Saturday, February 13, 2010

Olympics, Day Two

There was nothing much on this morning, so we betook ourselves today downtown to see the amazing torch that was lit up by none other than Wayne Gretzky last night.

(Amusing Wayne story: When I was in my primary years at school, Wayne was the hero of most of the small boys. At the time, he played for the Edmonton Oilers, and so most of the kids cheered for that team even over the Vancouver Canucks, which were technically closer but didn't have number 99. One day in third grade, we had a very special show and tell because one of the boys had written a letter to Wayne and Wayne had written back. We were all in awe. He got to stand at the front and read it to us. It was a momentous occasion. Such is life growing up in Canada.)

Anyway. We didn't bother with the car, preferring to take a short bus ride to the new train line and take the train into downtown. The Boy got to stand at the very front (which I think was the highlight of the trip for him) and pretend to drive the train. We got downtown in the spitting rain and walked a few blocks to the torch site ... and had a great look at it from 100m away through the chain link fence. They had, at least, kindly taken down some of the banners so we could see it relatively unobstructed.

Yeah.

I admit I'm not terribly fond of the Games, but the protesters sure are ruining it for everyone. Not the protesters who just have signs; I have no problem with people standing up for what they believe, in a nice respectful way (damn, I really am Canadian!) It's just the protesters who seem to come to create mayhem and don't give a damn for the issues, they are just looking for a reason to break a window or two.

I hate that we live in a society where there are people like that.

Anyway we saw the thing along with about a thousand other people, The Boy got tired and unhappy, and we decided to go home to our cozy place and watch a few events at home. I enjoyed the speed skating (man, I can't believe those guys can skate 5km in six minutes! That's plain crazy!) the women's moguls (although my knees hurt just watching them!) and the women's hockey (go Canada go!). Although in the latter game when the Canadian women scored four times in the first ten minutes I did think that they might want to back off and make the Slovaks feel like they had a hope in hell of getting a goal.

We're polite but we play hockey like demons, it seems.

Anyway the Olympics are on pause right now in the midst of that game (don't tell me how it turns out) while The Man puts the child to bed. We had breaded pork chops and fried potatoes and green beans for dinner, and I'm eating chocolate in case Monday's diabetes test comes back and tells me I have to give it all up for Lent (and a little beyond). Alas not being terribly Christian I think that my giving up sugar for Lent and beyond won't give me much in the way of heavenly grace.

You know, except for my own health and the baby's, which are I suppose rather important.

Anyway. Events are going ahead at most venues despite the warm weather (have a look at that footage from Whistler. You have to realize that they are televising the reports from what is literally the bottom of the ski hill; those hotels around the Blackcomb Gondola are ski-in-ski-out in optimum weather. And there are puddles on the ground. People are not wearing gloves. Or hats. I saw one guy in a tshirt. Yeah. Not so good.) and I'm enjoying them. The weather is just supposed to get warmer, though, so we could have some interesting days ahead ... (As I type this ... it's raining outside.)

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