Best of April

April turned out to have a few good shots, so I've posted them here for your perusal. Enjoy.

--------
This young lady on the monkey bars was enjoying the first warm weekend on the Miramichi.



With a little help from her cousin, of course.

So, in other words, really slow day. So we all got kicked out of the office to go find people to take pictures of for a weather story. I felt like such a weirdo ... what must these people have been thinking? "Hey, you've never seen me before in your entire life, but your kids are really cute, and I'm from the paper, so could I get a picture of them playing?"

That's not exactly what I said. But you'd be amazed how often that works, as evidenced above.

------
This guy, Lt.-Col. Joscelyn Paul, was down in Miramichi for a talk on a novel Canadian strategy for dealing with the Afghan insurgency. It involves not actually killing anyone.


Basically, he talked about this method of theirs where they garrison soldiers in actual Afghan villages, rather than just clearing out the Taliban and going back to base. If they stick around long enough, the villagers realize they can rely on them for security, so they start giving them tips. The guy claims it works, and it sounds like a good idea.

Pity about the Canadian soldiers dying for a hopelessly corrupt Afghan government, though. *sigh*

-----
That big hunk of scrap used to be the engine of a WW2-era torpedo bomber. Like many of its kind, it's been refitted extensively since then, and has seen service in water bomber fleets across the world, including the waterbomber base here in Miramichi.


About half an hour before this shot was taken, it was whirring happily away at a few hundred feet before the pilot of the craft lost control and crashed in the woods near the old airbase in town. He died on impact. Still don't know what happened, but he was in his 60s, and had been flying for 40 years. Probably had a stroke or heart attack or something, since Transport Canada said engine failure wasn't the problem, and it certainly wasn't inexperience. Very sad for his hometown.

--------
Also sad: This month was the birthday of Hilary Bonnell, who was murdered on one of the local First Nations communities last year. To commemorate, around a hundred residents launched purple-coloured Chinese lanterns.


Another example of upping the ISO, trying to keep camera shake to a minimum and hoping for the best. I'm not a good photographer, just a really, really lucky one.

--------
Moving unexpectedly away from the topic of death, believe it or not, here's a car that went flying off the bypass, flipped over a couple of times, then came to rest in the ditch.


The back window just shattered, the shocks and wheels are shot, but the young lady inside walked to the ambulance when it came, to be sped none-too-swiftly back down the same bypass she came up to the hospital.

She seemed quite glum about the whole thing.

--------
Also not involving death in any way, shape or form, here's Graydon Nicholas, New Brunswick's first and newly minted aboriginal Lieutenant-Governor, at a talk for aboriginal youth enrolled in a job training program on Eel Ground First Nation, just outside of town.


He's a better speaker than the last one, who tended descend into university lecture-style utterances. And, of course, by rising to the highest ceremonial office in the land, he's basically a hero to every aboriginal person in the Maritimes.

Impressive ... though I'll be more impressed when we have an aboriginal premier. We'll have to wait a bit longer for that, probably.

--------
And behold!

That magnificent mane and classic '80s suit belongs to Judy Losier, the wife of Dr. Gerard Losier beside her. He's mellow, laid back and obsessed with getting better equipment for the hospital. She's been involved in every community group ever and has the energy of a small nuclear reactor with a higher-than-allowed dose of Plutonium in the hopper.

Never ran this, but I thought it was quite the sight. Also, these two gave $1.5 million to the local hospital foundation, so they're pretty popular.

--------
*Sigh* And here the Losiers are again ... along with the mayor apparently sticking his tongue out and the city councillor on the right looking less than enthused at being there.

Well-timed goof shots FTW.

--------
Aaaaaaand, for your viewing pleasure: The back of my head.


A freelancer took this, and sent it along. Only time I've ever posted a pic of me at work, and what am I doing? I'm having a sip of fine ice brandy at a wine tasting one Saturday. Brilliant.

Hey, c'mon, this is journalism. The pay sucks. Let me have my perks.