I need a digital camera. This kills me to try to write posts without pictures.
How else to I supplant the mental images lightly sketched out in these digital dispatches.
Take Thanksgiving Day for example... [reminescint music fades in as the picture fades to black]
[the gentle hum of a generator slowly rises and the picture fades in to reveal the inside of a ENG tuck]
Today I'm riding solo. The bigwigs put the reporters on the dayside shift leaving me to sit in my live truck trying warming my hands in front of the monitors blaring out the morning mayhem that is "First Thing in the Morning." My goal today is to find blowing frozen crystals of water (aka snow). We in the Michiana area are supposed to get slammed today with 6-12 inches of LAKE EFFECT SNOOOOWWWW!!!!For all of our holiday travelers I will provide live pictures of the snowy scene. Actually, it's more like the lack thereof. Although the wind is pretty wicked this morning, kicking up to 40-50 mpg gusts. With so much wind I can't put my mast into the air for fear of knocking my truck off of the overpass, but the height of the overpass lets me get a good line of sight to the reciever anyways.
I arrive on scene and step out of the truck into the wind tunnel cutting through the 4-5 layers of clothing I've pile on this morning to maintain some warmth. I set up the camera on the tripod with legs spread to the limit to promote stability, plug in to the truck and punch it up for over the air broadcast. After several live references during weather and traffic I get a call from the producer's booth.
"Can you change the shot?"
"Sure," I grudgingly agree. Grudging only because it's damn cold, but the shot is stale so I stumble out and move the position from the back of the truck to the front trying to catch the faintly blowing snow across the road. After framing it just right, I jump in the truck trying to get the feeling back in my hands while I try to stay awake during the remainder of the news cast.
Thankfully the producer pulls the plug on the lack of snow shot, giving me reason to wake up. Hopefully I can get the gear torn down before reaching the temperature of the turkey chilling in my fridge at home waiting to be eaten.
[Picture fades as the hum of the generator sputters off and a ford E350 roars to life]
(Santa, please bring me a digital camera!!!! and some more long underwear!!!)
