Quiet week? You spoke too soon...

Yes, well, in the news business, everyone seems to know when business is good.

Last week, Southeast Texas was inundated with fires, which broke out in homes and businesses all throughout the area. I saw a car literally drive through a restaurant. Before that, I had only been witness to the aftermath of a car driving through and down the aisle of a convenience store.

Okay, I thought to myself, maybe things will settle down once the normal work week comes back this week. And I was right, for the most part things this week were quiet and rather mundane.

But what's fun about mundane?

Then yesterday, Thursday, rolls around. My day starts with routine feature assignment...Dana Melancon at the old Port Arthur studio, posing with the Channel 4 Mardi Gras float for a Mardi Gras feature.

That was pretty early in the morning. I get back to the newsroom right after, and my editor, Roger, tells me...we need something for the front page.

I didn't get done shooting untill nine o'clock that night.

First, I went to Lamar State College-Port Arthur, where registration was going on. Then, I drive out to Major Drive in Beaumont where Myrtle Smith turned 100 year old. Then, back to Mid-County where I encounter a wreck, which included four cars and one that ended up in a ditch trying to get the license plate of the truck that wreaked the havoc and tried to flee.

After that, off to the Chamber of Commerce for a group shot of the Chamber staff...then to Valero to get a few shots of the Port Arthur Chamber incoming president, Morris Carter.

But wait...I almost get a second to breathe, when on my way back to the office, I'm telephoned by Bob West, telling me that we are a go to cover the Memorial High School football banquet, where injured Buffalo Bill tight end Kevin Everett (a Port Arthur Jefferson graduate) and other Memorial grads (Jamaal Charles, James Johnson and Danny Gorrer) were set to appear.

The big deal about that, of course, being how Everett went down during a game on the national stage and game level, only to endure one of the most miraculous recoveries in sports history. He's kept out of the public eye since injury, even in New York, where he plays professionally. So, it wouldn't be hard for him to come through town unnoticed if he tried hard enough.


Grrrrrrrrrr.

Out the door I go, with Mary Meaux shortly on my tail. Port Arthur Police (more specifically, my brother-in-law patrol officer) was on the scene, interviewing witnesses. I'm trying to get a clear, decent shot. Mary's trying to figure out what happened. Then, off several officers go into the dark and a minute later, the call over the radio comes..."one suspect in custody."

I nabbed my shot, got back to the paper, finished all my day's work, gathered my gear and next day's assignments from the book, and was on my way out the door...

...and I realize I still had to hand in my time sheet and mileage forms.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Till next time...

It's already a fiery new year!

It's always good to get a little time off work.

With the Christmas season comes two holidays, three if you count Christmas Eve. Because of this, we change our work schedule slightly to a skeleton crew, who volunteer well in advance.

Because we also know that individuals who would normally be around to chat during the day are also on vacation, for this two week period of time we all sign up and prepare feature and timely news stories to get us through the lull of information.

The Christmas stretch came and went without a hitch, and as I left work on Saturday, all was left in place for New Years to come and go without problem as well.

For the most part it did. I didn't receive one phone call from the office while I was out of town with Paige. Along with planning for content, Amy and I were slated to seek out the mother of the first area baby born on New Year's Day. So, as I'm driving back in from Houston, Amy calls and tells me we are going to the Medical Center of Southeast Texas at 3 p.m.

I had not even dropped Paige off at home for about a minute when I get another call from Amy telling me of a fire in downtown Port Arthur.

In our line of work, there's always room for a little breaking news. I get down to the corner of Beaumont Avenue and 6th Street, though I could see the smoke billowing over the neighborhood from well away from the scene. Police had the roads blocked, fire trucks were scattered around the building that just seemed to be pumping out smoke like despite the PAFD's best efforts to douse it with their bucket truck.

Which was the image I was after, after all. I always feel I'm better when there's something going on, so how stoked was I, going back to work with this literally handed to me.

The hard part was picking a picture. I went all over the building, behind the fire trucks, in front of the fire trucks. I could not get over the amount of smoke coming from this building, and at one point, I was taking pictures of the fire fighters coming out and around the building and into the street, where a fire truck was sitting when all of a sudden the flames grew more intense and started coming through the roof.

This led to greater, darker, and thicker plumes of smoke, which were carried through the air by the wind. The cold air in the sky kept the smoke on a low level and at one point, stamped out all visibility down on the intersection of Beaumont and 6th, with exception of the face of a fire truck. It just so happened, I was taking pictures when this happened and came up with my personal favorite of the whole ordeal.