The Nights Are Getting Colder

It's getting chillier in N.E. Ohio. The scanners have been unusually quiet. I have a feeling that we're going to go bonkers this week, possibly tonight because there are flurries possible for tonight. I'll probably have to chase each and every one of them.

Then comes the vacant house fires. The homeless will break into a vacant home set a fire to keep warm while they sleep and as usual the fire gets out of control. And I'll have to chase those down.

It's a never ending cycle.

Running of the Brides

Take about 400 brides to be, heavily discounted bridal gowns and a Filene's Basement and what do you get?



Look for the two women to face plant around the 1:55 mark... Loads of fun to be had. Although, I saw more tattoos than a tattoo artist, yesterday.

Almost getting run over by frothing at the mouth brides was an experience in itself.

Can't wait to do it next year...

The Height Of Entertainment

Is watching your wife try to play Guitar Hero II while under the effects of a quarter Ambien.

I don't think I've laughed harder in my life.

Happy .40 Cal Birthday To Me

I hit the big one today. 40. Yes, I've turned the corner into middle age. I expect my AARP application in the mail any day now.

Anyways, this morning at work, I was sent to do a live shot at the house where a fire took place three and a half years ago. The fire killed nine people, eight children and one adult. The fire was ruled arson and the killer had not been caught until yesterday.

Well, the house is not in a particularly safe area of Cleveland so, the producers asked me if I felt comfortable going there for the shot. I explained that I'd been there by myself before and felt okay with it. I wasn't really alone, as I had my reporter Bill with me.

Boy, was I wrong this time though.

We arrived at the house and I went about setting up the shot. I established the signal, ran the cables, set the lights and then got my camera. As I was plugging my camera up to the cables, I hear Bill calling my name fairly urgently.

I walk back to the truck, where Bill is on the phone. I see a figure on a bike turn the corner and ride away. Bill looks at me and says, "He had a gun."

"What?"

"He had a gun. He rode up about twenty feet away and was shaking his hand. I looked down and he had a gun in his hand. He was waving it around at me," Bill told me.

I barely saw the guy but yes he did have a gun and he definitely put an urgency to my movements. I called the desk while Bill was telling 911 what he saw.

We scrapped the live shot.

And all I got was an upset stomach for my birthday.

At least we weren't shot or robbed. I'm thankful for that.

Bloody Week

It's been a bloody week and how appropriate for my first week back from vacation. This Wednesday a man was robbed and shot in the parking lot of his apartment complex. He was shot in the arm and hit in the brachial artery. He jumped over a fence leaving a lot of his life on the wood. He bled out running up the street and passed on someone's front stoop, leaving handprints on their door.

Thursday morning, a fatal one car accident where the driver was ejected and died at the scene. I arrived in time enough for me to see them covering up the driver's body. Lucky me. It wasn't pleasant and I could have lived my life without seeing what I saw.

This Friday morning started out quite peaceful. I did a live shot at Cleveland's Benedictine H.S. where I had to shoot the monks having daily mass. Right after mass was over, my phone vibrated and I was told to head to a multiple car accident with a fatal.

One of the monks must have heard me talking to the desk because he came over to me and said, "You must see a lot of bad things." I told him about where I was going and what I'd seen in the two days prior. He put his hand on my shoulder and said a prayer and blessed me. Then he smiled and walked away saying, "Go with God."

I almost cried on the spot.

It's Over...

My vacation, that is. I'm on my weekend then the daily grind starts all over again Monday. Am I looking forward to it? In a strange way, yes. I miss the interaction with co-workers (some, I should say), the spot news coverage and seeing what lies at the scene when I get there.

It'll be good to get back.

Oh Joy...

The remnants of hurricane Ike came through my area last night and let me tell you, I feel for those poor people in the Southeastern part of Texas.

Because of the winds from Ike, I now have no power, running water (from a well), no sanitation capabilities (no power to run the water to refill the toilet), no refrigeration capabilities (hope the freezer holds for another day) and no way to cook food.

So, I'm at a motel with my wife, kids and the dog.

Great way to start the second week of vacation..

Vacation

I'm on two weeks vacation and I'm not going anywhere. I'm staying at home and redding up this cesspool of a home. Lots of toys and accumulated crap is going to be tossed.

It's going to be a fun vacation for sure.

/sarcasm

ABC Producer Arrested In Denver

This is what happens when the police ignore the First Amendment and bully the media.

ABC Producer Arrested In Denver

Police in Denver arrested an ABC News producer today as he and a camera crew were attempting to take pictures on a public sidewalk of Democratic Senators and VIP donors leaving a private meeting at the Brown's Palace Hotel.

Police on the scene refused to tell ABC lawyers the charges against the producer, Asa Eslocker, who works with the ABC News investigative unit.

A police official later told lawyers for ABC News that Eslocker is being charged with trespass, interference, and failure to follow a lawful order. He also said the arrest followed a signed complaint from the Brown Palace Hotel.

Eslocker was put in handcuffs and loaded in the back of a police van which headed for a nearby police station.

Video taken at the scene shows a hotel security guard, wearing the uniform of a Boulder County sheriff, ordering Eslocker off the sidewalk in front of the hotel, to the side of the entrance.

The sheriff's officer is seen telling Eslocker the sidewalk is owned by the hotel. Later he is seen pushing Eslocker off the sidewalk into oncoming traffic, forcing him to the other side of the street.

About 15 minutes later, on-duty Denver police arrived and placed Eslocker under arrest after Eslocker asked why he was being ordered away from the front of the hotel. Dozens of pedestrians can be seen walking by the hotel, located in the heart of downtown Denver.

This is so wrong, I don't even know where to begin. I just hope the Denver police dept. has a good amount of money put away. Makes you wonder who the Denver Police Department works for.

95% of the time the police work well with the media. This is when the five percent rears it's ugly head.

I Hear You Knocking But...

I don't want the damn Watchtower. I don't want to be woken up by my children, after only twenty minutes of my nap time (I still work overnights), telling me that there's a guy with a shirt and tie on with a ticket book at our front door.

I don't want to talk abut Jehovah. Or Yahweh or Buddah, Shiva, Mohhammed, or Confucius either.

I don't want any damn literature or pamphlet.

I want you to go away. Quickly. As in right now.

I have nothing against you or your religion. But as of right now...


I want to sleep.

I want my home to be a bastion of privacy from people knocking on my door, scaring my kids and waking me up to talk about God.

I want to sleep.

I want to pick you up by your collar and belt and physically heave you fifteen feet or so into the air whilst I grumble, "You woke me up...", as you land on a patch of grass in my front yard. Hopefully that patch of grass has been used by my Blue Heeler as her chosen toilet that morning.

And no, I don't want to by frozen meat out of the back of your truck. I don't want to help you with your college student trip to Uzbekistan by buying magazines.

I wonder if a "No Trespassing" sign will work...

What A &^#$@!* Day !!

It started out very badly. One of our cats passed in the morning. We sort of knew it was going to happen but it's not a pleasant time when it does. Max didn't suffer. He just went kind of quickly. He was very loving yesterday, wanted petted, did the normal rub up against you cat things a cat will do when they are affectionate. He also kept staring at me. I loved on him all morning, then went to bed for the day (my night..). I woke up and could not find him. I finally did though, in our basement. He was just laying there, breathing but hardly moving. I picked him up and brought him upstairs. We wrapped him in blankets to make him comfortable but he jumped out and ran downstairs. We decided that we'd take him to the vet to be put down if he made it through the night.

This morning, I woke up and found him, still alive, in the same position in the same spot as yesterday. So I called the vet and got a noon appointment for him. My wife came home early from work and we went downstairs to get him. We couldn't find him right away but I finally did. He managed to settle down in a small space between two boxes and pass away in peace. I dug a small grave for him in our back yard and we placed him in it. He'll be missed.

Oh but the day got better. We were to go to a Lake County Captains baseball game. They're the Class A affiliate of the Cleveland Indians, in case you didn't know. We we supposed to go with my oldest son's boy scout pack. We told the pack leader we would all attend so that would be four in our family for tickets. We got to the park and went to the will call window to pick up our tickets. We're told that there are only two available for us under our name. We try to figure out why that happened (the pack leader screwed up...royally, but that pales in comparison.)

We try to see if there are two closer seats to where we're supposed to sit and of course the answer is "No." But they'll bend for us and comp the two tickets we were given and they'll sell us two other tickets for a total of four tickets together in a different row but at least they'll be together. So, we pay the $14 and get four tickets together. We go to those seats and see that someone has put a jacket and umbrella in one of our seats. I moved it and sat down.

We waited for the game to start when we saw someone from our boy scout pack. I went over to talk to them and explain why we weren't sitting with them. I came back to find my wife talking to a older couple. Seems that they had two of the tickets we were just sold. So the Captains double sold the tickets.

Wonderful.

So, we go and get an usher and explain the situation. He calls over a Captains staffer (an intern with a radio) and we explain the situation abut the lack of tickets for us, the exchange and buying the tickets for those four seats. The intern takes our tickets and says, "I'll see what the problem is and be right back." He comes back about 5 minutes later tells us they double sold the seats and hands us four different tickets. This time the tickets are for the "General Manager Seats" right behind home plate. Section 110, Row S, Seats 13, 14, 15 and 16. So off we go.

And you guessed it....

THERE WAS SOMEONE ALREADY SITTING IN TWO OF OUR SEATS. We showed him our tickets for those seats. Then he showed his tickets for those seats. Guess what? THEY DOUBLE SOLD THOSE TICKETS ALSO!!!

Mother......

Anyways, we go to guest services and are livid. I started to yell at poor Justin, the kid from the Captains guest services department, until my wife shooed me away with the kids to go watch the game we're now two innings into. Well, after another half inning down, my wife comes over and finds me. She says Justin will be back. He's checking on four seats that are first row, right behind the visitor's dugout on the third base line.

Justin comes back, hands us vouchers for free food and four tickets for those coveted seats. He asks us to follow him and escorts us to those seats. The seats are empty and they're wonderful. We couldn't believe our luck.

(say it with me, everyone....)

UNTIL.........

The skies opened up.(Ahhh, you thought I was going to say people showed up and wanted their seats, didn't you??) Lightning, thunder, torrential rains. Heck, if fire fell from the sky, locusts ate our hot dogs and Lake Erie turned blood red, I wouldn't have even batted an eye. It was beyond surreal at this point.

We went to the concourse and shoved ourselves into the mass of humanity huddled together for shelter. We had had enough. The kids were freaking because of the storm and most importantly, they weren't able to get a foul ball!!! Oh the HUMANITY!!

We left. We ran though horrendous rains that soaked us, as well as almost everyone else, when going to the parking lot. It was raining sideways, people.

So, here I am, dry now, at home and blogging about our night from in hell.

Oh, the total number of innings we actually got to watch tonight? Less than one whole inning actually sitting down and watching.

I don't think if they even gave us luxury box passes for the suspended game, I'd go.

A letter to their guest services and ticket offices are going out on Monday.

Here Kitty Kitty

Sent down to northern Medina county overnight to check out a man attacked by a mountain lion.

Yes. I said a mountain lion.

I didn't find a scene when I got down there but apparantly the guy has it as a pet. And he was very uncooporative with the authorities.

I thought I was in for another giant rooster attacking cars story.

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Wow...A Taawdy

My own little award thanks to my fellow blogger Taawd. Finally I'm recognized for my brilliance. Ok..would you believe my apathetic approach to my blog? Yeah, I think that's what I'd believe also. The only reason I think I got this award was because of a Mojito addled Taawd getting home and pressing a few keys on his keyboard. I'm not knocking it. I'll take any drunken award I can get my grubby little fingers on. So, thank you Taawd.

But there is a catch to the accolades. I need to nominate at least seven other blogs and list them here. So, here goes...

1. Mystery Classmate - This is a blog set up by an alumnus of my old high school. He basically takes pictures of our classmates as we are now and then asks the rest of us, Who Is It? It's a fun way to see what our friends and classmates are up to. And how much we've aged.

2. Up The Downstair - A blog by one of our directors at our station. Great insight and wonderful photos. Especially of one of my favorite places on Earth...The Outer Banks of North Carolina.

3. Turdpolisher - A fellow photog from Baton Rouge, LA. His perspective on life, the daily grind and his unique philosophy are the draw. He shames me into wanting to be a better blogger.

4. All Things Cleveland - A blog about the beauty of Cleveland, my adopted hometown, and everything to do with Cleveland.

5. OtakuPhotog - Another fellow photog, Erin Winking. He's in Oklahoma but I've followed his adventures since he was in Illinois. Great reading and he's a great guy.

6. TV Photog Blog - Another brother videographer. Chris Weaver is a photog from North Carolina and another blogger that makes me want to be a better blogger. His sense of humor, caring and our mutual admiration society of Lenslinger, the Godfatehr of photog blogging, is why I give him this award. His stories are wonderful. He's also a good family man. Check him out.

7.J.Y.O.A.G. - A hit or miss blog. Looks like it was gone for a while but is back. Written by someone who speaks his mind and isn't afraid to upset people or kowtow to political correctness.

So, after getting this award from Taawd, I'm giving these blogs above the Taawdy. But there's a catch...

1. Put the logo on your blog.
2. Add a link to the person who awarded it to you.
3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs.
4. Add links to these blogs on your blog.
5. Leave a message for your nominee on their blog.

There you go. Have fun and check up on those bloggers above.

Shift Killing

This was about as much shooting I did today. Taking a still of my camera outside the Cuyahoga County Administrative Building as we were waiting for a county official, who is under investigation by the F.B.I., to return to work.

He didn't show up while I my shift was up. I figured I might as well take a picture of something.

What's on tap tomorrow? Probably the same thing but different county official with the same F.B.I. problems.

Say What?

This past Friday I covered the funeral for a fallen police officer. We were in the small town of Tallmadge, OH where the funeral home was. People had placed small American flags along the street where the procession would start to take the officer to his funeral.

I was setting my camera up after running cable (this was at 4:45a.m.) when a man driving by slows, rolls his window down and asks, "What's going on? A parade?"

Excuse me? Pardon my language but Whiskey Tango Foxtrot. Now I'm smart enough to understand that not everyone keeps up with the news. As much as I'd like people to be more aware, it just isn't going to happen.

But why would anyone think that news cameras lined up and pointing at a funeral home could possibly suggest a parade?

Oh but it got better. I was asked a second time by a totally different person driving by, with their child in their car, when the parade started.

A Summit County deputy was walking past and mumbled loud enough for me to hear him.

"Dipshit."

I couldn't agree more deputy.

Neato

On Thursday, I did a live shot at the Canterbury C.C. in Beachwood, OH. They're hosting the 2009 Senior PGA Championship. We did the shot to promote the event because ticket sales were starting which was OK with me. We had a nice location to do the shot from. It's always nice to do a shot from a country club atmosphere instead of the double murder at the inner city intersection of Crack and Pipe.

Anyhow, I was amazed when they brought out the trophy for the winner of the championship. This thing is the original trophy that was created in 1937. Ha all the winners names engraved on it such as, Snead, Trevino, Player, Palmer, etc. You get my point.

Look at this monster...



It's over three feet tall and weights a good bit. I'd at least estimate it at thirty pounds.

Well, that was my thrill of the day. I did contemplate doing something with the trophy and eBay but, I thought more about how much I love my freedom so I quickly dropped all of those ideas and finished my live shots like a professional should.

It's An Interesting Night Already

Just finished shooting a fire on Cleveland's west side. Was asked by a local resident, "Can I be on TV? I just had work done on my tattoos."

Yup....interesting start to my shift.

UPDATE...

Oh the night just got better from then on. I was returning to my station when I drove in front of the homeless shelter that is on our street, when this guy jumps out in front of my truck causing me to lock the brakes. He starts jumping up and down and screaming nonsense at me and cursing.

Wonderful. Just what I needed. I back up and drive around him and head back to the station.

Then about two hours later I'm called out to a standoff...but that is another story involving desk people and me thanking God that I have a scanner...

Now THAT'S A Fire!!

Big Fire in Elyria, OH overnight. An old warehouse about a block long caught on fire.

Very long night. I'll blog about this when I wake up in a few hours..

Follow the link and click on play icons. I got the ground video and the explosions..

I OWN THIS STREET!!!

Homicide. Another person shot on Cleveland's east side and I was sent to cover it. It was at East 90th and Harris and happened sometime around 3 a.m. on Thursday. I was sent around 7 a.m., after our morning show was over. I figured it was just another routine homicide, if you can classify homicides as routine.

When I turned on to E.90th and drove approximately 100 feet, a woman came running up the middle of the street waving her arms and yelling at me. "Ain't no m.....f...... news cameras going to come down my street and take pictures!!", she screamed. "I own this mf'ing street. I ain't letting you do shit here. I won't even let the mf'ing cops down here. They killed my n.....!!"

I cracked the window a little and asked, "The police killed your friend?"

"No, you dumb ass cracker!! Some n's did and I'm gonna get those mf'ing n's !! And I ain't letting you do take any mf'ing pictures...!!"

She then stood in front of my live van and crossed her arms. I shrugged and picked the phone off of my belt and started to call the desk to inform them of my predicament. That's when the loudmouth started up again.

"Go ahead and call the mf'ing cops, white boy! I won't let the cops down my street! I own this street!!"

Just as she was saying this, and the timing couldn't have been better, the Cleveland Police evidence van turned the corner behind her and started to come up the street, followed by two detective cars. I smiled and pointed for her to turn around.

The cops pulled up behind her and hit their radio horn notifying the lady to move. And I know this might be a shock but...she moved.

I let the police van pass and then I drove down the street a little and called the desk to let them know of the hostile enviroment that I was in. They told me to wait for the reporter to show up before shooting anything. Fine with me, I'll wait.

So when Bill, my reporter, showed up I let him know of what was going on with the owner of the street and the hostile environment, he told me he'd watch my back. I felt so much better.

We walked up the street and I began rolling as soon as I got the camera out of the van, just in case there needed to be a record of our untimely demise. And true to form, loudmouth came running down the street again, right at me screaming all about her n and those mf'ers that shot her n. She also reiterated her stance of the fact that she wasn't going to allow any cameras to take any pictures on her street. She actually did the old, "I'm going to stand in front of the camera lens and wherever you go I'm going to stand in front of you" routine. The detectives just laughed and rolled their eyes.

The tirade continued for another ten minutes but not before her friends came and pulled her out of my way. One of them actually made sense, telling her, "Let him do his job. They'll help catch the n that did it.."

Needless to say the yelling continued from the porch of her house but it was laced with the previous n-words, mf'ers and other sundry curse words.

Made for an interesting morning. I haven't had one that tense for a while.

Water Spouts!!

It's been very slow the past few weeks. The mildly cold spring/summer we've been having has put a slight damper on overnight news. The shootings that usually are numerous have slowed down to a trickle. Its good news for the police but it makes for a slow night for me.

This morning though we had a weather system move through and it brought about a rare event over Lake Erie. Water Spouts. They are more common in the fall but this cold air system that came in brought about these water spouts. I spotted one at Huntington Beach out in Bay Village, OH after driving along the lake shore for twenty minutes.

They didn't seem to reach the water but it was interesting to see them form, start to stretch down and then dissipate.

You can see the pics and the video here.