Busy sports weekend in the countryside…Sports and interests…

We never figured out the source of smoke in these photos when the road was closed for a bike race.

We’re not much in the way of sports enthusiasts. Tom’s only sports passion is for the Minnesota Vikings football with no interest in other teams or sporting events. I’ll watch a few Vikings games when we can hook the HDMI into a flat-screen TV, but not when he has no choice but to watch it on his laptop.

We’ve attempted to get into watching golf, tennis, soccer, and other sporting events. But, during half of our time spent living in vacation homes, we have no TV, nor could we depend upon being able to watch any potential favorites when they may not be on in any given location.

Watching sports and finding great pleasure in doing so seems to revolve around having a favorite team to cheer on. That’s difficult to embrace when we’re always on the move.

To the left, there’s was a distant freighter. There’s a relatively inaccessible sandy beach in this area.

Tom’s allegiance to the Minnesota Vikings surely is predicated by having been born and living in Minnesota all of his life except for the past 41 months. He’s a staunch fan, preferring not to watch the game with others fearing distracting conversations. I’ve learned not to distract him when he’s watching a game.

As it turns out, being able to watch the Vikings is a costly undertaking when games aren’t available in most parts of the world requiring he pay an annual fee for the online NFL Game Pass service in order to watch the games, plus the cost of data to stream it online.

In total, the cost of NFL Game Pass (only viewable outside the US) has been NZ $251, US $169 per season not including playoff games. With 16 games, that’s an average of NZ $15.55, US $10.56 per game plus another approximate NZ $14.83, US $10 for data.

Driving along the ocean, we spotted these cyclists, participants in a local race on Saturday.

When watching totals NZ $30.38, US $20.56 per game, one thinks twice about adding any other video streaming sporting events. It all adds up. Luckily, with our lack of interest in other sports, we’ve avoided incurring such additional costs.

With each of us with distinct interests in different areas, we find ourselves easily entertained on the days such as today when it’s raining and we have no interest in heading out to explore. 

Although I read most of the downloaded books on my phone when in bed, I can easily spend the better part of the day researching my favorite topics; wildlife, nature, health, food, science, space, technology, and travel, while Tom wraps his brain around communicating with friends and family on Facebook, future travel/cruises, investments, history, and ancestry.

Outside a refinery, the bikers stopped to converse during the race.  Mount Taranaki is in the background.

Of course, I’m very interested in seeing how family and friends are doing on Facebook, but spend only a short time doing so each day. As a fast reader, I breeze through the recent posts in no time at all.

The most amazing part of our diverse interests is the fact that we can easily share interesting tidbits with one another, expressing genuine interest in what one another discovers. We’ll watch the US and UK TV series “Who Do You Think You Are” (as one of Tom’s interests) as readily as we’ll watch a health-related documentary.

It appeared a number of teams were participating in the bike race. There was also a motocross race occurring at the same time, although we couldn’t get close enough to see anything.

On other occasions, we may watch an old episode of Stephen Hawking’s theories on science and space which on his own, Tom may not be interested in watching. Living together 24/7 we automatically gravitate toward sharing our interests while reveling in one another’s passion.

Sure, he’d rather not visit a botanical garden, nor do I have a great interest in visiting a military armory. We do both of these and many more never feeling as if we’ve had to compromise.  Its this innate willingness to bring joy to our peculiar lives of travel that we easily participate in each other’s interests.

While I was inside the health food store, Tom took a photo of this passing decorated truck, most likely with a connection to the local sports events.

May someone special present you with an opportunity to share in their interests, whether it be a sporting event, a science fiction movie, or an episode of World War II on the history channel.

Photo from one year ago today, March 14, 2015:
No photo was posted one year ago today.  Tomorrow, on March 15th (here in the South Pacific), we’ll elaborate.  Click here for that post without photos.