We've been without tv for several years. My parents, who watch a lot of television, are always saying, "Did you see that commercial where . . . ?" Most things in life remind them of a commercial. It's one of the funny quirks about them that i love. The thing that makes it so funny is that they have continued asking this for years, when we have no possible way of seeing any commercials, because we don't have tv.
We purposely cancelled our cable forever ago but we could still get about three main network channels plus four Spanish channels and a couple of home shopping channels. We could still watch big events like the World Series, the presidential inauguration, etc. In fact, i have very fond memories of being in labor while watching the Braves' home opener. It was Bobby's last season, as well as Jason Heyward's rookie debut.
Eventually the television broadcast made the switch to all-digital, and then we no longer got any channels. We still had the physical tv set, which we used to watch DVDs and play Wii, but we couldn't watch any actual tv on it.
At one point The Professor went to buy a converter box, but the store was sold out. The dude in the blue polo shirt said that they always sell out the same day that they receive a shipment. The shipments arrived randomly, and they never knew which day the converters were coming. If you weren't in the store within the first few hours of a day the converters arrived, then you were out of luck.
Well we certainly weren't committed to tv enough to warrant stalking Best Buy just to buy a digital converter, so we forgot all about it. We happily lived our lives for a long time without tv. Occasionally there are big events that we are interested in seeing, so we just invite ourselves over to other people's houses.
But here's where the story changes: our good friend Audrey gave us a converter box! It was so generous of her. We're so greatful and excited!
It took us a few days to get around to hooking it up once we got it, and wouldn't you know but the same day we plugged it up was a Big Event TV Day! We watched the Oscars! During the show they kept talking about the fact that billions of people around the world were watching, and they were talking about us! We're included in those billions. Small villages in Central America, all the proud people in France, and us in our basement.
And, the commercials were great! I didn't watch the Superbowl this year, but according to the world of facebook, the commercials were just so-so. Well i'll tell ya: the Oscar commercials this year were impressive. Or maybe they've been showing these same commercials for the past 4 months and i just didn't know about it.
I remember that in years past, the morning after Oscar night, numerous co-workers would show up to work looking haggard, and would spend all day complaining about how tired they were because they stayed up way too late watching the Oscars. In one particular job we started work at 5:30am, so watching tv until 11pm was in fact VERY late. This year, the BabyGirl also got to share in the experience of staying up way too late to watch the Oscars.
Truth be told, she wasn't "watching" the Oscars at all. She was having the time of her life running around in the basement and getting into all kinds of mischief because she knew i was paying her no attention whatsoever. Her bedtime was smack in the middle of Billy Crystal's opening ceremonies, and i couldn't tear myself away. Therefore, she got to stay up past her bedtime. I could just imagine her the next morning feeling tired and sluggish like all my old co-workers, and complaining to her friend David (whom she calls "Daybid") that, "I stayed up WAY too late watching the Oscars."
This small development in our lives has brought us much enjoyment. It is a fun diversion that we would otherwise not have but for the kindness of a friend. It's a break from routine, as well as a *free* source of entertainment. So thank you once again, Audrey!
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