Rehashing the Christmas Spirit

As I am sick, as is my wife, as both my children are, I have no will to write anything new until I feel better. I will though, bring back something I encountered on a traffic accident I shot last year...

From 12/31/04

This morning, I covered a pretty bad accident that happened in a predominantly African-American area of Cleveland. As I was covering this accident, I was standing near a graffiti covered bus shelter. As I was standing there, I started to read some of the words of wisdom written. This is the one that jumped out at me... Santa Claus is a white-ass honkie bitch!!! How can you argue with logic like that????

To everyone, Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah!!

Who?? Me??

Last night the wife and myself went out for a date. We left the children at the grandparents and had a night of peace and quiet. We went out to a local restaurant for dinner and since it was a clear night with an almost full moon, it was quite chilly and I wore my embroidered work jacket. It has a small 3 and the call letters on the left side of the chest and a huge 3 with our call letters on the back.

As we're walking out into the foyer of the establishment, the manager asks, "Hey...do you work for channel 3??"

My inner smart ass kicked in and I said, "What gave it away??"

Here's your sign...

Close To Home

I was hoping that my Friday overnight would be uneventful and pass quickly. Well, wishing that just perked up the ears of the news gods and they quickly kiboshed that idea. As I was driving down the main road from my house, I heard the tones from Bainbridge Township fire department go off on my scanner

"Bainbridge Fire....report of a house on fire..8551 Tanglewood Trail...reports that it is fully engulfed."

I live six miles from Bainbridge and I have to pass through it to get to work. So I modestly floored it and drove cautiously over the unplowed roads. I got to the fire within five minutes. I got there before most of the fire and rescue vehicles. When I got out there were two firefighters, one cop, the assistant fire chief and me. The end condo was on fire. The last house in a unit of five.

The fire was just at the peak of the roof and it looked like it might be able to be doused pretty quickly. Well, that's when they discovered the only fire hydrant close enough was frozen solid. They had to call in other neighboring townships for water tankers and pumpers to get water flowing to fight it.



The lack of water made the fire fighting tricky and the best that they could do is keep the fire spreading to the adjacent condo units. They were successful in that endeavor but the end unit was a loss. Everyone was evacuated but the family lost their dog in the blaze.

I owned the story from start to finish. No other station had the fire and flames. Actually, no other station showed up. Even had the live shot all to ourselves.

Here's a link to the package they did on it for the 6 o'clock news that evening. I'm not sure how long the link will be up so try to catch it if you can.

And When I Awoke

Living in what is considered the snow belt of Ohio isn't easy. See, when the wind comes over Lake Erie in a certain direction, and the lake is warm enough, we get something called Lake Effect. Lake effect is a bitch and her name is well...bitch!! Ask the people of Erie, PA and Buffalo, NY what lake effect snow is and if they don't pummel you to death with the bloody stump that used to be your arm, then they'll tell you that it's a bitch, just like I did.

Well, seeing that I'm off on my weekends just made this more special. See, I didn't have to go out in the mess that is lake effect. I could sleep in and wake up to this



Yes, this is two feet of snow. This is actually 2 feet of lake effect snow in one day. Up by the lake, did they get this much?? Noooo. See, lake effect passes over those towns close to the lake for about 6-7 miles and then drops it's load inland.



And it's really beautiful. But it sucks having to walk around in it, drive in it, etc...

When is spring again?

Burning A Few Days

Well, it's December 1st and there is nothing like finding out you have unused vacation days left. So, when I found out that I had 2 single vacation days and one paid personal day to use, I scribbled down my wanted days off. So, I have a wonderful four day weekend to look forward to. I go back to work on Tuesday.

w00t!!

Lot's of Madden 2006 and GUN for the PS2 in my future. Oh....and be a father type authority figure to the kids also.

Priorities and all.