Sunset

Sunset, Lake Guntersville.

The Great, or Not So Great, Escape

Ladies and Gentlemen, meet Tony Lee Zimmer. Mr Zimmer held a homemade dagger to a Marshall County Correctional Facility jailer last night after playing sick. He then got into the Control Room and took another jailer's uniform before making his way out of the jail. His brief tast of freedom only lasted about 6 hours though. Deputies caught up with him and he is back in the comfortable confines of the jail. By the way, if you look close you can see the tatoos on his neck and head. Those are horns on his head. No surprise there, I guess.

Ain't It Pretty!!!

Thought I would share a little of my work as a still photographer with you today. I snapped this in Guntersville about a month ago. I thought it came out pretty nice. So, just thought I would share with you how well rounded I am, it's not all about moving pictures with me. Actually, things have been pretty quiet around here lately, nothing too exciting to talk about. So enjoy the pretty flower, may it make your day brighter.

Anybody Remember This Guy??

Hello and welcome back. Anybody out there remember this guy?? That's right, the one and only Slim Goodbody. Carson and I were talking yesterday and Slim(or is it Mr. Goodbody?) came up in conversation. A quick Google search later and there he is. Slim (or Mr. Body) came on the Captain Kangaroo show in the 1970's and taught kids about health and eating good foods. But I always wondered if Slim had no skin or if the organs were painted on his body. Looking back on it now, the Bodman is a little funky looking, maybe even scary. Can you imagine the guts (no pun intended) it took to put on this suit and get on national TV?? Anyway, hope you enjoyed this blast from the past.

My Poor, Poor Car!

First of all, thanks for checking in. I know it's been a while since I've posted, so if you're reading this I want you to know I appreciate it. Well, lets talk about these pictures. After church on Sunday, my family and I stopped by the bureau and found this waiting for us in the parking lot. It was a 1990 Camaro RS, was being the key word here. After calling the police, we found out that sometime during the night Saturday or early Sunday, firefighters were called to the bureau for a buring car. Right now we are still not sure what happened, we're supposed to talk to the fire marshall Monday morning. But in my experience, cars don't just burst into flames. This was actually my Dad's car, I had borrowed it while off a couple of days and had left it parked at the office when I got back to work. The bureau isn't in a bad part of town so I just don't know what happened. I promise to update you as soon as I get more information.

Hispanic March

"Sweet Home Alabama!" That seemed to be the theme of yesterday's Hispanic march through Albertville. Estimates put the crowd at close to 5,000 people, possibly more. Believe it or not, not that many people showed up to protest the march. Everything went off without a hitch, and you can see the size of the crowd from the photo taken from the roof of a building in downtown. And believe it or not, the marchers actually stretched about twice what you can see in the picture. The purpose was to show the strength of the Hispanic population here, one by just the sheer number of marchers, and also by their pledge not to spend any money on Monday to show just what an economic impact they have on the community. Where numbers and money go, pretty soon politics will follow.

Yes, That's My Son!!

Friday night was quite a night, tornadoes everywhere and baseball size hail falling from the sky. But I want to talk about something really important today. Last Saturday was Opening Day(big capital letters) for Little League baseball in Crossville. And suiting up for the Gold team this year, playing centerfield and wearing #10, is none other than Forrest Hood. This is his first year to play baseball and his Dad was quite excited. So what happens when ole #10 comes to the plate for his first at-bat ever?? He hits a homerun! That's right, a homerun!!! Now, I will admit that if the play was scored officially, it would be a single followed by two or three throwing errors which allowed the batter to score. But in the mind of a 7 year old playing ball for the first time, it was a homerun. And in the mind of a VERY proud Dad, it was a moment that I wouldn't trade for a winning lotto ticket!!
By the way, his team went on to win 8-2 over the dreaded and much hated Skins team, with a re-match coming up this Tuesday night. If you need me for anything, just head to the ballpark. That's where I will be living this summer.

Fyffe Bomb Scare

Headed out to Fyffe around 6pm last night after getting calls about police blocking the highway running through town. Turns out they had a suspicious package left near a gas station. So, after blocking off downtown and calling in the bomb squad from Anniston, what does our package turn out to be? A toolbox full of old electrical parts. So police want to know now if it was a prank or just an accident. But that's kind of the way this news business works. You get on a scene, wait and wait some more, only to find out that the bomb was really a toolbox.

April, What a Month!!

Carson, the intrepid Sand Mtn. Bureau Chief, informed me that today was his 5th anniversary here in the bureau. Congratulations, Carson!! I can't believe he has survived 5 years putting up with me, ha ha! That being said, April is quite a big month for me. This year I will have been married to my beautiful wife Wende for 10 years, and my son Forrest will turn 8 the end of the month. Throw in my Mom's birthday, my sister-in-law's b'day, a brother-in-law's b'day, and my niece is also celebrating her 9th birthday. I'm sorry now if I forgot anyone in my family who is celebrating a significant event this month. Looks like I need to take out a loan to pay for all the presents.

Rock Climbing, Part 2

Just a couple more pictures of the kids climbing rocks at Cherokee Rock Village.

Meet The P2

Ladies and gentlemen, we have entered a new world here in the Sand Mtn Bureau. Say hello to the new camera. Officially, its a Panasonic SPX800P with a P2 drive. But all you need to know is the P2 part. For the first time in my career as a, ahem, videojournalist, I go out each day and don't shoot on tape. Everything is all on the little P2 card like in the top photo. Each card, at $650 a pop none the less, holds about 16 minutes of video. The camera has no moving parts to break down, its all electronic, which I quess means I'm really not shooting video anymore, I'm shooting 0's and 1's. The station bought 3 of these new camera systems, one for me, one for Carter Watkins in the Shoals, and one for Gregg our chief photog. Shot everything for the last couple of days on the P2 and have packed up the old tape camera and got it ready to send to Hunts-Vegas(Huntsville) for another photog there. Anyway, I just wanted to let you meet the new camera, hopefully we will all get to know him better in the coming weeks.

Edge Of The World

Here they are again, the Dynamic Duo of Forrest and Jemma, this time after a hard day of rock climbing. Friday we took off to Lookout Mountain in Cherokee County to a little place called Cherokee Rock Village. It's a mecca for rock climbers, nothing but big ole rocks as far as the eye can see. They even filmed part of a movie there last year, "Failure To Launch" with Matthew Mac-whatever-ahey and Sara Jessica Parker. Anyway, this rock was the location for one of the scenes in the movie, overlooking scenic Weiss Lake far below. Kids look kind of nervous because it is literally on the edge of the mountain. Anyway, it is kinda in the middle of nowhere and there are no facilities other than rocks and bushes, but if you are into rock climbing there aren't many better places to go.

Has It Really Been Almost a Month??

My how time flies. I'm sorry it has been so long since I last updated this blog-thing, but you know me. I'm a very busy man. Anyway, been on vacation for the last week and took a quick little trip to Florida to visit the in-laws. The weather didn't want to play along for our earlier than normal trip to the beach, so no beautiful sunset photos or kids playing in the sand. Instead I went to the other extreme, looking for driftwood and that sort of thing to express my artistic side. So here you go, one picture of a tree stump looking weathered and worn with the Sound as a backdrop. Coming up in the next couple of posts, photos from our trip to Cherokee Rock Village for some rock climbing, and a photo of the Sand Mountain Bureau camera. That's right, we have a brand new camera here in the office, and I will brief you on the new technology of the P2 card and the tapeless camera. See you soon!

State Parks Re-Visited

Seems that the voice of the people is heard sometimes by our state government. After many complaints by people, state legislators complained to the head of Alabama's State Parks about the $3 usage fee about to be implemented. And what happens? A press release late yesterday afternoon announced that the fee idea has been dropped. In defense of those who run the parks, they do not receive any tax money for the day to day operation of the parks, and the money raised by the fee would have given them some much needed funds. But I think the idea of having to pay to take your kids or grandkids out to the park to hike trails or look for deer was just the wrong way to do it. As it is, those who camp, play golf or stay at the lodge(when it finally re-opens) fund the park. And no one wants those costs to rise. No easy answers here, but at least one wrong answer has gone away.

Crime Doesn't Pay?

These pictures are from a drug bust Tuesday in the DeKalb County community of Kilpatrick. A half pound of cocaine was seized and four people were arrested. But the thing that got my attention was the $98,500 in cash the drug agents got in the bust. Yes, almost one hundred thousand dollars of cold, hard cash these druggies had in their run-down old trailer. Let me tell you, that much cash laid out to see is quite a sight. "Did you think about grabbing the money and running?", someone asked me. Well, yes, and if not for the presence of about a dozen agents armed with high powered rifles, I might have thought harder about it. Notice the guy above guarding one of the druggies. But that was a really pretty thing to see, $98,000, just lying there. So, Carson posed the question, "Is it wrong to steal drug money?". What do you think?

Goodbye, Barney, You Will Be Missed

Don Knotts, aka Barney Fife, passed away this past Friday at the age of 81. And with him goes a little piece of my childhood. I, like many others of you I'm sure, grew up watching the Andy Griffith Show and Barney was always the real star of the show. This photo was taken in 2001 in Knoxville at the Mayberry Reunion held at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel. I was fortunate enough to meet many of the stars of the show over the three days we covered the event, even spending a couple of hours in a pub with Betty Lynn who played Thelma Lou and Maggie Peterson, better known as Charlene Darling. But Barney was, as always, the show stopper. Barney, you will be missed. Check out all things Mayberry at http://www.mayberry.com.

Basketball Time

It's regional tournament time in basketball, and I've spent the last couple of days at Jacksonville State, site for the Northeast Regionals. My favorite part of the games is the fans, students who are allowed to skip school and roadtrip. And boy, oh boy, do they get fired up for the games. Painted faces and chests, weird clothes and hats, they go all out to cheer on their schools. And sometimes things get out of hand. At Troy State yesterday, 4 female fans were arrested after getting into a fight after the game. "Be True To Your School", sang the Beach Boys. Just don't get locked up in the pokey for it.

100th Post!!

Well, what a milestone. This is the Sand Mtn. Photog's 100th post, who would have thought it? To all you out there who said it would never last, I guess I've shown you!!
Going through some old tape today and found this clip of my son Forrest back in Kindergarten. He is the cute curly-headed one on the right. We were shooting a story about Crossville's lunch room crowding problems when we were paged out to the shooting death of Grant's police chief Verlon LeMaster. Which only goes to show how a day in the news business can go; one minute you're doing a cutesy story about school lunchrooms and the next minute you have to head out to a story about the death of a man you know and like. Ups and downs. That's what this business is all about.

Church Arson Close to Home

Well, Sand Mtn. dodged another bullet with the ice and snow this weekend. But today, Sunday, I got called into work to cover a church arson in Etowah County. The church is the Chapman's Chapman Holiness Church in Glencoe, and as you can see from the photos it was only an attempted arson. Someone lit a fire on the side of the church, but it appears to have burned itself out before doing any serious damage to the church. Right now, investigators do not think this case has any thing to do with the others arsons down South. As always, we will keep you updated.

Ice For The Weekend??

Well, the meteorologists are calling for ice and snow again this weekend. That means your faithful Sand Mtn. Bureau Photographer will be working Saturday morning. Gotta be here to tell everyone about conditions here on the mountain. That makes 2 Saturdays in a row working the ice and snow shift. The only problem is that this Saturday is Jemma's birthday party at the skating rink. Will the weather affect party plans? Let's hope not, birthdays only come once a year you know. Anyway, tune in Saturday morning for the latest in weather and traffic from here on Sand Mtn. And we'll see about the ice and snow.