Viva La Olympiad
Tonight as I was driving home, a light snow greeted me as I pulled into town. Despite the unseasonably warm temperatures that we've been having (at one point we were only three degrees cooler than Pheonix), winter showed up almost like confetti to celebrate the opening night of the Winter Olympic games this evening.
We don't do many sports things in our house together. I watch my football alone. Robo has his eXtreme games. Mom has her ice skaters and ballroom. But we all come together for the Olympics. Summer and Winter. We started being real followers with the winter games, though, back in 1994. I imagine we're not alone in that. You remember those games, don't you. Those crazy ice skater clubbing games that grabbed the headlines. We were in living in Virginia Beach at the time. I was finishing Grad school. Our one child, our little Kitten, only three years old, played around on the floor like her feline namesake.
A few years later my folks actually got to attend the Atlanta games. I remember waking one morning during that week to the announcement of a bombing at an outdoor concert that took several lives. My blood turned to ice. I know how my parents like to take in free outdoor entertainment and I was panicked trying to think of a way to contact them to see if they were ok or not. Of course, I learned later, to my relief, that they were ok. Still sad though for the people effected by that senseless act.
But my dad's involvement in those games went beyond just a spectator. The little company of under a hundred employees that he works for somehow got the contract to cut a critical piece that went into the manufacture of the torches for those games. It was a hollow cylinder that housed the flame. My folks have one of the pieces in their house. A proud contribution.
And now tonight we were here again in front the TV, all huddled together on the sofa enjoying what could be arguably one of the few truly international events covered on American television. Little Bear faded out first. Then before it was over Kitten had to go to bed early for another speech competition tomorrow. Lemur conked out next on the chair and I carried him to bed before the flame was lit. So only the Robo, the mom and I were here to see the end of the opening.
I must say I liked the fireworks opening much better than the stalled out flying saucer that the U.S. had to light the flame when we hosted the games. Some of the original music was very cool, too. I hope it shows up on iTunes. I didn't quite understand why cultural cradle of European music played U.S. disco and pop tunes for the parade of countries though, but whatever.
I'm sitting here cozy in the surprise V-day gift I found from my mom when I got home tonight---Jack Skellington Pajamas!
I have very jealous children right now.
We don't do many sports things in our house together. I watch my football alone. Robo has his eXtreme games. Mom has her ice skaters and ballroom. But we all come together for the Olympics. Summer and Winter. We started being real followers with the winter games, though, back in 1994. I imagine we're not alone in that. You remember those games, don't you. Those crazy ice skater clubbing games that grabbed the headlines. We were in living in Virginia Beach at the time. I was finishing Grad school. Our one child, our little Kitten, only three years old, played around on the floor like her feline namesake.
A few years later my folks actually got to attend the Atlanta games. I remember waking one morning during that week to the announcement of a bombing at an outdoor concert that took several lives. My blood turned to ice. I know how my parents like to take in free outdoor entertainment and I was panicked trying to think of a way to contact them to see if they were ok or not. Of course, I learned later, to my relief, that they were ok. Still sad though for the people effected by that senseless act.
But my dad's involvement in those games went beyond just a spectator. The little company of under a hundred employees that he works for somehow got the contract to cut a critical piece that went into the manufacture of the torches for those games. It was a hollow cylinder that housed the flame. My folks have one of the pieces in their house. A proud contribution.
And now tonight we were here again in front the TV, all huddled together on the sofa enjoying what could be arguably one of the few truly international events covered on American television. Little Bear faded out first. Then before it was over Kitten had to go to bed early for another speech competition tomorrow. Lemur conked out next on the chair and I carried him to bed before the flame was lit. So only the Robo, the mom and I were here to see the end of the opening.
I must say I liked the fireworks opening much better than the stalled out flying saucer that the U.S. had to light the flame when we hosted the games. Some of the original music was very cool, too. I hope it shows up on iTunes. I didn't quite understand why cultural cradle of European music played U.S. disco and pop tunes for the parade of countries though, but whatever.
I'm sitting here cozy in the surprise V-day gift I found from my mom when I got home tonight---Jack Skellington Pajamas!
I have very jealous children right now.
posted by Will at 9:11 PM
1 Comments:
so, what happened to your 5 on the the 5th?????
I only watch the figure skating!
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