The Olympic torch is burning and I am parked in front of the TV.

For most of my life the Olympics have been something I actually aspired to. I wanted to race downhill on skis in the Olympic games. I wanted to ski as fast as I could and compete with the world. In my secret of secrets I dreamed of the podium but mostly I dreamed of the race.

Of course I never came close to making this dream a reality, but… oh how… I dreamed.

In the 70’s I went wild watching Spider Sabich, the Crazy Canuks, and especially Franz Klammer. I was in awe of these Olympic heroes and I still am. Sweet Mark McMorris took my heart early in this years games. He won a bronze medal in the snow board and I loved rooting for him.

My world stops for the two weeks the Olympics are on. I rush to do household chores during the breaks, but really not much gets done. I am hand quilting my latest quilt just to feel somewhat productive as I flip the clicker from channel to channel. I’m glad we live in Canada and can watch several events on several channels, including the French one. We realize in the states they only show the gold medal American competitors, but in Canada, they showed the Olympics! It is great, and we’ve seen amazing performances by all the countries.

In the novel The Last Chinese Chef, the fictional creator of the cook book, writes, “Give thought to opulence. Too much is perverse. But extravagance of some kind is important — it could be an ingredient, effort or talent.” This makes sense to me.

I really hate the opulence and the hoopla that surrounds the Olympics. Parts of it seem pretty perverse to me — but the extravagance of watching someone fly down a mountain is just plain cool.