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9:55 p.m. - 2004-08-14
The Olympics and other stuff

The Olympics and other stuff

I have never been into the Olympics, not until four years ago when they were held in my little sister's home town of HomeBush, Australia. The Aussies are very enthusiastic, sporting people and extremely proud of their country. Four years ago, I paid special attention to the Marathon races as those were held outside and went directly past my sissy's house, two blocks away from Olympic Stadium. Up until last night, I had never seen such a good show or a country more proud of being selected to host the Olympics.

I have a Greek freind whom I saw Thursday night. Even though he was born in this country and is an All American kind of guy, his pride in his heritage runs deep. It is the sort of pride exemplified in that wonderful movie, "My Big Fat Greek Wedding". He was so looking forward to the opening ceremonies and being a sports nut, I am sure he will watch every event he can manage to find time for.

The opening ceremony was probably the most moving show I have ever seen in my life. The beautiful lady who is the Greek chariman of this years games looked like Athena herself, statuesque, dignified and lovely. Then again, Greek Mythology was always a favorite school days subject. It was so realistic in portraying the unreal. There was a realistic Centaur, half man, half horse and men dressed, or should I say, undressed as naked greek statues. They looked just like statues with an ever so subtle movement that made it look half eerie and half artistic. I could go on and on but I am hoping that anyone reading this took the time out to watch. It was spectacular.

Regarding other stuff.....You know...sometimes it takes the Good Lord a long long long time to move.....sometimes it takes almost an entire generation.

My husband and I had our first date on a litte red Honda, CB360T, motorcycle. It was the sole reason we had the date. He wanted someone to ride with and I wanted to ride it. Things took off from there and we had lots of fun on that little bike, even at 9 months pregnant, I sat on the back, pushing Mike forward until he just about had to ride on the tank. 14 years ago, the bike was having some problems that Mike couldn't figure out how to fix and being somewhat of a gear head at the time, he took it apart. He took out ever little cog, bolt, washer, nut and assembly. I don't know why, but the bike never got reassembled. For 14 years, he has been meaning to get out in that garage and spend the summer cleaning all the parts and putting that baby back together again...somewhere along the line he lost interest. There in the back of our garage stood this little forgotten bike. Purchased in 1975, it wasn't much of anything back then, just something to putt around on and now it was 29 years old and still sitting dissassembled. Even though Mike knew he would probably never put it back together again, he couldn't part with the parts.

Entering the picture now is my 15 year old nephew, Sam. Sam is a cool kid. He is loving and funny, but has always been kind of quiet. A man of few words. As he got older, you could tell there was a bottled up passion for SOMETHING underneath that quiet exterior, and his parents, (My sister and brother in law, Linda and Don), always made sure that he had lots of experiences. Boy Scouts, Drumming in the band, church activities, wrestling, and football filled his time and he likes them....yet there was something that he was searching for. Sometimes this is when teens go searching in all the wrong places and can get into trouble.

Well, it seems like Sammy has found his passion....he, like the young Uncle Mike....loves machinery...cars and motorcycles to be exact. There is a passion there that you can see all over his face. He will even break his vow of almost silence and TALK about it. A couple of weeks ago, my daughter, Michelle mentioned offhandedly about the antique motorcycle that was sitting disassembled in our garage. He begged me to ask Uncle Mike if he could put it back together for him. I asked and to my surprise, Mike said..."let him have it."

They came and picked it up last week and this kid has been doing the happy dance all week. At the same time though a neighbor told us that our little antique was worth a few thousand dollars. With Mike being unemployed, that is just too much money to let go so we had to strike a new bargain with the kid and I felt bad....I told him that once it was running, we would sell it and split the profit 50/50. Now this is a pretty good deal...but not as good as getting to keep it for yourself. I felt bad but he was still happy to get the chance to work on it, so it seemed like the best plan at the time. I have since found out that it is worth more like 800.00 and in that light, we can afford to wait to sell the thing until Sammy has had his fill of it. Once he puts it together, he can learn to ride it and take it to shows that feature antique vehicles and proudly show it off as the bikes owner. If someone ever just "HAS TO HAVE" a cherry red, 1975, Honda, CB360T and writes him a nice check on the spot for four figures....then maybe we will talk about our cut of the deal...but until then...there is a 15 year old boy thanking God every night that his Uncle Mike went nuts one day and took apart his motorcycle and got too lazy to put it back together again, and there is an proud auntie who is thankful to her husband for agreeing to part with it and so happy to see such happiness and passion in a great kid.

P. I. Yarnsmith

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