Last night as I was leaving the final show for the second weekend of Christmas Is at Citrus College, I was talking to Shaun (Side bar: Shaun is the guy getting me started with video) on the phone. We were discussing the fact that Saddam had been captures so that would be filling the news that night and going out on a story would be useless. We hung up, and not even ten minutes later, he called back. A Cessna 421 had Crashed into a house in Claremont, only a few miles from where I was at the time.

I raced over there as fast as I would to find what used to be a very nice house fully engulfed in flames. I was running around trying to get all the angles covered, when I noticed another freelancer in the backyard of the home. I figured if he could be there so could I. When I went in I found myself standing in water and fire retardant foam that was well above the top of my boots. I began filming as much as I could. It was a very odd feeling to be shooting the burnt remains of an engine on fire in a pile of debris that used to be an aircraft and a house. I was so close, that I was having to step over parts of the aircraft, and spent a while straddling on of the propellers while getting my shots.

Luckily all 3 of the people in the house made it out safely, unfortunately the pilot was not so lucky. If you saw anything on the event on the news, then you most likely saw some of my video. The majority of what all of the local stations used was Shaun's, but I did have a little bit in there myself.

C

As stated, it has been some long weeks, but things are starting to settle a little bit now. It has gotten to the point in the Christmas Show that we actually get a little bit of free time. We have made it past the tech rehearsals and opening weekend with minimal issues. Shop work relaxes as we clean and organize. What does all this mean? It means that I actually get some time off in between shows. Hopefully I will be able to get a better post in a couple of days along with an update on the house, but until then you will just have to make up something interesting that I have done.

C