I’m at the Olympics
It’s 11:00pm on Thursday night, and again I write from my bed in the TOBO temporary housing in Pragelato. I just uploaded several new photos tonight, so take a look at them. This morning started out very warm and rainy. At about 40 degrees, it was cool enough to keep my jacket on, which was nice, since it made me completely waterproof. We do have ponchos in our gigantic kit of gear, but the jackets and pants are more than enough. While rain is certainly frustrating, it was rather tolerable, it just made things a little bit harder on the production end. I had to carry a lens cloth with me and wipe the lens every few minutes.
After a successful morning production, we went back to the catering tent for lunch. As we were eating, the walls of the tent suddenly brightened, and as we left, it felt like a completely new day outside. There were only a few puffy clouds scattered around, (the shaders called them “floaters”), but it was otherwise bright blue skies and warm, dry breezes. This gave us great afternoon weather, and the production seemed to go very quickly. The only problem is that the days seem to be marked by an exciting hour of production and then three hours of waiting.
It’s part of the reason I have not been so vigilant in writing. As exciting as things are, they do remain mostly the same. I am still working as a camera assistant for Jari (I finally looked at his accreditation for spelling). This means making sure he doesn’t fall over things with the camera, changing batteries, carrying fifty billion things in my backpack and pockets. Let me take that tangent for a minute:
Yesterday I had two wallets in my pants pockets, a battery in each coat pocket (they weigh about 5 lbs. each, and are literally the size of a brick), two digital cameras, pen, notepad, lens cleaning kit, chap-stick, and gum throughout my various coat pockets. In my backpack I had four more batteries, several Powerades (if I carry batteries for the cameras, I may as well carry food for the operators), three cell phones, and an uncountable amount of backup/rain clothing.
So I do a lot of carrying. Probably the most exciting task is watching for incoming athletes. Since Jari is only seeing through a lens, I have to watch for specific skiers as they enter the venue. I usually carry a list of six or seven specific athletes that the producers want to highlight, and I spot them as they have their skis tagged and transponders attached to their ankles.
Anyway, while I find the whole thing exciting each time, it really is the same kind of work, so I can’t find many new ways to dress it up for you readers. I’ve also written lots of personal e-mails to people, and I forget what I’ve written on this journal and what I’ve told one or two people. Perhaps the best way to proceed is to open this thing up for questions. What would you like to hear about? You can leave comments on here, and I’ll try to answer any questions you have, or just to expand on things that I’ve glossed over.
As much as I’d like to think that I’ve done a good job clearly and eloquently communicating what it’s like to be here, if it was the type of thing that could be expressed easily through words, we’d all be reading a book about the Olympics, rather than being here. I guess what I’m saying is that I’ve run out of words. It’s too early to write about the things that I miss (Cozy Burger), but I’m sure I’ll do that sometime. In the meantime, it has begun to snow, and in the last half hour we’ve had over an inch. The way it works is that when it snows, it often snows at least a foot at a time. We’ll just have to see what it looks like tomorrow.
I can’t wait to see all of you again soon! I appreciate your e-mails and prayers, and I hope to make some more interesting entries soon. Goodnight!