Monday 16 January 2012

A Strange Morning Walk


Every morning, I walk on the Alexandria pedestrian bridge from Ottawa to Gatineau on my way to work. This morning, when I got to the pedestrian bridge, I found that it was closed because the police were investigating a "suspicious death" that happened on the bridge yesterday. The part of the bridge for car and truck traffic was open, so a bunch of pedestrians (including me) risked life and limb by walking on the road with the rush hour traffic just a few feet away from us. It seemed strange to me that we were allowed to do something so dangerous, but nobody stopped us.


It was a bitterly cold day. With the windchill, it was about -33 degrees celsius (I think that's about -25 fahrenheit). Everything was white and frosty with cold. I crossed the bridge without incident and hurried to work. 


When I left work in the evening, I found that they had opened the pedestrian bridge again and I could walk across it back to Ottawa. Whew! It felt much safer than it did on the road this morning with cars hurtling toward me. It was warmer too - a balmy -10 degrees!

4 comments:

Elaine said...

The second photo is a delight, so very cold but beautiful, and the two bridge photos brilliantly convey two different stories and feelings - they all work for me. They also help to remind me that dull and grey may be boring, but at least I don't have to worry about slipping on ice and snow - I am notorious for (and terrified by) my lack of balance on slippery surfaces!

Knatolee said...

I heard about that on the news yesterday! Glad you made it across in one piece. SOunds like today's weather will be a big mess.

Ronna said...

Like Knatolee I also thought of you yesterday when on the news they said the pedestrian bridge would be closed. I wondered how the hell you were gonna get to work!

Sarah said...

Oh my goodness - I'm glad you made it across safely! Brrrrr - I'm sorry to hear it is so cold in Ottawa. As if getting to work every day isn't challenging enough!!