Some days . . .

I don't always take photos at work, not my main job, but some times a day turns interesting.

I was ahead of things on Wednesday and went down to the river to see if there were any bald eagles about on Wednesday. Sure enough I saw a juvenile near the Vedder Bridge tearing apart a salmon. I tried to take a photo but it took off. I saw where it went and I went after it. Took a bunch of shots that would otherwise have been cool, but because it was a young and mottled sort of looking bird, not so much. And then an adult came cruising in and while the focus on the white-headed eagle isn't totally sharp, I though this was a cool shot because the screeching juvenile's beak is pretty sharp.

After this I headed back to the office. I drove all the way back and approached the left turn on to Trethewey when I saw sirens in the rearview mirror. Four cop cars when flying past me and, well, I carried on to see where they were going all while calling the office to hear what was happening on the scanner.

Turns out another sketchy building in the sketchy section of downtown Chilliwack caught fire. Lots of people, some of which might have had jobs, all of which had animals were out on the streets. The reunion between one woman and her dog not captured here was a great shot but I just missed it. Well, I got it, but focus was soft. So many "almost" shots in this job . . .

Then later I got a text from someone I know about a "photo-op" and I followed up. We rarely go below zero in Chilliwack let alone enough below to freeze up a slough this solid. Sure enough a few hockey players were enthusiastically playing hockey on the Gravel Slough off Camp River Road. Best of all was when I heard two of the three guys saying to the third that he should probably go since it was 3:55. And I thought the slough off to the east might have been less sturdily frozen but this young guy took off and skated and skated and skated. A very cool and rare image here in the Fraser Valley.

from the air

I took a helicopter trip to the north end of Harrison Lake recently to get a tour of a few "run-of-river" Independent Power Projects. I put "run-of-river" in quotations marks because they are in no way run-of-river. The water is diverted to a pipe, which is run under ground for between one and four kilometres to a power station after which it is connected back with the stream.

The projects are lauded by the provincial Liberal government who love IPPs because of the "I". Independent, i.e. private, i.e. not public. The Libs want everything to be privatized and power is a fabulous first step.

The projects are slammed by critics that say, well, lots. The run-of-river B.S. is a start, but there have also been many criticisms of illegal bridge-building and road-making and begging of forgiveness. Privatizing power is another knock on this program as profits in the hands of shareholders naturally ends up as a taxpayers' expense. The fact that Cloudworks—the company behind these six projects and four more they will easily get government support to create—invited up some of us local media means that they think seeing them first hand would force us to give our heads a shake and say, "Golly, how could we criticize this!"

Brilliant idea and it probably worked. And on the other hand, to those opposed to the projects I would ask, "What's your plan for electricity?" If you live in a yurt, kill and gather your own food, then good on you. For the rest of us who enjoy lights and stoves and clean laundry I say, change the routine or pick the lesser of many evils.

Anyway, enough pontificating, these are three pics we didn't run in the paper from that flight. One is of a jet boat cruising into the Harrison River on the flight to the IPPs. One is of a waterfall at the base of what is left of Trethewey Creek before it meets up with the water diverted for the IPP. And the other is just a view of Harrison Mills.

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