I was speaking to a friend last night and learned that he was at home when he had previously planned to be at Revelstoke, a ski resort town on the west slope of the Canadian Rockies. As things turned out, the highway they had planned to follow on part of the journey to their destination, Canada 1, is closed by flooding between Abbotsford and Hope. The route around the closure involves crossing the Cascades here in Washington on US highway 2 or Interstate 90, then continuing east in the United States before taking secondary roads north. The road closure adds about three hours to a trip that normally would take six hours in good weather and there are several mountain passes between here and there which means counting on good weather in the winter is a gamble. Fortunately for this particular friend, they were able to reschedule their trip and hope to make it to the ski town yet this winter.

Another friend’s family didn’t have the same option. They came from their home in Canada last week to Bellingham to attend a family funeral and navigated the long journey around the closed roads to spend the weekend with family before facing the trip home which started in the dark and ended in the dark after a very long day.

Folks are starting to figure out ways to work around the closed roads and railroads which will be closed for some time as major engineering and construction will be required to re-open the lines of commerce and communications following what authorities are calling a 500-year flood event.

The canceled ski trip somehow reminded me of the year we planned and then cancelled a trip to Calgary during ski season. Our plan had been to drive from our home in Boise, Idaho, to my home town in Montana where we would pick up my mother and drive from there to Calgary. It would be a trip of a thousand miles each direction and our plan was to go in February with our two small children and my mother. I was more adventurous about winter driving in those days.

As it turned out, our trip was cancelled. Despite a lot of planning to arrange a trip to the 1988 Winter Olympics, we ended up getting caught up in a ticket scam when we ordered our event tickets. As it turned out, our check was seized by the RCMP in the investigation of the scam and we were not out the money we had sent, but by the time things were sorted out, there were very few event tickets available. We could only have gotten tickets to be alongside the course of a couple of downhill skiing events, too far from the finish line to see the results. There were no tickets left for stadium events such as figure skating, which had been a priority for us. That combined with our very tight budget and the strain our family would have put on the relatives with whom we planned to stay to make the wise choice that of watching the olympics on the television.

I was much more obsessed with skiing in those days. Living in Boise gave me easy access to frequent downhill skiing. Our local ski resort had night skiing with lots of lights and holding a season pass meant that I would sneak away for a couple of hours of skiing during the work week. Downhill skiing is a sport that slightly favors short-legged people. If you aren’t out to win races, you can get a lot of enjoyment from simply keeping your weight over the center of the skis.

As a result, I have sympathy for a friend who had to delay a ski trip. As it turned out, we never did become a part of the crowd at any Winter Olympics competition. It seems likely that we never will attend the games in person. What is more, I am not even very interested in the 2022 winter games. I haven’t been following the athletes and I have no desire to undertake a journey to China to be a part of a crowd. Times change. Priorities change.

Back in 1988, one of the winter sports events I followed at the Calgary Olympics was bobsled. The 4-man Jamaican Bobsled Team became the darlings of the world by qualifying to compete. Jamaica, as you can imagine, isn’t exactly a hotbed of winter sports. The team was an anomaly and they were definitely underdogs, but the presence of the team at Calgary as well as subsequent returns of two-person teams to other winter Olympic games, brought a lot of attention to the tropical island nation.

This year, I’ll probably pay a bit of attention to Arif Khan, who qualified for the Olympics skiing on artificial slopes at Ski Dubai. He was the first, and so far the only, athlete from India to qualify for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. India has never won a medal at the winter Olympics. Khan is 31 years old - a good deal older than most of the other competitors. I’m always interested in outsiders who push the boundaries of sport. Even if he doesn’t earn a medal, the fact that he has qualified is a major accomplishment. And Khan is guaranteed to remember these games for the rest of his life. After all, he pushed back the date of his wedding in order to train for the competition.

I am not, however, as interested in the Olympics as once was the case. I may watch a few videos of the competition on my computer, but I won’t be planning my life around the live televised coverage of the events, as was the case years ago. Sports does provide some much-needed distraction in a world where the news is dominated by disaster, pandemic and violence. But in the face of so many crises, sports also seem to be a bit less important than so many other things that are happening.

I wish the athletes well. I pray for their health and safety. I hope the injuries will be few. The Olympic games are meant to promote good will and peace between nations. May they do so this year as well. For now, I’m glad to know that my friends are not out on the roads and safe at home.