Back on the blog

Here it is. My haven't-blogged-much excuse. I've been (a) too busy and (b) somewhat unmotivated to blog.

Thankfully I haven't ever held myself to a blogging schedule or quota; it's only as I have time.

If you care, this is what I've done:

• Spent two nights on the road at a seminar.
• Managed the production (shoot/edit/paginate/layout) of an 8-page graduation supplement (a fifth section for our four-section paper).
• Spent an afternoon doing my grandmother's lawn (spraying poison on poison ivy, edging/trimming, and mowing her incredibly thick grass). Thank goodness now it's so dry I'll get a reprieve.
• Covered a barn fire on a remote farm, then watched the firefighters burn down a ramshackle abandoned house on the property while the barn smoldered. The barn was too far gone when they arrived, and the owner had been asking the fire department to burn down the old house. Since they had the manpower and equipment to do so, they did it while they were there.
• Hosted my family as they passed through the Valley to and from New England.
• Had my Dad and brother tag along while I worked the weekend photo beat. That took up most of their Saturday visit. More on that below.
• Attended another part-day seminar

The weekend work assignments that I had involved a range of topics. Seemed like every few hours, I'd breeze into the house and change clothes and rush out for something else with some assortment of family coming along. We were trying to maximize our time together while I worked.

Busy weekend
One of the assignments was a Bible school in which the local fire department gave a fire safety demonstration/talk. There was also a medical helicopter that landed so the kids could see that service. Made for some decent photos, but the main excitement there was when I saved the day.

A couple was out for a walk in the area as the helicopter was descending to the well-marked landing zone. They were on the far side of the landing zone from the onlookers. I was also on the far side so I could get a photo of the chopper setting down with kids looking on.

The couple was seemingly oblivious to the descending chopper, the fire engine standing by and everyone focused on the landing zone. They started to walk right through the LZ as the chopper approached. Only when I called them back did they stop.

From there I rushed home to change clothes so that I could take a borrowed kayak out on the river for an outdoors story I was working on. Once on the river, I had the unique experience of interviewing some anglers in a canoe from my kayak as we floated downstream.

Such assignments are tough. :-)

The story turned out well, thanks to that trip.

Then I rushed home to change clothes again for a dinner with the family at a local steakhouse. I left the meal early to get to an interview with some baseball players. Then I rushed to the office for a bit before running off to take pictures of a choir concert.

The reward of that hurried visit with the family was seeing Dad in person on Father's Day for the first time in years.

Posted by JRC at June 24, 2005 03:28 PM | TrackBack