(Yes, I know . . . this is also not the post where I continue writing about my reorganization. Soon. I promise.)
So. I went without cable TV for the last couple years because I was trying to cut back wherever I could. It sucked, but I adjusted much better than I thought I would. In fact, the challenges were interesting at times. With my trusty antenna, I was usually able to watch ABC (fairly clearly, even, if the wind was blowing right), CBS, CW, and two local networks. Occasionally some other channels would come in clearly enough to view them, but those five were usually the basic channels. I tape All My Children every day, and I watch it while I eat dinner in the evening. Sometimes I could see it clearly, but for the last couple weeks, it’s been very snowy and the picture would pop in and out. But I am often easily pleased by the small things in life, and a day when I would go home and find that All My Children recorded with a clear picture that day was always a nice little bonus.
Well, even though the extension went through for the deadline for the dtv conversion, I figured I’d better be making a decision anyway about what to do about the TV. The TV in my living room is capable of receiving a digital signal. It was a Christmas gift from my ex. (Before he was my ex, of course.) My VCR is not capable of receiving a digital signal, however. I don’t know whether one of the converter boxes would have made it possible to record with the VCR, and I actually never went far enough to check into it. The main reason is that the digital channels I was able to watch on the TV with the antenna were even more at the whim of . . . whatever it is that makes an antenna TV’s reception either good or bad (atmospheric conditions?) . . .than the analog channels were. If I got a good digital signal, it would be really nice for an undetermined amount of time, and then would pixilize and freeze up until I had to change the channel. That amount of time could be anywhere from 30 seconds to maybe ten minutes. One time, I watched a whole show before it froze up. So I came to the conclusion that once the converstion went through, I could expect to have a very low chance of being able to watch any show in its entirety with an antenna.
That was why I made the decision to go back to cable. I’ll find something else to give up, to make up for the expense.
Well, even though I was aware that I missed several of the cable networks and several shows I used to watch, it didn’t really hit me until last night, after the cable was hooked up and I started to flip through the channels. I was like a little kid who had just been given a whole pile of new toys! I didn’t know what t0 play with first!
I’m sure it will be awhile before I start to take it for granted like I did before I cancelled it.
And all day long at work today, I kept thinking about how excited I was to go home and watch TV. ’Course, I do have other things I need to do, too (leading back to that post I haven’t written yet and made reference to at the beginning of this one).
