And Now the News

Bear Valley Springs is an exceptionally quiet community. When we were considering moving here and looking into car insurance rates, the representative did a audible double take when researching the crime statistics for BVA. When The Husband heard the strange silence and asked what was going on, the answer was, “There really isn’t enough crime there to register. Where did you say this is again?” Bear Valley Springs is a deliciously boring place to live compared to even the smallest but lively burg out there.

So, imagine my surprise when about 7 PM last night I saw flashing red lights outside the windows of our home office. It turns out that what may have been the most newsworthy event to transpire in BVS in the last five or ten years happened outside our front door on Bear Valley Road. There were three police cars (that may very well be the entire BVS police department) and a lone gray sedan. There appeared to have been an arrest, the car was searched thoroughly and finally towed away. No additional details available at this time.

At first, I was using my binoculars to see as much of the action as possible (our house is set back quite far from the road). I wanted so badly to get closer, but my conscience wouldn’t let me. I didn’t want to risk getting in the way, so I squelched my burning curiosity and stayed on the porch snooping. After about a minute with the binoculars, I decided,
“What the heck.” Although I knew that any photos taken would be blurry, grainy, and, as dark as it was, not much more than a pattern of glaring red lights, I decided to go for it. With nothing to lose, I grabbed the 20D (since it had the 200mm f4 on it) cranked the ISO to 3200 and shot a few—still from the porch, just for fun. So there you have it: my one and only foray into crime photography. And, no, there aren’t likely to be any further similar stories filed in the future.

And, finally, after numerous complaints about plain skies, we awoke this morning to this splendid sunrise.

(Click on the thumbnail for the bigger, better version)