Whew!

The Tour de France is over and I now have 3 hours of each day of my life back to do whatever I wish.   Congratulations to all of you Brits who follow my blog, a first for you to have a tour winner and second place too.  Good on you.

Next up is the Olympic Games.  No problem will present itself there for me.  I gave up watching the Olympics long long ago when it all became so... "political" shall I say?  The media puts so much emphasis on what country has the most medals.  Good grief.  Team events, I can see that counting but individual accomplishments should stand on their own.  And all the drama behind individuals, their private lives, the up close and personals...is this a sporting event or a soap opera? Then there are the events which are decided by a vote among judges such has diving, gymnastics and such.  How can politics not come into play there?  When the day arrives that software is developed and a computer/video combination makes the decision then we might have something there.

I recall the Olympics of 1980.  A new fangled contraption called a video recorder had recently come onto the scene.  I shelled out nearly $700 for a Zenith VCR (a lot of money back then) just so that I could tape the broadcasts of the Summer Olympics from Moscow.  I was all set and ready to go then Jimmy Carter boycotts the USA from the event!!  Oh was I steamed.  And if that wasn't bad enough, I made the wrong choice and bought the Beta tape version of VCR instead of the RCA VHS.  The Beta format rapidly died away in ten years.  Today I can go to Walmart and get a big screen TV,  the player, big speakers and a popcorn machine for that $700.  Well the popcorn machine might push it over budget.