Score!

As in I just hit doctor visit number 20 over the last 11 weeks.

Then I came home and fell asleep. I am beat.

Right now I’m watching people wave flags and march into the Olympic stadium in Beijing. At least I am watching the recorded images of what happened about 12 hours ago. Yes, I watch the opening ceremonies, even the boring parts. It’s an old tradition. I used to watch the Olympics with my father and I like to watch the significant moments. The whole time zone issue has kept me from watching a lot of it in recent years, though I hear that they are scheduling things early to be on in prime time in the US.

One year I saw them show a tape of the finals of a track and field event because they had been showing a taped profile of an athlete while the race was being run live and then they showed the recorded race minutes after it was on live. Yes, they preempted a live event to show a tape and then showed the race on tape. Of course that was one of the years that Bryant Gumbel got more airtime than the athletes. I once fast-forwarded through a 6 hour tape and found 15 minutes of actual sports, the rest was talking and commercials. Hopefully this year will be better.

Interesting things I have learning watching the opening ceremonies of the 29th Olympiad: China has only one time zone for the entire country, and highland bagpipes are the international music for marching athletes.

Now, if they’d only add my idea for two new sports: double-dutch jump rope and knife fighting. I’m still undecided about javelin catching.