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!!"