Disappointment and Disbelief

So both of those words describe the same event last night (don’t worry, it isn’t anything from home life). I was at work and we had been watching the Olympics all day, but specifically waiting for the men’s relay and Michael Phelps. As we sat there and watched the swimmers come to their lanes, and the first members of the relay jump into the water…..the bells went off for a call. Yep, all of that timing, all of that down time during the day, all of that ‘great schedule’ that we have….came crashing to a thundering halt as we had to leave the station just as the most anticipated sporting event in decades came to fruition. Arrgh! And to top it off, the nurses at the call location were all gathered around a TV watching the Olympics mocking the fact that we had been called out. Of course the race was completed by the time that we got anywhere near a TV, but we already knew the outcome (remember, none of the Olympics are live here in the Denver region). 

Don’t know if I should admit this or not, but there have been two times in my life where I teared up at the result of a sporting event….the first one was in 1997 when the Denver Broncos won their first Super Bowl (cheesy, I know). The second one was last night – but for a much different reason. I think that in 1997 I was way too involved on a superficial level with sports and the Broncos, so it was a large part of my life and who I idolized. After watching them loose 4 Super Bowl games in the early 90’s, it was great to see my favorite team break through and win the big game.

Last night’s emotion was one of a deeper understanding of absolute commitment and determination, of overcoming odds, of the week long roller coaster for everyone watching, of the culmination of a lifetime of practice, and of watching what I think we all realized is the most amazing athlete of this time period. I won’t pretend to think that any athlete is more important than a lot of other professions, but for some reason this achievement is miraculous and should be celebrated by all. Seriously, those races where unbelievable. I also won’t be so conceded (like most sports casters and specifically NBC) as to think that we won’t see another Michael Phelps – I mean there might be an 11 year old out there right now on her way to the top – but it doesn’t seem likely since it took more than 100 years to get to this point. Since I wasn’t able to watch the race last night, Ahna did record it for me. Ezra and I sat there and watched the race three times in a row in complete satisfaction. 

So the weather that has socked the Denver area in for the last couple of days (resulting in 3 inches of rain) has finally started to break – which is good for the health of the people here because if it is slightly cloudy or rainy for more than 3 hours here in Colorado, people start talking depression. It’s supposed to be 70 today increasing to 90 by Wednesday. Part of the weather is the stunning images that come from clouds, cold, rain/snow, and elevation. Here are a couple of pictures from two web cams this morning: one looking at Pikes Peak, and the other camera (and two images) looking in different directions from the peak of the mountain. Crazy!