I didn’t discover this until a few days ago. I would be online for a few minutes, then I couldn’t connect to anything. Then an hour later, I would be on again. When I mentioned this at work, someone suggested the bathroom. It’s not great, but at least it’s consistent. So now my computer is propped up on the counter next to my sink and my desk chair is squeezed in between the toilet and the tub and here I sit, trying to post to my blog. As you might imagine, sometimes I just didn’t feel like the hassle after a long day at the venue.

Speaking of the venue, managers had internet access on their manager computers, but for the rest of us, we could buy internet access for something like $30/day. My manager let me use his computer on occasion, but I didn’t feel right about doing blog updates on it.

Nonetheless, I’m back in my room, and updating the blog. So here’s the latest. We struck our part of the venue last night after the final day of competition. This means my work here is done. Striking the venue, in case you’re interested, is when we unwire everything, inventory and pack all the gear to be shipped back to OBS, and try to be good campers — leaving the place better than we found it. I’m afraid we may have failed on that last point, but we did our best. Frankly, it would be interesting to come back here next winter and see what the place looks like in real life. Every Olympic experience is somewhat surreal and we all leave here knowing that this isn’t real life.

And speaking of real life, I think I mentioned in an earlier post that we have some students here who are majoring in film and television production. They saw this as an excellent opportunity to get a taste of what it’s really like to work in television. Unfortunately, this ISN’T what it’s really like to work in television. On the plus side, though, so much of what it takes to get the good jobs is knowing the right people, and these students did get to work with the right people. If they did a good job here and stay in touch with their co-workers from the venue, they will go far.

On a different note, I did get a chance to go into Vancouver a couple of days ago to visit the IBC (International Broadcast Center), see the Olympic Flame and, best of all, spend some time with a few friends from my Olympic Venue in Beijing. For me, it’s all about the people. After I get home and have a little time to go through all my photos, I’ll post some more and give you more of the stories.

I will mention here that spontaneity, which used to be central to my way of life, has been in hiding for the past few years. I don’t know why that happened, but it did. Well, it reappeared quite, uh, spontaneously during my Vancouver trip. And when it appeared, good sense went on vacation. I was trying to be frugal and practical so when I found out that what was going to be a free day of skiing was no longer going to be free, I turned down the chance to ski because I didn’t want to spend the money (If gum costs $4/pack, how much does skiing cost? I didn’t want to know). Instead, I met up with my friend, Brian Gray, in Vancouver. We were minding our own business, just having a cup of coffee as we looked out over the harbor to watch the sea planes take off and land. Next thing I knew, I was skimming above the water with about 12 other passengers on a beautiful 45 minute tour of Vancouver and the surrounding mountain range in one of the sea planes I was just watching, and my wallet was $140 lighter. I’m glad we were watching sea planes and not standing next to the Maserati dealership. Spontaneity can get expensive.

That’s all for now. I still have to pack, find a printer in the hotel so I can print my boarding pass, eat one last expensive meal (a sandwich I picked up at the grocery store), and get some rest. Tomorrow is supposed to be the busiest travel day in the history of the Vancouver airport. Fun, eh?

More to follow,

– Rich

I start with a photo I like to call “Baby, It’s Cold Outside.”  Canadians, it seems, have no concept of cold.  In fact, I’m not sure a word for cold exists in the Canadian vernacular.   Moreover, Canadians seem to use mind control on people of other nationalities to get them to freeze to death voluntarily.  I suspect this is how their gold medal count got so high.  These chests come in all shapes in colors, but the blue background on the chests is completely natural due to the lack of oxygen and/or blood circulating beneath the skin.  These guys are a cheerful lot, and they kept the beer stands in business throughout the games.  Go Canada Go!

Next, we have my “Nell Fenwick” collection of photos.  For those who don’t know Nell, she’s involved in a rather complicated love triangle with Dudley Dooright of the Canadian Mounties and his horse.  Dudley loves Nell.  Nell loves Dudley’s horse.  The horse is uncommitted.

I ran into some Canadian Mounties in Whistler Village.  Yes, they were hard at work posing for pictures so I got in on the action.  Very nice folks, the mounties.  Part constable.  Part park ranger.  Part Canadian icon.

This fellow to my right seems a likely candidate to play the part of Dudley, though his IQ is much too high.  Method acting is out of the question. The mountie who took the picture was only about 5 feet tall, so you really get a good look at his chin.  This will probably help him land the part of Dudley since Dudley’s chin is the most pronounced feature on his body.  (See picture of Dudley above right for comparison.)

Now, back to techie stuff. Camera crews were all over the place during the Olympics. Every network and, for that matter, every local station around the world seemed to be out trying to get their own angle on the games and the people involved. Here’s one such crew interviewing some notables who were out for the afternoon in Whistler Village.

Meanwhile, back down the beaten path a little ways, a crew from BBC Sports was interviewing some of the athletes about their earlier performances. They are sitting on a picnic beside a river that runs through the village. These tables are almost always occupied. The setting is peaceful. There’s a covered bridge next to them that is illuminated by constantly changing colored lights every night. During the weekends, groups would roast marshmallows here and tell camp stories.

Speaking of stories to tell, my best one from the Olympics is probably my story of trading Olympic pins with Prince Albert of Monaco. Prince Albert is a former Olympic bobsledder. He competed in every Olympics from 1988 to 2002. I understand that he is now a member of the International Olympic committee. What brought him to these Olympics, though, was an invitation by French Television to be guest commentator for the bobsled events.

French TV began the day with an interview with the Prince at the finish platform where athletes exit the bobsled course. Since the Commentary Control Room maintains the coordination circuits for the finish platform (which is referred to as the Pre/Post position since this area is often used for interviews before the races start and after they have ended), I had to be on hand to monitor communications with the French TV studio back in Vancouver. For those who have worked in television studios, I was sort of like a floor director, though my main job was to ensure that the interviewer could hear his cues from the producer. That’s me in the background on the right side of the picture.

After the pre-game interview was over, my boss, David Gebe, introduced me to the Prince. As we chatted briefly, I offered him an Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS) pin. Most broadcasters bring their own branded pins to the games to trade. OBS is no different. The prince graciously accepted it, then called one of his secret service men over and asked him to get one of his pins.
The prince then presented me with the official pin of Monaco. You can rest assured that I kept that pin safe for the remainder of the games. I was not about to trade it by mistake!

In addition to the excitement on the course, our Olympic hosts in Whistler tried to build some excitement in the streets by way of live concerts and street performances. Here’s where I got my first dose of Canadian rap. It was actually pretty good — and this from a guy who doesn’t care much for rap music. These guys didn’t use a DJ to provide the rhythm track. They had a drummer and a percussionist. Yep, it was all live — the way God intended it :-).

This guy is a juggler who performed at various venues throughout the town. There was also an acoustic vocal group, a marching band and, during some of the medals ceremonies, performances by some well known groups such as Bare Naked Ladies and Devo. (Remember “Whip It!” from the early 80s?). Our production crew certainly did.

One of the hallmarks of Devo was their creative, uh, wardrobe. This included hazmat suits and inverted flowerpots for hats. The suits didn’t make it out of storage for the concert, but the flowerpots certainly did, and this time they came in Olympic Blue. Our team made sure to pick up a few to supplement our uniforms. Not that the uniforms needed that kind of help…

I mentioned in a few of my earlier posts that the people are what make the Olympic experience special for me. In my Have a Coke and a Smile post, I highlighted my group of heros who made life at the Whistler Sliding Center that much better. I took them out to dinner
at a Greek restaurant in town as a way of saying thanks for their efforts. These ladies don’t get the meal allowances the production crew gets so working here is almost costing them money. The picture was taken after the table had been cleared and we had cleaned all the food off of our faces. A good time was had by all.

Not all of the people I saw in my travels made sense to me. For example, there were a variety of security people in various places, but many seemed, well, OUT of place. Case in point, this lifeguard posted in downtown Vancouver. I’m not sure why she was here. I’m not sure who she was supposed to be watching. I’m not sure why she was in a lifeguard chair. The nearest pool was probably many city blocks away. But here she sat, reading her latest magazine, having her picture taken by more than one confused tourist. Incidentally, this was in Vancouver — NOT in Whistler. We had more sense in Whistler.

Another of the people who make the Olympics special is my friend, Brian Gray. Brian hails from the UK but seems to have lived all over. When I worked with him in Beijing, his official residence was Bangladesh.
Brian and I enjoyed a cup of coffee on the patio between the IBC (International Broadcast Center) and the Olympic Flame. Incidentally, if you happen to be paying close attention, all of the signage in the IBC appears backward in this photo. That’s because all of the signage is translucent and I’m taking the picture from the inside of the building. You’re also seeing the backs of the signs outdoors.

As for the flame, I was stunned when, in mid sip of my coffee, I realized what a privilege I enjoyed by being employed by OBS. I know that sounds like a stupid statement, but it really is hard to fathom all the blessings we have when we’re waist-deep in them. Brian and I could walk right up to the flame to take our picture. We had access to almost everything Olympic. We had access to many things that weren’t Olympic that most of the public would love to be able to do. Why? Because we were fortunate enough to do what we do for a living and to get these cool jobs. As we looked at the flame, there were perhaps a thousand people 100 feet from us who were struggling to get a glimpse of it or to take its picture. Yet here we sat, enjoying it and a nice cup of coffee on our day off.

Incidentally, while we were enjoying said coffee, we were also watching a number of sea planes taking off and landing. As fate would have it, Brian and I both got the idea at the same time that going for a spin in one of these planes would be the thing to do so, $140 each later, we found ourselves about 500 feet above the water zipping along the Vancouver coast. It was an experience best shared with a friend and, as we both commented later, neither of us would have done it had a friend not be handy to convince us to do it.

After a pleasant day in Vancouver, we had one more day of snow in Whistler as we headed into the last of the bobsled competitions, the 4-man events. Aside from the US winning GOLD in that and SILVER in Hockey against the Canadians, our last days were unremarkable.
On the evening of February 27th, we were thrown a “wrap” party with a terrific spread of food and drinks. It was a great way to celebrate a series of successful broadcasts and the collaboration of an unlikely group of freelancers from around the globe.

Well, it’s been said that it ain’t over ’til the fat lady sings. We were in short supply of singing ladies of any stature at the Whistler Sliding Center; nonetheless, we did find one viking not at all short on inhibition, as may be noted by the two drinks held proudly in this photo. He was more than willing to pose for pictures AND be our singing show-closer. So as the fading chorus sinks slowly into the sunset, I bid Canada a fond adieu and took off for home, cheaper prices, and a surprising lack of hockey, eh.

Next stop, London 2012.

– Rich

There are, however, a few people who are a breath of fresh air in my day. One of them is the cleaning guy who I don’t see until the end of the day. This guy reminds me a little bit of Latka from the old TV show, “Taxi,” but only because of his accent. I regret that I can’t remember his name, but he’s extremely nice, always works hard and never complains. His day continues long after mine ends and he’s still happy. He’s an inspiration.

There are also the guys I had lunch with today. Based on my first paragraph in this post, you may imagine that this part of my world is not heavily populated by Christians. I just learned that these two ARE Christians. One is a guy who comes to my control room every day to make sure the fiber circuits are all working as they should. He and I had lunch and talked about life. The second guy joined us after overhearing part of our conversation. I don’t remember where he’s working on the crew, but he, too, is a believer and has worked in Christian Radio. He’s familiar with my past. Lunch was refreshing.

The next group of people who bring some fresh air to the mix are the group of ladies who work with our Logistics department. They make sure the members of the crew have what they need in terms of food, transportation, information, etc. to get their jobs done. Usually two or three of these folks drop into the Commentary Control Room once or twice each day to update our schedules, distribute smiles, bring snacks and, in my case, keep me supplied with Diet Coke. (Hence the title of this post.) They were my first glimmer of sunshine when I came to work here and they continue to make my days a little nicer.

I only have a picture of these two because they showed up with snacks and a camera. I don’t always have my camera with me. I’m inviting all of my unsung heroes out for a nice meal this weekend just to say thanks, and perhaps I can get a picture of the rest of them then.

I don’t tend to feel homesick in the traditional sense, but now that I’m past the halfway point in the 2010 Olympics, I’m learning more and more about what makes home and family so special. My friends, the heroes, don’t replace that, but they do bring me one step closer to it and remind me of all the nice blessings I’m having to do without for this short season.

If you’re part of the friends and family that make up my home team, rest assured I’ll be VERY glad to see you when next we meet. In the meantime, I’m raising a Diet Coke to toast the ones who get me through.

– Rich

I have no idea what rent is here, but a room at my hotel (any other year) is about $350/night. During the Olympics, my room costs over $800/night.   Apparently, this is what the lap of luxury looks like:

Now, I’ll admit that this is a nice room. Don’t get me wrong. No complaints here. But I’ve stayed in plenty of hotels with rooms this nice and the price is usually closer to $80.00 than $800.00. Probably just a typo, don’tcha know.  Unfortunately, this town lives on typos.  Dinner this evening consisted of a MasterCard commercial (with apologies to Visa - the official card of the Olympics):

Tuna-Melt Sandwich:  $13.95.

Diet Coke:  $2.75.

Canadian Taxes:  $73.14

Knowing that your Per Diem won’t cover this:  Priceless.

And I hear that the town of Whistler is bankrupt and facing foreclosure.  Not sure what that’s going to mean to the Olympics.  Perhaps I’ll be coming home sooner than expected :-).  Meanwhile, back to the tour.

Whistler is a family friendly town.  I love seeing the kids in the snow.  Even at the venue, there are little kids finding ways to have fun sliding down mini slopes they’ve made.  My friends, Dave, Glenn and I had dinner at The Spaghetti Factory the other night and sitting at the table next to us was a snow family like the one at left.  The youngest member looked to be about 10 years old and he had a cast on his leg. 
I asked how it had happened and he said it was a skiing accident.  Nonetheless, he was laughing and playing and full of energy — not the least bit down about having to be on crutches during the family vacation.  Turns out he is also a Pin Collector — a young man after my own heart.

A lot of companies, teams, and organizations tied to the Olympics have pins. They either give them away as a promotional item, or they sell them as a collectors item. Well, as was the case with everything from Beanie Babies to Pet Rocks, a sub-culture has developed of which I am a proud member. A lot of pin collectors working at the games wear their pins on their accreditation lanyards. This makes the pins visible to other collectors. It also creates two problems. First, you rattle when you walk. Second, after a while you weight several pounds more than you used to and you stoop a little.  Nonetheless, when one collector finds another, we always compare collections and try to find pins we can trade.  It’s part of the game.

I should point out here that I did not buy all these pins. There are lots of shops in town that sell them, including the Whistler Trading Post, home of my favorite moose. However, some of the merchants have pins that they give out for free courtesy of Visa and Coca-Cola. I’ve made it a point to locate these stores and become friends with the cashiers. They’ve been known to be extra generous with their flair and that feeds my hobby for free. My friend, Ed, overheard one of my conversations with another collector while I was trading pins and he said I would have a great future as a crack dealer. Maybe I’ve been doing this a little too long.

One reason many of us on the crew trade pins is that life here can get a little mundane after awhile. No offense to the sports of bobsled, luge and skeleton, but after you’ve seen the practice runs and twenty or thirty races, they all start looking the same. At least in figure skating, you get to see some individuality in the performances. Here, the only thing that mixes things up a little is a wreck and we had one too many of those before we even got started.

To help pass our time, some in our midst have taken up sculpting. Note Exhibit A. This was made by a member of our security team right in front of my building. The red circle in the picture indicates where I work.

Speaking of our security team, many of them have to stand for hours.  One guy, whose post is at an underpass, carved out a sofa in the snow so he’d have a place to sit.  (Thank goodness for ski bibs.  I didn’t have my camera with me or I would have gotten a picture.  He was really getting into his snow furniture, though.  I wouldn’t be surprised if he had a dining room suite and a flat screen TV made by morning.

A final observation for this post regards the spiritual climate in Whistler.  Everyone is very nice here and, yes, the spirits flow freely.  I was almost dragged into a drunken snowboarder wrestling match a dinner the other night.  However, there are no apparent signs of churches or other places of worship in the Village.  I haven’t checked the phone book.  In fact, there isn’t one in my $800/night room.  But I did look in the hotel directory.  In my travels in the past, hotels often list local places to worship.  Not so in Whistler.  In the southern United States, you’ll see signs in towns saying “The First United Methodist Church Welcomes You.”  Not so in Whistler.
The only sign I’ve seen of anything involving the spiritual or supernatural was at a storefront in the village offering psychic readings, etc.  On a positive note, though, I was walking past a tent at the broadcast compound several days ago and heard someone playing the guitar and several people singing.  It took me a minute to recognize it because they weren’t singing in English, but it was a praise song from my church.  I wish I hadn’t been working at the time.  I would have joined them in the tent.  Nonetheless, I sang along to myself and to God as I walked up the course to install more cables.

– Rich

Also, while in China, the city of Beijing where the International Broadcast Center (IBC) was located was a mere 30km away from Shunyi where I was working.  It took about 45 minutes to get there in traffic.  Meanwhile, here in Canada, Whistler is a good three hours from Vancouver where our IBC is located.  Therefore, I haven’t gotten to photograph nearly as much of the back end of these broadcasts — even though I’m working with Commentary Switching at the IBC every day.  We just don’t see each other.

Now that all my disclaimers are out of the way, here’s a quick look at the Mountain Switching Center which handles Commentary Audio routing for a couple of our networks and for some of the Alpine course.  This is also where the networks connect to get their broadcast feeds from Whistler Village to Vancouver.  The equipment in our Commentary Control Room at the Whistler Sliding Center is sort of like a smaller version of this with feeds going to this hub and to Central Switching in Vancouver.

Here’s one of the guys we seem to talk to a lot.  His name is Colin and he helps us sort out any communications difficulties the networks may be having.  Quite often the communication difficulties are caused by one of the reporters unplugging his gear by accident then calling us to see what’s wrong.  We’re beginning to catch on that this is a regular thing so we may not be calling on Colin as much in the future.  We’ll go straight to the source.  Colin and the crew at Mountain Switching are all nice guys and great team players.  You can click on his picture to see the hubs our circuits run on.  (Lots of blinky lights and computery-looking thingies!)

If you ever see the wide shots of our venue and wonder if we have a blimp flying overhead to get those cool shots, the answer is yes, and here it is. I know you were probably thinking that, since we’re the Olympics, we can have any blimp we want, right. Apparently, this is what we want. This blimp is tethered in Whistler Village, so it gets a nice face-on view of our course.  When you see the opening graphics for any of the competitions from the Whistler Sliding Center (bobsled, luge, or skeleton), usually the next shot you’ll see is the one taken from this blimp.  If it’s more of a medium shot, you can see my building very clearly and, occasionally, you’ll see one of us in the control room waving out of the lower window on the right … trying for a piece of our 15 minutes of fame.

The blimp has some sort of gyroscopically-balanced camera that can be adjusted remotely.  It can even swing around and get a shot of the Olympic rings in Whistler. For the record though, this particular photograph of the rings was not taken from the blimp. It was taken from another high camera position: my hands.

In my next update, a look at life in Whistler and creative uses of snow at the compound.

– Rich

For the record, I did NOT see the accident happen, but my co-worker, Glenn Stillwell, heard it, and when he reported it to me moments later, I ran to the track to make sure help was on its way, and to pray.
The paramedics arrived just before I did, so I stayed on our bridge which crosses over the finish line and continued to pray — not only for Nodar, but for his teammate, Levan Gureshidze, his team and his family.

Levan was there when the accident happened and was so visibly shaken (obviously) that our crew had to hold him back so that the paramedics could attend to Nodar. They worked non-stop and airlifted him to the hospital, but, as you know, Nodar was confirmed dead a short time later. As I have a son who is training for the Olympics, I could see myself in the situation and I could imagine what my son would do if a friend had been in a similar accident. I also imagined what it would be like if it had been my son instead of Nodar. There’s no good side to this story.

With all the years invested in getting to the Olympics, I think my son might have gone ahead and competed — at the very least to honor his friend. Having said that, I completely understand Levan’s decision NOT to race. It’s a very personal decision and no two people will make it the same way for the same reasons. Levan understands what it meant for him not to compete. He knows what he has given up. He considered these things and many more. He did the right thing.

The athletes and crew at the track have all been very respectful as has the town of Whistler. I watched the Opening Ceremonies in Monk’s Pub just across from my hotel and after a moment of silence was observed for Nodar, we raised a toast in his honor.

May his memory live on, and may his family find comfort in knowing that Nodar died doing what he loved to do, having already received the highest honor an athlete could receive up to that point — a spot on the 2010 Olympic team for his country. May he rest in peace.

Now, onto the pictures!

First, as unglamorous as it is, here’s my control room. Not much to look at, but it gets the job done. The equipment rack in the background holds some specialized routers that connect all of the commentators’ consoles to our software and, ultimately, to our Switching Center in Vancouver. In Beijing, we used a similar system, but the gear in the racks sat on tables in front of the operators, and we monitored audio and adjusted levels right on the gear. Here, we do it all on computer. That’s what the laptops are for. The two guys in the picture are my coworkers, Glenn Stillwell and Ed Slater.

Here are our OB Trucks. The one on the left is where the television control room is. These trucks come from Clearwater, FL. My condolences to the driver. It’s quite a haul just driving from Vancouver to Whistler, much less from Florida to Whistler.

Next, we have the wall of video. This is inside the truck on the left. We’ve got about 60 cameras covering the course and even more mics. The sleds run so fast that it’s hard to keep up with them. As I understand it, we have a number of camera shots that are programmed and computer controlled. When a sled enters the frame on a particular camera, the director can cut to the next automated camera sweep and it will move with the sled around the course. When you watch the event, you’ll see replays where they overlay one team over another at a particular point on the track. If they didn’t have the shots automated — so that each team is shot the same way — they wouldn’t be able to do the comparative overlays nearly as well. It looks pretty amazing.

This is the audio mixer on-board the truck. We’re not actually using this one for the main mix because it can’t handle all the mic inputs. It will handle some of the sub mixes and routing. We provide a surround sound mix of crowd ambiance and a few course mics for the radio broadcasts and add to that all of the camera mics that pick up the sound of the sled zooming past for television. In my control room, we add in the individual announcers before sending it all on to the networks covering the events.

Well, those are just a few of the techie photos.  I’ll post more in another update.  Tomorrow, it all begins with the Opening Ceremonies.  Our first day of competition will be on Saturday.  Incidentally, all of our races will run in the afternoons and evenings.

Thanks for following along at home.  Feel free to post your own comments as we go along.

– Rich

While I’m working in the Mix Zone, I’m just a few inches from the course. In fact, when the Skeleton athletes are practicing on the course, they usually spray me with ice on the way by. That was a cold shock the first time, but I’ve gotten used to it and brace myself for a pelting when I hear them skimming up the ramp from the finish line.

Here I am as the poster child for what NOT to do around a Bobsled/Luge/Skeleton course. They actually have an announcer at all the practices notifying everyone to clear the track, indicating that the track really IS clear, and telling where on the track an athlete or team is if a race is underway.

I asked a member of the Canadian skeleton team how cold it gets on the course. You’ve gotta figure that it’s pretty chilly if the air temperature is 21 degrees Fahrenheit, and you’re traveling at 120 mph. He told me it wasn’t cold at all. He wears a base layer of tights and an Under Armour shirt. Over that he wears a skin-tight head-to-toe body suit with what appears to be a motorcycle helmet. He’s lying down parallel to the ground on the skeleton sled so he’s pretty aerodynamic. Plus, he says he’s not on the course that long. He and his teammates did think that if the temperature dropped to about -5F they might start feeling it. A tough bunch those skeleton racers. They’re all standing there warm in their bodysuits while I stand there looking like Big Bird … shivering!

We’re now finished testing all of the circuits and after that, our installation will be complete. We’re ahead of schedule in that regard. Our biggest challenge is that the equipment we’re using is brand new and the software is still being “adjusted.”  While the manufacturer does tests and upgrades, we have to move into computer babysitting mode.  Unfortunately, while this is happening, the broadcasters we’re working with have to go into a holding pattern, too, in terms of doing final tests back to their studios.  Everybody understands and has been great to work with.  At the same time, though, we know in the back of our minds that we’re going to begin the biggest broadcast event in the world in a few hours and we’d like to make sure everything has been checked, rechecked, and checked again.  But this goes with the territory.

One final note, we got snow today!  We’ve had sprinkles of snow flakes over the past few days, but it came down hard today.  Ironically, they moved a snow making machine into the infield in front of my commentary building today, too.  I think the snow that has been on the ground had turned too grey and they wanted to spruce it up.  Nature may have taken care of that line item for us.

In my next post, I’m going to show several pictures for my tech friends.  We all love to see what kind of gear is being used.  For the rest of you, please forgive and overlook our geekiness.  Tomorrow, if you see the Opening Ceremonies, you’ll be thanking us!

– Rich

That may not seem like a long time until you realize that we had just worked an 11 hour day, climbed up and down the mountain several times, and hadn’t had much in the way of lunch that day. We were hungry. Plus, Dave had his heart and stomach set on some chicken wings.

So we worked our way through the crowds, checking at each possible food port, but getting the same answer every time: There was no food at the Inn. Two nice things happened while we were in the crowds, though. First, the Coke folks who were handing out souvenirs were extra kind to us because we still had our Olympic credentials with us. We’ve learned you can just about move a mountain with these IDs if you have to. It’s very nice but you have to be careful not to take advantage of people’s kindness. The second thing that happened was that a nice young lady indicated that Dave and I were both young and hip.

Okay, truth be told, after we managed to find some food and were headed back to the hotel, an attractive young lady approached us and asked if we had any papers or skins. For those NOT young and hip, papers and skins refer to rolling papers used to smoke marijuana. Unfortunately for our attractive young lady-friend, neither Dave nor I could accommodate her request so we had to send her on her way. When I told Ed this story the next day, he suggested that she must have smoked a good amount of the marijuana already if she mistook either one of us for someone who might have papers or skins.

Ed can say what he wants. I know I’m young and hip.

As for the restaurant we finally found, it was called the Elephant and Castle.  I’m sure there’s a story there somewhere, but I was too hungry and exhausted to care once we sat down.  I did have the $20 Signature Club Sandwich off the value menu and it was quite good.  Actually, all of the food I’ve had here has been good.  Fortunately, my mortgage broker tells me I’ll be finished paying for dessert by the time the Summer Games roll around in 2012.

Cheers,

Rich

My friend, David, with whom I worked in Beijing, is now the Venue Technical Manager at Cypress Mountain near Vancouver.  Cypress is home to the Snow Board competitions.  David emailed me yesterday to give me the rundown on snow conditions there: it’s being delivered by truck and helicopters.  Who’da thunk it?

I was just thinking, in the interest of International Goodwill, that President Obama should consider an emergency relief airlift of snow from the front lawn of the White House — and from the greater DC area — to help out the poor snowboarders stuck at the top of Cypress Mountain with no way down.  Don’t know how far I’ll get with the idea, but if you’d like to help, perhaps a call or two to your representatives in Washington could turn this whole mess around.  After all, it takes a village …