That Smell

Last weekend, John and I enjoyed a three-day weekend on the West Coast. Friday night on Fort Myers Beach (fabulous sunsets, groovy Key West vibe) and Saturday night with our good friend Lynda King who lives on Sanibel Island when she isn't buying and selling TV stations.

We had such a good time! We talked about how restful it is and how much we enjoyed ourselves all the way home.

Fast forward. Friday morning when I got into my car to head to work, I noticed an odor. The Ford 500 has a door drainage problem and sometimes, when it rains hard, the back doors fill up and make a noticeable slooshing sound when I turn a corner or step on the brake. If I don't drain them regularly, the car can smell a bit musty.

Ten hours later, at the end of the work day, the stink was noticeably stronger and even though it was dark and I was tired, I opened both back doors and lifted the little rubber flap at the bottom to let the water out. And then I drove home. The smell abated some during my 30 minute commute but now I think I just got used to it.

On Friday nights I have other things on my mind and so I forgot about it until Saturday morning as we were going out for our bike ride. John wanted to check it but I didn't bring my keys with me and generally, we take his car for errands, etc and so the Ford remained sealed up until Sunday morning.

Sunday morning, John remembered and took his set of keys to my car so that when we finished the bike ride, he could check it out.

He said he almost dropped to his knees when he opened the car door, the stench was so bad. Initially, he thought it had something to do with my slightly damp carpet (damn Ford doors) but then he followed his nose to the back of the car.

A noxious cloud of putrid headed for the heavens as soon as he opened the trunk.

The culprit? Two forgotten Publix shopping bags full of shells gathered on Sanibel. Seven days of warm, damp closed conditions combined with rotting pieces of marine mollusk inside the forgotten exoskeletons created a vile funk that permeated the area.

Another few days and our neighbors would have surely called police, confident that we had a body in the trunk.

A quart of Febreze, some fresh air and a little time cured our problem...and our forgetfulness! 

Channeling my inner Edna

I work an early shift.  I get up at midnight and at around 12:45am, I'm generally in contact with the morning team to talk about what incredible stories we intend to put our reporters on.  

There isn't an overnight photographer and we generally don't buy stringer video so when there's breaking news, we have to work the phones and dispatchers, although nice people, aren't always willing to part with meaningful information.

There was a fatal shooting at an Exxon station in Hollywood, about seven miles from the station so I decided to check it out on my way to the office.

Just in case, I instructed Amanda to choose a good photo from my Facebook page for the full-screen (in the event of my death).

Even after talking to the cop and snapping a few photos, I wasn't convinced that it was a huge story worth a reporter:  A bad guy went into a convenience store intending to rob the place.  The clerk shot and killed him.  My concern was that there would be no scene left at 5am and our reporter would be live at a gas station with nothing to show.

I was so wrong.
Turns out, a homeless guy who lives BEHIND the gas station saw the bad guys prepping to rob the place.  He alerted the clerk who had seconds to pull out a weapon.  One bad guy died, the other one ran away but didn't get far before he was arrested.  Thank goodness our reporter did a better job of finding the story than I did!
It was while I was driving back to the station that I thought of Edna Buchanan, a very famous Miami Herald reporter who wrote one of my favorite books.
I obviously spent too much time in the corner office and I need to sharpen my news sense!

Wild parrots on Miami Beach

I haven't been very good about blogging lately even though I see, smell and HEAR things that make me go "hmmm."

Here's one.  John and I were walking to the beach and hear the raucous noise of birds in the trees.  We couldn't see them at all but there were obviously dozens.  Finally, I realized we couldn't see the birds because they are green.  Wild parrots!

Also know as "feral parrots."

I love it here.

Home, Sweet Homes

Road trip!  We've got the house on the market and we're heading south to Miami.

I haven't blogged in weeks.  On purpose.  I felt like I needed to stay low during the most intense time of my job search.  I took some trips, spent endless hours on the telephone and watched hours of newscasts from markets far and wide.

But it was a Facebook message from my former co-worker that put me on the right path.

"Know any morning Executive Producers?"
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Some things that I've wanted to blog about but didn't:

• The News Director in Wisconsin who allowed his anchor to use four precious minutes of air time to recriminate a viewer who wrote a critical message about her appearance.  Jennifer Livingston called the viewer a bully.  What?!  Seriously bad.
• Cable TV is ridiculously expensive.  I have had too much time on my hands but I haven't necessarily watched more television.  I have written the checks to Time Warner, though.  Bring on 4G wireless!
• Never watch the show "Doomsday Preppers" right before going to bed unless you want to dream of the zombie apocalypse all darn night.
• The Kansas City Chiefs are the Worst. Team. Ever.  I attended my final home game as a season ticket holder last week.  I wore black.  I foolishly hoped that they would win, up until midway through the third quarter.  Fire them all.  And some twice.  
• The television station in Denver that accidentally used a spoof shot of the Petraeus bio grabbed from the internet...SMH.  Credibility is precious.  Somebody should get suspended. 
• I cooked and baked quite a bit during my extended vacation from work.  And I wondered about things.  Like...who first decided to separate eggs and beat the hell out of the whites to form stiff peaks?  Can you imagine how long that would take if done by hand?

There's more but this is a start.  Right now I'm working on my "100 Things I'll Miss About Kansas City" list. I'll post that within the next ten days.