Oh, yeah, now I remember why...
I'm taking a little break from my project. I'm just about done with it and think tomorrow will wrap it up. I was kinda feeling the spirit today, and I don't know what the dealio is, but if I eat a couple of bananas, I feel great, physically.
Maybe it's time for the Centrum silver multivitamin, or the one-a-day over 50 and the fish oil caplets. I have some sort of vitamins in the cupboard. Guess it's time to start taking them again. And bananas. One a day...
So I have a little story to tell. That's kind of the whole point of the blog, though, no? I have stories to tell and some days they're better than others. Today's story is about TV.
I fired directv last week. The bill was too steep. A couple of days later, I had a phone call from a number I didn't recognize. I googled it and apparently it belongs to the "we love you, come back" department at directv. I didn't call them back, because I was still being mad at them.
After five days with no tv, I thought it was time for a change. But there are challenges with television these days that I hadn't thought about when I gave directv the boot. I sure thought about them today, though.
Football was on. So I thought I'd hook up an antenna and watch some TV. Yeah, that worked a decade ago, when my televisions were new and I didn't live in a brick fortress that won't stop cold air very well in some spots, but will block a TV signal like nobody's business.
I have stuff laying around, though, and actually lived without cable for about two months back a few years ago. That means I have a DTV converter box. I forgot I had it and threw the remote for this thing away, though. Um, stupid plan because you have to have the remote to get to the setup page. I'd used it once though, and had an antenna on the roof that worked. Not great, but worked.
Had is the key word in that sentence. It fell off the roof in a storm and broke. I'm pretty sure I tossed it after that.
I have rabbit ears though. But they don't work. I have VHF rabbit ears. Not UHF. So I found an antenna, I had a gift card, and viola, I was going to have TV in the bedroom by putting the antenna in the window that faces the same direction as the transmitters. I have all kinds of cables, splitters, and doo-dads. Yeah, um, that didn't work either. What I also have is the box and the reciept and a very liberal return policy. It's going back in the morning and I'm going to buy something else with my gift card.
The reason I had directv in the first place is because my televisions are old. They're analog sets and my directv boxes go to analog tvs. I forgot about that when I fired them last week.
So I called the number on my phone. We kissed and made up. The first guy told me I'd have picture in just a few minutes. I explained to him my dilemma about the receiver and he told me no it was on the account and everything was fine. At a little before two, the man promised me I'd have TV in under an hour. I was busy with my project so I waited two. Nothing. Called back. The young man I was talking to was trying to be helpful, but the best he could do was tell me I needed a service call. He told me I probably knocked the dish out of alignment when I cleared the snow off it. There's an app. for that, built into the receiver, so I tried to tell him I didn't think so, but OK, sign me up and send out the rep.
Tuesday.
Umm, o.k. Tuesday. I came this far, what's a couple of days...
And then I got to thinkin....and I went back into the living room and tuned to channel 376 and sure enough, there was a picture. For some reason, they're happy to give you the God channels. I'm happy to have them and occasionally I find something I enjoy on them. It's not a punishment to have them. Having them, though, meant the dish was in alignment and the equipment was workin'.
Called back again, and this time I reached a young woman in Pennsylvania. Who listened to me, when I told her about the God channels and the situation with the box in the bedroom. She rebooted the receiver in the living room from Pennsylvania and while it was restarting, she asked me questions about the box in the bedroom, figured out it had never been activated, activated it, and viola'... tv again. Then magically, tv again in the other room shortly thereafter. No service call, just a young woman who had more on the ball than a couple of other tech support guys! She laughed when I told her that.
And then I shut it off and went back to doing what I'd intended on doing anyway. After seeing New England had a strong lead.
Well, that's my TV story. If I want free TV, I need a not so free outdoor aerial antenna and to hook them up, and to hook it up to the cables already run in the house. Then I'd need two televisions capable of getting free tv because set top boxes aren't free anymore. I already got my coupon and used it. And tossed the remote.
So I'll take my little directv reduced number of channels for about half the price package. And go back to my chores for the night.
Maybe it's time for the Centrum silver multivitamin, or the one-a-day over 50 and the fish oil caplets. I have some sort of vitamins in the cupboard. Guess it's time to start taking them again. And bananas. One a day...
So I have a little story to tell. That's kind of the whole point of the blog, though, no? I have stories to tell and some days they're better than others. Today's story is about TV.
I fired directv last week. The bill was too steep. A couple of days later, I had a phone call from a number I didn't recognize. I googled it and apparently it belongs to the "we love you, come back" department at directv. I didn't call them back, because I was still being mad at them.
After five days with no tv, I thought it was time for a change. But there are challenges with television these days that I hadn't thought about when I gave directv the boot. I sure thought about them today, though.
Football was on. So I thought I'd hook up an antenna and watch some TV. Yeah, that worked a decade ago, when my televisions were new and I didn't live in a brick fortress that won't stop cold air very well in some spots, but will block a TV signal like nobody's business.
I have stuff laying around, though, and actually lived without cable for about two months back a few years ago. That means I have a DTV converter box. I forgot I had it and threw the remote for this thing away, though. Um, stupid plan because you have to have the remote to get to the setup page. I'd used it once though, and had an antenna on the roof that worked. Not great, but worked.
Had is the key word in that sentence. It fell off the roof in a storm and broke. I'm pretty sure I tossed it after that.
I have rabbit ears though. But they don't work. I have VHF rabbit ears. Not UHF. So I found an antenna, I had a gift card, and viola, I was going to have TV in the bedroom by putting the antenna in the window that faces the same direction as the transmitters. I have all kinds of cables, splitters, and doo-dads. Yeah, um, that didn't work either. What I also have is the box and the reciept and a very liberal return policy. It's going back in the morning and I'm going to buy something else with my gift card.
The reason I had directv in the first place is because my televisions are old. They're analog sets and my directv boxes go to analog tvs. I forgot about that when I fired them last week.
So I called the number on my phone. We kissed and made up. The first guy told me I'd have picture in just a few minutes. I explained to him my dilemma about the receiver and he told me no it was on the account and everything was fine. At a little before two, the man promised me I'd have TV in under an hour. I was busy with my project so I waited two. Nothing. Called back. The young man I was talking to was trying to be helpful, but the best he could do was tell me I needed a service call. He told me I probably knocked the dish out of alignment when I cleared the snow off it. There's an app. for that, built into the receiver, so I tried to tell him I didn't think so, but OK, sign me up and send out the rep.
Tuesday.
Umm, o.k. Tuesday. I came this far, what's a couple of days...
And then I got to thinkin....and I went back into the living room and tuned to channel 376 and sure enough, there was a picture. For some reason, they're happy to give you the God channels. I'm happy to have them and occasionally I find something I enjoy on them. It's not a punishment to have them. Having them, though, meant the dish was in alignment and the equipment was workin'.
Called back again, and this time I reached a young woman in Pennsylvania. Who listened to me, when I told her about the God channels and the situation with the box in the bedroom. She rebooted the receiver in the living room from Pennsylvania and while it was restarting, she asked me questions about the box in the bedroom, figured out it had never been activated, activated it, and viola'... tv again. Then magically, tv again in the other room shortly thereafter. No service call, just a young woman who had more on the ball than a couple of other tech support guys! She laughed when I told her that.
And then I shut it off and went back to doing what I'd intended on doing anyway. After seeing New England had a strong lead.
Well, that's my TV story. If I want free TV, I need a not so free outdoor aerial antenna and to hook them up, and to hook it up to the cables already run in the house. Then I'd need two televisions capable of getting free tv because set top boxes aren't free anymore. I already got my coupon and used it. And tossed the remote.
So I'll take my little directv reduced number of channels for about half the price package. And go back to my chores for the night.
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