Thursday, June 18, 2009

Victims of the Digital Conversion...

How you might say? How does this happen to one who has known for so long that the analog signals of yesteryear were bound for digital crossover? Even after the extension from our floundering Federal government, could we, the Cashions find ourselves without television!?

Let me start by saying that several months ago, we decided that we could do without cable service and that surviving on the basic channels that could be picked up via "rabbit ears" was just o.k. with us! As a matter of fact, last week, The Wall Street Journal published a report indicating that cutting cable was one of the best places to start when trying to save money. We were ahead of the curve...moving on....

We knew that our little color t.v in our bedroom definitely would not make the crossover because only a clothes hanger enabled it to bless us with the 11:00 news each evening before bed. We had never connected more than the living area to cable. As news reports became less and less informative, more and more negative, not to mention more and more repetitive, the habit of "dousing ourselves with despair" prior to a potential good night's rest was no longer.

Fast forward to digital countdown last week...we just KNEW that our main television would make the cut--when we replaced it several years ago, we specifically asked if it had a digital converter box--and were told yes. So as we watched Conan O'Brien and the clocked slowly inched towards midnight, we felt confident that at least one t.v would make it--"rabbit ears and cable t.v be damned" we said. A couple of digital channels would be fine, still no need for outrageous cable bills and being a slave to the mainstream media and the nonsense of unrealistic "reality" television. (I did have to admit, not being able to see Rock of Love, was going to hurt for a while.)

Midnight of "D-Day"-
Conan disappears on both sets and is replaced with a message that says something to the effect of "Channel 12 Nightlight". So for the next few minutes we watched in a trance, as the bright orange glow bathed our room and we sat, stunned ,that WE no longer had access to television programming...a little while later an infomercial from the station began to cycle through, letting us know what could have gone wrong, why we fell through the cracks, what we needed to do to make things right.

Well hear this! It's been almost a week and we are doing just fine...we've had to read (yes-real chapter books with no pictures) and we've been outside by the pool, we've played some games, ran and walked the neighborhood, gone to bed early, saved a little cash for a rainy day and most importantly, we've bought ourselves some peace of mind! The fact that we are no longer constantly bombarded with images to compare ourselves to, things that we don't need, tempting foods and cars, news that cripples you and the plethora of immorality that floods the digital signals has made for quite a nice little change and that my friends is about the only CHANGE that we can currently appreciate.

Brooke

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