Olympic Fever

I was so totally sick of the olympics as we wound up to the opening ceremonies. Money being cut for everything everywhere and we're paying millions for a sport extravaganza. The athletes are not the average joe, they have trainers, chefs, physiotherapists, and etc. The money involved is incredible. The parents either had money to support their kids to become skaters/skiers/whatevers or sacrificed a lot to ensure their kids continued training. The sports are not accessible by all, more by the haves as opposed to the have nots.
I go to Zellers and they ask me to donate money to the athletes when I'm buying stuff.
When I was dissing the olympics a friend said to me, "Well the government pays for doctors to train so why not athletes?" Well, that doesn't even make sense to me. Doctors save lives and keep us healthy (if we choose to eat and exercise right) and athletes ski fast. How is that possibly the same thing?
I'm ticked.
And then the games started....
And I got swept up in the fever, the feeling, the joy...
I was walking my dogs up on the ski hill just after the games started and a kid around 15 says to me from the side of the road where he was building a jump....."Hay, did you see the mens moguls??? It was awesome!" This was a kid that most likely would not have spoken to me under normal circumstances.....I'm not cool.....this was my first little inkling that there might be more involved than I thought.....
Hubby had tickets for hockey games, so off we went.
The ferry was full of people wearing canadian flags, hats, shirts, younameits.....
Everyone was happy...
The atmosphere in Vancouver was electric.
I found myself in tears watching the athletes.
I'm such a naysaying geek.
It was SO MUCH FUN being at the games!!!! (And don't ask about me trying to get in to the hockey arena with not ONE but TWO pocketknives........)
We scared our children while we watched the US-canada hockey game on TV.....yelling and screaming.....
My kids LOVED the closing ceremonies, so I loved it too. What other country could mock itself? The huge flying moose, floating beavers and lumberjacks running around in canoes???? They were entranced.....and then NEIL YOUNG!!! Wow.
Ok, and I have to say this, the torch was a torch, not an advertisement for BC Bud. I can't look at the torch without thinking DOOBIE.
Not that I know what a doobie is.
Are the olympics sustainable? I really wonder. The cash output by hosting countries has got to have some effect, I think, at some point???
So what do we have left over? A bunch of happy canucks with some really big bills to pay. Was it worth it? Remains to be seen I guess......