Remembering the Olympics

A year ago, I never would have imagined that I would be saying this but I miss the Olympic spirit that we had in Vancouver last winter. It was amazing to see the change that took place in this city over those two weeks.
I admit, I was very skeptical of the whole thing. It seemed like an incredible waste of money. The cost of hosting those games was far more than anyone will ever admit to. How can we ever tabulate the cost of shutting down the Cambie bridge for over a year? The traffic jams themselves were beyond estimation. Thousand of cars, idling in traffic for all those hours, how can anyone estimate the impact of the closures? How much CO2 was expended in those lineups? I shudder to think of it.
But, when it finally all came together, I have to admit that the transformation was undeniable. I have never experienced anything like it before. Riding the bus to work was a pleasure! I met so many people. It seemed that everyone was feeling the joy and excitement that swept into the city with the games.
One night, I was on my way home from work. It was during the Canada/Russia hockey game, and this woman who must have been in her seventies reached across the aisle and touched me to ask if I knew what the score was. We wound up talking for the rest of the trip and she told me that she was a volunteer who had been assigned to security! Now this lady was not a large woman at all, as a matter of fact, she seemed a bit frail to me and I asked her what she was doing in security.
She proceeded to tell me that her job was to ask people to pour out their liquor on the street. She said she was very nervous about it initially but to date she had told almost 30 different persons that they had to dump their booze and she had never had a problem. As a matter of fact she said that most laughed as they did it!
Every day I met someone new who had a story. Every time I stepped out of the house, or walked into a bar or a restaurant, or stepped up onto a bus, I felt that unique feeling that I wish I felt every day. It was a great time and I miss it!