But last night I was glued to the computer. And I wasn’t working. I was watching four glorious, mostly commercial-free hours of cross country jumping. Saturday I’d gotten up earlier than usual to watch the last rounds of eventing dressage, and I plan to set the alarm for 5:15 tomorrow and for the next five days so I can watch all the rest of the Olympic equestrian coverage.

In the past, Olympic equestrian coverage has been miniscule at best and confined to whatever the network edited into the larger broadcast. Maybe a 20-second highlight segment if we were lucky; about the same amount as, say, badminton. It was nowhere near what I thought it deserved, and forget about the thrill-a-minute-if-you-like-watching-the-grass-grow discipline of dressage. That got as much coverage as water polo. Or maybe less.

And worse still, they often showed a lot of ugly wrecks in the cross country rather than the incredibly skilled riding that was taking place between the accidents. And the commentators? Don’t even get me started. Inane wouldn’t be an inappropriate description.

But this time around, NBC is rocking! The online site is showing everything, complete and uninterrupted in streaming video. And the cameras are well placed so viewers actually get to see the whole darn thing rather than the same three shots over and over. And the commentary is optional, typewritten as the action unfolds. Click and it’s there. Click again and it’s gone.

I’ve got a nice big monitor and high-speed connection so it’s almost like watching TV. So thanks, NBC, for using 21st century technology to honor sports enthusiasts everywhere, no matter how obscure the discipline.

And if you’d like to watch, go to www.nbcolympics.com. Click on “online schedules” to see when you’re favorite events are on. Hint: the equestrian stuff is on early in the morning for the next six or seven days. Go, horses, go!