I Have a Confession

I have an addiction.

I find it embarrassing to even mention.

It comes in box.

I find myself turning to it at random times throughout the day.

I’m especially vulnerable to its allures when I’m tired. Or when I haven’t seen another adult for hours. Or when I’m bored.

If you haven’t already guessed, it’s tv. Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t have it on all day. But I often flip it on in the morning with the intent of hearing the weather report…and then just happen to leave it on through celebrity woe stories…or the smartest infant in the world story…or the demise of human kind through impending bird flu story. Then I sometimes turn it on while I’m making lunch to “hear the weather” again. Funny how the weather report usually doesn’t change that much between breakfast and lunch. And then I might turn it on again as I’m cooking dinner, just to be alternately entertained and horrified by the guests on Dr. Phil or Oprah.

If I end up doing the dinner dishes, the tv goes on again. My kitchen sink faces a wall, so I excuse my addiction, figuring that looking at the tv is better than looking at nothing. After the kids are in bed, I usually flop on the couch and watch whatever is on. In our house, it’s not much! We don’t have cable or satellite, so the most I can hope for is a piece of someone’s “reality”…which is usually about as far from my “real life” as you can get!

In our house, we have four televisions. The main one is upstairs in our family room. An old color tv is in my husband’s office. We have a little tv/vcr combo in the kitchen that we bought about ten years ago before we took a cross-country trip in the mini-van with our young kids. And, right out of the stone age, is the black and white dinosaur that my husband won in high school. It sits on my office desk and makes very loud crackling noises when I turn it on.

As a television watcher in the U.S., the day of HDD (high definition …whatever that means!) is fast approaching. Since we don’t have cable and don’t intend to, that means we must purchase converter boxes. Since the boxes cost more than most of our televisions are worth, I don’t plan to purchase enough boxes to update all four machines.* What a perfect time to work on my addiction!

When my finger feels the urge to push the “on” button, I am turning to the radio and turning on my favorite classical station. I have loved classical music since I was a child and have always wished that I had more “time” to listen. Amazing how much “time” I suddenly have!

*As a post note...the idea of the amount of garbage that is about to be created by this HDD switch about sends me over the edge. I figure the least I can do is not replace the televisions I'm disposing. I realize that there are "recycling" programs, but I would guess that the sheer number of units will far exceed the capacity to recycle.