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Oct
23

Contemplating Big Changes

Quote of the Day:

I read in the newspapers they are going to have thirty minutes of intellectual stuff on television every Monday from 7:30 to 8 to educate America…..They couldn’t educate America if they started at 6:30.     –Groucho Marx

Change. TB spends a lot of time thinking of things that ought not be like they are. Politically, socially, in sports, but most of all in my personal life I am constantly aware of what needs to be tinkered with and made better. Unfortunately, my ability to visualize the paths which must be taken in order to effect change are inversely proportional to my ability and willingness to set off down them in the first place.

The deficit? No problem. I can pontificate for days on what we need to do. Poverty? I can fix that once and for all. Getting Mississippi State to the Sugar Bowl before I perish? Well, that one might be a little harder but I could do it with just a little cooperation from the right quarters. But modernizing, simplifying and economizing my own life? That’s a little more complicated.

I’ve been agonizing now for months over such a life change. I know what needs to be done, but I am afraid. What if it doesn’t work? What if it causes me too much stress? What if it doesn’t save enough money to be worthwhile? Am I missing a pertinent factor that should weigh in to my deliberations? This is my life, after all, not merely the future of mankind we’re talking about!

They say it can be done. I speak, of course (in writing that is), of dumping cable. My fingers tremble at even typing that aloud, much less taking the leap.

A hundred bucks a month and all we watch is Disney Jr., DVR’s of Charmed and the first fifteen minutes of SNL about twice a month. I long ago swore off anything newsish related. No time for movies. Jeopardy is no fun without a couple of ARB’s to beat up on. Yes, there is the college football season to think of, but they say I can catch just about every game online now and the ones I can’t are available at Buffalo Wild Wings down the street. There is Netflix and Hulu, but what if I hate them as much as I do Comcast?  And I can’t even get rid of the cable company because I need their precious speedy internet service. On the other hand I often think of a friend who dumped cable and told me awhile back that his kids don’t even know what a commercial is.

What it really boils down to is that I am in the habit of turning on the TV for the noise. Like an addict, I need the nightly fix. The morningly fix too. And my folks will go crazy if they come to visit and there’s no noise box for them to, like me, mostly just complain about.

Typing it out, it seems obvious which way to go here. Then again, there are a lot of good excuses. I probably won’t do anything. It’s much easier just to do things the way I’ve always done them.

Maybe I’ll grow a mustache or something.

 

 

 

Permanent link to this article: http://www.missingtheground.com/2012/10/contemplating-big-changes/

  • RockStarRambler

    The Ocho!

    October 24 2012
    CommentsLike
    • Jessie Lou

      I’ve aged to the point I don’t care if the TV is on or not. Alot of time I appreciate the quiet for whatever reason. Or to just to have music on. Maybe I’ll feel differently after the election, but I doubt it.

      October 23 2012
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      • Mac

        Even the Ocho?

        October 23 2012
        CommentsLike
        • Travellinbaen

          Bev, I hear that tactic works. I am just a terrible bluffer. I’ll have to prepare myself to really be willing to let go!

          Mac, I think I too could do without it fine. It’s just that…..I’m not CERTAIN.

          Irv, we can’t choose because the cable companies are for some reason allowed to have regional/local monopolies. It’s corporate socialism/welfare that keeps all those garbage channels in business, plain and simple. I don’t know how it got that way or who exactly to blame, though I’d bet a lot of money on which direction the cable biz’ campaign cash flows most robustly, but that’s how it is.

          If we could just choose our channels and pay for what we want, most households would probably have less than 20-25 channels. And that’s if they take ALL the ESPN’s.

          October 23 2012
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          • Mac

            IR, you get out of here with all your fancy book lernin’ and common sense.

            October 23 2012
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            • Irvine Redd

              For a while now I’ve wished they’d let me pick and choose my channels. I don’t really want about 90% of the channels I currently have. They should let me pick my cable line up like I’m ordering from the A La Carte menu at a hibachi restaurant.

              October 23 2012
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              • Bev

                Movember is coming – grow some facial hair and call it a day! :)

                I love TV, even though I never really get to watch it anymore. Recently I called Comcast with the intention of dropping some of our premium channels due to the cost, and instead of dropping the channels, the customer service rep knocked $20 off my monthly bill for 12 months, just ’cause. You never know!

                October 23 2012
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                • Mac

                  You could remove every tv from my house and I wouldn’t miss a beat. Now, the internet, that is a different story all together. It’s just distractions. Different strokes for different folks. My wife enjoys tv, for the hour or so a day she gets to sit down and watch it. So we will be keeping it. I made a strong push for satellite TV because of the Sunday Ticket (where you can get all the NFL games) a few years ago but was outvoted. It was just me and Christi voting but she apparently has controlling stock in the company. :-)

                  October 23 2012
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