Okay, so I got thinking about the USA Women’s Rugby Sevens team the other day. It wasn’t really planned, just popped into my head. I remember seeing highlights once and thinking, wow, that looks intense. Real fast-paced stuff.
So, I decided, you know, I should actually try and watch a proper game. See what it’s all about beyond the quick clips. Seemed simple enough, right? Just find a broadcast or a stream.
Finding the Game (or Not)
Well, let me tell you, that turned into a whole thing. First, I checked the usual sports channels. Nothing scheduled. Okay, no big deal. Went online. Started searching for live streams or replays. And man, that was a mess. Some sites looked dodgy, others wanted subscriptions for leagues I’d never heard of. Took me a good hour just clicking around, getting frustrated.
I eventually found some schedule info, but the next game was at some ridiculous hour, like 2 AM my time. Forget that. I like my sleep.
What Happened Instead
Giving up on the live game, I started poking around YouTube for older matches. Found a few, but then I got sidetracked. You know how YouTube is. One video leads to another. Somehow, I ended up watching videos about people building things. Completely unrelated. There was this one guy restoring an old wooden boat in his backyard. Fascinating stuff.
It reminded me of this project I took on a couple years back. Found an old tube radio at a yard sale, barely working. Paid maybe ten bucks for it. Thought, “I can fix this!”
The Radio Saga
- Got it home, opened it up. Dust everywhere, wires looking sketchy.
- Spent a weekend just cleaning the thing, carefully.
- Tried finding schematics online. That was almost as bad as finding the rugby stream! Took ages.
- Finally found some diagrams on an old forum.
- Ordered some capacitors and resistors online. Waited for them to arrive.
- Got my soldering iron out. Replaced the obviously bad parts.
- Plugged it in… carefully. It hummed! Progress!
- But still no stations. Just static.
- Did more testing. Found a tube that wasn’t glowing right.
- Tracked down a replacement tube from some specialist site. Cost more than the radio itself.
- Put the new tube in. More humming, still static.
I tinkered with that radio on and off for probably six months. Never did get it to properly pull in a station. It sits on a shelf in the garage now. Looks nice, but doesn’t really work. My wife keeps asking when I’m gonna get rid of it.
Anyway, that’s where my attempt to watch women’s rugby sevens led me. Down a rabbit hole of boat building videos and remembering my failed radio restoration. Still haven’t seen a full match. Funny how things go sometimes.
