Sochi Olympics 2014 - We Now Return to Our Regular Scheduled Programming

Well for the last 17 days like many other people I was pretty glued to my television 24/7.  It is not the first Olympics I have watched and probably won't be the last. I usually take time to view both summer and winter games but I am partial to the winter for obvious reasons.

I remember my first  viewing was 1968 when Peggy Fleming won the gold for the U.S. Probably not a surprise to some but that games may have turned out differently if not for the plane crash in 1961 that claimed the team that probably would have competed in 1968. My first introduction to Peggy was one of the first rink shows I went too around this time. Peggy was representing a local figure skating club and was the star draw that year.

Jump to 1976 the year of Dorothy Hamill fever.  Her bright pink dress and her signature haircut (I never could pull off that one) her American Sweetheart looks and rather meek personality still warm people to this day. In a recent Google search of her I found out that each year she has a skater's camp in Arizona. If you have $4,500 you too can spend the week with her and learn the tricks of the trade. What a bucket list item that would be.

In 1984 Scott Hamilton wore the gold medal. Even while he was commentating the evening games this time its love of the sport, spirit and enthusiasm brought a whole different spin to the games. I have to admit his play by play was a breath of fresh air from long time commentating by Dick Button from years past.

Brian Boitano won gold in 1988. It was pretty special to see him skate for the gold. Who would think he is now a television personality on food and design channels.

1992 brought the year of Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan drama. Although the skating world is never far away from some sort of drama, Nancy winning bronze that year seemed like a fitting end to a strange year in the skating world. The 20 year revisited piece they did at the closing ceremony coverage was both a little sad and hopefully the end to a still tragic story. Tonya's banning from the skating association was equal to Pete Rose being banned from the Baseball Hall of Fame in my opinion. She was a pioneer in skating, maybe all not for the right reasons but her life struggles are really no different that anyone else. It seems like she is on the right path and although she truly didn't seem as recovered as Nancy who actually took the brunt of the distraction and drama, Nancy still can hit the ice with her head held high.

Tara Lipinski won gold in Nagano in 1998. Pretty much another come out of nowhere from the U.S. did what she needed to do then retired at 15. How many can say that!

One note on the Tara/Johnny duo.  I am pretty sure NBC put them in the mix for a reason. Not just to bring a younger perspective to the commentating and their raw, direct comments on each skater was sometimes a little harsh. The dueling hairpieces and jewelry for me was also a little distracting.  Keeping that on the ice was what I watched for.

The special milestones were also fun. Seeing ice dancers White and Davis get gold was definitely not unexpected. I personally knew from the beginning they were our real only hope for medals this year: honesty. Ice dancing started with easy to intricate patterns on ice to almost having a really difficult time finding the difference unless you really know skating between dance and pair skating. There has definitely become a very small line between the two again in my opinion. But still fun to watch.

Carolina Kostner and Mao Asada had the best programs of the ladies. Kostner's fine lines both on ice and in her costumes were from skating of old. Both skaters put their hearts, souls and sweat into skating. It is especially not often that someone can come back from a 16th place short program and end up in 6th place.  My feeling was that the Russian and Korean skaters were their more for their government then for themselves. Where Yuna Kim skated with very little emotion Adelina Sotinkova skated like the energizer bunny and not a lot of grace. One is set to retire and the other well who really knows if you we  will see her in another Olympic Games with little Yulia Lipnitskaya on her heels. I hope Yulia is someone who we will see in the future.

Skating has and always will be a subjective sport. The scoring is still flawed and more will come out I am sure about it in the coming weeks. Back in the good old days when the score keepers had boxes around their necks with numbers from 0-6 in them and someone would yell "marks" and they would pull out a card in each hand are long gone, but what they have even skaters are having a hard time understanding much less the non-skater. Just when I really got the old scoring down they changed it to something I wouldn't even waste time on. But in a nutshell, Russian won the gold because she started out with more content (jumps, tricks) and her artistic and extras put her over the top and also it helped that she was in Russia.

Overall everything I watched was fun, the back stories in every sport brought tears to my eyes. Disappointed that we didn't get medals in long track speed skating but I am sure they will also go back to the drawing board like all the other sports that competed and see what can be done better. With that we will now return to our regular scheduled programming and our routine lives.

An extra back story to the Olympics experience of 2014 was my three year old granddaughter enjoyed watching and skating around on the carpet that with much pushing from her and my granddaughter got me back on the ice after a 5 year hiatus. It wasn't for very long, and it was on a very tiny rink, I didn't do any "tricks" but the smell of refrigerant put a thought that maybe I might try and get to a rink more often. This old elephant hasn't forgotten how to skate.

You Say Goodbye and I'll Say Hello

It seems to me the last several weeks for me has been a full schedule of this. Some good and some sad.  With a not so welcome hello our bitter cold weather seems to continue forever and added too it snow came hand in hand with it. I think the older most people get the less tolerant some get with it not only joint wise but also some of us do not do well in hibernation mode. But, unfortunately Mother Nature has her own mixed up plan and the ground hog extended winter by at least six weeks for most around the country. For my west coaster's the rain dancing must have paid of finally.

It hardly seems possible that the Beatles celebrated their 50th Anniversary together this week. Although, only two are left, their music will live on forever for many people. I was too young to really remember anything from the British invasion but I do have one Beatles album tucked away in my eclectic collection. Thanks grandpa for that one. Over the years I have enjoyed several of their top songs but probably my favorite is "Yesterday". The words to it probably are more prolific for me personally now more than ever.

For those who watch late night television an icon bid farewell. Jay Leno said nighty night for the second time. This time what seemed to be on his own terms. I never watched Johnny Carson growing up and really didn't start watching Jay Leno until about 17 years ago. Living on the west coast his show didn't start until 11:30 PST. and I was always fast asleep by then. Until a sudden jolt back in 1994 (Northridge Earthquake) did Jay become my nightly buddy. After the quake I had to have the television on and Jay and I were together for one year faithfully. After we moved I pretty much watched his show almost every night. I guess I felt he was my west coast connection. Also I will admit I did see him frequently when I would skate at the Burbank ice rink. The studio was right down the street and sometimes I could see him driving around in some of his crazy, unique vehicles. I remember once he was stalled at an intersection in his vintage fire truck. People were honking and waving.

 I have watched Jimmy Fallon and he seems to be a good fit for the changing times. Although I do see some similarities. Time will tell.

 Warsaw Dam 2009

My last physical goodbye isn't truly a goodbye forever though. This past week I said see you later, to a good friend.  We have been friends for 6 1/2 years, and although we won't be just down the street anymore social media and the traditional phone call will be our way of keeping the lines of communication and our friendship alive.