I watched tons of coverage of the Athens games, but I doubt a second of it was in high-def, since I didn’t know anyone at the time with an HD set.  Apparently, in Athens, NBC’s high-def coverage was entirely separate from their network coverage, with different camera angles and announcers.  This year, every second of the games is being broadcast in HD, and the quality is really outstanding if you can see it.  While in South Carolina last week I didn’t have access to an HDTV (which is surprising considering that the much less expensive Hyatt Park Place near O’Hare had a gigantic plasma screen, and this fancy-pants Westin in Hilton Head didn’t), so I had to make do.  But knowing what I was missing made it less enjoyable.

Of course, at the moment, my two year old HDTV is dying a painful death, and is basically unwatchable.  It was the first high-def set I saw for under $500, and since it looked so much better than the standard-def sets that were still the most commonly available at Best Buy at the time, the “Insignia” was what we bought.  But what remorse!  The top third of the picture is about half again as bright as the bottom two thirds, and above a very distracting line across the screen the picture is extraordinarily distorted, so that a round shape (like, say, a human head) is stretched into a long oval, and parallel lines curve inward toward some unseen horizon.  It’s enraging.

So we clearly need a new television, and, obviously, HD is the only way to go.  On one hand, prices for televisions seem astonishingly high compared to a decade ago.  But that may be because in 1998 most people only had a TV of thirty inches or less.  I remember when a thousand dollar TV was automatically a gigantic appliance that took up about ten square feet of floor space.  Now that same thousand dollars will buy you a pretty large flat screen HDTV that may even mount on the wall.  So, while the average American household now probably spends twice what they did a decade ago on their TV sets, they get something much better.

But, while all these routines are becoming more challenging, the gymnasts simply cannot land without taking a big step, hop, or falling down entirely, even when it seems like that would be the least complicated aspect of their sport.  And it is troubling to see an athlete who does stick the landing score lower than one who doesn’t, marked down instead for not attempting some element that is supposedly more difficult, but which my eyes are too inexperienced to distinguish.

Meanwhile, the obviously underage Chinese gymnasts and the ridiculous new method of score tabulation has sullied, to me, what is an otherwise fantastic Olympic sport.  My proposals: let’s see some birth certificates; and let’s go back to a system in which a “10.0″ is perfect.  Everybody understands that.

In a related story, I went to Barnes and Noble this week, where they have their own line of classic novels, but was disappointed in them.  It wasn’t for the price, since bundled as they were three or four novels to a volume they were quite inexpensive.  But I noticed that they had few, if any, endnotes, and at least one novel–it may have been one of Victor Hugo’s–was abridged.  I am becoming quite fond of the editions in the Penguin Classics series, the Oxford World’s Classics series, and the Norton editions.  I have been reading the Penguin edition of Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, and I must say that in older literature, it is helpful to have some degree of editing for spelling or punctuation (these books frequently have words spelled different ways from one chapter to the next, for some reason), and footnotes for allusions that are made or geographical references.

In a less related story, I see that NBC is set to have a Robinson Crusoe television series this fall.  I predict swift cancellation.

Now, as I hear it raining still harder I am beginning to suspect that I won’t be able to get out today.

Meanwhile, I have no idea what I have been missing on the other NBC-owned networks, since the hotel doesn’t receive any HD channels.  For all I know I have missed many of my favorite events.

The trip here, in a rented Hyundai Sonata, was surprisingly comfortable.  That’s a good little car.  It has every luxury, and appears to get incredibly good mileage.  We made a brief stop in Savannah for lunch, then arrived in South Carolina around 4:30.  This area differs from coastal Florida in a number of ways, though the most immediately obvious is the presence of trees, which is striking, considering how many hurricanes come through here.  Every shopping center and parking lot is wooded, and, in fact, the shopping areas are set back from the road, so you see unobtrusive signs along the street, in front of a wall of pine and oak.

The hotel is nice, if sprawling.  The hallways are long and the pool area covers a giant swath of land in the middle of the complex.  The balcony of our room looks over a pond with a fountain, and at night the frogs are very active.  The lobby is handsome, with elaborate wood paneling and millwork, and as I write people are enjoying complimentary lemonade and some other drink with whole strawberries in it.  This morning I attempted to get started reading Robinson Crusoe, but the splashing and cavorting of the guests at the pool, and the sound of the waves was too distracting for me.  I have been watching the swimming events from the Olympics on television.

Last night we went for a lovely walk along the beach, and it took us quite a distance north from our hotel.  The shore in front of the hotel had a goodly number of bathers, but a short distance up the coast it was practically deserted, and there were all manner of birds and bivalves and crabs.

The weather today is surprisingly cool, in the mid 70s, I’d say. It feels like Florida in the winter, since it’s also a bit overcast at the moment.  In a few minutes we’re going into town to have lunch and look at some old antebellum houses.

I foolishly forgot the power supply to my laptop, so I can only use this computer for as long as I have charge.  If  I don’t write again until Wednesday that is why.  The most unfortunate aspect of my absent-mindedness is that I won’t get to edit the photographs from the wedding I shot in St. Augustine last month.  That will be my top priority when I return to Gainesville.

In prime time last night I did get to see men’s gymnastics, which I love, women’s beach volleyball, which I also love, and swimming.  If I had a complaint about the swimming, it’s that the media is so in love with Michael Phelps that they spend lavish amounts of air time talking about every aspect of his life, that we miss other interesting things.

I have been so eager for these Olympic games, and I intend to watch a lot–and I mean a lot–of TV coverage.

UPDATE: Last night I did watch the prime time replay of the opening ceremony, and it defied belief.  The moving boxes and thousands of drummers were incredible.  The entire production was simultaneously spectacular and intimidating.  These people will one day be our masters.