Wrong Place Right Time

I don't know how much was on the national news, but the Olympic Torch came through here today.

I have mixed feelings about the whole thing. On one hand it's the Olympics, which is about sports and unity. On the other hand I think China should take its hands off Tibet. It guess it's hard to separate the athletes from their home countries, from the Games' host country, and governments from citizens. I think protests should have been allowed, but the torch is sacred, somehow, to keep people from seeing it was wrong. It's sad that the City had to spend so much money to have it come through here.

We went out for a walk in Golden Gate Park this afternoon. At 19th Avenue a bunch of police motorcycles came through, at first I thought they were returning from a funeral. Then they stopped traffic. I had read that the torch's route had changed, maybe it was going through the park? I kicked myself for not having my camera along. A crowd gathered and a woman standing next to us called home to check the news. Turns out all the security was just escorting the torch and all the associated folks to the airport.

It was fun for K. There were well over a hundred police motorcycles, big buses, little buses, and an ambulance. We waved. (I don't care what side the people were on. They are in our city and we wave at tourists. It's what we do. Okay, I wouldn't wave at Charles Manson.) But best of all were the helicopters. We counted a total of seven. I feel for people who waited several hours to see the torch come through only to find out the route was changed. But for us it was a nice diversion with helicopters!. And we can say we saw the bus that carried the Olympic Torch through San Francisco in 2008.