Tuesday, September 28, 2004

I've done two more hurricanes since my last post.

I went back to Florida for Hurricane Frances. This time we stayed in a Hilton at the Disney Resort in Orlando. This hotel didn't lose power during Hurricane Charley because it has underground conduits to the power station. We had several days of good weather and then a little rain.

Then, it was back to Florida for Hurricane Ivan. This time to Key Largo, then on to Key West at a time when Ivan was to hit Key West square-on. The place was boarded up and much of the population had headed north. We talked about how we would hunker down as Ivan rolled over us. Well, it turned out to be another easy shoot. A couple of days of nice weather, then Ivan tracked further West and we just got a little rain.

Back home, the story of the Bush/National Guard documents had broke on CBS. I was sent to stake-out the farm of Bill Burkett, the man everybody knew to be the source of the documents. Sat on that hot and dusty dirt road for three days! His wife Nikki would make an appearance from time to time to say that Bill had no comment. Finally, Bill at least came out and did some chores so I could get some video of him and go home.

Last Saturday I drove to Anadarko, OK and shot video of Rep. Brad Carson, a Democrat, as he campaigned. That was for Meet the Press and is due to air this coming Sunday, October 3rd, 2004.

Today I was second camera on a two-camera shoot. Bob Abrahamson was the first camera and it was a Bob Dotson story to air on the Today Show in the near future. Our subject, Corrine, was a Hospice nurse. That's someone who takes care of people in their last days. She told the story of the death of her own father. She said that he, with great clarity, talked about preparing his '32 Ford Model A for the "trip". His hands would move in the air as he talked about repairing the car and seeing people who had passed on. As he prepared his car, he would also talk to her and anyone in the room in clear tones. It was a moving story.

Tomorrow I go to a party to say farewell to Larry Weidman, a longtime NBC producer and one of the greatest gentlemen of TV news. Joe Duncan, the freelancer that introduce me to working for the networks, is flying his own plane to Dallas from Houston for the party and asked that I pick him up. He said he's forty pounds lighter after successfully fighting throat cancer. It'll be good to see him.