If you are a long-time reader of the column (and really, if you aren’t you should be, I am an award winner you know!) then you probably recall my tirade about the summer Olympics a couple of years ago.

Okay so it wasn’t so much a tirade, maybe more of a quick rant. But in it I said I found the summer Olympics to hold little interest to me and then I began my quest to not watch a single second of the neverending broadcast.

I was successful in that endeavor and, to be honest with you, I was seriously considering going on a similar hunger strike for the next two weeks as well. I mean, who considers curling or snowboarding an actual sport? I certainly don’t.

But something happened on my way to my altar of anger, I got sucked in. I suppose this is where I should admit I was going to watch the hockey tournament anyway. One of my earliest sports memories is of the 1980 U.S. hockey team winning their magical gold medal and thus I have been a fan of Olympic hockey ever since. But that was where it was going to end. There would be no speed skating or skiing on my television. And don’t get me started on those ridiculous X-Gamers who have somehow invaded what is supposed to be a legitimate sporting event. There was just no way I was going to sit around and suffer through all this.

However, fate had other ideas for me. The other night after my wife took my daughter upstairs to give her a bath I was left holding the remote control with nothing to watch. Football has been over for a couple weeks. There were no basketball games of interest on and it seems there is never any hockey on when I want to watch it and so I was stuck looking for something to stare at to pass the time. And so I turned on the Olympics. I can’t recall what it was I watching. It might have been pairs figure skating or some speed skating event. But whatever it was grabbed my attention and did not let go.

After a while my wife came back down stairs and smiled at me. “Watching the Olympics huh?” she asked.

I had no reply for her. She knew my feelings about the summer games and I think I had expressed similar ones about the winter games, so it was as if she’d caught me with my hand in the cookie jar. I was watching the Olympics and I had no excuse.

Since that night I’ve watched more skating, some luge, some of the snowboard cross (the finals of which were actually pretty exciting) and even a little curling the other day while eating lunch.

There you have it folks. My dirty little secret is no longer much of a secret and I’m okay with that. In fact, I’m feeling secure enough to admit right now that I kind of like watching the winter Olympics. I don’t know if this interest will carry over to the next summer games and I don’t really care. For now I’m having fun watching these winter games and the hockey tournament is just getting started. So for the next couple of weeks I’ll be taking my sports with a little bit of ice and who knows, maybe I’ll finally learn to appreciate the fine art of curling. Then again, that might be just a little too much to ask for.