My older son, turning 14 this month, doesn't care, unless it's about the USA basketball team. And he's got controversial views about that. (Don't get me started on his theories about why household favorite Jayson Tatum isn't playing.)
But my younger son? He'll watch anything and everything -- with a preference for the soccer highlights, of course.
My wife is interested in the soccer also, though only the Australian women (who lost today), and particularly interested in diving and gymnastics, specifically anything involving Simone Biles.
And though most sports in our household are on an American schedule, meaning there is no opportunity to watch them during the Australian nighttime, the local station 9Now has all sorts of highlights packages and full replays of every sport you could possibly want. Yes, underwater basket-weaving is now an Olympics sport and the Norwegians are particularly strong at it.
This means not many movies for me these two weeks.
Ordinarily, the members of our household under age 50 are squared away in their rooms by a little after 9, 9:30 at the latest. That doesn't mean they're asleep yet, but it does mean they are no longer our responsibility.
During the Olympics, though, my younger son is allowed to keep watching clips with me -- the "with me" part is the part that's important to him -- until as late as 10 o'clock.
And then, if I've had a day where I spent 11 and a half hours away from home as I did yesterday, a movie is completely off the table. (Especially if you fall asleep with fencing highlights on in the background and don't wake up until 10:45.)
I did squeeze one in on Tuesday, having also squeezed one in on Sunday. Both were short. In fact, both Arcadian on Sunday and The Immaculate Room on Tuesday were exactly 92 minutes, though I did have to nap briefly during both.
But I'm accustomed to watching no fewer than four movies during any given seven-day period, and that would be an absolute minimum. Usually it's five to six and it could be as many as ten, though that last is more likely to happen during the end-of-year push when I'm on the verge of closing off my rankings for the previous year.
If you run this week from Saturday night to Friday night, though -- starting with a Saturday night where my wife and I went to a dinner party -- there's a decent chance I don't get to four. I'd have to watch one each tonight and tomorrow night, and since tomorrow night is a Friday night, there's some chance my son's bedtime will be extended even further.
Not that missing my four minimum really matters, it just shows you how accustomed I am to, and comforted by, a certain routine.
This is one situation where being in California would actually benefit me. Because the Olympics are in Europe, all the locals have long since gone to bed when it gets to be nighttime in California. Here in Australia, we actually have some events that are playing in the morning in Paris that are live for us. Fortunately, the things that my son is really interested in, like soccer games, don't fit that description.
What's a few missed movies, especially when it involves bonding with my son? When it involves snuggling on the couch in the bitter cold, and him telling me, without irony, that he loves watching with me? A sentiment that he surely will not still express at age 14 with the next Olympics in 2028?
You know what, a few missed movies is nothing.
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