game controller and sat at the bar and played a game. I saw Grandpa from the softball team. He is one of the coaches. He said the others from the team were going to be there. We left around midnight because Russell was really tired. We walked back to our cars and left.

A day to rest

Today is a day to rest and to be a bump on the log. After spending six days on the ShortBus and part of a day on an airplane it was time for me to do nothing.

I did get up at six o'clock AM to listen to the final day of the ShortBus to see who would win. I was pulling for Lars. The contest was to see how many celebrities they could get on the phone in three hours. Lars got four of them. Blowfish, however, managed to get five and won the contest. Kiltboy only got one person in that whole time. Winning the whole contest, Blowfish chose to take Kiltboy to the game. As a consolation prize Lars won a fifty-two inch HDTV with DLP. That is really cool.

I got another laptop at work today. I started to load Windows two-thousand-three Server on it. I am going to set it up with the other applications I need and then I will have a computer that is like our production environment.

After work I planned on going to THF however I left my duffel bag at home. So I went home instead. Like I said today is a day of rest. When I got home I made no real plans to go out. I checked the movies playing. I saw nothing that was interesting that I want to see or that I haven't already seen. So I decided to make it a night of watching TV and hanging around the house.

I talked to John about his new position as a full time firefighter with Pullman. He said he likes it. He is not on a shift yet. He is still doing the two weeks of days only. Then he will move to a shift and do twenty-four hour days. He said the merger went through and WSU Fire is no longer. They were told they could still have an Ambulance company. It will have nothing to do with Pullman fire. They will respond to campus emergencies. If it is a high level call Pullman Ambulance will take the lead and transport. Low level calls will still be handled by the WSU Guys. That was a token that the school did for the WSU student firefighter. They were also offered a chance to join the Pullman Fire Reserves. But all the firefighting equipment at the WSU station will be taking by Pullman. All they will have left will be a couple ambulances. It is a sad day for me because decades of tradition are gone. WSU was one of seven universities nationwide with a fire department.

We had some pizza for dinner. I love pizza. I don't know how people can get tired of it. Ryan will not have pizza for dinner if he had it for lunch. I just find that crazy.

After dinner was over with one of my favorite TV shows was coming on -- Third Watch. I am still waiting for Bosco to become a regular cast member again. I wonder why they are seeming to write him out of the script. I keep thinking the new cop they brought on is going to be Bosco's replacement.

NetUpdate ShortBus

I got up early this morning so I could listen to the Andy Savage show and listen to the stuff with the ShortBus. I listened to them try to collect beads in New Orleans. Lars kicked butt with it and got immunity. They ended up voting Pirate off the bus. He said he was sick so even though he could have gone to Jacksonville I think he flew out. Their bus also lost the alternator, so they were stuck for a while.

I went to Chuck's Donuts on my way to work. I saw Michelle there. I could not believe it. She saw me and we hugged. Then she gave me her phone numbers. She had her boyfriend with her. She is living near my mom. I did not know she got divorced years ago and moved back here. Too bad she has a boyfriend.

I went to work. I sent an E-mail to everyone to tell them about the trip. Then I went to the Sprint store to see if they would charge my battery that was drained. With my charger missing with my bag, I needed to do something. My mom called with what juice my phone had left told me the bag showed up this morning.

I went back to work and hung out for the rest of the day. I got some lunch at Dairy Queen. Just before six I went home and had dinner.

I worked on my story and got the pictures off of my camera from the trip. I did not get a lot of things typed up yet. I was only about a page into it and I had not started into my yellow notebook full of notes. This could be a long process. Plus I still have a lot of pictures to add in.

I watched the Cougs come within seconds of beating UCLA. But the Bruins hit a three at the end of regulation to beat us in overtime.