Photos taken today. Copyright 2010 by Charles Simmins All rights reserved.

Halloween 2009 here along America’s North Shore was as cold as I can remember. The temperature fell from 51 degrees around 6 pm. Luckily, the gusty south to south west winds also dropped as it got later.

Still, it was a cold and damp Halloween.

The lovely wife had dug out some decorations that has gotten buried. We had a stuffed vampire sitting in a chaise lounge. We also had a witch, about 3 ft high, that spoke when an electric eye was activated.

We had the usual bowl with the rubber hand and electric eye that many of our visitors look forward to year after year.

We found two giant spiders to hang, about camel spider size, and a plastic skeleton.

We had about 100 trick or treaters. Fewer older teens than usual but they made up for it by grabbing handfuls of candy instead of just a couple pieces.

Not really any one costume seemed popular, other than heavy jackets.

Several of the toddlers were enchanted by the witch. The lovely wife felt it was due to the witch being their size.

It was a fun evening and the cats survived it, too,

Christina Kim and Michelle Wie after putting practice

OK, all you HVAC experts out there. Here are some pictures of the damage to our air conditioning compressor overnight, during the thunderstorms that rocked the Rochester, NY area.

The initial diagnosis is a new wiring harness and new fan wiring. Unknown if the compressor itself is damaged.

Damage to the wiring above the damaaged capacitor. Capacitor already removed.

Damaged capacitor

The entire set of pictures is on Flickr here.

A photo of Team 2. They are pictured with the British counterparts at Camp Bastion, in Afghanistan. SSgt. Stacia Zachary is the female, kneeling, SSgt. Shawn Weismiller is kneeling next to her and SrA Brian Economides is standing, back row, second from right in flight suit.

Yesterday’s Bloggers’ Roundtable was with Staff Sgt. Shawn Weismiler, photojournalist; Staff Sgt. Stacia Zachary, print journalist; Senior Airman Brian Economides, videographer; and Capt. Phil Ventura, Combat Camera officer in charge all based out of the Combined Air Operations Center. Team 2 travels across Central Command’s Area of Responsibility to document the Air Force’s role in Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom.

These airmen are charged with documenting a variety of topics and stories throughout the Central Command AOR. Some assignments are planned as part of the operation, while others evolve from tips.

Camera talk: The still photography is all digital. The video is mini-DV.

Photos are usually shot in as high a definition as possible. Sometimes, the mission may dictate a lower resolution, to permit transmission of the imagery from areas where large files might be impossible to upload.

There are “night vision” lenses for both the still and video. SSgt Weismiler has just put his camera into a night vision device on occasion.

Capt Ventura described the “no-kidding” efforts of the team on a recent mission.

A good example there is the combat offload this team recently covered, where this was a very remote base in Afghanistan there. But this was imagery that had very much a timeliness to it.

So we wanted to get those images and that story out, as close to the event as possible. Whereas some of our stuff can be evergreen typically, this was no-kidding hard news.

So in this case, after the mission, Sergeant Weismiller, no kidding, just went to his civilian account and e-mailed me his couple selects from that mission, in a resolution that was able to get transmitted over, you know, Gmail or whatever it was.

At the same time, Airman Economides sent his tape back with the C-17 pilot. So I had that in hand. And then Sergeant Zachary, in a heroic effort, wrote out her story longhand, until she could get to a morale computer at the next FOB. And she, no kidding, sat there and typed out an e-mail to me.

So that all arrived in my inbox. And I was able to work with our media outreach folks to get that up there within about 12 to 15 hours of the event happening.

SSgt Zachary describes her normal load for a mission:

For me as a journalist, I make sure I have a rucksack with very limited clothing and uniforms in it and a secondary rucksack with my computer, videotape and lots of notepads.

As far as what kind of equipment we take for protection, you need your helmet. You need your body armor. You need to be able to carry a combat load, which is seven M4 magazines and two M9s. And then you also carry your sidearm.

So at any given point, I weigh 110 pounds; I’m carrying 150 pounds on me. So we travel with a lot of gear.

John Donovan posted the story of an Army combat cameraman who was awarded the Silver Star in Afghanistan. Captain Ventura talked about that type of situation:

And that’s one of those decisions that — what a terrible decision to have to make, you know, that moment when you drop your camera, videocamera — or, you know, notepad, in our journalist’s case — and pick up your arms. But I think, like Sergeant Zachary said earlier, we all are airmen first, and we are there to enhance the mission, whether that means taking imagery, taking a story or fighting back.

You know self-aid buddy care is another huge part of that. All our team members can provide self-aid buddy care along with the best of them and take care of anybody on that team. And that’s something we’re very proud of and we train to very seriously.

Here are a few links to samples of the work being done by these Airmen. And, as I pointed out before the interview began, SSgt. Stacia Zachary is doing something right in the photo that none of the men are. Can you figure out what?

SSgt. Stacia Zachary

• Airmen rescue aids in ‘Golden Hour’ recovery of coalition forces
• Flight Engineers: Critical Component to CSAR Mission
• Agri-business development team plants seeds of hope for Afghan people

SSgt. Shawn Weismiller

• Portfolio on DVIDS
• Air Forces Central (Centaf) search for photographer

SrA Brian Economides

• DVIDS search for videographer
• Air Force Space Command Public Affairs recently announced its 2008 Media Contest winners – Best Television Spot Production – SrA. Brian Economides, 30th SW/PA, Vandenberg AFB, Calif.;

Transcript of the Bloggers’ Roundtable – PDF file

Reuters

Jun 12 – A group of students in Kiev don bikinis and wash their laundry in a city fountain to protest against the summer shut down of hot water supplies.

Hayley Platt reports.

Yeah, I know. But with all the gloom and doom about swine flu, Iran and Obama, I had to post this.

This video uses some of the pictures I took at the April 15 Rochester Tea Party. It was put together by an ex-Marine.

Arthur and Merlin trying to sleep on Mommy’s bed while she tries to change the bedding.

The 2010 Tea Party can be found at this link.

One of the signs from the April 15 Tea Party in Rochester, NY

The 40 who braved the cold in March for the Rochester NY Tea Party were joined today by over 1,000 more Americans fed up with politics as usual.

The Geneseo College Republican Club held the traditional tea dump at the April 15 Tea Party protest in Rochester, NY.

It’s sunny and in the 50’s with a brisk wind here in Rochester, NY. Three stops were planned for the Tea Party, a downtown park, the County Office Building and City Hall. About 600 at the park heard speakers and sang songs. They marched down a closed Main Street to the County Building for another rally and grew to around 1,000. By the time the marchers moved to City Hall, the crowd had swelled even further.

One of the signs from the April 15, 2009 Tea Party in Rochester, NY.

The crowd held all races, and every age group from toddlers to the elderly. The Geneseo College Republican Club marched with Ron Paul supporters, Libertarian Party folks, and ordinary Americans at their first protest.

No protest on behalf of liberty would be complete without a Liberty Belle cheering for freedom.

Bob Lonsberry on 1180, WHAM, is covering the event from his window seat on Main.

Rev. Tommy Davis, one of several persons of color at the April 15 Tea Party in Rochester, NY, addresses the crowd.

PRESS

• WXXI – PBS
• R News
• Democrat & Chronicle
• Channel 13 WHAM

Here are the collected photos.