Olympic home time

We had a very extended time at home, thanks to a nasty exhaust leak in the cab of the truck. I wondered why I was sleeping so well out there.

Thanks to this extra time, I got to watch eight nights and days of the Olympics. I have always enjoyed the Olympics and missed the Athens games completely, which made me extra happy to get to see so much of the Beijing games.

When I was growing up, my mother instilled in me a love for the Olympics. We didn’t miss a moment of them, and we cheered and booed and groaned and in general thoroughly enjoyed all the action. This was, of course, back in the day when the Soviet Union and the Soviet bloc nations were our greatest enemy. It seemed they were always cheating, and all the men and women looked like they ate steroids at every meal. Gosh, weren’t we cute?

While I still root for the USA athletes, the cheers don’t ring with that patriotic fervor anymore, that fervor which somehow connected medal counts with winning the nuclear arms race. And although it’s a good thing, of course, that the cold war is over, I can’t help but admit I miss the intensity it prompted.

Or maybe it has nothing to do with the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Maybe I’m less fervent because I’m getting older and blander, and it’s harder to get me worked up about this sort of thing. Or maybe it’s because Al-Qaeda isn’t represented at the Olympic games.

At any rate, I enjoyed what I got to see. Too bad I’m going to be missing the last few days, though. I would have loved to see the gold medal game in women’s basketball. I’m a WNBA fan, which means I know all the players on the U.S. squad, and most of the players on the Australian team. It ought to be a great game. Ah well. Perhaps I can catch it on the internet after it’s over.

And I hate that I’m missing seeing Bolt streak down the track in the 4×100 relay (couldn’t believe both the U.S. men and women dropped their batons in the semis). And the men’s platform diving. And the finish of the decathlon. And the volleyball. And …

No, I won’t bemoan anymore. I’m truly just happy that I got to see as much of it as I did. Now, on to the end of the WNBA season, the playoffs and finals. I can’t wait.