Apple Cup at the Moose

I was invited to go to the Moose and watch the Apple Cup with the gang. I got there just before kick off. I was invited to help myself to some food they had there. I ate and had some pop. I am on call tonight so I cannot have anything more than pop.

As the game was going on I thought the Cougs had a chance. They were down by thirteen after half, but I was mad they didn't try to score when they had the ball and some time on the clock to at least try something.

The second half things went down hill. We ended up losing by a shutout. I cannot believe how horrible things are right now. But I believe we will see things look up in the next two years.

I had to leave before the game was done to get my uniform and do the daily rig checks at the station.

I went home. Brandon, Kevin, and I played some games. We played for a couple hours before Brandon had to go to bed. I went to bed myself around midnight. I need to get up and patrol tomorrow.

Before I got to sleep, I tossed and turned in bed for a while. Finally I was drifting off to sleep when a call came in for a Delta Response for a Structure Fire at the Elmhurst apartments. Pretty much every firefighter in Pullman knows that is a bad news place. It is very old building and it would be a big fire should one happen.

This time it was only an overcooked pizza.

Getting Sick

It sucks but I am getting a little sick. I have a cough and a running nose. I don't like to be sick. It doesn't stop me, just makes me a little miserable.

I completed my coroner's report for the suicide I worked. It was the longest report I have done to date. In total it was five pages. I think it would have been preventable if one person had the whole picture. It was tragic.

I went to My Office this evening and hung out with CBass and BKoe. Richards from the FD came down as well. We watched MNF. Jeff, the owner of My Office, was there and we all talked. Jeff shared some funny stories about somethings that happened with in here in Pullman.

Richards and I played pool. We played about five games. I won three of them. I shot pool very sharp when we started, but I got worse as the night went on. I am not sure why.

Final Cougar Football Saturday of the Year

I had breakfast with the boys and Jon before heading to the fire station. I went to The Deuce and picked up the minivan and some EMS equipment. I went to station one. I hung out there having some lunch and talking with some of the guys as we waited for the briefing. After which we headed to the stadium. I was working as the runner.

I spent the whole day in the South Aid Room, aside from the times when I walked to the top of the seats to see some game action in person. The Cougs looked good for the first half, considering all other factors. We were only eleven points out. But the second half belonged totally to Oregon State. The number of people at the game is horrible. I heard there were about eight thousand total. I am not sure if it was that few for sure, but it surely was empty.

We got some free pizza from Pizza Hut. They gave away all their remaining pizzas to people around the concourse level.

After the game I went home. We ordered some Pizza Pipeline. We also got Tricky Sticks. The boys love it. We ate the pizza and watched some TV. Before it got too late I went to my den and worked more on my suicide report. It is a very long report. It took a while to write it up and I still have some more I need to do.

When I was done I was looking at the Seattle Times website. There was an article about suicide awareness. I read it. There was one person talked about in the article. I soon realized it was a case that happened here in Whitman County.

I stayed up reading some suicide resources before heading off to bed around one in the morning.

Another Cougar Loss

This morning with only four hours of sleep I was up and getting ready for Cougar Football. I got my uniform on and drove to The Deuce to give the van keys to Michael. I had forgotten to put them in the keybox when I left the station last night.

I was going to the station when I got a call from the developer lead of the contract I was interviewing for. It went about thirty minutes total. Kittelson and I went to station one together in my rig. We went down for lunch and the game briefing. I had a couple hamburgers and enjoyed the company of everyone until the briefing started.

I am working North One with Kittelson. Bien is going to be coming to the game to meet up with us and hang out. We stopped at Safeway to get some pop and supplies for the game. I found that Safeway switched from Pepsi to Coke. I was very annoyed by this. I am going to write some letters about this.

We got to the stadium and made our way to our place over the tunnel. It wasn't too bad on the weather side of things to start. I was wondering how my ankle would deal with the standing around. I was a hurting unit by the end of the game. Without a doubt. I hope things will get better. Kittelson and I talked about being a reserve sheriff. Keith showed up and we watched the game together. Bien made is way around a little bit going to see Reed and a couple others. For the most part he stayed with us the whole time.

The Cougs were not doing too well. They threw three INT's in the first quarter along. UCLA scored on their first possession because of the first INT the Cougs gave up. UCLA had a short field for a lot of the first quarter. The Cougs were only able to score one touchdown the whole game. The Cougs were having such a hard time they fans cheered for firstdowns. By half time many of the fans had left this extremely cold game. Near the end of the game one could almost count the number of people left. The Cougs went on to lose.

When it was done we went back to the station and turned in our equipment. I went home and took some medicine for my ankle and had some dinner. I was meeting up with Victor for working Jeff Duhman at Beasley. I was looking forward to working that event. We made our way to Beasley. The doors were open and people were pouring in. It looked like a lot of people were going to be coming. I hung out in the first aid room for the opening act. Once it came time for Dunham to come on I went to the place where we stage on the concourse level. He came up on stage to a lot of cheers. There were a couple bits it was doing that was cracking me up. I was laughing really hard. He did a couple things on the local area and poked a little bit of fun at the football game.

It was a good show and people were having a good time. Once it was done I went home. It was nearly eleven-thirty at night. I got a hold of Keith who was over at Reed's. He had me come over and bring some batteries. I went to Dissmores to get the batteries. They only had two lines open so it took a while to get through the line.

I got to Reed's and we played some Rock Band. It was my first time playing. I had a good time playing that. I had a couple beers while I was there. Keith was crunk in a big way. He was starting to go down hill while I was there. I think he is going to be hating life. Before I left it wasn't liking life too much as it was. I went home around two-thirty in the morning. I didn't stay up too late before going to bed. I was really tired because I didn't get a lot of sleep last night.

Double Win for the Boys

Today is the first day I really got out and about. I went to Skyline High School to watch one of the boys play in his football game. They ended up winning the game. There is one thing that I found to be pretty gay. They have rules in the football where if a team is up by twenty-five points the kick off doesn't happen anymore. The team that is losing gets the ball on the fifty-yard-line and the winning team gets the ball on the twenty-yard-line after every turn over. If a team wins by thirty-two points the head coach is suspended for the following game. They also go to a running clock in the fourth quarter. How does that help the kids learn how to win and lose with respect? Another sign of the wussification of America's men.

I went home and watched some TV. Then I went to Matt's new house. He lives near my mom's place. I got a chance to chat with him for about twenty minutes. I am going to have to go over for a longer visit. It was great to see Matt. He is one of my oldest friends. He lives a good life with his family. He is a very good man. He is the only person from my high school class who I have come out to. I came out to him back on the trip to the second Cougar Rose Bowl this decade.

I went to the other football game back at Skyline. He won his game too. We all went out to dinner after the game. Then to Jon's where the boys, one of their friends, and I played some Madden Ought-Seven. We did a mini-tournament. I was knocked out in the first round.

It was a nice afternoon and evening with family and friends.

Two Losses in IM's tonight

The day started with working on my report for the coroner's office. While there I saw Ron updated his station on facebook to say he had some chili on the stove and invited people over to watch football. I went over to his place and had some chili and watched football until just after one. Then I went to the SO to work on my case reports for my arrests this weekend as well as the tickets.

I got the reports done first and started to get the tickets written up. When Cooper got there he reviewed one of my reports and he had some suggestions and things that I left out that needed to be added in. But because it was close to game time I went home and got my softball uniform on.

Ryan came down from Spokane to play softball. We had about thirteen people show up, but we were missing a key outfielder. So I have to put our right-fielder into left field. We played a team that was hitting the ball well and was killing the outfield. At first they played deep and the balls dropped in. Later we were playing in and they started to hit some bombs. We were not hitting the ball well and quickly got way behind.

Bruce let me know they were using a USSSA bat which was illegal in ASA play. We brought it up, but it was very late in the game and the damage was done. They were mad at us and started to chip at us.

When the game was done they had one. We shook hands, but three guys from their team wouldn't come out and shake our hands. They were still mad at us from last season when we knocked them out of the playoffs.

The second game the team was using an illegal bat. We brought it up, but the IM office was using an old list of illegal bats. They said the bat was okay to use. We let them know they were using an old list, but there wasn't anything we could do about it.

We lost that game too. When the day was done I was disappointed that we lost both games. I also felt like we were being a bunch of whiners about the bats too. I thought the bat shouldn't matter because we should have been hitting better than we had been anyway.

After the game Ryan and I went to Cougar Country to get some dinner and ate it at my place. We watched some TV and hung out talking about Ryan's future job prospects.

At about midnight I went to the SO to complete my reports. After the re-write Cooper looked over it and said it was better. I got both completed and turned in. It was a little after two in the morning when I got home.

Come From Behind Victory

This morning I got up early to help with making the meal for the football game today. I got to the fire station and helped with the final aspects of the meal. I was sort of tired from not getting a lot of sleep last night.

We had burritos. It was a good meal. Then we made our way to the stadium. I was working North One. It was a slow and boring game, quite frankly. I was not impressed with the ability of the defense to stop SMU. The offense was lackluster. It just was ugly. By the fourth quarter a lot of the people had left the game. But the Cougs had run two interceptions back for touchdowns.

Then with minutes to go in the game the Cougs got the ball back and had a chance to tie it up. By this time more people started to come back to the stadium. Soon the Cougs scored and got the PAT. Now we are tied and it went to overtime. On the first play SMU threw an interception in the endzone.

We went out there and ran the ball a couple times. A fieldgoal was attempted and made. We won the game and a lot of fans ran on the field. They were excited about the come-from-behind victory. It was funny to think we would storm the field after beating SMU, but I think the way we won caused great excitement.

When the game was done we went back to the station and got everything taken care of.

I went home and decided to lay down on my bed for a while. Without a doubt I knew I would fall asleep. I did and didn't wake up until five in the morning. I was tired.

Potlatch Softball Tournament

I played in a co-ed softball tournament in Potlatch with Zeppoz. I got up there around eight-thirty in the morning. The first game was at nine. It was a fun little tournament. It was not sanctioned so we were able to use whatever bats we wanted. But the fields was so small we really didn't want to be hitting the ball out all the time.

I played firstbase and was the EH for the majority of the day. Between games we had some breaks where we hung out chatting and we played some cribbage. It was having a good time hanging out with the team.

We played a total of four games including the championship game that we ended up losing. So we were second place in that tournament. But I had a good time playing ball and it was a nice way to spend the afternoon.

There were no umpires so I got to be the umpire in a couple games as well. I did a good job, but one person was unhappy about my strikezone when she was hitting. Oh well.

After the games I listened to the end of the Cougar Football game. The Cougs ended up losing the game. That pretty much sucked.

I went home had some pizza and watched TV before getting to bed early enough to be up early for EVOC tomorrow morning.

I Was Too Whimpy

Today is the Cougars' season opener for football. This is the first year I have not been eager about the football season. That dates back to the loss of the no-shutout streak the Cougs had. It had dated back to eighty-four. I am bitter over that being lost, so I haven't been able to get overly excited about this season. We did better against Stanford than last season, but I didn't care.

I watched the Cougar game on TV until I had to leave to go to Bothell for Justin's football game. I put in Ballard High School in the GPS. I hit the road. I got on to the five-twenty bridge. Just after the last exit I realized that I had put in Ballard instead of Bothell. So I had to go across the bridge and back to get on the correct route. Justin's team won. Jon is the first year coach. This is the first win for the team. They were winless last season.

On the way back from Bothell I had texted back and forth with Peter. I was thinking I could meet up with him. I went to his place and we sat down and talked. Just like the times before. We talked politics. We agree on things, but we always find a way to argue our points and make fun of the other person.

I wanted to ask him point blank what happened to us back in the day. But I wasn't able to muster up the courage to bring up the subject. I was mad at myself for being a whimp about it. I want to know the answer, but I am not sure the best way to bring it up. A couple times I wanted to ask, but I never did.

When I left I was on the way home and I was mad at myself thinking about how I could have brought it up. I think the way I can do it is to ask him, "What happened at the beginning of your sophomore year?" That will start off the conversation. I need to know how I went from someone who hung out with him daily to someone he acted like didn't exist. We went from best friends to people who never saw each other. It was all on him though, because I still tried. He even admitted on his twenty-first birthday that he was being an "ass" to me.

Met a New Man

The plan for the day was pretty simple, go to the Colfax football game and meet Gunnar. The first part went well as did the second part.

I heard the ambulance leave Colfax on their way to the game. So I talked to one of the guys on the Ambulance and then headed to Martin Stadium to watch the game. It was a semi-final game between Colfax and Asotin. Early in the game a player of Colfax got hurt. I ended up transporting him to the hospital. In the end Asotin was too big and over powered Colfax. They lost.

When the game was done I met up with Gunnar. We have been e-mailing back and forth the last two days and decided that we wanted to watch the movie Scream. So he called me up. We met at Starbucks. We sat there talking for a while. He is working on a project and he told me a little about what he is doing.

Then we went to Blockbuster. I bought a couple movies but we didn't find Scream. We went to Video Quest and found it. We rented it and went to my place to watch it. Following the movie we sat around and talked as the TV was on in the background. In all we talked until nearly two o'clock in the morning.

We talked about a lot of different subject. It was very easy to talk to him. He is twenty-one years old and going to WSU and is planning on going into law. We have that in common. Well more so that I wanted to go into law. We talked about our homosexuality, but that was not a huge part of the night, it was just a small part.

When it was time for me hit the hay, I gave him a ride home. He was impressed that I was real and was true to my word about who I was and the way I acted.

The End of an Era

I started out this morning with doing the cooking for breakfast for the football game. I really was hoping that I would be the one working the game on the field. The Cougs are playing USC. As it turned out I was working the field. I was so excited about that fact.

After breakfast we had the briefing and then made our way to the field. It was neat to be down on the field. As the game went on it was clear the Cougs were in big trouble. It has been two-hundred-and-eighty games since the Cougs have been shut out. That goes back to the Eight-Four season. But the Cougs couldn't get it across mid-field let alone coming close to scoring any points.

As the game went into the second half I was getting nervous abut the streak. By the time we were in the fourth quarter I was starting to think it wouldn't happen. I was thinking the streak would be over. And sure enough, the Cougs were shutout. I was so mad. It was stupid to play a QB that was hurt to the point that you didn't do anything that could possibly hurt him. If he is so hurt why put him in? We have a bad season. The only thing we had going was the shutout streak and that was let go. I am so mad about it. It is incredible.

I didn't want to do much of anything for the rest of the night. We got one call that we took. It was a combative drunk. I had some fun with that. There was yet another fall from a high place tonight. But that was not a call that we took. It was the other station. The night over all was pretty quiet.

Long Busy Day and Night

Working at the fire department today I expected that we would do our weekly rig checks on the ambulances, have a community breakfast, and then I would work on my engineer workbook. What really happened was much different. Due to calls everything got thrown around.

We started by having the guys from the Deuce come down. They brought some food. We did our morning chores and started to make breakfast. I helped with the apple pealing. We were really getting the cooking underway. It was looking good and I was hungry. But before we could sit down and eat I was called away on the ambulance for someone who was hurt.

By the time we were done breakfast was done and they were working on the ambulance checks. I restocked the ambulance and the medic and I went in to eat before we helped with the rig checks.

We were not done eating when we got called for something else. I had to get up and walk away from my breakfast/lunch by the time I was eating it. We dealt with the call and were at the hospital. As we were close to leaving we got called to an unknown injury accident. On the way we were upgraded to a delta injury accident on a residential street in Pullman. We got on scene and transported two of the people.

By the time we were done with those two calls I got back to restock the ambulance again and finish my breakfast. But now it was time to start to worry about getting dinner ready. My breakfast took about six hours to have from start to finish.

I took the medic to the Deuce to pick up a couple things he had there. We got some stuff for dinner to go with the meatloaf and went to the station. I started on the weekly rig checks on my ambulance. The others had been completed so it was the only one that needed to be done. As I got going others came out to help when they had dinner cooking. I was able to get it almost completed before dinner, but not quite.

I sat down for dinner with the other guys. It was very good. Mashed potatoes and gravy with meatloaf. Following dinner I cleaned up the plates and dishes. I turned on the Cougar game. They were in the game against UCLA. I was watching the game for a while. Then I went to the training room and turned on the game there. I also grabbed the photoboard to update it. We had a big change up with where everyone was working so I had to update the board to show those changes.

I went to the bay to turn off the lights and I saw the Ambulance Thirty-Five book. I was going to put it away when I realized I didn't have a weekly check sheet completed for it. So I pulled one out and started to work through the engine fluid checks and filling out the form.

One of the reserves who was working the volleyball game came through to put away the equipment that he used. I stopped and talked to him for a few minutes. We talked about the other night that we went out as well as the Cougar volleyball game we worked. We are hoping we will get a chance to go out with the old reserves again on Apple Cup in a couple weeks.

I went back to my bedroom after that was done and continued to watch the Cougar game. But the Cougs were losing and they were not able to get more than a single fieldgoal. They ended up losing by twenty-five points. I watch some TV for a little bit then I decided to go to sleep.

It had been quiet more of the evening. But by a little after eleven we started to get called out and we ran eight calls over the next four five hours. We made it back to the station once. I was able to get restocked and started to make entries into the log book when we got called out for a second set of runs. It was a busy night. I finally got to bed for real around four in the morning.

Working Hard at Jail

After getting off work at the fire station I decided I would go to Colfax and work at the jail. I had my fire pager with me but Colfax didn't have any calls while I was there. It was a busy day in the jail as normal. I helped do some rounds, a booking, and run the control room. I worked there from around eleven to six in the evening. I was getting ready to go get some dinner.

I was at Main street and saw Carl drive by. Went I went by the fire station I saw Ken's truck. I decided to swing by and see Ken. They were going to work the Colfax High football game. I was asked if I wanted to come. I said I did. I grabbed my turnout coat and went to the game.

Colfax dominated the game. It didn't even look like a game until Colfax put many of their freshmen into the game. I saw several people from Colfax Police and McNanny from the SO there. We talked briefly about the upcoming academy.

When the game was done I went to Ken's to get his computer for me to work on. I am going to scrub it and reinstall everything for him. I got home and pretty much went to bed. I had to get up early tomorrow to stop by the Deuce to work on their photoboard.

Another Cougar Downer

I got up this morning to a phone call and decided to stay up. I got cleaned up and grabbed some breakfast. I got a hold of Bien and he gave me a ride to my car downtown. I also talked to Dearth. He was going to get cleaned up and then we were going to meet up and head to Tyson's trailer.

I parked just off of campus and waited for Dearth. Him and a friend of his picked me up and we drove out to Tyson's trailer. We were playing beer pong and having some ribs that Dearth grilled up. A while before the game we walked to the parking lot near the vet building to see Wehrung. The guys were happy to see him. We talked for a bit. He handed me a flask and said "here Probie".

We went back to Tyson's trailer and got ready to walk back for the game. We made our way to some seats under the scoreboard in the endzone. Within now time the Cougs were down two touchdowns.

The game went down hill from there. We did score two touchdowns along the way. Bien, Dearth, and the girls left at half time. I stayed until the end of the game. When the game was done I got my car and went home. I grabbed something to eat real quick and drove out to Tyson's camp. They were playing some beer pong again.

I continued being a designated driver for the night. I took McPherson, Bien and the girls to Mike's. I went back to the camp. We sat around a little fire talking and chowing a little bit. Dearth started to fall asleep so he had be give him a ride to the place he was staying.

I said goodbye to Tyson and left. I went to Mike's and worked on finding Bien. When I got there I ran into Faber. It took a while to work my way downstairs. Finally when I was there I looked around the dance floor and found him. It was really crowded down there. I made my way up to him letting him know I was going to have to head home for the night. I was very tired and I wanted to get to sleep.

First Cougar Win

After the test was done at the SO I went home and cleaned up. I went to the fire station to help make lunch. I was the griller. I cooked up all the hamburgers for everyone. I spent a while working the grill in the process.

The guy who found started the string of events recently was at the station. I told him I wanted to talk to him. After I was done eating I asked to chat with him in the bay. I started by saying "I heard you found something funny on the Internet".

From there we talked about what had happened. I told him I was disappointed that he didn't respect me enough to not make fun of me. I told him by giving that there person some grief about what he read also was making fun of me.

He said he was shocked to find out that I am gay. He didn't know up to that point. He felt like he was left out because it seemed that everyone else knew. Even the guy he was giving a hard time knew. I was surprised to know about that. I didn't know that he knew. I wonder how he found out. Sounded like it was a non-issue with him. He has known for a while it sounds like. But this other guy didn't seem to know why I was upset about the whole thing. I am not sure after we were done talking that he knew. I asked him if he would at least not tell anyone else.

It is not even that big of a deal that people find out that I am gay. It is not like I can stop people from finding out. Like I told this guy I don't tell people. I let him know I actually only told one person at the FD that I am gay. They other found out from other means. Over time others find out. Most of the time people have known for a long time before I find out that they knew.

I also let him know that I don't like how people self-censor when they know. He said that he wished he had known because he had made some comments in the past that he felt bad about now that he knows I am gay. I said that is the point. I don't want people to not be who they are when I am around.

My position was working at station two today. I took my engineer book down there and worked hard on it. I am trying to get it done. I stayed there working on it until almost ten. That is when I was going to get released from working.

But we got a medical call. Following the medical call we got a fire call. I ended up working an extra hour.

The Cougs today were on TV. They looked good, but they were playing an easier team. We however lost the starting QB. Later on our backup QB was hit and he was taken off the field in an ambulance. Not a good situation.

Crushed in the First Home Game

After I got home from working this morning I went to bed. But within a few minutes I was getting a call from Pete. When I heard him on the phone I realized that I was going to need to get ready for the autopsy that I was going to observe. I knew that was going to help make me tired tonight. I went to the funeral home and watched the autopsy. I was able to see some findings that I had seen and understood what they meant. I had a chance to ask questions and have a better understanding about what happened.

When I got home I cleaned up and headed down to station one. I was meeting up with a reserve who bought tickets for the football game for Brandon and I. Brandon was working on getting the transportation figured out.

When I got to the station I met up with one of the guys there. I wrote something that was used to tease him. After I found out that happened, the situation has made me incredibly embarrassed because certain pieces of information about me are out to some of the newer reserves. I have tried to keep my private life and work life separate. It has worked for a long time.

I talked to him about it. We had e-mailed about it, but I wanted to speak to him about a couple things specifically. I cannot look him in the eye. It is tough to look at him at all. He said he doesn't have a problem with me. He said that he hasn't lost any respect for me but I am having a hard time with it. We never used the word gay during our conversation, but I don't have a doubt he knows about me now. I don't feel better, I think I will have a hard time being around him and the guy who was doing the teasing. Right now I am not sure who was all told and who knows about the situation, but with the way things get spread and the way rumors get built, it will probably be devastating to me. I will have a hard time around the reserves. I am not sure who knows now and as I interfaced with them today I felt very strange not knowing if they knew or not.

I went back home and met up with Brandon. We made our way to the bus stop to ride it to the game. We first went to the CUB. Then to the PD. I met up with the reserve to get my ticket. We went into the game and met up with Weese. We sat down on the twenty yard-line in the lower section. I stood the whole game. It has been a while since I have done that from the stands. Within eleven second of the game starting Cal scored a touchdown. They did not stop. People were leaving the game in the first quarter. That is a record as far as I have seen.

The Cougs got crushed. From what I heard their worst loss in history. Brandon and I went to the bus to head home. At the house we got some pizza. Watched Cops and then the movie Thank You for Smoking.

Learning to Forge

While at work this morning I was working hard to get the roster completed. But due to the number of pick ups we would need I had to get one of them on the roster from the city of Moscow. So I needed to work a while doing photo copies several times in figuring out how to get the original photocopy which was signed to include one more name. So a photocopy of the original signature would not work. I needed to use the sheet with the photocopy. But I couldn't just write in the name because it would be obvious that we had written in the name after the photocopy. So I had to write in the name and information on a blank sheet. And then photocopy that one line onto the form that was already filled out, but to get the right kind of ink so the photocopy would look like the other ones was a challenge, and then working to make sure it lined up was very difficult. When it was all said and done the time was wasted because they never even looked at my roster.

I went to Federal Way for the managers meetings. That is where we were drawing for game times. We also got information about the rules. The Hooter's girls were there with wings and other food items for us. I sat next to McCoy. He was telling me that they were thinking about asking me to play on their team at the beginning of last season, but didn't because they found out I had the My Office team. But he made it sound that if I ever want to change teams I would have a place on his.

Following the meeting I went to Seahawks Stadium for the game. It was Oakland that was in town. We went to the events center to start off. Justin was with us and he went through some of the things they had set up for the kids to do.

Once it was closer to game time we made our way to the seats. The Seahawks played pretty well and beat up on Oakland pretty good. We left a little early because I parked in the parking garage. It takes about an hour to get out of it once the game is done and we needed to be at the poker game.

At the poker game I was not playing it very well. I had a decent hand and went up against a girl who only played the nuts pretty much. I didn't know that to start with. So I was dominated as I was throwing a bunch of money into the pat. That hurt. I never really recovered. I lost about sixty bucks through out the night. I just was not seeing any cards.

Fantasy Draft at My Place

We started by golfing this morning down in Colfax. There was a large group of people down there. The first nine everyone played on their own. Then in the second half we teamed up in to pairs. It was those teams they went on to challenge each other for the best score. The winners would split the pool. Each person put in five bucks to start. I was teamed with Ron because he had the second best score and I had the second worst score after the first nine holes. Team Ron and Scotty went on to tie the best score. Due to that we split with the other team.

After the golfing we went to Pullman. I had Ron and Heather as well as CBass coming over for the FFL draft. I worked on getting Ron's and my computer set up to use. I worked on making sure the house was looking okay and that I had quarters for the pop machine. When they came over we ordered some pizza and wings. I ended up drinking some beer with them tonight. I also had some hard-A. They were over for a couple hours doing the draft. I got Farve as my quarterback. That was good, because I wasn't sure if someone else would try to steal him from me.

Last Thunder Game of Season

This morning I helped Mike D's little sister move her bed to her storage place. That didn't take too long. I went to the fire station to meet up with Yean. We took the engine to Koppel Farms for an open house. We showed off the engine for a while, but I had to leave early because I had to get to Lapwai.

I hit the road getting there later than normal. But I was not too late. I got my computer set up and did my normal pregame activities such as getting photos of the players and confirming the names of the players on the other team.

We were going to not have the game clock again and it started out that way. But then the PA Announcer from the other team came across to run it. The Thunder held their own for a while, but after the second half started it went down hill. The Thunder allowed the game to slip away.

I ran off to Pullman. I started to work on my application for the fire department. I don't know if I have a chance at being hired, but I figured it would be better to be on the list than it is to miss out on the list. So I figured I would test. I don't know how I will do on the written portion, but there is only one way to find out.

I got a lot of the application filled out. The previous job portion took forever to do. They wanted a ten year history. I also got my three references set up.

Moment of Silence for Wally

I worked on getting my things ready for the football game. I made a flier to post around the field for Wally. It had a pic of him playing football. I put his name and number on it as well. I went to the field and put them up. Then I spent some time taking photos of the pregame warm ups. I talked to the other team about the pronunciations of some of the players.

Once the game was close to starting I read the statement written up by Jerid about Wally. We held a moment of silence. Once the game was underway the Thunder went down early, but soon they caught up and took a lead. The Thunder would go on to win the game. That was pretty neat to see a win. Those are really rare for the Thunder. I wish they were more of a dominate team.

Sir Elton Plays Pullman

I started by washing my Durango and putting on the new license plates. It felt good to get that washed. Then I was on my way to Lapwai for the Palouse Thunder football game. I was nervous as always before the game. I had to get a lot of information gathered and make sure everything was set up.

That went pretty well. I was able to spend some time relaxing and getting photos of the team doing practice and warm ups. Once the game started I was having problems with the mic. It was not wanting to work at first. After some troubleshooting I was able to announce.

I had to leave the game early due to the work I had to do in Pullman at the Elton John concert.

I went to the Elton John concert. It was a great night of music and fun for everyone involved. I was impressed that Elton played for about 2 1/2 hours without a break.

I was hoping that he would play Funeral for a Friend. One of my favorite songs. As it turned out that was the very first song of his set. That made my day.

The crowd was great and full of energy. The atmosphere was great. During Crocodile Rock everyone sang the chorus. I am glad we had a chance to pull in this performance.

Super Bowl Party

Today's Super Bowl party was held at Bryce's house in Colfax. I purchased some peanut butter cups, chips, and dip. I brought that down with my pop. I got there around the same time Carl did. He brought his beans stuff. Jim and Connie brought their taquito's. Everyone had their thing there.

We started by playing some poker. But I was not doing very well. I sort of just bled out money most of the night. We were rooting for the Giants to beat Patriots to ruin their attempt at a perfect season. We stopped playing cards at the start of the game. We were not very impressed with the commercials this year. They were not very funny nor ground breaking.

At half time we played cards until there was about five minutes left in the game. After that we went back to watch the final part of the game. That was probably the best part of the game as well.

We played a tiny bit more cards before calling it a night. I went home and watched the end of House.

First Case of Ought-Eight

After my final workout of the week today I planned on doing several things. Such as working on the frame, going to the women's basketball game, watching the men's basketball game, watching the Seahawks game, doing some work on the computer. I really only ended up being double booked.

I found I was on call for the coroner. But it is rare for a call. I had to go to Beasley just before noon for the women's basketball game. But before eleven I got a call from Pete. Someone died in St. John. Normally he would take the case, but he wasn't there. So I had to go up there. That meant I was going to miss part of the game and be late getting there.

I hit the road and started to head to St John. I went as quickly as possible with the road conditions as they were. I also got to listen to the Cougs. But they were not able to do anything against the Bruins. It was ugly.

I did my investigation the scene and went back to the funeral home to finish up the investigation. By this time the Cougs had made a run at winning, but were not able to pull it out of the fire. They were down by double-digits most of the game. But they came back to within three.

The Seahawks came on. I was expecting a lot when they went up by two quick touchdowns within the first few minutes. But that is as far as it would go. The Packers just kept scoring and scoring.

I was able to watch the last part of the game on TV at Beasley. I had made it home and back to Beasley at half time. I was able to put in my time there and watch the Seahawks. But it was ugly as well.

A. Wilcox is a Packers fan so I told him if they win he is sitting in the back of the engine for the rest of the year.

We were having a meeting when the tones went out for a structure fire. Turned out to be nothing. Later in the night we got toned out for another structure fire. That one also turned out to be nothing. In both cases they appeared to have been smoke detectors set off by cooking.

The One-Hundredth Apple Cup

Today was the one-hundredth Apple Cup. Ron invited me down to watch it at the Moose Lodge. I was excited about going down there. I put on my Cougar hat and shirt and made my way there just before kick off.

The Huskies ran it back for a quick score. Ron made a big deal about it. All the Cougs were thinking this was going to be a long day. The Huskies got a fieldgoal. Finally the Cougs were able to get on the board with a touchdown.

After a while everyone in the Moose was yellow "Woooooo" every time the Cougs did something well like Ron had been doing earlier.

We went into half time up by one point - twenty-one to twenty. Michele had a big spread of food there for a fundraiser. I had my fill of food.

The second half added to the excitement. The game was a sea-saw battle back and forth. The Cougs finally scored the tying touchdown. With only thirty seconds to go they scored the winning touchdown! The Cougs went on to win the game.

I went home fulfilled with the victory.

I went to gay.com and looked around on there to chat. While I was there I did a search of local people. I found someone that I recognized and I had no idea was gay. I finally purchased a premium account. I was able to look further at his profile. I was shocked to see he was gay. I want to talk with him because I also found out he use to be in the college Republicans.

I also found a former cop that I knew. I contacted him via a message. I finally went to bed in the wee-hours of the morning.

The Boys see Cougar Football in Pullman

Today is the first time that Justin and Logan got to see a Cougar Football game in Martin Stadium. I woke up in the morning, but I was still a little tire. Jon took the boys out to find some ponchos. I stayed at home.

Later on I got up and worked on stuff for NU. I had breakfast with the guys when they got back. We started to get ready for the game. We stopped at McDonald's for lunch. We planned on parking in the old Sigma Chi parking lot. There was room so we did park there. We walked down to the fieldhouse. John called me and let me know Rob was in town.

I went to the ambulance that they were on. Rob was doing a ride along. I sat in the ambulance for a while talking and listening in on the stories. This is the first time I have seen Rob since he left the reserves to become a trooper. It was neat to see him. In someway it was just like the old days with him and John. Laughing and joking and having fun.

I went back to the fieldhouse to meet up with Jon, Logan, and Justin. We watched some of the UW vs Cal game. Cal was getting beat. It was close to time to head to our seats.

We made our way there. We were at the twenty-yard line, five rows back. While there I noticed a ten-six-seven. Blonde hair, blue eyes, with well defined arms. Number Thirty for OSU. He was on their special teams. He looked very ripped.

The game started with heavy rain. We all wore our ponchos to keep dry. The Beavers went out to a quick lead and never looked back. We turned over the ball so many times, seven interceptions and one fumble. It gave the Beavers short field all day long. The Cougs scored two touchdowns, but each time we scored the Beavers would quickly score. It was a horrible day for the Cougs.

After the game was done we left. The stadium was just over half full when the game started. It had maybe one-tenth the seating capacity filled when the game was done. With the poor showing and the bad weather a lot of people left early. But not us.

We went to Pizza Pipeline and got some dinner. Then back to my place to eat it. I went to my office after dinner to work on the NU Application some more. John, Rob, and I were going to go out, but they ended up bumming out.

I stayed at home doing work into the early morning hours.

A Cougar Football Victory

In the morning I made my way to the fire station for rig checks. When that was done we went to station one for brunch. It was pancakes, bacon, sausage, eggs, and hashbrowns. It was very good.

We took the rescue to the stadium. Williams and I worked together. We stood in the corner we normally stand. I made my way to the first aid room to get some hot cocoa. It was pretty windy and it was getting my nose to start to run.

Once the game got going the Cougs seemed to hold their own very well. We were playing Stanford. We were taking the lead and moving towards and easy victory when all of a sudden, they scored a TD. The following kick off lead to a turn over on the four yard-line. But the Cougar defense put up a good stand, keeping Stanford out of the endzone.

When the game was completed the engine crew was working the Doobie Brothers concert. I got Heston to send us there because no one else had signed up for it. We ordered a pizza and enjoyed the show. They were a lot of fun. The music was really good. A lot of songs that people knew. It was neat to look around the place and see people with grey hair and young students all singing along to the same stuff.

It was dead as far as engine calls went. We ended up getting nothing at all to run on, but that was okay with me.

Work a small wildland fire

This morning Bien said he could not do the drive time so I decided that I would go to Colfax and hang out. I was hoping that I would get to go on a call. after a couple hours of watching movies with Ralph a call went out for Steptoe for a wildland fire. It was close to the Colfax/Steptoe line so we went out with one rig.

When we got there we got the pump started. I got into the catwalk and started to spray out the fire as Clark drove. I was getting the head of the fire extinguished as we drove up the field. I got a lot of fire put out.

Then we were sent to the barn that was starting to burn. I was able to get some water on it pretty quickly. We were able to stop the barn from burning. I helped to build a fire line around the barn and we put out some hot spots before leaving.

I did not have a lot of time before I had to be in Pullman to be on call. The Cougars are also on TV so I wanted to watch it. Bien, Dearth, and I were going to watch it at the station. We got some pizza and watched the game against Cal.

The Cougs did not look very good through out the first half. Then in the second half we started to do some scoring. The TV showed a stat that the Cougs have the fifth longest non-shut out streak in college football. It dates back to eight-four against Ohio State. After the Cal game it is at two-hundred and seventy games.

We went to the final seconds to of the game. We were within a field goal after a late touchdown, but we needed to get an onsides kick. But it was a poor attempt at the kick.

I went home and started to work on my web application. I was able to figure out how to get the calendar to display correctly. It felt good to get it done. Now I need to work on a portion of the web site where I need to add a couple of new tables. But I need to think through how that will work to make sure that I design things to work nicely. I am working on the training and check off reporting. I am not sure exactly how I want it to work, so I decided not to continue working on it until I think it through a bit more.

A Cougar Football Win

The day started by going to the fire station. It is Cougar Football Saturday. I took Heston to get the Chief's car. I got some gas then went back to the fire station. We had some food and went over the job duties for the day. I was working North One. That is where I wanted to work.

It was pretty quiet for most of the day. We had one call where someone was sick due to alcohol. We only dealt with that for a little bit. The Cougs went on to beat UCLA. It was a close game so people stuck around until the very end of the game.

When it was done I went to get my coat out of the First Aid room. But it was locked. Khurt was there. He said he would get the keys for me and meet up with me later on to get me inside.

I talked to Pete in the morning about being on call. I was supposed to be on call so I told him I couldn't cover for a while during the game. He got Patty to cover for me. And as it turned out we ended up having a CPR call in Pullman. The coroner got called.

I called Patti up and sarcastically ask "have things been quiet?" She laughed. I talked to Pete about something else when he called me. I told him he must have known something was going to happen. He didn't know something was going on. So I filled him in with what I knew about it.

I called up Khurt and met up with him at the stadium. He let me inside to get my coat and then game me a ride back to my truck.

Russell got drunk

I started off trying to get some things done on the fire application that I started to develop last night. Before long I needed to head to the Moose to watch some football with Ron, Heather, Dan, Michele, and CBass. I watched about a quarter before Russell called to get a ride from the airport. We were going to go to Jason's and play some poker when he got back.

I picked him up from the airport and he had a couple glasses of wine while on the plane. Then we were off to Jason's. When I got there Peter was there playing. It was six handed poker for a while. Then one guy finally lost his money and left. Russell was drinking more while we were there.

The game broke up because everyone wanted to go to Zeppoz for the free roll. I had to be on call and do weekly rig checks so I couldn't go.

I went home and got ready for the rig checks. Then it was off to the station. The rig checks went pretty quick over all. The Rescue kept getting called out. We were done around nine o'clock. I went home and watched Shark and had some dinner.

I worked on my application for a little while before going to bed. But before morning would hit we got dispatched for a structure fire. I ended up standing by the engine for the whole incident. It turned out to be more of a situation where we spent most of the time getting people in and out of the retirement community as well as clearing the smoke from the hallways.

We got done around six-thirty in the morning. I went back home and went to sleep for a while.

The Ankle Doesn't Hurt

Ever since I got my shot in my ankle the pain has been gone. My ankle appears to have full range of motion again. After standing up for a couple hours last night at the football game, this morning I woke up pain free.

I spoke to Heston and I am going to help out with the Physical Agility test for the paramedic list. Turns out it was a good thing I helped out because several other guys ended up not coming because they ended up going to the PHTLS class. The test went well even though we were down on the number of helpers. We only had four people to test.

I washed my truck and listened into the Cougar football game. Jon asked that I send him updates, but Oregon was scoring left and right. I was a little worried that the Cougs were going to get shut out, but we got one touchdown.

Russell and I met up. I took him and his bike to the bike store downtown Pullman. We went to Safeway where I picked up some groceries. I also got a pizza for us to have later on.

I took Russell home for him to get a nap before we watched the movie and had dinner. I put in the pizza. We ate pizza and watched Thank You for Smoking. After dinner I gave Russell a ride to work.

Champions!!!

Started out this morning going to Pete's Bar and Grill with Ryan to meet up with Moe and Russell. But only Moe was there. Russell was going to come after half time. We had some chow and watched the Seahawks. They were struggling against the Steelers. At half time Moe got Russell and came back to watch the game with us.

After the game was done, we went to the Emerald to get some lunch. Moe and the girl with him had to head back to the West side so they left from there. Ryan and I took Russell back to his place.

Ryan and I watched some more football before getting ready to play some softball. We had our championship game in both Co-ed and Men's. The first game was co-ed. We had a good turn out with some of our best women. We went out there and easily went on to a victory. After scoring runs and playing good defense we just did not have to look back. When the game was done we were champions. We did not scream and yell with lots of cheering because it wasn't even a close game.

We went to Smith Gym to get our t-shirts and a photo for the website. We had less than an hour to get there and back in time for the men's game. We had twelve guys, but I batted ten. It was a hard fought game. A see-saw battle back and forth with the scored going back and forth. In the final inning we were down by a couple runs. We started to get a rally going. We had one guy on, Bruce at the plate, and Phil on deck. We were down by three. Bruce hit a hard linedrive going over the second baseman, but he made a leap and came down with it for the third out. What could have been.

But those guys hit the crud out of the ball. The bat they had was hot, even the bad hitters were crushing it to the fence or over it. The final score was twenty-two to twenty-five. It sucked to not win the game. We had a very good chance to do it, but came up short. Number two again. Waiting for our first number one with Mens.

When the game was done Ryan and I went to Cougar Country before he had to head back to Spokane. I went home and started to do my packing for my trip to Bellevue tomorrow. I am watching the pets all week.

All of us hangiong out with Russell

The Cougar game was a one o'clock PM starting time. I got to the station early for lunch with the other guys. I was working North One for today's game. We got up to the stadium. I went into the North booking room. BKoe was in there. I said hello to him.

We went to our spot over the tunnel. Arizona State was ranked number eighteen and the Cougs looked good today. But as the game wore on ASU started to work towards taking a lead on us. We had a chance to tie it up with a field goal, but missed it with only seconds on the clock.

We waited around for thirty minutes after the game. When I got back to the station I helped to take the chief's car back to his house. I ordered some Cougar Country. I took it home and ate it while getting ready to meet up with Russell, Ryan, and Moe.

Ryan and I took Moe on a drive around Pullman to see some of the changes that have happened since he was last here. We went all over town in a span of about thirty minutes.

We went back and picked up Russell to take him to Zeppoz for work. We hung out there for a while. Ryan was in town on Saturday because Moe came to town to be with Russell to show support to him.

Ryan and I sat down at a table Russell was dealing on. I was going down at first. But then I started to win some. By the time Russell left the table everyone at the table had almost cleaned him out of one dollar chips. But the next dealer won many of them back. Ryan lost his twenty bucks, but I started to win money back.

Finally when I decided to quit I was up twenty bucks and I had given some tips away to the dealers. So it was a good night at Mr. Z's for me. Moe, Ryan, and I went out to the bar area. They ordered some dinner. I was getting late and I was getting tired so Ryan and I called it a night and Ryan came over to my place. He was spending the night here.

Palousitics Party

I was only asleep for two hours when I got a call from Avalon about giving someone a ride to the hospital for getting a blood draw. I told them I would do it. I was able to get one more hour of sleep before the time I had to be there.

I got up an hour later and got ready to take the person on the ride. It took about an hour total. I went home and was doing some stuff online when I got a call about another transfer. I had planned on going to Dodge about getting floor mats for the truck before going out to the Paloustics party.

I did the transport. Then I went to the Dodge dealer. I found out the floor mats would cost me around a hundred bucks. I thought that was more than I wanted to spend so I decided to go and find if I could get them online cheaper.

I went out to Sunshine road to do the shooting. I met up with Tom and the other Paloustics people. I had my Glock, Ruger, and ten-twenty-two. I put nearly a hundred rounds through the guns. I was wearing safety glasses. One of the shells from the Glock landed between my glasses and my eye. It started to burn I ripped off my glasses. That hurt a little bit.

While we were getting close to being done I got a call from the hospital to take the guy back to Avalon. I did his transfer. I went to Dissmore's and got a couple things for the rest of the Palousitics get together. I went to Paul's house on Valley Road. The others were already there. I had some beer and chips for the party. I had a couple beers and some chips plus other food that other people supplied.

I was there for a couple hours with everyone. It was fun to chat about various politics. I left around eight-thirty. I watched the remainder of the Cougar football game, but the Cougs were getting blown out by Arizona. They ended up losing the game. I got to bed pretty early tonight because I was really tired after getting so little sleep.

First Wildland Fire in Pullman

It was going to be a long day today with CPR class and Cougar Football, but I got a couple more things packed in. I stayed up later than I wanted to, so I was tired this morning when I did get up. I get dressed and was off to CPR class at the hospital.

I thought it was an all day class, but it only went five hours, which was an hour longer than it was supposed to go. After the class the reviews from people were good. I got some very positive reviews from the students about my attitude and humor.

I went home to start on my shredding party all on my own. Dearth wanted to respond on calls today if we got any. I told him I would go on them once I was done with CPR class. So shortly after I started the shredding a delta response for a wildland fire went out. It was up by North Campus Heights. I got the station fast so we could take the Rescue. When Foster saw me come in he told me to take the rescue and
he was going to take the engine.

Dearth and Gribbon showed up. We went en route and were told to come in off of Northwood Drive. We went into Aspen Village. It was huge. A couple acres involved. We were told to start to attack. I got the guys going with some hoses and water. I then started to hook to the hydrant. But I also was trying to deal with the requests of the guys on the line. Monte with WSU fire also helped me get set up on the hydrant. I also made Dearth's line three hundred feet long only to find we needed more. So I told him we had to shut down long enough to add line. He did and I got the new hose on there.

We had D-Twelve come out as well as more Pullman units. It was pretty intense for a while with a lot of people watching in. When the fire was finally over with we started to clean up. I was told to take Rescue on a sweep around the fire taking care of the hot spots. So I got to go in four-wheel drive and use the ground sweeps and walk and roll attack. Pretty cool.

We went to the main station and washed all the hose we used and got it all reloaded on the rescue. It was back in service around seven o'clock that night.

The football game had already started. At first it was close, then USC started to run away with it. But the time I left the fire station USC was in control. I went home to watch it from there and continue to finish my shredding.

I got all the shredding done, filling up three big garbage bags. The Cougs lost.

Jailer

I got called a couple days ago asking if I would come into the jail and work because they were running low on people for Friday. I told Poffenroth that I would. I got down there after the daily call-in meeting. I worked until four o'clock. It was pretty dead for a Friday.

I went to Colfax Fire and talked with Jenny and Rick for a bit. Rick was washing his truck. Ken stopped by. He had to go to the Coroner's office to get some stuff. I accompanied him down there. We spent about twenty minutes talking about a case we were both familiar with. I got my new ID card.

I went to Russell's place following getting my uniform off and we went to Moscow to get him a ankle brace for his ankle. We started at Big-Five. But they did not have the greatest selection of sizes. We went to the sports store in the mall and he got what he needed.

He also called Nick and we planned to meet up at Apple Bee's for dinner. We got over there and it was packed. It was Dad's weekend at U of I. After eating we went over to the mall to Bed, Bath, and Beyond and Old Navy. They were getting ready to close. A couple of the people there got some stuff and then we left.

I took Russell home and went home myself. I had to be up early and I wanted to get a good nights sleep. But instead I started to watch the Pullman High football game on TV. It was in the final three minutes. Pullman tied it up and they went into OT. Pullman won it in the OT period.

Cougar Football Saturday!

It is that time of year again... COUGAR FOOTBALL SATURDAY! I have a busy day planned for me. I am working with someone on the engine. I am working the football game. I am on call for the fire department.

I started out crawling out of bed in time to get to the station to do drive time with Wilson on Engine Thirty-One. The plan was to drive for four hours. But one other crew leader wanted to get out with one of his guys, so we took the engine back early. Wilson and did the normal things I did with the guys. I quizzed him on roads and some locations of buildings. He did well driving. I had to work with him on the hills and making sure he downshifted some more using the engine to slow him down and not just the brakes.

When we were done I hung out at the station for a while until it was time to head to station one for the lunch and briefing. Following those things it was off to the new location with Rescue. We are parking closer to the IT building.

The game was against the UI. We got called out a couple times for people who were unresponsive here and there around the campus. We also had a situation where someone was waving us down to his area. Turned out to be a police call, so Stewart who was coming down behind me, took the lead and I went back to my position. Turned out they had to eject a fan for disorderly conduct. The crowd cheered when the guy was taken out.

On one call, near the end of the game we were getting out on Stadium Way. A lot of people were walking on it because they now close off part of Stadium Way around the stadium except to emergency vehicles and buses.

Andrew hit the siren really fast and all of a sudden the crowd parted like the Red Sea. It was funny to watch. On one response we going code and one guy saw us and decided to cross the street anyway. He did not try to go fast. He slowly walked across the street. I hit the siren and horn. He just stared at me like I should have come to a complete stop for him, because afterall the world revolves around him.

After the game we only got a couple minor calls. It was a pretty tame night over all. The Cougs went on to beat the Vandals.

Gridiron Classic

Peter and I hooked up around noon to head down to Seattle for Cougar Football. We got to the big parking lot just North of the stadium. We were told no tailgating. And unlike years past, this year they meant it. The parking lot was pretty empty.

We walked around for a while then made a lap around the stadium, up to an upper street and back around by King Street station. Then we stood up there for a while just chatting.

We walked down to the stadium and we just people watched. I got a hold of Hawkes as well. We met up with him. On the way there we found where the big tail gate party was. It looked like CCN. It was packed full of people and it was a huge area. We got to Hawkes with only a couple minutes to spare before we had to leave to the game.

We got way up to our seats. I think we chose the row with the most people who had to come and go through out the game. The game was good over all. For a while the defense showed signs of weakness. Sort of what it looked like against Wisconsin last week. They are really going to have to gel and grow rapidly if we want to compete with some of these good teams.

We went on to a pretty easy victory.

We went off to Peter's. We got dinner on the way and ate it at his house. While we were there we were talking about a new board game called "Welfare". It would have some basic Monopoly-like ideas, but would reflect today's society with gas prices, lawyers, sports teams, political clout, and other things that living in today's world at times messed up. We spent about two hours talking about ideas and rules for the game.

Engineer Training at the Tower

I was tired after being up so late last night, but I got to the fire station at ten this morning to work with Gribbon on his evolutions. We did several different lays, including a dwelling lay, standpipe, crosslay, and a street pipe. He did a good job. We were running later than I wanted to run. It took about an hour to reload all the hose we unloaded with only three people doing it.

We stopped and got some pizza and pop from Little Caesers and watched the Cougar Football game. They were winning for a while, but Wisconsin started to come back and then they took a lead and extended the lead as our defense looked out matched. I would say that will be our big question mark this season.

I was on call tonight, but it was pretty quiet for the most part. We got a couple calls where we got to play and I had the first drunk of the school year for me. We also spent time watching a movie at the station. But over all it was a quiet night because it was Labor Day weekend and a lot of people left town.

FFL Live Draft

This morning I scheduled to work with James on driving the engine and pumping on it. We planned to put in a total of four hours including one hour pumping. We first went to the tower to pump on the engine. We talked about how the pump works and how to run it for various hose lines. Then we went driving. I started on the bigger less crowded streets.

As the time flew by we went all over town. I also got him to think about roads and go onto road he didn't know very well. We got a couple fire alarms. We responded to both of them. But both times we pretty much got called off for one reason or another.

Around one o'clock I spoke to Chapman about keeping the engine one extra hour. That caused us to get two more calls. One of them was weird. The guy was running away from us even though he should have been seen. I explained to him that it wouldn't cost anything to take a look. He still ran off. Then a few minutes later it became clear there were other issues. There was also a verbal domestic going on at the same time with him and someone else.

I got the police down there and we clear as a no patient found. While on that a second call for a guy who fell from an apartment building came out. We went along on that. We did the transport. So, it was after three and I was a little worried that Chapman was going to be upset about us still having the engine out and about.

I also had my FFL draft at four o'clock. The last two years the coroners office has had calls right at draft time. I was hoping that would not happen this year. Turns out it didn't, but the EMS call almost made me miss part of it.

After the hospital we had to fuel up the rig. Then it was off to the FFL draft. That took about four hours. I got Farve like I do every year.

Following the draft I went to Dan and Denise's to play poker. John was over there as well. We played nickle, dime, quarter stuff until the three o'clock in the morning. It was a long day at the end of a long weekend for me. I couldn't wait to get to bed.

Final Thunder Home Game of Ought-Seven

I allowed myself to sleep in today. It was nice, but I missed the autopsy it. I decided to get some work done on my garage. I moved everything from the one side near all the cabinets over to the other side. I also picked out a lot of things to get photos of and put onto Craigslist for give away.

Jerrid came over and we went to Lapwai for the Palouse Thunders' last home game of the season. When I got there I decided to take my camera and go take photos of the guys working out on the field. One of them, Ten-six-seven, was doing a lot of kicks. I got a lot of photos trying to get a perfect one of him making the kick, but I was either too fast or slow on the button.

While working the booth, Jerrid and the others were up there. I made a comment about how Trevor Ball is always making big plays. I said I say his name every other time I talk. Then Jerrid made a comment about him being my boyfriend. From that point on they were all ribbing me about that.

When I would say Trevor Ball, they would all laugh which would make me laugh. Then one time they all knew it was coming, so they were really laughing before I got to say it. I had to turn off the mic before I even said anything.

After the game I told Jerrid I was leaving him down there for saying what he did about Ball. So I moved my truck and hid from him. When he finally went to the parking lot he could not see my truck. I went running to get into a position where he could not see me. My first step was into a small hole in the ground.

That caused me to fall. I did a full roll and got back up and continued to run. Jerrid called and I told him I was on the Lewiston Grade. Then I came around the corner. It was fun.

But it is funny how he was pretty close with the whole comment. I guess maybe I was obsessing.

The Thunder Back in Lapwai

I went to station thirty-one to get things ready for the physical agility test for the paramedic list. Jerrid was going to be testing. It turned out only three people took the test, so the chances of him getting a job here is good assuming they look at the things he has to offer.

Then it was off to Lapwai for the Palouse Thunder football game. It was against the Columbia Basin Riverhawks. They have not won a game all season. Today would be no different as the Thunder went on to win. The Riverhawks kept it close.

In the Win Column

Today's Palouse Thunder game was played against the Okanagon County Commandos. They were missing some of their players because one of their teammates' child died recently and they were attending a funeral. We had a moment of silence before the game started.

Playing in the Kibbie Dome was nice. I did not have to go far, plus I was able to spread out. It was easier to play the music that I needed to play as the cheerleaders danced and for the Thunder when they scored. The Thunder won the game. It looked bad for a little bit, but the defense stepped up and made some big stops. The offense line is hurting due to some recent injuries. They were playing with some brand new guys on the line.

When the game was over with I went to my house and started to work on going through my books in the garage. I got them all sorted. I am going to put all my academic books on the shelf I have. But the middle bracket bar started to come loose. The plastic molly was not holding. I had to take down all the books until I can get to the store and buy some metal ones.

My garage is coming along. I have a long way to go, but I think when I get the desk and a few other items out of them I will be in good shape. I will be able to move all the items to one side of the garage and start to put things away in the cupboards that are in the garage. Then when I get those things put away, it will make the garage more roomy. I hope that very soon I will be able to get those things put away in the garage. I really have only made a small dent, but it felt good walking through it and feeling like there is more room.

Washtunca's Interesting Announcing Location

When I arrived in Washtunca I found my way to the school pretty quickly. It was worse than I expected. There were only a small number of bleacher seating. Less than what is at the city playfields in Pullman. Because of the way the system is set up, I could not use my laptop and do my job very well. If I hooked my computer to the system, I would have to stay in the concession stand and I would not be able to see the field.

They had a wireless mic that I would use to announce the game. I spent some time trying to figure out where I should go to get a good view of the game and to be able to see what player was involved in the play. Finally after thinking about it for a while I was able to take my truck to the far side of the field and drive it up this grass hillside. Where I was able to sit over the field to a point. I could not really see yard markings, but I could see the players reasonably well. I was still having a hard time seeing them really well.

I sat in the front seat of my truck with the laptop in my lap and my papers all across my dash board of the truck. It made of an interesting day. To play music I would put the mic next to the speaker of the truck and play the CD.

The Thunder ended up losing by less than a touchdown. It sucked because after the first drive or two they could not get anything going. They had bad field position the whole day. The final Thunder drive gave me some hope, but they came up thirteen yards short.

I got back to Pullman and Ryan was in town for the draft for Phil's fantasy baseball league we are in. Him and I are playing in a team together. Ryan got some pizza and came to my place where he was staying the night. We ate the pizza, watched some House and then the movie Shooting Gallery.

Bummer of a day

I went to Moscow for the Palouse Thunder practice. I was getting photos for all the players and the team photo for the website. That took about an hour overall, plus I hung out for a while watching the practice. Mike D. and I were going to go to the Sports Page to watch the Cougs play Vanderbuilt in the second round of the NCAA tournament. We got a pitcher of green beer for St. Patrick's Day. The Page also had a couple large pizzas for everyone to chow on.

It was looking good for the Cougs for the most part, but as the game was getting towards the end, I could see things were getting bad. We were not scoring points. We were missing a lot of baskets. After a bit we were down to nail-biting time. We kept the game close and ended up with the last shot of regulation for the win, but missed sending the game into OT. That is why I knew things would not be good. We could not obatin a lead and could not get on a run. We kept it close however. Then we went to a second OT. That is when I got worried. We did end up losing in the second OT. The bar was quiet afterwords. The fight song played, but no one felt like singing a long to it. Losing this game was an upset, but it is funny to think that at the begining of the season if you said that Cougs would be a number three seed in the tournament, no one would have beleived it.

I went home and started to get my house ready for the poker game. It was a cash game. No one was showing up. I could not get a hold of some of the people who said they would be there. In fact, other than Mike, no one who said they would be there showed up. But several people came after phone calls were made by Mike and Morgan.

We ended up having five people at the biggest point of the game. I was doing very well. Wolf was knocked out. John showed up after he had some time with his family for his Birthday. After John got there Morgan stay around for a little while. But he busted out. Mike busted out. Michael busted out. Pretty soon with just John and I. I could not win a hand to save my life. Everytime we had a game were some real betting was going on John would pull it out. The last hand of the night summed up the night. I had two pair. John had an inside-straight draw. I went all-in. John called. He put his hand down saying he needed an eight. He had four outs on the river. He found an eight. He beat me. So that was that.

I went to my den and worked on getting the photos cropped for the Thunder Website. It was getting late and I had to get up early. I called it a night after a lot of losses.

Busy Saturday Evening

The day started out late as I stayed up pretty late myself. Then as the evening got closer I got ready for the fire department early. I wanted to go there and watch the football game. The Seahawks were playing the Cowboys in the first round of the playoffs. There was also a Cougar basketball game tonight versus Arizona.

I had linen and other items that I had to deliver up there. I dropped off Anthony and then drove around the block as he dropped off the linen because the place was so full for parking. When I was coming back to Beasley we had a call so I drove past Anthony and we was looking at me wondering what I was doing. I knew he didn't know there was a call because he did not have a radio.

We went inside. Because I was there I got the linen changed out and then we worked on fixing up the cabinet and getting rid of the blue jump bag. We were also getting glimpses of the basketball game.

We took off and went back to the station. We started to get calls and between the calls we would watch the Seahawks game. It came down to the final snap by the Cowboys where Romo bobbled the ball and the Seahawks stopped them from scoring. That allowed the Seahawks to move on to round two of the playoffs.

Then we watched the Cougar basketball game. That was very close through out. The Cougs lead most of the way, and then it went to overtime. The Cougs took a lead and kept it the whole way. I got a call in the finally minute of overtime so I had to listen to the last few seconds on the radio. The Cougs won! They beat number seven Arizona.

The call we got took us up to Palouse. We got on scene and were almost immediately turned around for a delta in the city. We got on scene of the delta call as they started the transport. So we cleared and went back to the station.

Following three nearly back-to-back-to-back calls we went on one last one where a couch was on fire. We were not first on location, but due to the difficulty of finding it we drove around the block and ended up getting to the scene first. We cleared the engine, put out the fire, mopped up, and did the report for the call.

I got home around three-thirty in the morning.

Goodbye Coach Akey

I am saddened by the news that Coach Akey is leaving WSU for the Idaho Vandals. I hope nothing but the best for him and hope that someday he will come back as the Washington State Head coach.

We had the Colfax Fire Christmas party tonight. I went down to that. I bought one raffle ticket and ended up winning the main prize which was a quilt that Angela made. It is pretty neat and I was hoping to win that. People were giving me a hard time that I had only bought one ticket, then when I won they could not believe it.

We are still without power at work so I have been unable to get any work done. I hope that I can kick some butt on bugs when the power does come back on, I feel like I am getting way behind.

I went to the fire station in Pullman earlier in the day for fire training. We were doing stuff on setting up staging and rehab.

Horrible Day as a Coug

The Apple Cup today was supposed to be a victory over the Huskies. Instead I watched them celebrate on our field. It sucked really bad. I could not stand watching so many of the Huskie fans walking into the stadium as smug as they looked. It was like we were below them. I had one Huskie fan demand that I do something about the crowd. I was a "fire marshall" and I should do something about the crowd. I hate the dawgs!

Besides the crushing defeat of the Cougs I spent some of the evening at home with my mom. She came into town today to help around the house. She has been cleaning stuff up and putting away my kitchen stuff. She also brought over some baseboard and flatbar for the floor.

Cougs Go Down Again

Being on call and without cable TV I decided that I would hang out at the station and watch the game there. But I was disappointed to see it was not on TV at all even though the game had such a late start time. I was able to listen to it on the radio as I was doing my other tasks, but it was not a pretty sounding game. The cougs were spanked by Arizona State. That really sucked. The bowl hopes are fading with these latest losses.

The Blues

It sucks when the Cougs lose, it sucks more when they should have won to begin with.

Cougar Football Disappointment

It is Dad's weekend and I am on call for the evening. Arizona is in town to play the Cougs. Brian and I get Rescue ready and make our way to Station one for the meal followed by going to the stadium for the game.

We took our place on the East pad and went into our spot. It was a pretty tame game for calls for us, however, the Cougs were not playing well against Arizona. They were running circles around the Cougs. We could not hold our own against them and ended up losing. It is never fun to lose.

Following the game we went back to the station. I hung around the station watching some TV and waiting for a call to time in. It was a pretty tame night around town as well.

Another Victory!

My plan for the day was to play poker with Mike and watch the Cougs on TV. Plus I was going to be on call in the evening. The game started at two in the afternoon. The Cougar game started at four. I was doing really well on my table. I was up and winning some nice pots. But as the two hour mark came people were doing their add-ons and rebuys. I was finding my self to be out of the chip lead. Plus I had to leave in less that two more hours. So I started to play more loose. I got to the point where about twenty minutes before I had to leave I found a reasonable hand to push all-in on. I ended up losing out, but that was fine. I had to leave.

I got to the station and we did some training up at the training tower. It was more pump and roll training with the recruits. They just went through the training and I wanted to give them some more hands on time with it. The more you do it the more you know it is what I figured. They did pretty well at everything.

Following that I was down at the station for quite a while. We had a couple calls. One was a structure fire, but that did not really turn out to be much more than some fire under a deck. But we did some overhaul on it to make sure it was out. We also had some medical calls dealing with substance abuse. I hung out at the station for a fair amount of the night watching the final episodes from this season's Rescue Me. I finally got to see the final two episodes.

I decided it was time to go home and get to bed. I was not there very long when we got called out to another medical call. When leaving the hospital we got yet another call. We were running most of the night after about two in the morning. I did get to bed around five in the morning.

Nadirs' Post Season Party

I had two events planned for today. One was the post-season softball party for the Nadirs and the other was being the PA for the Thunder. The morning started off with a couple phone calls. Then at ten am I got up and started to get ready for the party. We were meeting at Zeppoz at noon.

I got up and got all my stuff for the football game and the post-season party gathered and ready to go. I went to Zeppoz a little early to make sure we could get a big table. When I got up there it was empty. I was about fifteen minutes early.

Soon the others started to filter in. I had some pizza and finger steaks ready to eat. I also had three pitchers of beer and some pop. As more people get there the food and beer quickly disappeared. So I ordered some more with the remainder of the money. I got some photos of the rookies as well as the guys who will be leaving the team after graduation.

Rookies: Trent, Dave, Jory, Ryan R

Retiring: Richard, Trent, Aaron

I announced the award winners as well as the new team records that were set. This season, records were tied, none were broken.

I had a few beers with the rest of the team. I also met one person who will probably play with us next season. He came along to hang out as well.

When the party was over, about two hours later I headed to Moscow for the football game. I met with the Yakima Manager to get the pronunciation for some of the players taken care of. I also learned about some new Thunder players. I pulled out my laptop and found I left the power cable at home. Luckily I had extra batteries.

I got the text files updated. I got the PA room opened and set up in there. I saw that Wally, from last years team was at the game. I went down to the seats to see him. I was David come in. He is the barefoot kicker for the team. He was limping. He hurt himself in a rugby game earlier in the day, so he would not be able to play.

The game got going and in the middle of the first quarter my computer shut down. So I had to restart it. In the mean time I used the paper sheets to announce the game until the computer was running again. I put in a second battery in the DVD slot. But it did not make the battery life get better. I pulled it out and found that that battery was nearly dead. So I put in the other battery. That raised the battery life. I also turned down the contrast and closed the lid during the longer breaks to make it last as long as possible.

Yakima was undefeated going into this game and beat the Thunder pretty easily. We scored a few times, but not enough. The replacement kicker did not have the leg that David did, so Yakima had better ball position all the time.

After the game I gathered my stuff. I got some dinner and headed home. I met to go to bed earlier that I did, but I could not get myself to find the bedroom right away, I chose to watch some TV first.

Mad Cow without the disease

This morning started off with meeting Ben at the Colfax Golf course for a golf tournament. It is a scramble and I am playing on Ben's team. I am not that good and he is really good, so I am surprised he asked me to play. I feel bad for the other guys on the team. I hope that I do not hold them back.

Ryan from the softball team and a guy named Mike were the teammates. We started on the sixth hole. The problem is that we had to use four drives from each person on the eighteen holes. I don't have a great drive so I was hoping to do well on the short holes so the team would not be handicapped by my short drives. We used one of my drives on the first eleven holes. So on the final seven we had to use three of mine. I was worried about it. But it turned out I had two great drives in a row. I had a two-hundred and twenty-five yard drive followed by a two-hundred-fifteen yard drive. On one short Par four Ben drive to the green in one. We were about twenty feet or so out. I took the first put and sank it for the Eagle! I was really happy about that.

Ben, Scotty, Mike, Ryan

We ended with a four under and ended up in fifth place. Last time Ben's team took first place. But I don't think I really handicapped the team that much at all. We won some prizes. I got a three pack of golf balls.

Colfax Police Officer Nebe and the Steer

While we were on the course around the second hole I looked over and a steer was running on the course. Ben got some pics. It was running around and Bryce from Colfax PD tried to get it back to the slaughter house. The steer had nothing to do with that and ran across the course and across a green leaving hoof prints all the way across it. When we got to the seventh hole we heard a gunshot come from the neighborhood to the South. A tiny bit later we saw the steer run back really close to the ninth hole that we were on. It was bleeding and pretty mad at that time. It ran past the ball that Mike drove on the ninth hole and got some blood on the ball.

Mike with the blood red ball

Finally it made its way back to the slaughter house and Scott from Colfax fire was asked to come down and finish it off. With one shot between the eyes it was dropped.

I went home and grabbed my computer and stuff for the football game. I called Ryan twice and left messages. He never answered his phone nor returned my messages. I am disappointed that Ryan is not willing to help me when I need him.

I made my way to the Kibbie Dome. After the eighteen holes of golf my ankle was really sore. I was hobbling everywhere. I got my computer set up and got the final touches on the teams' roster text files. I got the script for the game. I was going to have to do it on my own today again. But I am hoping with my FootballPA application that I will be able to do it.

Brian's, the teams' PR guy, brother was going to ask his girlfriend to marry her at half time. We set up a screen to read out "Lisa, will you marry me?" At half time I made an announcement that there was a special message on the screen. I never heard what the answer was because Brian's brother never showed back up to the stats booth where he did stats. So I am not sure if things went well. I am sort of thinking they did not go well.

I was able, with the help of the FootballPA do the game by myself. For the most part I was able to keep up with things and did a good job I believe. I made notes of things I would like to change about it to make it easier to use for the next time.

After the game I got some dinner and drove to Colfax. I dropped some stuff off at the coroner's office and then went to control and talked to the guys up there for a tiny bit. I was tired so I went home and watched some TV before falling asleep.

Football PA

I started out with an idea and by the time I went to bed it was a version one-point-oh really. The idea was to have a computer application that I could type in the numbers of a football player or players into a home team and away team text box. It would then print out the names of the players I needed to read off. It would give their number, name, and phonetic pronunciation if it is a hard one. This will make it easier for me rather than looking up numbers on two lists, trying not to lose my place and announce them. Now it will all be in one place.

I was last thinking of added a little yardage calculator that I could use to type in where a play started and ended for long plays and it will quickly tell me the yardage. It would have a button that would tell the computer the user crossed the fifty-yard-line. That will be an upgrade.

So far what I have is the simple form and a simple way of running it. It will read in text files, but they have to be formatted just right. I thought about using XML but I figured it would be easier to work with text files rather than XML because they are being built by hand. Maybe a future improvement will allow a copy and paste from something like an Excel spreadsheet that will have all the data there and then simply save as a text file. Then it would format the textfile for me. One other nice thing would be to read in a file and tell it to print it out on a legal size sheet of paper so I always have a paper backup just in case something goes down on the computer.

So when I got home from work Jon helped me out with some things to tie together the loose ends. It is working and ready for use this Saturday. I hope it will work like I want it to.

I may have to go and get a ten-key add on for the laptop or I may bring a normal size keyboard so I can more quickly type in the numbers. I choose to use the period as the number separator because the period is on the ten-keypad if that is the way I go, so I can do the whole entry and read out with one hand.

Thunder Home Opener

This morning I was woken up by my pager, but I never heard the call out. I missed the call. I went to the station anyway and hung out for a few hours. Ken and I talked about religion and watched a movie call the Doctor. Then I called Reggie because I had not heard from him. He flaked out on me and now I don't have a spotter. So I started to call everyone in my phone book to see if I could find someone. I could not. As a last resort I called Ryan hoping he would help me out in my time of need. He did not.

I stopped at Big-Five and got some binoculars to use at the game. I drove to the stadium. I met up with Brian. I got the team roster and I got the other teams' roster. I started to get their names written down if they were hard to pronounce. Several players said hello and shook my hand. It was good to see people. I went into my booth and set up my stuff.

I had a real hard time at first trying to say the offense and defense players when they made the play plus all the announcements. Finally I decided that I would only do defense if it was quick and easy. Other than that I only announced the offense. I think I started to better after that. I still made a few errors with saying things. I got tongue tied at times. But over all I think I did an okay job.

After the game Jerry said he wanted me to be a lot more one-sided in my announcements. He pretty much wants me to be a cheerleader and get people to make noise on third down and other things. I am not sure that it is right, but he is the team owner so I will do so.

After the game I went home. Then I stopped at the jail. I hung out there most of the evening. Ryan tried to call about eight times. I did not answer the phone. I just let it go to voice mail. The last time he tried was about one am. I was not much in the mood to talk with him.