Face forward - even if not moving forward

Well, it seems "Where I Live" posts are becoming all the rage among my Opera friends (well two, anyway). I'll add photos here and there as time permits..
(Addition 1: Hamilton Rail Trail pics July 9, 2009)


First off, Hamilton is in the province of Ontario in the country of Canada. It's at the headwaters of Lake Ontario; and being at the edge of the Niagara Escarpment, this city has the distinction of being the waterfall capital of the world. As an example, Mt. Albion Falls is a 20 minute walk from my apartment.

This picture I took of a roaring Webster's Falls a few years ago is one of the best I've ever seen anywhere; notice the base of a rainbow on the lower right corner.

One of the interesting things about many of the falls here is the huge hole or crater burrowed by powerful water streams as glaciers melted and retreated. This picture has a melting hole that is well over 30m (100ft) across and cut back over 1km (over 2/3 mile) from the edge of the escarpment.


One of many, many conservation areas inside the Hamilton city limits.

Most of the conservation areas are linked together by the Bruce Trail. The Bruce Trail is over 800km (500mi) in length, stretching from Niagara Falls to Tobermory.


This is the view of my front door..

This is the view from my balcony in winter..


Hamilton is more popularly known as "Steeltown" due to the long history of steel making giants Stelco and Dofasco (but currently known as U.S. Steel - Hamilton and Arcelor-Mittal). If you download and view the split skyline photo below, much of Hamilton's waterfront is dominated by the piers and plants of these two companies.


A place I spend a lot of time is my church. My principal work there is audio/visual and all things related to that. This is me posing at the sound booth I designed and built a few years ago.


Now all of this doesn't include McMaster University, McMaster Hospital, The Hamilton Tiger Cats (a professional football team) or the Royal Botanical Gardens. More on these a little later...

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One interesting man-made feature very near where I live is the Hamilton Rail Trail. It's an abandoned railway line that travels along the edge of the Niagara Escarpment from downtown to within 0.5 km of my apartment. The rails and gravel have been removed and the bed paved over to provide almost 5kms of very smooth pathway. The grade is very gradual and scenic lookouts are placed every now and again. Becuase I haven't bicycled in a long time, my legs were really hurting.

Here's a shot of the trail near a lookout.


A shot from the lookout toward Hamilton Harbour.


A picture of steps installed to climb up the escarpment. There are tracks on the outer edges of the steps for people to roll their bicycles up or down. This is one part of the steps going from halfway to the base...


Going from halfway to the top of the escarpment...


The view eastward at the top of the escarpment.

I really, really hope Canada's Olympians begin making progress and get to the podium soon. Day 4 and there have been a number of "medal hopefuls" who are dropping off in the first round. It's also disappointing to see some get to a semi-final and then come in last or next-to-last.

The CBC is covering the Olympics well with a small army of their regular broadcasters. With lack of "Canadian content" in the finals, my interest is waning quickly...

August 21 Update:
We are getting some medals in some of our more traditional "top flight" programs: rowing and diving. Here's a spoiler - a bronze in 200m hurdles! Where did she come from? Another one was men's trampoline! A writer for the National Post questioned the effort we put into getting a medal at the Olympics. I still remember the elation at winning the sprints in Atlanta in '96.

Funny; we don't blink an eye at the expense and effort we put into hockey...and we always expect to win.

August 23 Update:
Although I fell asleep watching the Olympics yesterday, I did manage to wake up in time to watch the 500m Kayak race where Adam Van Koeverdon was going to make an attempt to redeem himself from his disastrous 1K race Wednesday. I've never seen a Canadian so not excited to get a silver medal. His post race camera-in-your-face interview revealed he had some sort of inner tensions (demons?) holding him back from being relaxed and enjoying his outing. He seemed to be pushing against a lot more barriers than the water and time... It was great to see him smile at the podium and get through one of the worst 24 hours of his stellar career.

Perhaps the most disappointed silver medal winner I've ever seen was a boxing final between a France and Cuban competitor. The Frenchman lost a chance at gold because of a holding penalty in the last minute of the last round (it added 2 points to his opponent). He began wailing at the sound of the final bell — and kept on wailing. A tough break for an undisciplined thing to do.

My favourite story thus far is the German super heavyweight weightlifter. He won gold by 1kg worth of collective lifts in memory of his wife who was killed in a car accident less than 6 months ago. The camera shot of him holding the flowers in one hand, his late wife's picture in the other and his beaming face with a gold medal around his neck was priceless. Although obviously excited, I wouldn't want to be hugging this guy when he was bouncing around the platform with elation — his coach didn't mind getting a big squeeze though...