fireman's send-off

wow, it has been far, far too long since i've posted! i've been working on a couple stories and of course doing the daily, but blogging is like keeping a journal - if i do it regularly, i get in the habit of it, but if there's a lapse, then it takes me a while to get back in the groove. anyhoo, here are a couple recent pix - gotta kick-start myself back into posting, and better sooner than later......

"Relativity teaches us the connection between the different descriptions of one and the same reality."
-- Albert Einstein

residents line the sidewalk to wave flags and watch as a full-fireman's send-off funeral procession makes its way from the church to the cemetery yesterday morning

findings

went driving around for a bit to see if there was anything featurey out there for our weekly photo page - figured may as well get a jump on it while i had the time and the weather is decent...came across these guys crawling around beneath a house that they were helping tear down (so the large purple church can make it into a parking lot)...it turns out this was the house where a man had been stabbed to death a few years ago during a robbery - the rumor was that he had all kinds of cash stashed in the house somewhere, but all they seemed to be finding beneath the floorboards were countless old whiskey bottles...anyway, one of the men's sons was on the site with them and took it upon himself to begin lining up the stash.

cutie

awww!! what a cutie....just goes to show you can even make a picture you like at the pet-o-the-month assignment!

don't know if this works or not, but something about this scene just struck me as funny when i saw it...good thing i decided to go get coffee on my way back into the paper!

fun find

after spending the morning as desk jockey, i found by lunchtime i could stand sitting no longer! i decided to go cruise around and see if i could find a feature for our new weekly community foto page...headed toward my favorite part of town and thought i'd see if anyone was out by the community center - as i turn the corner i see this SWAT team armored vehicle and a city police car parked out front - i figured the place wasn't under attack, obviously, but thought it was worth checking out... a city policeman and sheriff's detective were giving a talk to kids about their work, so, even though that didn't sound terribly visual, i went down anyway to see what they were doing....after their talk, the officers took the kids outside to check out the cars - i was really hoping the sheriff would let them in the back of the SWAT truck, because i knew they'd peer out of the side hole and it could be really cool....but alas, they could only get in the front seat...oh well, it was still fun
such was my day, and now it is done!

soon after i got into the room, this girl was getting i guess a bit distracted and started playing with her ruler and pencils while the officers talked

just liked this moment and the light and color

this little girl was hysterical - she was having so much fun checking out the vehicles and laying down the law to john q. public at large!

while they were checking out the cruiser, one of the kids decided to retune the radio, dancing in the passenger seat as a hip-hop song blared out from the car...needless to say, the officer didn't let that go on too long - it was pretty funny, though!

the personal is political

what i thought was going to be a tour of a new wildlife refuge - brought to you by the eco-minded at one of our several local power plants - turned out to be essentially a glorified press conference, complete with politicians from all levels, including area US Congress Reps....after everyone got their turn at the podium, some of the power reps regaling us with tales of spying osprey roosting upon piles of coal ash and a deer turning up in the factory (maybe he was looking for work - this IS Michigan, after all!!), the event wrapped up, local citizens and politicians taking the opportunity to meet and greet the DC pols....just a frame i liked from the event, and one which, i'm proud to say, is what we are running with the story in today's paper. whatcha think? works? yes? no?

spring break

seemed nothing was panning out, in terms of rounding up a second assignment yesterday, so it was a drive around and hope to find something out there kind of evening....after about an hour of that, i thankfully stumbled upon some kids playing hoops behind a church...they were trying all kinds of crazy new ways of making baskets, like springboarding off the wall up to the net, or trying to put up a shot bouncing the ball off their knees - not your traditional pick-up game - not to mention the fact that they were playing with soccer balls! it's spring break this week, so i figured SOMEbody would have to be out doing SOMEthing! especially since we got a break from the grey skies and snow/rain...it's a short-lived break, though, with more of all THAT in the forecast for today...so much for a spring break - it's more like spring broke!

Myrtle

this is Onlee, whom everyone calls by her middle name - Myrtle...what a great lady! i was amazed to hear she was almost 100 - the way she was motoring down the hallway of her nursing home, grabbing a total of 20 plastic eggs during the home's Easter egg hunt today...she was so hysterical - everytime she found another egg, she'd keep saying "Oh, beautiful, beautiful eggs, thank you, honey, thank you...the Easter bunny is so good to me!" having collected the third highest amount of eggs, she won a basket filled with candy and Easter goodies....waving to the room, she shouted again, "oh, thank you, thank you EVERYbody!" this was one of the most fun assignments ive been out on in a while! i may have to go back and visit with this woman some day...