Starting at 12 noon, Pacific Time, all the hockey marbles are up for grabs as the gold medal game between Team USA and Team Canada will get under way. In Canada, you will be hard pressed to find many Canadians anywhere but in front of a TV to watch the match. Following the game there will be great celebrations and wailing and gnashing of teeth regardless of the outcome for one side or the other.
Hot on the heels of the Canadian women winning gold in hockey, and gold, in my opinion, for celebrating at center ice after the game - take that idiot IOC directors - it's time for the Canadian men's hockey team to start their march to gold with a semi-final game tonight at 6:30pm Vancouver time against the Slovaks. Game on!!
This old log building in Mattawa has certainly seen better days (more photos on Mike de Moree's site - see links on the right). It doesn't look like it's slated to be torn down, yet there also seems to be little effort to maintain it, other than plywood over windows and some blue tarping on the roof. It's got a great view of the Ottawa River and the Quebec highlands.
Small northern towns aren't noted for their old historic buildings in the center of their towns. They are few and far between. The harshness of the area doesn't lend itself to austere and wealthy displays of architecture. Here is a chip shop and former motel, now apartment units, on the main street of Mattawa. Considering the town's penchant for large wooden sculptures of people, I'm surprised there isn't one in front of this place.
This is a side entrance doorway "patio" to the hospital.
Looking up at the east side of the hospital, complete with old style balcony.
This is a rear view of the hospital complete with shipping and receiving area.
The shipping and receiving area of the old hospital.
The east end of the Mattawa Hospital.
Mike, Bob and I were in Mattawa on Friday afternoon to take some photos of the Mattawa Hospital, photo shown (check out the link to Mike deMoree photos for additional Mattawa Hospital photos). This is now an abandoned building as the town recently built a new hospital. The old one was used as recently as 6 months ago and is in great dis-repair. Some folks would like to see the old building preserved as a heritage site; however, upon closer inspection, photos to follow later, it is pretty obvious there is not much to preserve. It is pretty apparent it will be knocked down, and I bet a condo will re-surface in its "wake," that will have a fabulous view overlooking the junction of the Mattawa and Ottawa Rivers and the Quebec highlands.
As I was heading out to work yesterday morning I noticed this group of deer walking along the ice in front of our place beyond the pressure crack. They were the same group I almost mowed down last night around midnight as I was returning home from hockey. Lucky for them, and me, I wasn't going fast, and I have anti-lock brakes.
OK, let's go back in time, way back. Who can remember Texaco gas and Fire Chief? Who can remember non-digital readouts of the gas price and volume? Who can remember the little doo-hickey at the top of the pumps that spun around as the gas flowed from the pump into the car's gas tank? If you answered yes to any or all 3 of these "burning" questions, you are a certifiable old-timer.
Pressure crack zig zags along the shoreline.
Ice lifting up due to the pressure crack.
In the 12 winters we've lived on the lake we have never had a pressure crack so large dominate the ice surface in front of our place. This one started off as fairly large, so we thought, last weekend, but since the early week cold snap it really expanded. It cracked about 400 feet off shore, and it zigzags along for about 2 km. In places it's 10 feet across and the ice is piled up 3 to 4 feet high in spots. Both Sunny and I refused to cross over it - as we approached it we could hear the ice cracking again. This is a relatively small crack in comparison to ones on Lake Nipissing at this time of the year, but for Trout Lake in our area, it's huge.
