Go Team Go!

Yep, we’re talking Olympics today because I can, and because I want to 😜. But let’s start with few updates.

First, I haven’t dealt with the builder yet. Apparently, they respond to emails better, so I’ll be dropping one to them after this. On the plus side, I haven’t seen a live ant for a week now, much to my relief 😮‍💨. I figure I’ve probably cleaned up about 1000 or more ants since the first outbreak (that includes critters both dead and alive) and my ant bites have healed – those things are a bitch!

Next, excoriate was a word on the New York Times Sunday puzzle. I seriously wonder why this word is popping up all over the place this week 🤔. I’m beginning to think it means I need to “excoriate” someone – perhaps the builder? 😁

Final (not really an update) update – last night the frogs came out to play. I had not one but two tiny babies on my backdoor and, yes, I forgot to get a photo. I think they are living in the plant on my deck. When I saw them, I got the strangest sensation that they were sent as good omens (as frogs are good luck in Japan). Let’s see if it pans out 😊.  Even if it doesn’t, I still love the little babies – as long as they stay outside.

Now to pivot to the Olympics, in Japan (see what I did there? 😆). We all know of the popular events – swimming, gymnastics, basketball, track and field, diving etc. This time around I’m trying to catch the less popular sports, the ones that might get a mention in the evening recaps. And it’s been interesting.

First a shout out to Ahmed Hafnaoui from Tunisia – wins gold in men’s 400m freestyle, upsetting the field. If you haven’t seen the video of his family watching the race, check it out here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Jmg_-3Elag. Another shout out to Anastasija Zolotic for winning the first gold in Taekwondo for the USA. I had the joy of catching both of their wins so YAY them.

In other Olympic fun, I’ve decided that the announcers for the men’s mountain bike race take the asshole of the day award. You see a top rider from the Netherlands – Mathieu Van der Poel, crashed on the first lap and eventually had to drop out of the race due to injury. Well, the announcers apparently had nothing else to focus on an mentioned his crash about 50 times throughout the rest of the race (I surprisingly watched most of it 😮). I really hope the Van der Poel will be alright, it was a gruesome, flew over the handlebars, trying not to get hit by following riders’ kind of accident. Please send him some good vibes for a quick healing 😁.

I also caught the recap of the one of the newest events – surfing! I had no idea what was going on and I think they were qualifying matches, but kudos to the camera guys because they did a great job capturing the event – truly gorgeous. Unfortunately, two Americans were matched against each other and only one could advance ☹️. Congrats to Kolohe Andino for advancing.

Another (off beat) sport I watched was women’s street skateboarding. As a 52-year-old woman, I had no connection to what was happening on my screen, but I watched the young ladies (by young I mean the top three consisted of 2 -13 y.o.’s and 1- 16 y.o.) impress those who knew what was going on. Congrats to Japan’s M. Nishiya and F. Nakayama for winning gold and bronze respectively and Brazil’s R. Leal for her silver medal win – the first ever medals awarded in this sport. So YAY to those young ladies!

Other sports I’ve watched today include woman’s water polo, a few minutes of badminton and some tennis. All I will say is that the water polo athletes deserve mass props because that is an insanely arduous sport.

Well, that’s my take on the Olympics for now – I can’t wait to see what other uncommon sports I will catch over the next two weeks. Also, I wish whatever country, team, or sport you are supporting does well in these games! 

Note: asshole and bitch are the flagged words of the day with no recommended synonyms – I should start keeping count across all the blogs I post 😆.