Sadly, I've Crossed Over

I am now officially a mini-van owner. I am no longer in control of my life. My life is controlling me. The fact that our family SUV, a 1998 Explorer, is becoming a money pit. It has upward of 215,000 miles on it. The fact that it lasted that long is remarkable in it's own right. It has served us well. Now it is our second car and last resort vehicle. Enjoy Semi-retirement old friend. You've earned it.

We're now driving a 2006 Dodge Caravan. It's not the car we wanted but it's what we could afford and it has 19,000 miles on it. It also has SIRIUS radio with it so we're happy with that too.

I'm no longer Newshutr, cool news videographer. I'm newshutr....soccer-dad.

God, I'm sad right now..

My Real Black Friday

Black Friday. The word strikes fear into my heart. Well, not fear per se. Just a nausea that won't go away. I dislike Black Friday with a passion. The people that line up are just crazy. Their cries of "Hey..put me on TV!!" or "Can I be on TV" get under my skin easier on this day than any other day.

My Black Friday started off with getting stuck in a back up of traffic for 50 minutes. I was sent from my house to a local outlet mall that opened at midnight. I live 15 minutes away from the mall so getting there usually isn't a problem. We were told a few "select" stores would be open at the mall. Well, virtually all the stores were open. People were gridlocked trying to get there. Fifty minutes while in my news unit. I had already started to hate the people surrounding me for trying to shop at midnight.

I got to the mall, found a parking spot luckily and got my video and sound. Heading away from the place I sighed as a wave of relief spread over me. I headed back to the station only to get a call to check out a scene where a nine year old was shot and killed by his 10 year old cousin accidentally. It's not in a good neighborhood for starters. Plus tensions and emotions always run high when a child is shot.

I get to the area and there was no scene. No cops, no tape, no nothing. I tell the desk this and they say it happened at 10 p.m. so there might not be a scene anymore. That upsets me because we have crews available at that time. But maybe they were busy with other stuff.

Getting back to the station, I'm told that I'm live at a mall for more shoppers. Great. My ulcer just formed.

Live shot time comes around and for once things aren't going too badly. No tension, shoppers are very polite for the most part and the Sears store we're at is cooperating fully with us. Life is good...

Until...

Our 6:26 a.m. hit is coming up and I get ready for it. I shoulder my camera, put my eye to the eyepiece and.....my right eyeglass lens pops out and falls to the floor with 10 seconds till our hit. I switch to my left eye but that's horrible because my eyesight is just as bad with that eye. We finish our hit, thankful it was short. I try frantically to find the lens and little screw that holds it in place but I can't find the tiny screw. A woman overheard me say I couldn't find the screw and came over. She hands me her little eyeglass kit complete with screwdriver and extra screws !!! Sadly, none of the screws were the right size but she gave me hope in holiday shoppers. God Bless her. I even tried the old paper clip fix and that didn't work. Damn!

About this time, my reporter needs me to edit and send video back for her next hit. So, off I go into the truck to edit. I'm putting the last edit down when I hear 1:30 to our next hit. I call back and feed forty seconds of video back, punch up my camera, lock the truck and run back into the store with twenty seconds to spare.

After that hit, I head back out to the truck...

and discover that I've locked myself out of my live truck!!! Shit.

Calling the desk, I ask them to call the police and have them bring a slim jim. They were there within three minutes, At least that went my way.

But now, I'm still blind in my dominant eye, I need to do two more shots for our morning show and I'm using my weaker ey to do those. I need to also shoot video after we're done and I need to get my glasses fixed.

Hey, I'm in a mall!! I can get my glasses fixed no problem. Sears has an optical department!! So I head over to it after my shots are over to discover.....

They don't open until 10 a.m.

Ok, no problem....JC Penney has an optical department...

But they don't open until 10 a.m also.

There's an EyeMasters in the mall so I go there...

you sensing a pattern here??? Yup, 10 a.m. !! Fudge...!!!

Ah Hah!!! A Sunglass hut!!! Yes...!! I head there and the girl couldn't have been nicer...or cuter!! She has spare screws and proceeds to try although she's really not allowed to put screws in glasses. Apparently that feat is above Sunglass Hut Employees and says so in their training manual.

She doesn't have the right tiny screw either but I thank her profusely also and head off again. This time I hit a small store that sells chips and pop. I ask if they have eyeglass kits and they say no but they do sell Krazy Glue!! Awesome. I can at least glue the damn lens in!!! So I buy a tube of it and head off to my truck. I pass by a Dakota Watch kiosk. Something told me to ask if they had spare screws. And to my astonishment, they actually had a screw that fit but wasn't long enough to fully close together. Well, heck, I have a screw and a tube of Krazy Glue. I can fix anything!!!

So I carefully take my newfound screw and tube of glue back to the truck and proceed to glue the screw in place while getting a good amount over my fingers and right lens. At least it held!!!!

Praise God. At least I could see relatively well enough to shoot and drive back to the station.

I was able to get a good repair done to my glasses when I got off work and the Krazy Glue removed from the lens.

So, how was your Black Friday?

WKRP Goodness

"As God as my Witness...I thought turkeys could fly!!"

Happy Thanksgiving To All

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone here. I've just come back from a great dinner at my in-laws house cooked by my wife.

My morning tomorrow will start at 12:30am chasing down early bird shoppers which will gather outside stores in an outlet mall not far from my home. Then off to a mall where more shoppers will gather to grab bargains galore. To my dismay, we won't be outside a Best Buy or Circuit City. We'll be outside a Sears. Yes, a Sears. That's wonderful. If I need a bargain on Toughskins in a size Husky, I'll be as happy as a pig in well, Toughskins.

Who Is This Man?

Just who is this man behind the shades? His name is Barry and he's the other videographer we have on the morning show. Barry is a great guy to work with. Always makes me laugh and is a really good friend. I appreciate having him on the morning show because he makes it tolerable. He's a class act through and through. I'm glad to call him a friend.




You originally saw him in this picture.



Well actually this was the back of his head..but you get the idea.

Freaking Huge

I took this picture with my camera phone. I've blogged about the I-X Center before but every time I go to the place, I'm awed by just how huge it really is. These are two of our live trucks at the I-X Center last week during our live shot at the Fabulous Food Show.

To All Our Veterans

Happy Veterans Day. As time goes on, we're losing the members of the Greatest Generation. Please remember all of our veterans. This video is a good reminder of just how precious they all are. Please watch it the whole way through because it is very much worth it.

Caption This!

Caption This Picture...the best one will win nothing. Sorry, but I'm cheap.




Oh, by the way on the picture below, see the woman in the red shirt? That 's Jennifer my reporter for the morning. Notice the look on her face? Notice the distance between her and the large snake? Yep..she's not fond of snakes but this was the third time in three weeks she was made to be around them. Have to love morning live shots.



Hey...that should be my mantra!!

The Sky Fell...To Some.

Yep...we did it again. The sky was falling...the skyyyy wassss falllinng..!! Of course it was. Heaven knows that 2"-4" inches of snow in a 24 hour period is enough to scramble the troops, get the animals inside and protect the children for the hideous snow.

Now I know that when I was out looking for snow in the morning, there was about a 1/2 inch covering the ground everywhere I looked but the roads were clear. Didn't matter. Because once again the scare you to death live shot was in full force. We informed people that yes indeed, if you hadn't forgotten, snow does fall from the sky during the winter here in northern Ohio. And you need to go out and face that horrible 1/2" of snow.

Good thing we didn't overreact though.

Priceless

Priceless....just priceless.

Firefox 2.0

I just dowloaded the new Firefox 2.0 and let me tell you, it's incredible. For those of you who have downloaded it, you know just how good it is.  For those that haven't or are the old IE 6 holdouts, you don't know what you're missing.  Right now, I'm using the new blogging add-on that you can download as an option when you first install 2.0.  

It's remarkable just how good this browser is and the changes, however subtle are very well done.

I'm pretty sure that IE is going off my laptop for good.

powered by performancing firefox

Memories Of The Circus

Yesterday I did a live shot with Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey circus at the "Q" here in downtown Cleveland. I really had a good time but I can't get over the fact that this is still the circus and that the animals aren't kept in the nicest of conditions. Please understand that I'm NO PETA supporter at all. But the way I saw the elephants being kept and corralled really bothered me. Let me put this out first and foremost...I did NOT see these elephants being abused.

I was just bothered by the way they were being kept. A little sawdust and straw to lay on and the electrical line to keep them away from the cage barrier seemed a bit excessive. Kind of disheartening. But I guess that's why we're the dominant species.

Of course I really don't like the circus much anyways. When I was four my parents took me to the circus and I had a really good time until the elephants walked by. One of them took a dump right in front of me. That started me off on a barrage of power vomiting that I still remember to this day.

Ehh...maybe I'll just tuck that memory deep down inside again for another thirty or so years...

Lots Of Stuff But No Time To Write

Had a busy week but no time to blog about it. Lets just say my week consisted of holding lots of snakes, owls, hawks, falcons, a chinchilla and the obligatory hissing cockroach. I put on TV a lamb's heart, pigs lungs and a cow eyeball. I made snot and almost ate BBQ mealworms.

Ahh...the joys of morning show TV.

Too Damn Early

I was jolted into a depressing realisation when I read Photoguy's latest post CRAP.

Yeah, I second that emotion (apologies to Smokey Robinson and the Miracles).

Crap..

Damn...

Snow is expected in our area tonight...and I'll be on flurry patrol.

Damn.

We Want You To Come....DON'T SHOOT THAT!!

Museums. Great places really. Cleveland has one of the best for art in the country. Their newest show is called Barcelona. It catalogues the art of Barcelona from the 1860's to the beginning of the Spanish Civil War. It features the great artists like Picasso, Dali, Gaudi and Miro. It's only being shown in two North American museums, Cleveland Museum of Art and The Met in New York City. If you're in the area of these two museums or have the time to travel and like Picasso, Dali and others, please see this display. It's remarkable. I was in awe of the Dali pieces. I've always been a big admirer of his.

We get to the museum, run cable up to the second floor and we're told we can't show any of the paintings. We can show the sculptures and some posters but no paintings.

WHAT??? WTF???

Why are we there then? I understand that we don't want to show everything and give the public a free full show, but my God, why ask us to come and show what a remarkable display this museum has put together and then not be able to put it live on TV like we understood we'd be able to.

We run into the same thing at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame here in Cleveland. We can show only certain things. We can show a jacket from a tour the the Who did in 1978 but can't show the handwritten lyrics sheets of The Doors for example. And they'd be both in the same display! I understand the copywrite issues and all but why have us there then?

Ahh, yeah...I remember now. Free publicity.

That trumps all.

Say Wha??

Busy morning today. Drunk guy on a charter plane is refused another drink, gets upset and says that he has a bomb. That caused a diversion of the flight to Cleveland where the SWAT team boarded the plane and took the gentleman to a place with a lot of bars.

After that, I was checking out a fire when I get a call to head to a shooting on Cleveland's east side. I get to the scene and among the flashing red and blue lights, the sound of moaning and muffled screaming is coming from inside the house which is the focal point of attraction. Good scene, I think to myself.

I look at the police and they're standing around just bullshitting with each other. No police tape, no detectives putting down evidence placards. But there's still this moaning and screaming going on. I see a cop friend of mine and he walks over and asks, "Slow night?"

"I thought this was a shooting?"

"Nope. A fight. If it was something serious, you know I'd give you a call."

"Then, why all the screaming and moaning??", I asked.

"It's a group home for the deaf and two guys got drunk and a fight broke out. Guy got beat up pretty bad. The dispatcher couldn't understand the 911 call and thought the caller said there was a shooting.."

"You're kidding."

"Nope. Actually we were talking and we think the caller was complaing that someone had been farting a lot and the call was for someone tooting." Then the cops broke up in laughter...

Ahh yes....cop humor.

Time Marches On

I turned 38 yesterday. Blech. I woke up this morning and my knees hurt. My right shoulder hurt and my feet hurt.

I'm shocked I didn't lose a body part in my sleep.

Getting old sucks.

It's.....Uhh..Good To Be Back??

My first day back to work after being off for two straight weeks for vacation and what happens? I get my live truck stuck in an overflow parking lot/grassy field. Yes, my Ford Econoline 350 live truck sank just enough to force me to call AAA and get towed about one hundered feet to semi-dryer land and make a muddy getaway an hour later. An omen of things to come? We'll see.

But then again, some good news. EWINK IS BACK!!!! Yes, he's decided that the cathartic allure of blogging is better for him. And I have to add, it's better for us as well.



Erin, I'm very glad you're back. The photog blogosphere is better with you around.

Did I Say Reality?

Being on my second straight week of vacation, I thought things would be great. Well, for the past two nights, I've woken up out of a deep sleep in a cold sweat. What has been the trouble? Well, thanks for asking. For the past two nights, I've had dreams I've been at work.

Yeah, I know, disturbing.

Anyways, in my dream, I'm either setting up a liveshot or heading out to a story. But things keep happening to me while I'm in the midst of doing those things. I keep getting sidetracked and I never get a chance to get back to what I'm intending to do. I can't get the live together because of a friend walking up and talking to me, or I keep needing more equipment for the shot and the truck keeps getting farther and farther away.

As for the other dream, I'm usually headed out to a fire but each road I take is the wrong road, even though I can see the fire about a block away.

I'm a troubled man, I know but sheesh, you'd think that that the furthest thing from my mind while I'm on vacation would be work.

Anyone reccommend any good psychotropic drugs??

Back To Reality

Well, it's been a wonderful seven days in paradise. Our family trip to Nags Head is finally over. We've made the most of what time we had on the beach. My two sons had a blast making sandcastles, playing pirates and running around with the neighbor's dogs. My wife enjoyed the sun and vegged at the beach. I caught up on some sorely needed sleep, maintained my sanity by not watching anything but football on TV and on one occasion last Saturday evening I got completely hammered out of my skull on a rather tasty beer. Ok, so there were atleast 14 of those tasty beers. I did lose count but my wife's cousin said it was close to twenty.

We're now on the way home to east of Cleveland. We've stopped in Frederick, MD for the night. Tomorrow we'll be home but I need to tell you....

I've got another week and a day off!!!

Yes, I'll have another week off to basically do crap around the house that I haven't had time to do when I'm not at work. I suspect the four acres will need a good mowing. I'll also need to get the furnace ready for the cold weather which basically is next week anyways.

And there will be no news watching then either. I need to keep my sanity intact somehow.