The Winter Olympics

My father is a major fan of the Winter Olympics. When I was a kid, we didn't have cable tv. We did have crappy "bunny ears" antennae, which got us the CBC, but it required one of us (for technical reasons, it had to be a child) to stand behind the tv and hold the antennae. 

Every four years, my father would build a giant antenna, that went out the back door, wrapped around the house, came in through my bedroom window, and then went back to the tv. It worked! We got three channels clearly and could watch the Olympic games. Of course, we couldn't lock the house up properly, because we couldn't close the back door. Quoth my father, "Whatever."

We generally left our house unlocked anyway.

During the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, we watched Herman Maier crash spectacularly on the men's slalom. I regret that I didn't think of the perfect thing to say until 20 years later: "Oh, the Hermanity!"

A few hours after that event, the power went out. Dad was initially distraught and furious, then loaded us kids and a generator into his truck, and drove to our grandparents house. They had cable, but had also lost power. He used the generator to run the tv. And we left our house unlocked.