Doing what I love...

[Harpoon]

Ok, first off I'm going to lay it all out on the line, I am NOT a runner, nor do I claim to be one in any way shape or form, OK?


Ah, I feel better.... =)


Last night (Saturday night) I did something I haven't done in a VERY long time.

Run.

I was on a late assignment for the newspaper. A fire had broken out about 11pm and I went to shoot it. The street the burning house was on had been blocked off by the fire police so I had to put my car in an illegal spot (it's OK, I'm "press" remember) and make my way three quarters of a mile up the street to get to where the fire was.

I did this, very well in fact, with a 8+ pound digital camera and zoom lens in one hand, cell phone in the other, in steel toed hiking boots, heavy winter coat, and did I mention it was only 15 degrees???

I was barely winded from the jog.

Less than a year ago I was on life-support, inches from death.


Oh, and I had to run BACK to the car after shooting the fire, and I was dashing and jumping all over the place in deep snow around the burning house trying to get shots of what was going on.


I had a blast, I was in my "element" and I was loving every minute because I know how bad I got and there was no way I could have done what I did a year ago.


There are a few little burn marks in my jacket which still reeks of smoke from when a water line burst through the roof of the house sending hot cinders, water, and debris in all directions behind the house where the fire was, and where I was standing lick a nut because I am one.


Wasn't as cool as shooting INSIDE a burning house, that one's hard to top, but it was just as cool for other reasons, mainly because I could do it without straining myself at all or hacking for the next half hour or more.



Oh yeah, and I got great shots too! =)

 

[Mark Wagner]

Hey share those shots with us. Cool!
Your hooked now. You may just as well buy those 'dog-gone' running shoes and get started!

See you at the 2005 DC Marathon.

Mark

 

[tommy]

What a great feeling!

What a great feeling!

I wonder if we would have appreciated what we have as much if it wasn't almost taken away.

I have "visual" in my head of you prancing through the debris and confusion of a fire scene to get "the shot".

 

[Ross]

Re: What a great feeling!

Re: What a great feeling!

I wonder if we would have appreciated what we have as much if it wasn't almost taken away.

I think we do appreciate these things just as much, but when you get knocked straight into the ground, it improves your focus on life just a tad bit more!

 

[Harpoon]

I'll get a shot from the fire up on here over the weekend, I forgot to do that before.

I try not to "brag" too much about the work I do, everyone does cool stuff once in a while and I've found sometimes people get tired of hearing about it over and over...


Though it's still hard not to tell people about being inside a burning house or shooting a bear that was less than 50 feet away... =)


I have to agree a lot with the idea of appreciating things after having been through such an ordeal as open heart surgery and a valve replacement.

Everything in my life just seemed so much more special when I got out of the hospital. Just driving away from the complex and getting on to Martin Luther King Boulevard in Cleveland towards I-90 heading for home was special and I've driven down that several dozen times....

One of the cravings I had while I was in the hospital was for a cherry slush puppy and when I got home, after my father and wife went off to pick up the kid from his grandparents leaving me at home alone to have a shower and BE HOME, I sent my dad out to get one....


Oh that was good stuff.... =)


A simple stupid little cup of crushed ice with some surgary syrup flavoring.


I still get down on things from time to time. Our finances are in rough shape and it's a real pain. My job could be full time but it's not and there aren't any other full time jobs for a person with my "qualifications" around here... We're not as "comfortable" as we'd like to be, but we're managing.


I have moments when I get down on everything and feel miserable, but then something cool happens... Right now my son is in the living room watching a videotape ofa program I recorded a few years ago off PBS. It's a documentary on Chuck Jones and all the Warner Bros Cartoons and characters he created in his lifetime....

Every few minutes or so Patrick comes racing out to me calling out "DUCK SEASON!" and we start into the gag from the old cartoon.


As my one year old bionic heart valve ticks away within my chest....


I was so close to NOT being here, right now.


That changes your perspective on a whole BUNCH Of levels.

 

[Nancy]

I can appreciate how you must have felt. I've seen Joe go through some very, very dicey things which almost cost him his life. Each day brings some kind of miracle.

So, my friend, being able to run, is indeed a very special event. My congratulations to you.

I'll look forward to some pics.

 

[Harpoon]

This is black and white and a might bit small so it doesn't take forever and a day to load on people's computers, but it's a "montage" of the photos I submitted for the paper to run.

 

[Harpoon]

Gee, guess it's not that small after all....

Here's a color one:

 

[Nancy]

Excellent photos. I can see that you were quite close to the flames.

Sorry that someone had a fire though. I hope no one was hurt.

 

[Harpoon]

Guess my post didn't show up...

The computers here at the office can be fussy, but then, what else would you expect from macs?


Mind you, it was a bloomin' PC that kept me in the MRI scanner for nearly two hours while it kept crashing on the doctors and technicians who were trying to run their scans.... =)


Oh well, when are they gonna revive the Amiga?



The fire I shot was started by careless tenants of the upstairs apartment (it was a residential house seperated into upper and lower apartments, occupied by college students and apparently at least one of them smoked because a cigarette lighter started the fire.)

Everyone got out fine and I'm assuming the upstairs tenants had a fair amount of explaining to do for their landlord.

I'm sure they probably didn't have much fuss in getting relocated back on campus in one of the dorms, though they might have to replace an awful lot of college textbooks now.

Hard to feel sympathy for the careless smoker.


I wrote a story for the paper this weekend on a family of six who were forced out of their home the day after Valentine's Day by a fire that started in the lint trap of their dryer...

That sucks.

They've been living ever since in a pair of rooms in a local hotel and are trying to drum up help to rebuild. The father had lost a job to "downsizing" and was unemployed for a year before just finding new work as a computer technician and they were without fire insurance because of the loss of income...

Four great kids, ages 3 to maybe 10, I neglected to ask about that during the interview, whoops!

 

[Jed]

Great Pics

Great Pics

Awesome Harpoon. Great pictures. Seems like you love doing your job and that is a blessing in itself. Just remember attitude is everything. You are not the worst off. I was getting chemotherapy as a teenager at a childrens hospital and after seeing infants doing the same i never could feel sorry for myself. I take is just another test god put before me. Why he is testing me and not others is not for me to ask. I just do the best to conquer each test as best as i can. Hopefully one day they will pay off. Again congratulations at your success and progress, you are a inspiration to me, thanks.
Jed

 

[hensylee]

bet your adrenal glands were pumpin big time. Thanks for sharing the pictures with us. What a horror a fire can be.