Oh, Canada!

I woke up 20 minutes after the alarm went off on Friday. In my dream, it was a car alarm that was very annoying. In reality, it was just Life, calling me back from the shades...

They had plowed the road Thursday, which was nice, I guess. But, now I have a new mound of snow to try and drive through, which was not so nice. It took two tries, but I finally got out.

I came home after 5:00 PM, got the car back in the garage and then walked out to get the mail. I'm still not brave enough to drive the car into the plowed snow next to the mailbox.

I treated the cats and changed clothes. I hustled around a bit (washing a few things in the sink, opening the mail, etc.) and checked my phone messages. There were two: one telling me my new glasses were in and I could pick them up between 9-12 Saturday morning and one from CVS, saying my automatic refill prescriptions were ready. So, I now have errands to run Saturday morning.

I watched the news, waiting impatiently for the opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada. They have been unfortunately marred by the death of Nodar Kumaritashvili on the luge track earlier today. He was from the former Soviet Republic of Georgia and died after a horrific accident during training.

They are supposed to start at 7:30 PM, so at 7:00 I warmed up a big bowl of the shrimp and Alfredo pasta, topped with fresh-grated Parmigiano-Reggiano and ate my dinner. Then I went in to watch the opening ceremony.

Well, that was a bit of overstatement! The actual "ceremony" didn't start until after 9:00 PM!! Until that time, though, I was treated with vistas of Vancouver (stunning), interviews with various American athletes (interesting) and a replay of the accident (god-awful).

I thought the ceremony itself was great. Certainly NOT as overwhelming as the Chinese Summer Olympics, but then again, Canada doesn't have that many people, lol! They quoted one statistic that said there are more people in the state of California than all of Canada. I find that hard to believe, though. Let's see, I've been to Toronto, London, Windsor, Sarnia, Calgary and even Red Deer, Alberta, and always saw bustling communities. Hmmm... come to think of it, between Calgary and Red Deer there wasn't much but open land, grazing cows and the occasional oil pump. I dunno... But, I digress...

Anyway, the ceremony was a mix of pomp and circumstance and special effects. I especially liked the "First Nation" episode (I think that's what they called them - hey, I was watching the show, not taking notes! We would call them Native Americans, here). It reminded me of the many, many powwows I've been to.

The singers were excellent. There was a bit of a problem with lighting the Olympic flame (one of the four columns didn't rise) but they carried on and carried it off.

It ended a little after midnight and I went to bed.