Sure, I'd cry during National Anthem

I get kind of emotional watching the Olympics.

Right now it is the winter games, but the summer games get me in the gut too.

Competing for your country is still a huge honor in my book.

I know if I ever won a medal of any kind I'd blubber and cry on the stand as my red, white and blue flag was hoisted as the National Anthem played.

I'm just that way, showing the world that the U.S.A. is competitive is still important to me and worth how many millions it takes to field a team.

Almost 3,000 athletes are competing in 109 events, seven sports and 15 disciplines in Beijing.

It's on just about every NBC-related channel. I have been selectively watching.

It might come as a surprise here in North Texas, but I am closet curling junkie. I like the sport, I still don't understand it. At least now I know the "house" from the "button" and understand what the "hammer" means.

I was sad to see the U.S. mixed doubles team fall, but pleased with the upstart Italian team. They were great.

They Italian pair went through undefeated and now the names of Stefania Constantini and Amos Mosaner are heroes in the country. A place where only 400 curlers are active. Well, they better start building some more courts or whatever you call them.

They're bringing home a gold medal and I'm sure their homeland is proud and they will soon be on ice working on their curling game.

Curling goes back to my roots, it was created in Scotland around the 16th Century. Probably by a short, rotund guy named Wallace. By the 1840's they had curling clubs. It gave them something to do when it was too cold for soccer.

Out on a frozen pond, sliding around a 42-pound chunk of granite while others in kilts and brooms swept the ice. It's kind of silly to watch, but fun.

I liked watching the U.S. men's team score an overtime victory over the Russian Olympic Committee team.

Don't get me started. The Russian Olympic Committee got caught cheating four years ago in this sport and had to forfeit a medal.

When not watching curling I have flipped over to a few other s events.

It's a shame Mikaela Shiffrin missed a gate and a potential big endorsement deal on her slalom. She still has chances to win in other events.

Jessie Diggins, a 5-4, Minnesota native was fun to watch metal in the cross country race. The first individual medal for the U.S. in that sport. Diggins has a gold medal for 2018 from a team sprint. I love the enthusiasm the 30-year-old shows, she's on the world stage and she knows it.

I have trouble understanding some of the other winter sports. I just can't relate them to anything in Texas.

Like the biathlon? Who ever thought about skiing for a while, then stopping to take target practice with a rifle?

It probably was created in a Nordic country where they had to ski out to find food for the family.

That sounds reasonable. I don't know how that translates in the Olympic games, but what do I know about winter games. I can barely handle a sleet storm. I don't think I can the cold and ice of China. But I'll keep watching waving my flag. I still remember the "Miracle on Ice" with the U.S. Hockey team.