Winter Olympics

Probably the best thing to ever happen - the Olympic Games - are taking place. To bad for me, I can't remember when the Winter and Summer games were held in the same year...but I like the current format. Splitting them, which fixes my Olympic fix, over two years is totally the way to go! It's tough to decide which games I enjoy the most, but the Winter games are clearly more intimate and easier to follow for a superfan, like me.

And while the games are being held in Canada, America's Hat, isn't a surefire way to doom American hopefuls from the medal stand. As of right now, the American's actually lead the medal count - a pretty amazing feat when you consider that over 1/2 of our country rarely sees any snow. And the places that do see snow, they are so far out in the sticks that few people actually live there. When watching the games, though, it seems that most Americans train in Salt Lake City...I, on the other hand have always considered myself an "East Coast" guy, and would never want to go and spend time in the Pacific Time Zone. I would prefer Lake Placid, where there have been several Winter games, and apparently, a forty foot alligator. When skating on a frozen lake, Apolo Ohno would certainly operate faster, knowing that there might be a giant lizard beneath his blades. The Great Salt Lake? Nothing there, except for snow geese, which are nice, but certainly not deadly to humans.

I especially look forward to the curling portion of the games. I have never curled, nor do I want to do so. I would not look serious in those shoes they wear. It seems that there is a curling club in the Triangle, though...I might have to check that out.

Other sports that are really cool to watch are the speed skating. They appear to be going fast, but not trying too hard. The short track race, the one the Koreans tanked, was as much drama as my brain could withstand. Two Americans, Ohno was one of them, held on after the Koreans let go. It just seems that if you compete in a sport, you should be panting and sweating afterwards. They train for years for one race that ends in just over two minutes. It's like saving all your money just to visit the moond for a minute. It puzzles me why this appears to be a good investment of time, but I don't have the sponsorships and loyalties to afford me much time to think about it any longer.

Moguls skiing also looks fun, if not bad on the legs. Ski jumping is plain ridiculous - humans, without wings, skiing downill to a frozen ramp, propel themselves nearly the length of an American football field. The Biathlon - skiing and shooting...nope. I would have never put that activity together at camp, that is for certain.

The Winter athletes are also a little cooler, literally and figuratively, than the summer athletes. The summer athletes are all muscular and serious. The winter folks - nah. They all have dreadlocks, ponytails, and the like...and nary a muscle. They are just plain adrenaline junkies - which leads to more death-defying stunts. Shaun White's double cork looks much cooler than Usain Bolt's footrace, but that Jamaican sure is fast.

Anyway - that's my irrelevant erspective on the Olympics...

Cabin Fever arrives tomorrow, then Souther Insurance, followed by the Quilter's...then the floodgates open!

Enjoy the day...