Jim Wells:  

I am in the Boise area(for the 2nd time). I have been here this time since 1993. Right after high school, I went to cooking school at bsu and decided I did not want to cook for the rest of my life like I did at the Biscuitroot Park during high school. I moved back to Moscow and worked a few odd jobs, which ironically were mostly cooking jobs. While back in Moscow, I became a member of the Fire Department. That led to a job working as an EMT for an abulance company in the Seattle/Tacoma area and living in a fire station as a resident volunteer Firefighter/EMT in Graham, which is just south of Puyallup, Washington. The resident gig was not bad, but only paid room and $240 a month and the EMT job was pretty short lived as I got my first taste of downsizing when the company was bought out by what is now the largest ambulance company in the country. While living in the fire station, I had what I suspect would be a million dollar view if it was from the master bedroom of a house. I opened my window every morning to see a picture perfect view of Mt Rainer in the distance. Bills were piling up, as they do when you're a slacker chasing the dream of a job as a full time firefighter and there are 100's if not 1000's of applicants for each opening. Well, the bank of mom and dad called and said maybe it's time for you to get a real job. With that, I packed my car and headed to Boise where both my brother and sister were living. As I drove over the passes in Oregon on I-84 in near blizzard conditions in Dec...Expand for more