Minor pre-torch battery saga:

So, I completely forgot the posted directive to dress in red and white and wore deep purple, another totally Canadian colour. *facepalm* I did snag my camera though. I'd changed the batteries the night before, but wasn't sure whether the ones I put in were recharged or not, but I figured, well, the retail section downstairs at work sells batteries, it'll be fine.

As the official designated 'knower of things' I had the tracking map up and was watching the Olympic ~~chili pepper~~ torch progress along the map.

20 minutes to torch: Decided, hey, maybe I should check my batteries.

18 minutes to torch: Of course they were dead. Go downstairs to the retail section, figuring I can get some as an advance on my next check.

15 minutes to torch: Of course we no longer sell that kind of battery. Rummage around the office, find backup batteries for cordless mice. None have enough charge to run a digital camera. Go "oh well, I'll just miss getting pictures" and feel an entirely ridiculous mope coming on.

10 minutes to torch: Have brilliant idea! Phone video store next door!

9 minutes to torch: They don't sell batteries and are confused that someone is calling a video store for batteries. I say "I'm [CaffieneKitty], I work next door, I'm in there all the time, I was just hoping." Video store then goes "Oh! It's for you? Of course we have batteries!" So they gave me some out of their stash for the rental DVD player remotes. I love my local independent video store! ♥

And so all that is why there are crappy pictures to share! \o/ (and also a few taken by one of the reception staff)

Assorted police doing traffic duty.

Booster vans with people dancing and hollering. It's like 9 degrees celcius out at this point, and breezy. The guy in the Coke van was awesome and had each side of the street trying to out-shout the other, which is amazing given there weren't a lot of kids out. I found out later the torch was taking detours to go past each of the schools in the area.

Some torch-run statistics on the side of the support van, for the factoid-deprived.

Oh, hey, what's this? That's a new runner with an unlit ~~chili pepper~~ torch! OMG We're a relay point!!! \o/

(Okay so it isn't that awesome because they wanted to let as many people carry the torch as possible so each 'leg' in populated areas is only about 300 meters, and hence the earlier van-factoid of 12000 torch-bearers, but what the hell. WE GET TO SEE THE FLAME GET PASSED!! \o/)

Random car with vaguely Impala-ish overtones sneaking past the cop on traffic duty. Totally not an Impala, but makes me want to see Sam and Dean having to deal with a giant parade mid-case.

Where there's noise, there's FIRE! \o/

Here he comes! The relay points are really closely spaced, this guy ran from the corner.

Howdy howdy!

FOOM! \o/

I love this shot the reception staff person got. It's like "Yay, fire! \o/"

And off he goes. The previous relay guy was cool and let people in the crowd hold his torch while it was still burning.

Regardless of what might be said about politics, or taxes being spent on this instead of that, or protests or all the other things that have good and valid points, this is still a ritual. A massive, ancient, global, public ritual. Involving fire! And any day that involves an ancient non-damaging fire ritual is a good day. *nods*

Here is a video where you can hear noises and background chatter from the office lunatics and my annoying laugh.

The whole thing was a lot more exciting in person. Well, a bit more.

(Yes, that's me saying 'Flame on!' in the background of the vid because I'm a total geek, but apparently so is one of my co-workers, because he said it first. I never would have voluntarily referenced the Fantastic Four without prompting, because I never would have thought about it.)

Then it all rolled past to have a party somewhere that wasn't work. Sigh.

Occasionally, reality is nifty. Not that I'm about to spend any more time in it than I have to. :-P

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

There's been talk about Chicago, which is four hours from here, so I dunno. Might be possible.

Highly unlikely that it would travel past anywhere I'm likely to be working, though. The town I actually live in is teeny, about 1500 people. Ah well, who knows? Could happen in my lifetime.

For now I'll just share in your squee. :D

On the way here it went through at least three communities that size or smaller. It's even apparently going past "Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump" in Alberta, which is a rock with an interpretive center, so stranger things have happened.

Torch Day

FOOM! \o/

no subject

no subject