Plugging in again

Months have gone by, and we haven't been plugged in to the world. When the switch to analog went into effect our television reception was reduced to about 5 channels of garbage that I would never watch. On top of that, it was not reliable reception. We no longer got any of the channels we watched, like PBS and our local CBS, ABC or NBC channels - nothing. I truly got better reception and more channels before the switch. I unhooked our converter boxes and said, "forget it." We live in a mountainous area, and I've been told the analog signal doesn't work well with mountains.
I was not happy about this switch, and I know that puts me in a minority. I just felt like it was something forced on us as a population, and while they offered the converter boxes, no one I've talked to who has them, except one couple who lives within a straight shot of the tower, likes them. Most gave up and got cable or satellite. So for those whose budget was already stretched, they also had to pay for television.
I was against it on principal. I figured we could get by without it. I've known a lot of people who got rid of their TVs. Remember the "Kill your Television" bumper stickers?
While this was a nice experiment, going without television, I found myself missing it at certain moments when I really needed to just be fed something entertaining without doing a lot of work to get it. My job is stressful, and when crunch time comes there can be many hours spent with no break. The last thing I want to do is sit at this computer searching online for a TV show.
I tried watching things online. Yeah, it's a pain. I have to search for it, download some sort of player, update it almost every time I go back to that site and try to watch something new, and I get completely sick of sitting in this chair. I wanted to move from my desk to the living room and just watch something on television.
What I didn't want was my 7 year old to be bombarded with commercials. But gone were the days of free PBS programming.
So I caved in.
We got cable TV today, and we've spent most of the day in our PJs, playing with the new remote, surfing the channels and keeping track of the ones we like.
It's something brand new for us, so we were excited today. For me it's already pretty well worn off. I'm glad to have access to some channels that I was missing, for news, and PBS, and a couple of extras that I haven't had in years.
But I know I will have a TV schedule for us that limits the time it is on.
I do love the quiet.