Foul Mood

I've come to the realization that I'm in a horrible mood for this Christmas Eve. I'm full of Bah Humbuggery..

Humbuggery?? Meh..I said it.

I don't know what it is that has put me into this mood but it came on all of a sudden. Just hearing a Christmas carol makes me want to turn it off.

God, I hope that I wake up in the morning with this mood shaken off. I don't think I'd be any good to the kids and wife in a crabby mood on Christmas morning.

Busy Christmas Eve

The night has not been a quiet one. After the past week of fires that always displace people at this time, the most unfortunate time of year for things to happen, I've started this week off with a double shooting, a fire and a car flipped.

To top it all off I was treated to having to shoot home movies of our morning anchor's Christmas back in 1972.

Unfortunatly for Mark, he didn't know the old 8mm film started off with him in the bathtub.

Yup. I was treated to seeing our male anchor in all his naked glory.

For this Christmas, I'd like MY innocence back please.

Although, copies will be available to the highest bidder. Highest bids will be accepted in brown envelopes left under the park bench at the 55th St. Marina.

Have A Wonderful Christmas!!!!
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To Borrow A Line From Lenslinger

Schmuck Alert!!

Don't you hate it when the subject when you're shooting goes...(ahem)a little nuts?

A Dry Spell

Well it's been a while huh? A couple of weeks where nothing really has happened. Oh except for the panic we put out when snow flurries start falling and we tell NE Ohio that we're gonna get seven inches of snow and it fails to even get within five inches of that mark.

But, other than that, nothing much has happened. I'm just waiting for the Steelers-Patriots game on Sunday. Steelers win 27-21.

What Does Fun Consist Of?

Possibly my idea of fun and your idea of fun may not mesh but I got a kick out of what I was asked to do this morning. I was asked if I'd be able to shoot b-roll of a 25 acre campus of buildings at 6:25 a.m. to help out our dry live shot. And to feed it back before our 6:40am hit.

Nothing like trying to get around 20 some odd acres without use of my live unit which happened to be broadcasting said live shot and have it back in 15 minutes.

Nothing like a little planning, huh?

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What A Great Day

When the generator of your live truck dies on you...twice. Both times right before your scheduled hit.

Made my day.
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I Now Have A Crackberry

I was able to get a Blackberry for my personal phone so now I can blog (or not) blog mobile. Hopefully I'll be able to bring posts quickly instead of waiting until I get home to blog.
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Test

Test
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People I Get to Meet On The Job

I'm a very lucky man. I get to see a lot of things that other people do not get to see and i owe it all to my job. Ordinarily I don't work weekends but due to a scheduling conflict, I was asked to come in this Saturday. I'm glad I was able to do it because I got to meet two wonderful celebrities from the Food Network.

First, I was able to meet Alton Brown. I love his show GOOD EATS. I guess it's how he shoots the show and adds how the chemistry of cooking is so important. Being a cinematographer for a while of his life is what attracts me to his show. Plus he's a funny man and when the time for our live show hit, he kicked it up a notch.(Ooops, sorry, wrong chef!!)



Second of the Food Network celebrities that we were scheduled to interview live was Giada De Laurentiis. Honestly I'd never heard of her before but after meeting her, I don't think I'll ever forget her. She was extremely charming and powerfully beautiful. I did have a difficult time pinning a lav mic on her because of what she was wearing but eventually with her help and total disregard of a ham handed photog pawing her, she was successfully mic'ed up for the live shot.



We were giving a signed copy of Giada's newest book to a caller but when Alton found that out, he took the book and drew a mustache on her picture and signed it with a caricature of himself. All in good fun. of course. When we showed it to Giada, she yelled over to Alton, "What are you?? Twelve?" Alton's answer, "Four actually. But it's accurate because being Italian, you'll have a mustache when you're 50."

BANG!!!

Out for a morning live shot on highway preparedness of ODOT for the upcoming winter snow season when getting off an exit ramp....BANG!! It sounded like we got shot, according to my reporter, Jacque. I knew what it was, so I stopped the truck and got out to look at the tire.

Well, as it happens, the tire was flat. Incredible how they always go flat on the bottom, huh?

Russ, our overnight desk guy, was dispatched to get Jacque and take her to our other live shot while I waited for our towing service to come and change the flat. Since I was on a busy offramp that had a sharp curve in it, I was glad that they were coming to change it. I was in a very bad place and had no orange triangles or flares to warn others.

The tow operator came out after a half hour and started to change the tire. I'd already dropped the spare and had that ready for him. I'd also loosened some lug nuts for him but traffic was picking up so I backed off.

He had a hell of a time changing the tire because he forgot his sockets and had to do all eight manually. That ate up a lot of time but eventually he did get it changed and I was off to head back to the station after a morning wasted.

And how bad was the tire damaged? It looked bad out in the field but when I got back to the station, I could have put my fist into the hole that was ripped in the side of the tire. All I have to say is that I'm glad I was doing 25 m.p.h.on the offramp instead of 60 m.p.h. on the highway.

Here's the pics. Sorry, my camera phone is crappy.

BEST.COMMERCIAL.EVER.

I have to say that this is something that makes me laugh out loud every time I see it. If a news team were to actually do it, I'd but them all a round. Two best lines..."SUNNY" and "We're up to 9th place!!"

Pumpkin Roll....Hey, Aren't You??

This morning I set off to Chagrin Falls,OH where the local high school juniors and seniors hold what is called the "Pumpkin Roll". Basically the kids "liberate" pumpkins from local residences and businesses and bring them to the big hill in town. They then proceed to throw smash the pilfered pumpkins onto the roadway. Then they sled down the hill on the remnants of the poor pumpkins. The kids use plastic sleds, recycle containers, cardboard...you name it, they use it. The sledders hit pretty impressive speeds and major injuries are few and far between. Road rash however is a common thing. It's been a tradition for the past forty some years and the police look the other way for the evening....as long as no one gets out of hand. The kids are either very brave or out of this world crazy.

Here's a link to the nights events.

Now, as I was covering the pumpkin roll, a student came up to me and asked, "Hey, are you that guy that has the blog, news something??" I was momentarily speechless. I've never been recognized for this blog. I admitted I was and he said he was a regular reader. He said he likes this blog and all I could muster was "Uhhh...thanks.." But I must apologize to you, my reader in Chagrin Falls, because I didn't get your name but thanks again for recognizing me and saying hey. It really made my day!

Uh-Oh..

Lenslinger's site is down right now...

I hope he remembered to re-up the domain name...

IF not, I'm buying it and putting the screws to his wallet..

Bwaaaaahhahahahahahhahahahahahhahahahahaaa!!!

K, not really.

When It Rains, It Rains A Lot...

This day was a bad day to be a photog. It was constant rain overnight and it's still continuing as I type this. Rain is the great morale breaker. You can wake up with a great attitude and can't wait to get into work only to find the weather has turned against you. It changes your mindset. You go into defense mode. It's all about keeping yourself as dry as possible as well as your gear.

It seemed like my day was set for me. Just live beauty shots of a foggy downtown Cleveland landscape which would have made for a mostly dry morning by keeping me inside the live truck for the most part. I should have known it wouldn't have lasted.

My phone rang about 5:10 a.m. after my first second live picture. Russ, our desk guy, informs me that there is a working fire at a Beachwood apartment complex and they're calling a MABIS, basically a mutual aid broadcast, for surrounding communities to send equipment.

I broke down my live shot and punched the address into my GPS and took off for the fire. I fought my way through very heavy rain to make it there first. I was delayed a little because the apartment complex is gated and I needed to wait to get the o.k. from him. When I did, the Beachwood police were waiting to escort myself and the other stations to a staging area. I have to give the Beachwood P.D. major thanks for working with us instead of against us. They could have made it a real pain to do our jobs but they really cooperated with us this morning.

We did have to walk to the scene of the fire but we could get pretty good b-roll from the distance we were away. It was a three story apartment complex that was missing most of it's third floor. It was a quick moving fire, and the fire departments were doing a pretty good job keeping the flames down and localized.

I guess I automatically switch into "auto-pilot" when I'm on a big scene like this because I didn't really notice the rain. It was just shoot, shoot, shoot...get back to the truck...establish the signal....feed video back....run cables....set up camera...go live.

When Derek and Obie joined me after leaving their own live shot, I guess the adrenaline wore off a little and I noticed for the first time, "Damn...I'm soaked!!" My wireless receiver got wet and it proceeded to give out a static filled signal. There was so much rain, the a/v dongle that we plug into got wet and proceeded to put a bad hum in the audio which needed troubleshooting. After fixing that, I realized that I was really, really really soaked. The down into your underwear, uncomfortable kind of soaked. It's the worst feeling especially when it's cold and you're that wet.

What was the topper of the morning? Thanks for asking. It was when the Beachwood fire chief held a quick presser. My reporter Obie was holding an umbrella and as I was shooting, the runoff from the umbrella made an arc directly down in between my rain jacket and shirt. I nudged Obie over a little which helped until he adjusted the umbrella and started a Niagara-esque waterfall right between my glasses and into my eyes. It was like trying to shoot underwater without a scuba mask. All I could do was try to hold as still as possible while the chief was talking.

It was a cold and miserable drive back to the station because of slow traffic and equally as bad of a drive home. The hot shower I took when I got home was the best part of the day. That time I didn't mind getting wet.

Saying Goodbye To A Friend

John Anderson was our morning show anchor for seven years. He became a very good friend to me and most of our morning show staff. You couldn't but like the guy (no matter how hard I tried...kidding, just kidding). His personality was just as warm as his smile. His wife Kristin, also a reporter at our station, was just as loved, if not more. I worked with Kristin only a few times as she worked nights but you couldn't help but like her. These are two wonderful people to know and work with.

Well, John went and found himself a new job at a different station and a bigger market (I know...how DARE he!!!). He'll be anchoring at WTXF-TV Channel 29, Philadelphia's FOX affiliate. They're getting a good man for their morning anchor. John will add to the character of their newscast and the reputation of their station for sure. I hope that WTXF will also add Kristin on to their staff as well. But if not right away, she'll have more time to tend to their beautiful twins.

I remember the first story I went out on with John. It was an anti-abortion protest across from one of our local colleges here in Cleveland. We clicked almost immediately and were in sync when it came to knowing what each other wanted and needed for the story.

From John's long overnights to his love of biking, hockey and raising money to fight Leukemia, to the final show where he got a whipped cream pie in the face which was done with love. He made the mornings special for those who worked with him and for Northeastern Ohio.

John, Kristin and family, you will be missed. God bless you all. Have a wonderful life and continued success in Philadelphia.

Just don't forget to boo Santa Claus so you can get into the Philadelphia holiday spirit.

"Auto" Erotica?? Sweetest Day??

Ever wanted to lick a Jeep? Never? Yeah, me either. But you might have wanted to if you were selected to be a finalist in a Sweetest Day contest. To win, you needed to lick the chocolate off the front off of a new Jeep, exposing pre-placed stars. The chocolate was then meticulously spray painted on the whole Jeep. There were a total of six Jeeps, one for each contestant.







Then the two top lickers would need to find the car keys that were placed somewhere under 26,000 pieces of candy, inside the Jeep they were trying to win.





The contestants, three men and three women, were watched over by the "Candy Cops" to make sure that there was no biting or using of the hands in the licking segment of the contest.



All I have to say is that there were some interesting techniques during the licking phase. It prompted one of our anchors to quip off air, "I didn't realize we were televising soft porn.."

After the half hour licking phase ended, two women...excuse me...two chocolate covered women were the finalists. On the count of three, the women opened the doors to the Jeep Liberty and out poured a flood of bite-sized candy bars and the search began for the elusive keys. The winner was an 32 year old ultra-marathon runner from Chicago who only got her license last year and has never owned a car before.

It made for some hilarious moments on and off air I really have to admit. Made for a very interesting morning live shot too.

The Director's Cut

I'd like to direct your attention to one of my co-worker's blog, The Director's Cut. It's a behind the scenes look at what goes on at our station and it is written very well by one of our best directors, Frank Macek.

He puts a lot of work into it and has some fascinating information to pass along about WKYC-TV and it's history.

Please feel free to check it out.

Ok, I Caved

I'm not a huge fan of futuristic shooting genre games. But I guess I had to see for myself what the hype about Halo 3 is about. I have to say, it's a great game but for the life of me, I'm stumped.

I have no idea of what I'm doing. I'm still in the jungle and I have no idea of what I'm supposed to do. I guess it would have helped if I'd played Halo 1 & 2 but, like I said, I'm not a fan of that genre of game.

I'll keep on plugging along though. I'm not experienced enough to try multi-player online..yet. I don't want to help pad anyone's stats if I can help it.

What Happens When It Falls In Your Lap

Since I was at home and asleep (since I work overnights) when the Success Tech shooting happened right across the street from our station, one of our finest directors, Frank Macek took pictures and posted them on his blog. It's a fascinating read. I invite you to visit it and read his posts..

Director's Cut

School Shooting

There was a shooting at a Cleveland Municipal School today. A 14 year old student who was suspended yesterday came back to school today and shot four people including himself. He is the lone fatality.

What makes this so stunning is the school, Success Tech, is right across the street from my station. Only 50 feet across the street from us.

I was asleep at home as I work overnights and my wife called and woke me up to tell me about this.

Watch streaming live coverage from WKYC.com

Genlock..Genlock...Ummm.

This morning I was outside of Jacobs Field for our AM shows, after the Indians whipped the Yankees in Game 1 of the ALDS. We had two reporters and my fellow photog, Derek, asked if we could use both our cameras and switch between them in the truck. I thought it was a great idea.

And then I blanked.

It's been over twelve years that I've had to genlock cameras. And I completely forgot how to do it for close to 15 minutes. Yeah, my mind went to static... ok, it pixelated (hey, we're in the HD era..) as I grabbed the reeler out of the second truck and tried to remember something that is very basic to do.

I finally figured out the Mount Everest of a challenge with about 10 minutes to spare. It wasn't really necessary to have a second camera but it made the show so much smoother and it looked fantastic on the air.

Then I figured out why I blanked. I turned 39 on Tuesday so that explains why I had a brain fart. I'm getting old. I could easily blame the RF that has rattled my brain but age is getting the better of me.

It's like the joke...A man goes to the doctor's office and the doctor tells the man, "I have very bad news. You have cancer and you also have Alzheimer's Disease."

The patient sighs in relief, "Whew!! At least I don't have cancer !!"

How Many Times Have You....

Wanted to do this to your reporter? A nice pie in the face? It was all planned and all in good fun but sometimes those professional mascots get to have all the fun...

Pie In The Face Video

Awww, Damn.

Why? Just, why? What pushes people to do such awful things to such young children? Their own children? I've not personally covered this story but anyone who has children has to feel a cold ball of ice form in the pit of their stomach.

When TV Goes Horribly Wrong

This happens...

Gravy Days Are Over

I've had the past two weeks off and as much as I'd like to say I did really exciting things on my vacation but I can't. I spent a lot of time taking care of the kids while my wife recovered from many stays at the hospital. She's doing well and is feeling a lot better.

I did get a chance to go to Pittsburgh and visit my friends Nancy and Jeff. I can't tell you just how much their friendship means to me. The family and I got away for a couple of days to the Kalahari Water Resort. We went there a few years ago and liked it enough to head there again. This time the kids were a little bit older and they seemed to appreciate it a little more this time.


I'll hopefully be back to posting regularly. Things are always bound to happen overnights.

A Face From My Childhood Has Passed

Ray Tannehill, a news anchor from KDKA in Pittsburgh has passed away from a heart attack at the age of 73. He was retired and lived in New Mexico at the time of his death.

I remember watching him anchor the WIIC (now WPXI) and KDKA news as I grew up. I met him once when I worked in Pittsburgh and he was just as warm and genial in person as he was when he was on the TV screen. I remember my father saying that he thought Ray was the most honest man on television. That in the time of Walter Cronkite.

My deepest condolences go out to Mr. Tannehill's family,his friends, the city of Pittsburgh and his co-workers at KDKA and WPXI.

Here are a couple of links to his video obituaries from KDKA and WPXI.

Rest In Peace, Mr. Tannehill.

Well, So Much For That Idea...

My plans to blog and catch up while on my vacation have gone down the toilet. My wife is back in the hospital yet again for the third time in two weeks.

I hope they find what is wrong and fix it fast. She can't take much more of this and neither can my kids or myself.

So, once again, the blog remains idle..

I'll get back to it when I'm able.

UPDATE: My wife is home and had better stay home...!!! Docs discovered an bleeding ulcer, which is healing itself so hopefully no more prods and poking and cutting in the foreseeable future.

An Update..

My wife is back in the hospital. She's been here since this past Sunday and it's been hell for me. Fortunately for me, my in-laws have been watching the kids and getting them off to school while I would go to work and see Elizabeth. Now it seems that she'll be coming home tomorrow.

Now I'm on vacation for two weeks now, so I can catch up on what's been happening while on the job. Not that a whole lot has been happening that is exciting.

Yeah, I know you're all waiting with bated breath.

Wife In The Hospital

My wife had to go into the hospital last night for something called an intussusception. Basically, her intestine telescoped in on itself and started bleeding. She had to have emergency surgery last night around 10:00p.m. She came through it better than the surgeon expected because she had symptoms for 3 days before the hospitalization. The surgeon thought he would find necrotic tissue, but everything was in excellent shape.

This usually occurs in children and is very rare in adults. Surgery is usually required in adults to rectify the problem. She's expected home in three days.

Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers.

UPDATE: Elizabeth came home on Thursday. She's sore and uncomfortable but she's getting better every day. Thanks for all your kind thoughts and prayers. It helped so much.

Not Much Has Happened Recently

I'm not one to really give to people who panhandle me. My basic deal is I rarely carry any cash on me because I work overnight and I go into some bad places when the situation calls. I've had homeless people, crack heads, drunks, hookers and junkies come up to me for money in my career working overnight but I've never had happen what transpired at a red light in downtown Cleveland a couple of nights ago.

I was headed to a fatal car accident as I left from my station. I came to a red light on Cleveland's main street, East 9th. I rolled up and stopped next to a blue BMW which looked brand new. The guy in the beemer looked kind of ragged. He backed up a little and rolled down his window. "Hey buddy, do you have any change on you? I just woke up and I can't find my wallet and I need to get gas."

Excuse me? I don't think I heard you right? You're driving a BMW, just woke up from presumably being drunk, lost your wallet and you're hitting me up for cash?

This I didn't say. I did tell him, "Sorry, I don't carry cash. I go into some bad areas working in TV and blah, blah, blah..." He nodded his head and drove off.

Look pal, be responsible. Man up, call the wife from your cell phone and let he know what happened. So you have glitter on your face and have stripper smell all over you.

Oh, wait, better yet...call a buddy.

What The...?

Ok, so I'm sitting here on my couch watching the Browns win a very boring football game. My Siamese cat Buckley is pawing at something by my right foot, underneath the couch.

I reach down and find something cold and rubbery, somewhat akin to rubber tubing, so I pull it and it snaps out of my hand. I think, "Eww, what was that?" So, I get a flashlight and check out under the sofa. Pushing my howling Siamese out of the way, I am shocked to find a snake stuck to a piece of duct tape that is holding the upholstery together underneath the sofa (It's an old sectional sofa that belonged to my in-laws and we got it because we didn't want the kids to destroy a totally new sofa, so, we're not rednecks, k?).

I grab the snake, a harmless garden snake, and rip it from the piece of duct tape. It's a pretty brown and green color and I think momentarily that I should keep it for my boys to look at.

Then I think of my wife and what my wife will do when she discovers a snake was in the house. The words quivering mass of jello would describe it nicely. So, sadly, out the door the snake went.

I think I know how the snake made it into the house. My youngest son left his baseball glove sitting in the front yard overnight. This is where I think the snake found a home until my son brought the glove in this afternoon. It crawled out and slithered it's way under my couch and onto the duct tape.

Now the question remains...should I tell my wife about it or let it be my little secret?

I Love My Job....But..

I have to endure two days of seeing my morning anchor, John, in bicycling shorts. Not a pretty sight but it's for a good cause. He's participating in a bike ride across Ohio. It's for the Hope Lodge here in Cleveland that helps cancer patients deal with their disease. Our live shot this morning was the start of the Pan Ohio Bike Ride.

Today was day one of the ride. I shudder in cold fear of what lies ahead for tonight...John in spandex. Ewwww..

Hey, It Works!!

Two cars headed north on E.95th street near Cedar avenue. The car in the rear is shooting at the car out in front. The driver of the front car is hit and crashes his car into a electric pole which causes the electrical wire to snap and fall into the street.

I asked for something to happen and viola!! Maybe I'm onto something here?

Bad thing though, in the darkness, I stepped onto a standpipe that was replacing the block's water supply for the fire hydrants in the area and slipped. I jammed my left leg which is really sore because of a strained hamstring that I suffered playing softball. I had just strained it more. I'm such a clumsy oaf.

I had tears come to my eyes because the pain was so bad. A female Cleveland officer, and not a bad looking one at that, saw me in pain and asked if I was okay. I told her what happened and she called a medic over. I begged off their offers to be checked out and thanked them profusely.

I need to be more careful and watch where I'm stepping in the total darkness.

I Haven't Learned My Lesson

I'm spitting n the face of the news gods again. Bring it. Really. I'm challenging you. Show me your stuff.

Last week was a complete bore fest.

Something needs to happen.

Rats!

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I've been dealing with a complete meltdown of my laptop. It got so corrupted that I had no alternative but to do a full restore. So, you'll have to excuse my lack of enthusiasm in posting to the blog when visions of taking a ball peen hammer to this Gateway supersede my rants and views.

I'll get back to it soon. Just trying to reload everything that I needed to make me a happy camper.

Tragedy Over Phoenix

Video can be seen here.. Please be warned, it's not very pleasant.

My heart goes out to the victims and the victim's families tonight. Two news helicopters in Phoenix, AZ crashed into one another while covering a police chase. Channel 3 and Channel 15 have suffered greatly today. May God bring peace and healing to the people of KNXV and KTVK.

I cannot say anything more. Words fail me.

There Is No News Here

Yesterday my reporter Jacque and I got the call to head to a daycare that had a car go through it. I started praying that there were no children injured because all I could think of was daycare + car into building = massive casualties.

We got the word halfway there that there was only one little girl with a bruise to the leg which was a blessing but we still headed out to the daycare. I mean, really how many times do you get to see a car parked inside a daycare center anyways?

Jacque and I no sooner pull up when a woman with a very bad attitude came over to our truck yelling and I quote, "There is no news here and I don't want you here! No one was injured so you don't have any news to report! Go away."

I asked the lady, who identified herself as the owner of the daycare center, if we were parked on her property. She said that I wasn't on her property and repeated her rant.

As I got out of the live truck, I told her that my reporter would determine what was newsworthy and what wasn't. Then I asked her, if there was nothing to see and there was no news here, then what was that big hole doing in the front of the building?

This lady also tried to prevent people from talking to us about what happened. A lot of things I'll let slide but this is not one of them. I can't tolerate people trying to bully others from their first amendment rights. We told the woman we were trying to interview that she had every right and freedom to talk to us, no matter what the owner of the daycare said, and we told her loud enough for the daycare owner to hear it.

Should I Laugh Or Cry?

They're still killing each other in Cleveland, overnights. Past two days, two more homicides. We're well beyond last years total number and we're only halfway through the year. This morning's homicide was rough because of all the wailing and screaming going on. It would have seemed comical if it wasn't so tragic. Like the Eddie Murphy routine where the aunt falls down the stairs screaming, " Oh LORD..HELP ME JESUS..OH MY GOD, Oh LORD...MY SHOE!!"

It went on like that for about twenty minutes. I hated that my warped mind went to that scene from the Murphy standup routine but it did. I almost wanted to laugh but kept it inside. It's a tragic thing, someone dying but I suppose if you're in this business and you can't find humor in the horror, then you should get out of the news gathering business.

New Addition To The Family

Welcome "Z"!! A 5 year old purebred Australian Cattle Dog. She's a rescue dog from the local shelter here and is just adorable. Loves our kids and is extremely gentle. Loves to "herd" tennis balls.

Make It Stop!!

Five more people shot this morning. I ran all over Cleveland's Fourth police district, chasing down three people shot within minutes of each other. I also was chasing all the police cars when they went chasing the suspects. I found one suspect getting a gunshot residue test on him which I was very lucky to stumble on. And a very nice officer called me over to get a shot of the suspects gun.

In all another busy night. TGIF!

Well, I Asked For It....

Total of 11 people shot overnight tonight. One triple homicide, two wounded at one scene. Four others shot outside a bar, one man shot in the head outside another bar and one woman found stabbed to death in her house.

I was sent to the triple homicide. A Cleveland firefighter is accused of shooting five of his neighbors, killing three of them. It may be over a late night fireworks display but signs are pointing to an ongoing bad neighbor situation.

When I arrived at the scene I was by myself (I usually am). I was the only media person there so when I walked up to the tape with the camera, a very upset family member started yelling at me, "Don't even think of bringing that camera here. I'll kick your ass and break that camera!!" Around him, five other people (mildly inebriated), possibly relatives, were heading my way as well.

A police officer stopped the one man and turned him around letting the guy know, "He has a job to do." They all turned away and walked off but to be sure, a police officer was set to shadow me for about twenty minutes while cooler heads prevailed. I never even muttered a word. The camera was down to my side.

I'm still not 100% over being outnumbered 6:1 but I'm grateful to the CPD for diffusing the situation and understanding that I had a right to be there and not turning a blind eye to what might have happened.

Sometimes I hate being the only one on scene when I know I'm going into a bad situation. Like the saying says, "There's safety in numbers..."

Something Please Happen!!

It's been slow. Waaaay too slow. I'm not one to wish bad things upon people but man, you'd thing a little something would happen overnight.

I've checked out a few things but they've not been newsworthy. I know the old saying, "A watched pot never boils.." but it seems that it's been a good while for any kind of spot news lately.

Where's a chicken to sacrifice to the news gods??

Overheard

A co-worker who made a good deal of OT on their financial windfall...

"F*** responsibility!! I'm buying what I want!!"

P.R. People Suck

Why?

1. Driving 35 miles to your live shot at the Outlet Mall at 5 a.m.
2. Setting up and with fifteen minutes to go, no one is showing up.
3. Wondering why security looks at you funny when you tell them you're doing a live shot and expecting a bunch of people.
4. Having your reporter call said P.R. person and the P.R. person sleepily saying the shot is actually tomorrow, which it isn't.
5. The 35 mile drive back to the station listening to a pissed off reporter.

Yes, they do suck.

Images From Stark County

I was involved in the coverage about the missing pregnant mother story in Canton, OH. Admittedly I wasn't neck deep in it because of my shift but I was staking out Bobby Cutts house, at the Stark County Jail and at the Greentown F.D. when the organizing of volunteers became a amazing show of comapssion as close to 2,000 people showed up to search for Jessie Davis.

I had a little down time at the Stark County Jail so, I took some cell phone pictures. Hope they look ok.

I caught this as the sun was coming up.


Our behemoth, I mean our Sat truck.


CBS, CNN and Fox's Sat trucks.


HEY!! Fox News has a canopy. Why don't we have a canopy?


Last one.

He Plays A...WHAT?

WJW-TV Morning anchor, Wayne Dawson accidentaly makes a musical error, much to the chagrin of WJW-TV reporter Kenny Krumpton.

Enjoy the goodness...

Karma Is A Bitch

Last Friday, I covered a drowning in Lake Erie. I didn't blog about it though because was kind of routine, as drownings go. The guy was at a local state park right here on Lake Erie with his girlfriend and dog. We assume that the dog jumped into the water to possibly chase a duck or a goose. The dog wouldn't come out of the water so the guy jumped in to get his dog out.

We really don't know what happened but the guy drowned. Don't know if he even knew how to swim or not. He went into the water and was retrieved about an hour later from Lake Erie buy the Cleveland Fire Department Dive and Rescue team. He was 29 years old. We don't know what happened to the dog.

Fast forward to this morning. We get a report from the CPD about the victim of the drowning. He was a wanted man in Detroit. What was he wanted for?

Murder.

He was even featured on America's Most Wanted for the crime.

Here's the original story from WKYC.com on the drowning.

Karma Is A Bitch.

A Personal Message

To the homeless piece of crap that decided to steal my reporter's purse out of my live truck,please understand that if I see you on the street overnight you will not be a happy person.

Water + Electric Wires = BOOM

I went to this house fire a couple of days ago. Flames were shooting out of the attic and fire crews had a heck of a time getting into the home because of so much trash and stuff that had been pack-ratted in every corner of the home, that the house pretty much was a total loss.



The fire was raging out of control. The flames were high enough that they caught the power lines in front of the home on fire. A snorkel truck that had parked in front of the house had to move across the street to escape the flames and the danger of the burning wires.



I positioned myself across the street in the driveway of an abandoned house. I was shooting the fire when I noticed an old man next to me watching the fire. I also noticed he was standing under a power line that was swaying because it was attached to the lines that were on fire.

I mentioned to the man that I was going to move because of the wire and suggested that he should probably do the same. He followed me and we were out of harm's way of the wire. Just then, the snorkel truck, which by this time had lifted it's ladder, opened up it's snorkel and started dousing the house.

As I was shooting the firemen below, a huge blue flash and a boom rang out. I pulled out wide in time to get the the second flash an a louder boom from the electrical lines in front of the house shorting out. The snorkel was hitting the wires, which by now had their insulation burned off by the fire and were now bare.

After the second boom, the firemen in front of the house scattered and surrounded me and the old man across the street. They were all breathing heavy and some were saying they felt sick. I felt sick also. The shock wave from the explosions went through us all and I'm not surprised that we all didn't have our insides rattled a little from the impact of those shock waves. I felt better about an hour later with a little ginger ale inside me.

Oh, and that wire that the old man was standing under, it came down about 25 minutes later. We all were pretty lucky that night.

So Far The Tally Is...

If you're keeping score at home then the math works out like this for what I've shot this week:

3 Homicides
3 House Fires (one was 1 mile from my house)
2 Police officers arraigned for rape
1 Fatal Motorcycle Accident
1 Child Kidnapping
1 Stabbing

It seems like after Memorial Day, the world goes crazy. Ehh, it keeps me busy overnight.

Ever Wonder??

What your favorite local anchor or reporter looks like in the morning without their makeup on for the air..

Mystery solved..

Nothing Says Fun Like....

Your morning show reporter wearing a Vegas showgirl type headdress.

Yup...class.

Snake Bit

It was a frustrating day today and a wet one. We went to the Akron Zoo for a live shot. It promised to be a fun morning. A Kinkajou, turkey vultures, Lemurs and penguins were on the agenda. Sadly it was not to be. We get down to the Akron Zoo and I call in to establish my shot. I'm told that the Akron receive site is not working. In fact it hasn't worked in months. Crap, that's a new one on me. So, I'm told we're trying all our other sites. The closest is in Canton. Should be hittable and it was, but we're low and the signal isn't good enough for air. I move the truck and try again to all available receive horns. No dice.

So we go to plan B. Shooting look lives and driving far enough north that I could hit a site to feed back our recorded hits. I find a parking lot on a hill high enough to ensure a signal. As I'm rotating to one of our sites my reporter, Jacque, yells "LIGHTNING!!" and runs away from the truck. I drop the mast and join Jacque way far away from the truck until the mast is down.

Off we went again to find a spot that was close enough to a usable site and now free from lightning. Finally we find a spot to establish successfully and feed back only one of our recorded hits because we're in the last half hour of our show. So, as I'm feeding back the turkey vulture look live, it isn't usable do to numerous hits on the tape. I cross my fingers and feed back the kinkajou look live which graciously is sans video hits.

And to top it off, I'm fighting a losing battle with poison ivy or poison oak on my arms. I'm so incredibly uncomfortable and bathed a pale pink from calamine lotion.

My kingdom for some 40 grit sandpaper right now...ARRRRGGGGHHH!!

5am @ Jacobs Field live shot. I love my job!

Accident!!!

My reporter and I were in MVA yesterday returning back from a live shot.We were hit by a teenage driver who wasn't paying attention and pulled out into an intersection while I was driving through it. I swerved left to avoid him but I couldn't go into the other lane due to oncoming traffic. The kid is lucky that he didn't pull out earlier or I'd have T-boned his little Chevy Cavalier with my Econoline van. I have no explanation of why he chose to pull out into the intersection because there was oncoming traffic in the lane he wanted to get into.

But everybody was alright save for the Cavalier which wound up missing it's front bumper, both headlights and damage to its hood and both from quarter panels.

The cop that took the report walks up and says, "Wanting to make your own news??"

Thanks officer...

Pucker Time

Ok, now first off I am going to clarify that this WAS NOT ME THAT DID THIS. I'd like to tell you to go back and re-read the first sentence. I'll wait...

Hmm...la...la..la.. Done? Kewl. We can continue.

I walked out to the garage to unload my gear from my live truck when I happened to look over at another live truck and discover this.



Now this looks like someone placed their tripod on top of the roof of this live truck to get it out of the way. Maybe an engineer fixing something in the back. It may have been a prank on one photog to another. It could have been, but it wasn't.

The truck had just returned from a live shot around eight miles from the station and took a route that was all highway back.

Can you imagine the destruction a tripod falling off the roof of the truck could have caused, especially on a busy highway?

God was looking out for the photog, that is for sure.

I WIsh I'd Known

Tuesday morning I was scheduled to do beauty shots because my reporter had a national story to front back in the studio. So, I decided to go to the East 55th Marina here in Cleveland to get said beauty shots. The view looks back at the skyline of Cleveland and Lake Erie, plus you can get beautiful sunrise shots from there.

I got to the marina at 4:40a.m. after checking out a water main break which gave me just enough time to set up and get a picture on the air for our 5 a.m. show. Our show started and while I was up on the air, a Park Ranger drove by, flashed his brights and drove off.

I was the only person at the marina except for an empty black Ford Taurus that was parked about thirty feet from me. I did about five shots with only the seagull calls matching my IFB for background noise. Around 6:15 a Cleveland Police car came around and he stopped to chat. We B.S.'ed for a few minutes until they called for another shot from me. The officer left and I went back and finished out the show at 7 a.m.

I headed back to the station, only to get sent out to cover a body found in a house. It turned out to be an accidental CO poisoning. I headed back to the station to bump into our 7:30 photog, Shane, ingesting video he'd shot at the East 55th Marina this morning when it was light. There are cops all over his video.

I ask him what he shot at the marina. He tells me a fisherman found a woman who had been assaulted there. I told Shane I was there since a quarter to five in the morning. His jaw dropped and he said they figure that she was laying there since 4 a.m. The Taurus that was there was hers.

The woman had been in shock when a fisherman found her. She stated screaming when he approached and he called 911. She never screamed, moaned or made any type of noise.

She'd been less than 30 feet from me over a little embankment and I'd never seen her. She was laying there needing help and I never knew it.

I'm still upset about it.

Yea For Good People

My friend Nancy got the job she wanted yesterday! I'm so very happy for her and her husband Jeff. They're the Godparents to our kids and thoroughly wonderful people.

Nancy was in a job that she hated. Not because of the job itself but because of her boss. I can certainly understand that feeling....TRUST ME.

But now things are getting better for her and her husband. And it couldn't happen to nicer people.

Don't You Hate...

Getting something for yourself(presumably)to enjoy, only to have it usurped by a family member?

Not that I have all the time in the world to fritter away on my Xbox 360 but I'm highly peeved. I searched high and low for Guitar Hero II(it's a big seller and goes fast), a great game....or so I'm told. I just haven't been able to get close to it all friggin day today.

Reason? My wife has been playing it pretty much non-stop.

While I've been relegated to sitting in front of my laptop. Since the weather sucked today, I couldn't take the boys outside and mess around with them.

It's completely ruined what enjoyment I was hoping to get out of it.

Yeah, I'm petty and pathetic. So what? Can't a guy have some things just to himself?

Crap.

Morning sunrise.

HAPPY HAPPY JOY JOY!!

Cryptic, isn't it??

The Smell of....

Another smoky fire. Excuse me, another EXTREMELY smoky fire and I come back to the station reeking of woodsmoke. Yes, it's a smell reminiscent of camping out and it brings back good memories but I smell like I was hoisted on a spit and rotated slowly for hours, but not basted in my own juices.

Wherever I went, I left an stagnant odor. Even being sprayed down with Lysol air freshener didn't help. Earlier, driving back from the fire, I had both windows down in the live truck, trying to blow the stink off of me or at least air out the truck so the next person wouldn't have to tolerate the smell being stuck in the truck through the day. I tried as best as I could but I couldn't take too much of the 20 degree air plowing into my face. When I went to pick up my youngest at his pre-school, his teacher wrinkled her nose and looked at me, her face asking a question without vocalizing it.

As the day wore on and I came home from work, a shower was the first thing on my mind. As the Dial soap started to take some of the smell away, I started to think. Yes I know, a dangerous thing. But getting back to my thoughts, I sort of see what I went through as a badge of honor in my chosen profession. Whom else runs to a fire scene except the emergency workers and us? Lookie Lous do also but aside from their morbidity, we're there next to the fire, police and rescue units doing our job.

It's a smell that regular people hardly ever come back to work smelling like. Maybe that's a good thing. But I guess I'll choose to wear it as a badge of honor for my chosen profession.

I'll still complain about coughing up black crap. That's just annoying.

Captured on Cell Phone

The massacre at Virginia Tech was captured on cell phone video by Virginia Tech grad student Jamal Albarghouti as he was walking to class. He came upon police officers running towards him, drawing their guns and telling him to get down.

You can see the police approaching the building and listen closely, you can hear gunshots. Remarkable video.

How Did You Spend Your Morning

This was supposed to be posted by Blogger Mobile a week ago but for some reason, it keeps being sent to the nether world of the internet.

But, this was how I spent my morning by watching some very good looking young women belly dance and others do a little modern hip-hop dancing.

Hmmmmm, watching women dance at 5 a.m. and getting paid for it?? Like I've said before, sometimes I love my job. I am a very lucky guy sometimes.

This Can't Be Good

I covered a fire on Monday. Pretty basic really, just your run of the mill house fire. Except this was a pretty smoky fire. I got to the scene, took my camera and tripod and headed around the back end of my live truck.

I turn the corner of the truck and look up just in time to see a wall of thick black smoke headed right at me and nowhere to escape. I took a deep breath of fresh air and held it as the smoke enveloped me. My eyes stung and watered as the toxic smoke worked it's way into my nose, eyes and eventually my lungs as I ran out of clean air.

I shot the fire, even got them reviving a dog with oxygen, in between coughing jags but I thought I'd be ok after a few hours. I was blowing black crud out of my nose and coughing up black crap for the rest of the day.

Well, two days later, I'm still coughing up black crap...

That sucks..

How To Tell It's Going To Be An Interesting Day

When you come home and find your wife stranded on the roof of the house because the ladder that she was using collapsed, stranding her there for about 20 minutes..

She was taking down the Christmas lights.

God, I wanted to just walk into the house and pretend I couldn't hear her talking to me....

Zumba

This morning started a week long series of live shots for me and my reporter Jacque on Shaping up for your swimsuit. Basically, we're showing you how to get in shape for your summer swimsuit. We were at a dance studio that has classes in Zumba. It's basically fitness dancing to latin music. It started in Columbia pretty much by accident. You can read more about Zumba, here.

Arriving at the dance studio this morning, we were told that we'd have at least fifteen people for the demonstration. Wonderful, we thought. It's usually a whole lot more people that show up for our live shot demonstrations so we were psyched.

Until they showed up. There were a whole lot of 15, 16 and 17 year old girls plus a few women in their early 30's that would be "Zumbaing". Now normally being a red blooded, heterosexual male you'd think I'd be in Nirvana. Well.....

Let me tell you. I've never seen a cleaner dance floor and better electrical work on the ceiling as I examined the conduit work done by the electricians. I just couldn't look at the young girls. I felt....dirty. The moves that Zumba involves made me realize that if I saw anymore that I'd already seen, I'd be showing up on the next Dateline sting.

I'm not usually a prude but damn, I think I'm getting old too fast for my own good.

And it really, really sucks.

Don't You Just Love...

When the replacement(read: not much experience) for your regular assignment desk person misses a fatal police involved shooting and you don't find out about it until four hours later when the other stations have it at the beginning of their newcasts?

Yep. Makes the whole morning just an enjoyable funfest playing catch-up...

Where's the tequila??

Lookeee Who

Look who showed up in the Boy Scout Found package that we aired repeatedly this morning. Yep, it's our own Chris Weaver from TVPhotogBlog. I really enjoy his blog but something about this picture bothers me. I'm hesitant to say why because I like Chris and I don't want to make him angry.

Oh, to hell with it. It's plain old Weaver just showing off his incredible photog skills. Doesn't it just reek of "Oh, look at me...I'm so good, I don't even need to use the viewfinder."

Win Emmys and see what happens??

(Of course this is all tongue in cheek. I respect Chris a lot. It was just a chance to razz him and a shock to see him actually working...)

Test mobile blogger.

Week In Review

The week started off with an interesting story. An earthquake shook Northeast Ohio with a 3.6 on the Richer scale. The epicenter was in a little town about twenty miles south of where I live, named Shalersville. We went out to the town next to it, Mantua, and they never felt it either. Made for an interesting live shot because no one felt it there.

Tuesday was a warm weather day. It hit 71 degrees here and for early March in Cleveland, that is remarkable in itself. Nothing spectacular on Tuesday except for bright sunshine, warm weather and driving with the windows down and the radio turned up.

They say that you've never lived until you've held a three week old black bear cub and had a baby camel suck on your hand (ok, maybe they don't...). We did a live shot at the Cleveland Sport and Outdoor show where we played with baby animals and then got a demonstration of lumberjack sports. My reporter tried her hand at axe throwing. It's always dangerous when you give a reporter sharp objects especially ones that can be thrown but my reporter did pretty well.

Thursday was covering damage from an F-0 tornado that touched down in Elyria. Did a little damage. It rained all night, then the temperature dropped. It turned into snow which caused us to have to change our story from damage to traffic conditions. Thing was, the ground temperature was too warm for it to stick to the roads so there really wasn't a problem with rush hour traffic that morning. But we stood by the interstate reporting on the "bad traffic" conditions for three hours.

Friday was good day for a live shot. Since St. Patrick's Day falls on Saturday, we went to an Irish pub and covered them cooking up lots of good Irish food. It's always nice when you're fed on a live shot. Although, the corned beef, cabbage and shepard;s pie I had is not sitting well with my wife today. As much as I hate Paddy's day, It's still good to be fed.

Hopefully I'll have the time to post more on the actual days that things happen next week. It's just been busy with my father-in-law still in the hospital.

My Father In Law

He's a tough old man. He turns 84 today. He's spending his birthday in the hospital, sadly. He's been blacking out and falling recently. He wore a halter monitor for 24 hours and they found that his heart was stopping at times between 2 and 7 seconds. He was at the doctor's office to gt the results when he passed out in front of the doctor.

So, tomorrow, he will get a pacemaker put in to get his heart back to normal again. My FIL is a member of the greatest generation. A paratrooper on D-Day, he won a Silver Star and 2 Bronze Stars. He will not talk about what he did or saw in World War 2. I've talked about his unwillingness to talk about it, even to record it for his grand children. I have to respect his wishes. If it is that terrible, I'm sure he revisits it many more times than he wants to.

So, please, if you read this blog, say an extra prayer for my Father In Law. We're losing our greatest generation quicker each day. And we're forgetting them.

Back To The Grind

I'm heading back to work on Monday. It's been great having the week off but I'm getting antsy and missing the action of work. I did get to head off to Pittsburgh for a two days to visit dear friends of mine. They both help me recharge my batteries plus, being around them makes me feel like I'm back home again.

I can't truthfully say I'm looking forward to getting up at zero dark thirty after sleeping in for most of the week but it's good to get back into the grind.

Oh, one thing I did do on my vacation was buy a new personal car. It's not really new but it damn sure was close to it. It's a 2003 Mercury Grand Marquis. It only had 12,493 miles on it. For a 2003. It had to have been driven just in the summer because it's a rear wheel drive car. The title is perfect and it was clean as a whistle. I didn't plan on buying a car but my 98 Exploder that had 217k miles on it started to give up the ghost. The transmission was slipping something awful and I wasn't going to put $1000.00 plus into a vehicle with that many miles on it.



So, now I'm driving an old person's car. So, if you see a 30 something photog driving with his left blinker constantly on and only doing 25 m.p.h., honk in a nice manner. It's me getting into the moment.

Can't Come Soon Enough

I'm still on vacation but as I look out the window and it continues to snow, I feel like sacrificing some small fuzzy animal to the gods that control the seasonal changes here in Northeastern Ohio.

I may need to do this because the stories overnight have been few and far between because of the cold and snow. Now stories usually do tend to drop off during the winter time. People generally don't kill each other as readily as they do in the spring and summer. I guess most of them are two cold to want to kill their fellow man. Not that murder doesn't happen. It just seems to be quite less in the winter.

So, in the sake of the prediction of Punxatawney Phil, please let the spring be an early spring. I want to cover more stories over night.

Yeah, call me selfish.

What A Week

After dealing with a bout of the flu that wiped me out for four days and the specter of mass flooding because of rising temperatures and "heavy" rain melting the snow and ice that are around here (didn't really happen...just a little localized flooding), I really needed this day and the upcoming week off.

I'm on vacation until the week of March 9th.

w00t!!

A Night At The "Still Mill"

I grew up in Pittsburgh which in it's heyday was known as the steel capital of the world. Today however,my hometown is now a technology and medical city. I'd never been in a working steel mill(pronounced still mill to you non-Pittsburgh people) while working in Pittsburgh. I've driven by a few, the closest was the Edgar Thompson works in Braddock, PA but never been inside an actual working mill. Until yesterday.

All this week, I've been shooting these stories, "A Night At....". Basically a take off on the movie A Night At The Museum. We've been showing the things that come alive at night when you are asleep. Last night Obie, my reporter, and I shot at the A.G. Mittal steel mill here in downtown Cleveland.

It was fascinating to say the least. What I didn't expect was to be able to feel the heat radiating off these slabs from so far away. Things are kinda hot at 2000 degrees even when doused with water and being flattened into giant rolls of steel.

Another thing I didn't count on was waking up this morning with aching sinuses and blocked nasal passages. Pardon me for being graphic here, but I've been blowing out black crap today every time I blow my nose. I really don't know how the guys that work these mills can stand it. Maybe they're so used to it by now. God bless them for dealing with it. Lord knows, I couldn't.

I just want to be able to breathe normally again and stop expelling the black crap out my nostrils.

Ever Give A Mast A Bear Hug?

What am I doing in this picture?



I'm pressing the azimuth CCW button, for the dish on our satellite truck, in vain. Our truck operator, Gary, is up on the roof stomping his foot when he wants me to press the button. Why are we doing all of this? We're trying to save a live shot at the Kalahari Water Park that I mentioned in a post recently. Our dish has frozen. It will tilt, but it won't pan at all. It is so cold and windy outside with below zero temperatures for both air temp and wind chill that the dish is refusing to work. In all reality, I couldn't blame it.

We worked on the dish for a good two and a half hours and it wouldn't budge. Gary and I were constantly alternating between outside the truck and inside the truck, trying to thaw ourselves. I felt horrible for Gary who spent most of the time on the top of the truck because he's the shop geek and knows the truck backwards and forwards.

I had brought our tallest masted live truck and I thought while Gary was freezing his ears off, I'd try a desperate live truck shot back to Cleveland from Sandusky. So, as intrepid as I am, I went for it and set up my live truck.

The mast extended fully into the air and I talked to our signal acquisition or sig ack, as we call it, to bring the microwave signal in. I panned, tilted and prayed we could we could get a signal out of Sandusky. Sig ack saw me but we couldn't bring in a strong enough signal that was passable for on air quality.

So, I drop the mast and head to higher ground. By this time, I'm frozen so I set the mast in the up position (yes, I did look up and live), went inside the truck and set the air vents on melt. About three minutes later, I figure the mast should be up so I head outside and look up. The mast is only two sections up and not moving. I hear a psssssssshhhhtttt coming from the mast and I ran my hand over my eyes in frustration. This is air escaping because the seals have constricted because of the cold and the mast has frozen.

I was so fed up at this point, I muttered a few choice four and twelve letter words and climbed up on the top of the truck and grabbed the mast in a bear hug and tried to lift the mast out of it's frozen grip. I couldn't make it budge but I did succeed in covering myself in the grime of northeastern Ohio's finest road salt residue. I couldn't get the mast up to get a signal tuned in. I was left standing there dejected, looking like a human salt lick.

Quick Wrap Up

Snow, snow, snow. It's been piled on us here in Northeastern Ohio. I've got at least 27 inches of snow in my front yard. My neighbor a few doors down used his Bobcat front loader to clear our the driveways on our road. The man is a saint.

Yesterday, I fought 20 m.p.h. winds which were blowing snow so badly that is was a white out my whole entire drive to my live shot about 35 miles away from Cleveland. It was especially fun trying to get a shot tuned in, in such wonderful weather.

Alternating shots outside of the nature center where our shot was located and inside the nature center was an effort in futility. Outside, the camera was functioning well in the cold. But take it inside, it fogged up no matter how much I tried to defog it. I finally would get it to where it looked ok when I'd have to take it outside again. Then back inside..you get the idea.

It was a good day though. Why? Because I had a black bear cub nuzzle up against me and lick my hand.

Today, we were at these toboggan chutes in one of Cleveland's Metroparks. It was great. Of course I'm not counting every single time our signal was interrupted by another station's signal.

Plus, the cold. At 5am it was -3 outside with a windchill of -15. I have heavy duty gloves but I needed to have my right hand free to work the zoom and iris on the camera. I put a thinner glove on and did the shot. It worked out well. I was able to operate the cameras controls. But I would up getting a slight frostbite burn on my right hand. My right thumb still throbs and burns.

Tomorrow, barring any huge spot news story, we'll be live at the Kalahari Waterpark Resort in Sandusky, OH.

Hmm...the low is supposed to be 4 above zero tomorrow night. And I'll be inside where it's climate controlled, nice and toasty.

All in the line of duty I guess. I'll take one for the team.

I Didn't Give You Permission!!

It's happened again. Another photog has been assaulted in the field, this time by an off duty Cleveland police officer. One of our photogs, Channel 3 videographer Craig Roberson was shooting a story with his reporter Lydia Esparra on Cleveland school kids behavior at Tower City when they were invited to shoot video inside a store at the mall. Perfectly ok for the store to do.

Two off duty officers saw the crew inside and confirmed that the crew was indeed invited in and that was deemed ok with the officers. A third officer showed up and uttered the above title of this post. He then proceeded to grab the camera and shove it to the ground, damaging the camera and injuring Craig in the process.

Here is the link to the story with video goodness.

Then afterwards a Tower City PR hack shows up and puts her hand over the camera and tells Craig that what happened to him, didn't really happen to him.

Yeah..ok..whatever.

Craig kept his cool through out the whole situation. I have to say that I'm really impressed with his calm demeanor. There is no word on what Craig or the station will do about seeking charges or an apology from the Cleveland Police Department or Tower City.

Lady(ies) In Red

Being sent to shoot a breakfast meeting is usually boring event. It's usually a few speeches, a half hour of down time while breakfast is being served and eaten(which you're usually never given a plate), then the main speaker. Usually something to be sprayed and forgotten. Until yesterday.

All I have to say is 800 women dressed in red.

Hummunna hummunnna hummunna...

Well Let's See

A couple of days ago I'm sent to a car into a building. I get to the scene and there is a car on it's side and about twenty of Cleveland's fire department members around it. They're busy setting up the jaws of life to extract two victims out of the mangled mess of steel, plastic and aluminum.

From what we were hearing on the police radio, they weren't expecting any survivors of this accident. But, lo and behold inside that heap of scrap metal formerly known as a Toyota, were two people. After about twenty minutes, both of the victims are extracted and off to a Level 1 trauma hospital.

I always am amazed at work of any fire department or paramedic unit when they get to an accident. They work so hard and fast to get those people out and save a life. They're in the job of saving lives and damned if they don't do it almost one hundred percent of the time.

Honest

I haven't let the blog go. Just nothing of note to blog about. We got a whole lot of snow today but writing about snow coverage is about as exciting as actually covering snow.

So, when something happens, I'll put it here. Otherwise, I'm sorry for the lack of posts but then again, I've never been all that interesting of a person anyways.

Busy Week Now

It was quite the busy week overnight. I believe I had a total of three dead in two days. A double homicide was the topper to the week. I also had something odd happen to me.

I rolled up to a homicide scene in Cleveland's 6th Police District. They are the nicest and helpful in all of the city. I get out and stand behind the police car blocking th street even though the police tape is about 40 feet down the road. A officer waves me down to him and says, "Dude isn't here anymore. EMS took him but he's dead. He took three to the chest."

Then the lieutenant comes up and asks who is in the car blocking the road. A young cop answers and the lieutenant gives him an order. Then the lieutenant asks me a question.

In my years of shooting, I've been asked to stop shooting, to leave, to back up, to do some physically impossible things also. But I've never been asked what I was asked by a police office at a crime scene.

When the lieutenant gave the young officer orders, he sent him out to go get some coffee which was just across the street. But what floored me and made me smile was the question the Lt. asked me.

"Would you like some also??" was his question to me. I didn't accept but I thanked him profusely.

I'm still a little stunned. That's never happened to me before.

Four Quiet Days

And I'm going out of my mind. So far I've checked out two car accidents. That's it. Just two small car accidents not worth the waste of stored battery power.

I know, I know. Be careful what I wish for. I'll be ready to walk out of the building and the triple three fire will occur or a plane will fall from the sky on a church full of old ladies making pierogies.

I'll take my chances. Let SOMETHING happen overnight tonight!!!

Quiet Night

As for my previous post, there was nothing going on last night. No major accidents, fatal or otherwise. I did drive by a fender bender or two. Even saw a car that was parked up on a jersey barrier...but no fatal accidents or DUI checkpoints that I was sent to. Just a serene night at the station filled with faux Champagne and leftover Taco Bell for breakfast/lunch.

Here's to a quieter 2007...don't mention the Taco Bell. That doesn't count.