Tuesday, January 08, 2008

More photos from today...

My cousin came up from Texas, so we spent the afternoon going about town. There was no shortage photo opportunities today. I'm bunching them up into one long blog post for convenience. Click on photos to see larger versions (7 MPixel, ~2MB).

First off, there was the fog. Beautiful, beautiful fog. Here's a shot of Central Park from Bank Street (taken around 2pm, though you wouldn't know it to see it):

Another thing I saw is Para Transpo's new livery. In fact, it looks like new vehicles, too. I had noticed one a couple days ago, but couldn't snap a photo in time.

Background: As of January 1, 2008, Para Transpo is now operated directly by the City of Ottawa (whose transportation department was the only bidder on the RFP). The contract with FirstBus Canada to deliver the transit service for people with special mobility needs ran out at the end of the year.

Next up is a photo I took last night. I bring my bike into my house (for both security and convenience), and in the winter, even though I brush off as much snow as I can, it still drips onto the floor. So I have a couple floor mats to collect the salty water.

While cleaning these mats last night, I noticed that the salt had crystallized on the ridges of the floor mat as the water evaporated--thick enough that it came off in chunks. I thought it was pretty cool, and snapped a photo before cleaning it off (the camera's flash was too bright and the room light too dim, so I used a flashlight):

Almost done...

We walked up Sparks street, and I noticed the Ottawa Electric Building for the first time. Walking back on Queen Street, I noticed something even stranger. It must be the narrowest building in Ottawa. At only about three or four brick-lengths across, this red (former) building is squeezed between the Ottawa Electric Building and the NCC headquarters in the Bell Block (see page 28 of this magazine (PDF)--in fact, I recommend the OCA's Construction Comment magazine for its full-colour photos of area construction sites and Ottawa architectural history):

Lastly, as we left the restaurant on Preston Street and headed to the bus stop on Carling, we noticed a neat etching in the pavement (akin to people's initials, but less egotistical):


Hope you enjoyed them!

- RG>

Since it's not winter...

[Edit: Added photo]

As they say, there's two seasons in Ottawa: Winter and construction.

And true to that, the City has taken advantage of the Spring-like weather and put many roadwork crews out to dig, patch, and do other maintenance.


Kudos to the road department for their initiative!

- RG>