For many years I had a relatively decent sized box that rarely got touched. Rated R would regularly remind me it could be turned on. One day, after negotiating rates for an hour or so, I decided to upgrade my package. As a result, my box is turned on a lot now.
My previous cable package was very minimal. In fact, the last time I called to cancel it they encouraged me to keep it and asked what channels I liked. “I just need the local channels and I quite like Comedy Central.” They told me they could give me a package that met these needs for only $25/month. When I sat down to watch TV one night I learned that was truly all I had. Five local channels and Comedy Central. Other channels were detailed on the guide but selected them resulted in an ‘upgrade in progress’ dialogue box that would only disappear if I turned off my TV.
Thus, a few months ago, while home recuperating from surgery, I had a friend take down my dish. It seemed pointless to have so few channels, plus, I rarely turned on that little black box in the corner. I would much rather have no options than just a few. Months later, when trying to get a better internet rate, I ended up agreeing to a bundled package that included cable. This go round, I informed them of several channels that I liked and now my options are multiple.
Even with multiple options, I tend to find myself glued to one channel, hour after hour – Investigation Discovery. When I shared my new favorite pastime with Tree he expressed concern, “Oh god, you must stop watching. You’re going to turn into my mother and my aunt. That is all they do.” A coworker expressed similar concerns, “I did that for a while, coupled it a little bit of BIO every now and again. After a while I became convinced that a family member was going to kill another family member. I even went so far as to share my concern. Needless to say, I no longer watch. Not as much, anyway.”
They were both right. The more I watched the more I thought, “I could see so and so being featured in one of these stories.” Alas, instead of turning on the black box tonight I listened to music, made crafts and decided that if a box is going to be turned on in this house it should be my own. If only I could purchase a bundled package for that.