Tuesday, September 13, 2016

Evolving With The Times

I was first introduced to television in England in about 1951.  It wasn't even ours, but the neighbourhood gathered to watch it from time to time.  Everything was live back then, and that alone could make for some entertaining moments.

We came back to Canada in 1953 and within a couple of years we had a television of our own.  We were one of the first families in our area to get one, and just like in England, neighbours sometimes came over to watch with us.

This means I've had a TV for at least 60 years now.

That is, until just recently.

EastLink Cable has decided that it is no longer cost effective to offer their service in our town as of September 1st. We briefly considered getting a satellite dish when we first heard this was going to happen, but didn't want to sign a contract. That meant we would have to pay a fee to have the dish installed.  We decided to just go without TV.

I tend to spend more time on the computer than with the TV anyway.  There isn't much on anymore, and what there is always seems to run like a serial, so no matter how good it is, if you miss a week or two, you don't know what's going on.  I've stopped watching a lot of things that I once enjoyed for that very reason. Anyway, now there is NetFlix, and things like that, if you really want to watch a series.  Funny thing is, I had access to Netflix for several months before all this took place, and only ever watched 4 episodes of one show, and never bothered with it again.

People have been asking how things are going here without TV.  I discovered I could watch the soap opera, (The Young and Restless) that has been part of my day for the past 40 years. Global puts it online one day later.  I can live with that, as I often watched parts of it on two different days anyway, as something (meal preparation) was always interrupting.  I was sad to think I wouldn't get to see the end of America's Got Talent. The contestants this year are truly amazing, and I have no idea who is going to win. I don't actually see the show, but I do get to see each and every act the next day too.  I've just watched some more of the finalists performances and then watched the rest of a documentary on Mona Lisa that I started yesterday.  I find watching what I want at my own convenience is very liberating.

I actually did not miss my TV at all until there was a storm on Saturday night.  I saw tornado warnings just before I unplugged the computer.  We went to the basement.  Normally we would leave the TV on the weather channel during bad storms, but of course there was no TV.  We turned on the radio to the local station, and heard the warnings again, but everything else on that station seemed to be prerecorded as  no announcer came on even to give the standard news and weather reports.  Maybe he was hiding in the basement too.

Anyway, if I didn't unplug the computer, I'd at least have had better updates on the storm.  Do I miss the TV?  No, I guess not. But I'd certainly miss my computer!

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