For the past three and a half weeks we've been without a television set. It's being "fixed" -- but not in the Bob Barker sense-- because of a loud hum that annoys everyone in the Greater Columbus area. And there are downsides to not having a television. But we've managed despite these negative qualities.
My uncle, as I was growing up, never had a T.V.. And this was before the Internet. I never thought one, especially me, could manage. But a person can. I remember thinking people without cable were weird, too. But I've been without cable for 4 of the last 5 years and gotten along just fine. I'll admit I'd go crazy if it weren't baseball season because I can watch the Red Sox via the Internet and faithfully do every night. And I also watch the occasional movie on the computer.
Life slows down a little when you don't have a T.V.. No more are your days timed in 30 minute increments and commercial breaks. When it's eight o'clock it's eight o'clock. It's not time for My Name is Earl or How I Met Your Mother. Afternoons are filled, not with reruns and news, but with coffee and books and playing with my son. Early evenings are occupied with walks at sunset to pet stores and for ice cream and along riverbanks. And mornings, especially Saturday mornings, are filled with full breakfasts and short naps.
Sometimes life gets a little too slow and you wish you could just kick back for 30 minutes. Because of that I do look forward to the return of my T.V. -- especially because I can watch sports on the weekends which I miss most of all. But I've learned life doesn't give itself to you to be spent going the bathroom during commercial breaks. And that Isaac doesn't laugh because there's a sitcom on. And that the NBA playoffs aren't really worth the time (except for when Golden State's playing).
Life is about moving pictures and entertainment -- only it's going on all around and shouldn't be confined to my 30-inch wide screen. I always knew this. But it's nice to be reminded once and awhile.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
11 comments:
Sometimes I wonder if life without tv would be better. What if no one had televisions? We'd probably talk to our neighbor more often, that's for sure.
Yes, but you would have no way of knowing if your neighbor was criminal because there would be no T.V. to tell you. But, wait, if you talked more often to your neighbor wouldn't you recognize this. Maybe, maybe not. Afterall you wouldn't know that there was a crime committed at a previous time because there would be no one to tell you.
Wait... I'm sorry. I forgot what was your observation?
I sit at my computer watching Lost as I read your blog. Stupid DVR didn't record it for some reason.
I need to break my television set.
Heads up. Thinking of going to an auction next week of the old TV Channel 56 here in Boston. Aaron, what would you be looking for at an auction like this? Thanks!
No idea. Though I once interviewed at a place that made a coffee table out of an old television switcher. That was pretty cool. Everything they're going to auction is going to be old -- but not in the valuable sense, in the big and junky sense. At least that's my thought. I'd look for stuff you can get, like that switcher, that you can refurbish into something new and useful and a talker at dinner parties.
Trust me on this one when it comes to auctions, old means nothing. I continue to be amazed at what people will collect and the price they are willing to pay.
In the house of my youth, hidden in a basement room that we called the 'radio room,' was an old radio with a huge dial. To a little kid, the radio itself was about the size of a juke box, big. Once in a while dad would turn it on, taking a while for the tubes to heat up, and we would listen for voices beyond the Atlantic Ocean. One time, I heard a strange voice. Dad said it was in German. I wonder where that radio is. I would love to turn it on and perhaps....just perhaps...here a voice that is altogether different...both strange and different in tone and inflexion, in syntac and sound. And at that point, yes, at that point I would grab the phone and make that one important phone and give the answer that the world is waiting for. I would call that one person and listen for his words, Hello this is Art Bell and your on Coast to Coast AM. Oh, for that radio today.
I refuse to listen to Art Bell though I do enjoy listening to the voices in my head.
Art Bell's probably ok,, i heard the Aliens "ABUSED" him,, like that guy on independence day.. LOL
I miss my trips to Roswell, NM. Art and I would would chase the aliens. Oops, there go those voices in my head again.
I would really appreciate you people from dumpin on my man, Art Bell. He is the voice in the night that brings reality to my life. I can communicate with other civilizations through thought speech and travel to those places with my home-built ultra-light stream jet craft, a gift from the Venitians when I saved them from the Plutonians.
Post a Comment