I admit it - I have a problem.
See, I'm a winter sports junkie. Bobsled, luge, skeleton, skiing (downhill and cross-country), speed skating - I eat that stuff up like a junkie in search of a fix. Winter is always a great time of year for this stuff, and I try to watch as much as I can.
So you can only imagine that these 2 weeks every 4 years are like a dream come true. Winter sports on, every day, hours and hours and hours on end. Every sport imaginable, even things for the wife like figure skating, and the "sport" of curling, which is entertaining as all heck to watch (if only because we can both say "we could do that!")
Problem is, there just aren't enough hours in the day. I can't take it all in. I want to, but even I have limits to how long I can sit on a couch and watch TV non-stop. I didn't know I had limits before, but the last few days have shown me I do, where my legs finally say "Hey, you, up there... wanna like, maybe get up or something? Because seriously, we are considering quitting and going to somebody who might actually use us? Okay?"
So far, no problem, right? Just an enthusiastic sports fan, soaking up all he can while the opportunity shines?
See, but I do have a problem. You only need to go into my downstairs room to see.
There, right above the TV we hardly ever use, I have not one, but two VCRs.
To the right of the two VCRs, there sits a big huge stack of blank VHS tapes.
And right on top of the TV, there sits a big huge sheaf of paper.
On them are the network schedule for every day of the Olympics. And 5 hand-written pages, outlining the current and future contents of thirty 8-hour videotapes... complete with written directions on when and which VCR to put tapes in, what schedules to setup on each VCR, the works.
You see, with the exception of Ice Hockey, I intend on recording every broadcast minute of the 2006 Winter Olympics. Every. Single. Minute.
Why? Even I can't answer that one. Like I said, I have a problem. This is a winter sport's dream, something that only comes every 4 years. I can't possibly absorb it all for the next 2 weeks, so the only way I can possibly see it all is to tape it and go back to it later on. Except the reality is, I doubt I'll ever get through a fraction of the tapes I'm making over the next 2 weeks. I'm taping ~225 hours of programming. Even FF through commercials, that is still a TON of content to watch.
There is something to be said about laying back on the couch and watching a downhill skiing competition though - especially when it's July and 90 degrees out. The irony is delicious, and the reality is I won't remember a thing about who wins what a few months from now, so it will all be new by the time I get back to them.
And in the meantime, when it is all done and the VCRs are put away, the tapes are labelled and put away, and life returns to normal - those tapes can gather dust on my shelves - right next to my complete 20-tape set of the 2002 Salt Lake Games.
Posted by Mark at February 14, 2006 08:06 PM