Oh, the irony. You may have seen on First News this week the story of a news van in Wisconsin that ended up submerged in an ice-covered lake. The driver accidentally drove on the ice, thinking it was a road. The story the news crew was covering at the time: the dangers of thin ice.

After several days, the truck was finally removed from the icy trap on Tuesday. You could only see the top half of the truck after it broke though the ice and it was not only encased in frozen water, it was also stuck in mud. Of course, this whole thing was a more than just an inconvenience for the Milwaukee TV station. The truck has all kinds of broadcasting equipment in it and was used for the "live shots" you see on the news all the time. The station says the vehicle was worth $250,000. Whoops.

I feel for everyone involved in this. Accidents happen and when it involves valuable TV equipment, it's a big deal. While it's never been as dramatic as the situation in Wisconsin, I've seen several live trucks involved in various mishaps and it's always a major concern for the TV station.

I'm glad no one was hurt in the accident, which is the most important thing. I can't help but wondering if the crew was asked to still do a live shot when they called the station to first report the problem. I'm only half-joking... producers hate to lose an element in their shows, trust me. While I'm sure some punishment will be handed down in this situation, I hope no one loses their job. Everyone makes mistakes, some just cost more than others.

One of the great things about being a journalist is that we go to interesting places and cover unique events. While there are some stories that can be the same even when they're different, such as fires, covering different stories everyday makes our work fun.

I've covered several presidential visits over the course of my TV career, but it never gets old. Yes, these visits are usually quick (President Bush was only in KC for three hours on Thursday), and they are extremely choreographed for the best possible media coverage of the Chief Executive, but they are fascinating to see firsthand nonetheless.

First of all, the sheer number of people involved, even for a short visit, is amazing. There are dozens and dozens of security and other staff members, and that doesn't even include the pre-planning. Security officers are in place hours before the president lands and roads are blocked off for his trip from the airport to his destination. There's a whole group of people who work with the media as well. If you're going to cover the president's visit, you have to sign up for a media pass in advance. When I arrived at the downtown airport Thursday morning to cover the president's arrival on Air Force One, I had to wait for a staff member with the official "media list" before I was allowed on the runway. Of course, we can't videotape the president from just anywhere. The president's handlers set up a specific place for the media, which we can't stray away from.

If you've never seen Air Force One in person, it is a sight to behold. You can't really get a true picture of how big this plane is on TV. To give you an idea: the inside of the plane has 4,000 square feet. Also, it can land even on shorter runways which is fascinating to watch. You can't help but marvel at the way this huge aircraft comes to a stop so quickly after it drops out of the sky.

Speaking of quickly, everything during a president's visit tends to be quick. There was a group of politicians and dignitaries waiting for the president to walk off Air Force One at the airport in KC. He shook hands and talked with each one of them briefly, then moved on to the next event: a very short award ceremony. He presented Susan Hoskins with the President's Volunteer Service Award. He gave her a medal, talked with her as they posed for a picture, and then he was off to Lee's Summit in the presidential limo. He only spent a few minutes with Susan, but she certainly didn't mind. She called her time with the leader of the free world "an honor."

As you can imagine, the president's schedule is tight and he was running late as we waited for him to return to the airport. A group of students from Pembroke Hill was gathered near Air Force One this time, hoping to get a quick handshake and hello. But they only got a wave from the top of the airplane's boarding stairs as President Bush went straight from the limo onto the plane. Unfortunately for the excited students, there was no extra time for them on this day.

Sometimes the President can be viewed strictly through a political lens and it's easy to forget the role he plays not only in our country, but around the globe as the leader of the world's only superpower. It's impressive to be there to see what it takes for one man to make a short stop in the heartland.

Is there such a thing as a "perfect snowstorm?" If there is, I'd like to nominate this weekend's snow for that honor. First, there was the timing. I know that many people work on the weekend, just as I did for many years, but obviously, a snowstorm on a Saturday night will cause less problems than one during the middle of the work week. Also, this was a nice, heavy snow that made for great snowmen, snow forts and snowball fights. And finally, the amount was just about, well, perfect. Not too much, but just enough to have some winter fun.

I have to admit that I wasn't thinking this was a perfect snow as I shoveled the driveway, but again this type of snow is easy to remove. It's not too light, so you can pick up a lot with each shovel-full and the fairly mild temperatures meant that it cleaned up pretty quickly.

After that chore was done, it was on to the fun stuff. My son, Jack and I made a snowman in the backyard. The mouth was the hardest part. I wanted to use a round object that made our snow guy look like he was shocked or surprised (or maybe scared.) Jack didn't like that idea at all. I guess he wanted a traditional, less emotional snowman. So, we found one of his toys that looked like a big smiling mouth. Check out First News tomorrow morning... we'll have a picture of the Gish snowman along with other snow people made by the First News crew. Donna's is the most creative, although she sort of cheated. (There was no actual snow involved.)

Well, since I complained about winter weather recently on this blog, I figure I needed to acknowledge Mother Nature when she gave us a "perfect" January snowfall. It'll be even more perfect if it's the last snow we get for a while.

Our region and the entire country has been enthralled by the story of two Missouri boys found in an apartment near St. Louis. One boy's story was amazing enough: four days after being kidnapped, the keen eye of a teenager and sharp police work by two officers helped track him down. But that's not all. Police find not one, but two boys in the apartment and the second boy had been missing, not for four days, but for four years. Incredible.

These stories usually don't end happily, of course, certainly not after four years. The case has given hope to dozens of parents who are still searching for their missing child. You can only imagine the joy of the reunions after this amazing discovery.

On the flip side, both of the boys are going to have to work through a lot of issues, particularly Shawn Hornbeck, who was a captive for so long. This case is also raising a lot of questions: why didn't Hornbeck get help? Why didn't he just run away? Authorities and psychologists say it's not that easy. It's hard to judge someone, especially a child, who is thrown into that kind of situation.

Hopefully, the media spotlight will soon fade for these two families who need time to heal and celebrate. However, the story provides something that can seem to be in short supply sometimes: hope. Hope that even horrible situations can have a happy ending.

Talk about a shock to the system. It's getting wintry around here... very quickly. There's no doubt we've been spoiled this winter. We've had very mild temperatures and only one true winter weather event, and even that one didn't affect the entire metro. Although folks down south had to get out their shovels, residents in the Northland saw very little snow in the late November storm.

Now, temperatures are dropping quickly and the frozen precipitation is on the way as well. I know I'm not alone in hoping for snow. Not because I necessarily love the white stuff, but because that means it isn't ice. I'll take six inches of snow over a half inch of ice any day of the week. With snow, you know what you're dealing with. I hate driving on a road that seems to be just wet, but scared to death that the pavement will turn icy as soon as I tap the brakes. Not fun.

This storm isn't easy for my friends in the KMBC weather center, either. Bryan, Joel and the team have a tough job figuring out when it will be raining, freezing raining, sleeting and snowing. I think they'd also rather have a regular snow event. This "wintry mix" stuff is for the (snow) birds.

All right, enough of my complaining. As I mentioned, we've had it pretty good this season. As long as I don't end up in a ditch after hitting a patch of ice, I'll try to take this blast of winter in stride. Spring is only a few months away...

That was kind of depressing, wasn't it? First, the holiday season ended, which is always a downer, and now the Chiefs season is over. And it wasn't pretty.

In my last blog, I mentioned all the reasons that the Chiefs had a good shot at beating the Colts. One of them held true, sort of. Peyton Manning did just about everything he could do to keep the Chiefs in the game. When the opposing quarterback gives you three interceptions in a playoff game, you have to make him pay. Of course, the Chiefs could not and did not. Otherwise, the "conventional wisdom" about how the game would play out was wrong. Very wrong.

The Chiefs couldn't run the ball against Indianapolis. That's right, a team built around the running game and featuring one of the best running backs in the NFL (and one of the toughest ever) could muster nothing against a Colts defense that allowed anyone and everyone to rush for 100 yards. And when it became obvious the Chiefs were not going to win the game on the ground, there seemed to be no backup plan.

All of this lead to a very sad Saturday in KC. For our beloved local team, the NFL season is over. But remember sports fans: spring training is only 40 days away.

Okay, let's acknowledge this fact first: the Chiefs are lucky to be in the playoffs. Yes, Herm, lucky. Our boys slid in the back door. They did, indeed, win an important game last Sunday to make it all happen, but when you need three other teams to lose as well, and two of those three losses come in overtime, that is the football definition of "lucky."

But now it's time to move on from that little debate. It doesn't matter anymore how they Chiefs got there... they're in the postseason. They've got a shot. And after giving up on them weeks ago (myself included), all the Kansas City football fans are squarely back on the wagon. Now everyone (myself included) is talking about the Colts' weak rush defense. Hand the ball to Larry Johnson and we win, right? Right?

I hope so. I'll be glued to the TV on Saturday afternoon with everyone else in town. I'm also a Penn State alumnus so I'm rooting for my fellow Nittany Lion, Larry Johnson, to run over every defender he sees. Of course, the Colts have some quarterback guy who's pretty good. Oh, but he can't win the big game. He can't win in the playoffs. The Chiefs are a shoo-in then, right? A bad run defense and a superstar who can't win in the playoffs. It all adds up to a great day for a city starved for some postseason football success. Right??

Well, no matter what happens, I'm just glad to be watching a Chiefs playoff game this weekend. I was thinking about making a prediction here on the blog, but I thought better of it. It's easier with no paper trail (Blog Trail?) to point to, right?

First of all, Happy New Year everyone. I hope your holiday season was fun and filled with good times. The Gish Christmas went as expected: Jack got lots of gifts and the rest of us enjoyed his holiday enthusiasm. Of course, our 7-month-old, Kate, is a little too young to get into the whole Christmas thing yet, but her time will come.

Some local folks started off the new year in a unique way and I enjoyed being there to see it. A group of 30 or so people camped out at the Loose Park office overnight Monday in freezing cold temperatures. It looked like something that would happen on Black Friday. However, these hearty souls weren't shoppers... they were there for love.

Tuesday was the first day couples could reserve a spot in the Rose Garden at Kansas city's Loose Park for a wedding. If you've ever visited the garden, you know why it's a very popular spot to get hitched. With all the flowers blooming, it's simply beautiful. It's first come, first served for wedding reservations so bundled brides-to-be (and some grooms) started showing up at 8:30 Monday night to be first in line Tuesday morning. Yes, these people were hardcore.

The saddest moment of the morning happened right way. Shockingly, the first couple in line didn't get the day they wanted. How could that happen?? Well, some days throughout the year are unavailable because of other events in the park and after the couple had waited for nearly 12 hours, they found out the day they had already booked the reception hall, the caterer, etc. wasn't an option. Anyone who has been through the stresses of wedding planning couldn't help but feel for the young couple as they tried to figure out what to do. They picked another date and told me if they couldn't move all the other things like the reception to the new day, they'd have their wedding somewhere else.

It was much better news for the other early birds. They nervously approached the table when their number was called and many yelped in joy when they found out their day was available. You could see the relief in their faces as they walked out the door... one more wedding mission accomplished.

Marriage isn't easy sometimes, but if you can survive a cold night with no sleep to try to start things off on the right foot, you just might make it through the minefields of married life.