Disconnection

When I lived in Washington, DC, I had cable t.v. service. Comcast, I think. It was okay. It went out sometimes. I don't really remember even thinking about it. The price wasn't horrible.

When I moved out to the country, beyond the reach of the cable systems, I took over a satellite t.v. hookup from the guy who sold me the house. Again, I didn't think about it much, although occasionally I had to trim the Black Locust tree that had a tendency to grow in the way of the signal. But prices started to rise. And I had to pay extra to get networks. And I couldn't even get all of the networks. And I noticed how many shopping channels there were, and religious channels, and music channels, none of which did anything for me. Then because of a lawsuit the satellite provider had to drop the networks (I was getting a New York feed because they couldn't give me a local feed) and in order to watch them I had to arrange with another service. Another bill, another hassle. More money.

And now it's summer and the signal is threatened by the Black Locust and maybe also the gigantic walnut tree that I couldn't trim even if I wanted to. Thunderstorms also interfere with the signal, and there's nothing I want to watch anyway. Which is the real issue, I realized. What was I watching? Sports, sometimes, but even then not with much interest. Mind-numbing dramas right before bed. The financial news in the morning. That was it. Everything else I got either on DVD or on the internet. It wasn't that hard a decision to make, once I gave it some thought.

So I cancelled the satellite t.v. service (both of them) which will save me about $60/month. I can get rid of the t.v. in the bedroom, which wasn't working all that well to begin with--it's old. I've got several unwatched DVDs that maybe now I'll get around to. In the meantime, I'm reading a lot more, and I'm feeling good about that.