Cerebral mush, here I come!

Well, after 29 years of access to 5 channels and getting up to move rabbit ears each time I click the remote, I've finally decided to take the plunge into the world of satellite TV. The DIRECTV man is installing the dish right now.

It's kind of a sad day for me in a way. I grew up watching little or no television. We didn't even own a TV until I was 8, and that one was only because I got a new computer - a TI 994a - that required a monitor. I convinced my parents to let my grandma buy the TV for it for Christmas and that I only wanted it so I could use my new computer. I'm sure they knew the truth of what they were getting into, but they obliged. So began my trek into the mind-numbing world of television.

Now, it's the year 21 A.T. (after television). In lo those 21 years, I've lived my life as the rebel insisting that network was more than enough television for anyone. Who needs all those channels? We already watch TV too much as it is! That was my mantra, and still is to some degree.

So, how did I breakdown and take this plunge? Well . . .our old TV is about to bite the dust so we treated ourselves to a new one for Christmas. It's a fine looking 42 inch HDTV. It's beautiful. We're even making a lovely new home for it in our den (see my Remodel post, which I'm going to add an update to as soon as the doors I ordered get here and I install them). We were so excited when we brought it home from our after-Thanksgiving sale shopping trip. We opened it up and quickly grabbed the faithful bunny ears from the old TV to connect to this new beauty. It was easy to set-up, much less trouble than this install guy is having right now at my house. But then the moment of truth arrived. It was time to turn on this lovely work of art to see the beauty it could produce. The results . . .

Yes, dancing through what should have been a glorious image was larger, more accentuated snow. Sure, we could see the actors moving around on the screen, but what was once just a nuisance on our small television had now become an unignorable mess.

What had we done? All that money invested for a worse picture. We couldn't have that. We had to make a change. This new TV has driven us to the dark side. Now, instead of 5 snowy channels, we should soon have 150 digitally clear channels for us to peruse as our brains slowly turn into mush. Oh well. It's just part of the American Dream, right?

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