Out of the house before 8:00, and I returned to Nose Hill this morning via the Whispering Grasses Walkway that joins the park with the suburb below. Again a foggy and cool morning. Cool that turned to cold as I climbed higher. Very few people, at least that I could see through the fog. Just an older lady and her three dogs. and a hooded figure further up the trail whom I soon lost in the mist.

I did hear the yipping of coyotes however, and folllowed it as best I could. After a few minutes I stood on a hill and watched four of them. One perhaps 50 yards away and utterly unafraid of me and the three others stretching out over a couple of hundred yards, which was about as far as I could see in the fog. I took a picture of one of them on my berry meaning of course that it looks to be about the size of a fruit fly. 

I think they eat well. There are lots of field mice in the park, jackrabbits and the odd partridge. Down in the city they would eat squirrels, cats, garbage and the occassional unfortunate shitsu or some such small dog.

As I walked I thought about the opening ceremonies and the three or four highlights for me. I thought the prairies scene was cool, set up by Donald Sutherland (that's Keifer's dad kids) reading W.O. Mitchell. I thought k.d. lang was terrific. The young woman who sang O'Canada was great, such an unusual arrangement. The Georgian athletes had a haunted look as they walked in tribute to a fallen friend-a moving moment.

I liked the people selected for lighting the caldron. Catriona Lemay Doan is....so...wow! Bobby Orr is just the best, the reason I became a Bruins fan all those years ago.

A lot of the stuff in the ceremonies would have been better if it was half as long. Some of it was just too...well...what you see at any government thing where it's all about inclusiveness  

Gretzky riding in the back of a half ton truck reminded me of my highschool years in Rosetown Saskatchewan. It was just odd.

Anyway, I'm glad that I didn't have to figure all of that out. It would have a lot of hockey, some Ultimate Fighting, some country music with Ian Tyson and Paul Brandt, some rock and roll with...BTO, the Guess Who and April Wine, maybe some footage of cool carnivore wildlife attacking and eating other herbivore wildlife that isn't quite as cool (except Buffalo, Moose and Muskox, which are cool) and of course, soldiers.

Now the real games begin.