8:17 p.m. The head of VANOC, John Furlong, is now addressing the athletes, also invoking Nodar Kumaritashvili... Now, a reference to "the longest torch relay in Olympic history"... Lots of Canadian pride...
8:26 p.m. IOC head Jacques Rogge delivers his thanks to Canadian and provincial officials and many others, including "thousands of volunteers"... Now he's speaking French.
8:30 p.m Rogge annoints Governor General Michaelle Jean to declare the Games open.
8:31 P.M Governor General of Canada, Michelle Jean is declaring the Games open...First on French and then on English....
8:32 p.m. Oh. My. God. k.d. Lang is performing Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah." People are in tears, I am in tears, and there is only one other person in the world who would understand why. I feel very alone right now.
8:38 p.m This was breathtakingly emotional considering the events of the day.
8:39 p.m. Eight Canadian legends are carrying in the Olympic flag: Terry Fox's mother Betty Fox, actor Donald Sutherland, race car driver Jacques Villeneuve, Olympic champion figure skater Barbara Ann Scott, singer Anne Murray, Senator Romeo Dallaire, great Bobby Orr, and astronaut Julie Payette... The Olympic hymn, which I always thought was absolutely beautiful, is sung by an opera singer whose name escapes me but who has the biggest hair I have ever seen...
8:46 p.m. One minute of silence in memory of Nodar Kumaritashvili. and the Canadian and Olympic flags are flying at half mast...
8:48 p.m. The Olympic oaths are taken on behalf of the athletes (in English - Haley Wickenheise, the best woman hockey player in the world) and the officials (in French)...
8:51 p.m. I'm thinking Wayne Gretzky will end up lighting the cauldron because he hasn't been seen at all yet. I was thinking that the coolest flame lighting ever was the Li Ning performance in Beijing 2008... Paralympian Rick Hansen brings the torch into the stadium. It's mounted on the side of his wheelchair... He hands off to Olympic medalist Catriona LeMay Doan... to NBA All-Star Steve Nash... to Olympic champion skier Nancy Greene... and there's Gretzky. There appears to be some mechanical difficulty preventing one of the four structures from operating. They are proceeding with the other three, an unfortunate but ultimately minor glitch in an otherwise flawless ceremony... Nash, Greene and Gretzky light a cauldron emerging from the floor. A malfunction leaves Le May Doan’s portion of the structure inoperable. Now Gretzky is leaving the stadium to light a cauldron outside that will be visible from around the city...
9:09 p.m. We can see on screens, Gretzky and the torch are in the back of a truck being driven through the streets of Vancouver.
9:14 p.m. He's lighting a replica of the one inside the stadium, with all four towers functioning. That's the one everyone will be able to see.
9:15 - midnight. Beer.
12:40 a.m. What a day. Tonight's show presented the world everything that Canada is about. It felt so good to see that.
It was so hard to watch unlucky Nodar Kumaritashvili's crash.... I hope something like that will never happen again.
And tomorrow, if weather permits (but considering all the rain tonight, and what's predicted for tomorrow, I doubt it), I will cheer for Canadian Cowboys. And for Jenn.
