Tabatha Deans

SOME THINGS NEVER CHANGE
Fueled by quiet nights and too much boredom, I decided to rekindle a relationship that I left nearly a decade ago. I walked away then because the relationship had left me disappointed, angry and frustrated, and, until now, have had no desire to return. But with too many nights spent alone in the silence of my little apartment, and having read too many books to count, I decided it might be time to give it another shot. After all, it has been nearly ten years, and perhaps things have changed. I have been accused of being a harsh judge and holding a grudge, sometimes long after I’ve forgotten the reason for the grudge in the first place.
So, after many, many years, I got television service. I got rid of my T.V. years ago, after realizing it had nothing to offer me. When I was a child, television shows ran weekly for nine months out of the year, then went on hiatus for three. So, as a family, we could plan to sit down together and watch new episodes of Dallas, or Night Court each week. Growing up television was something I could count on. But in my adult years, I was lucky to see three new episodes of a favorite program, before reruns started showing up for weeks on end. Or I would clear my schedule each week to enjoy a show with my daughter, only to have the networks move the show to another night and time. Not to mention the commercials—five minutes of programming followed by six minutes of commercials. Enraged, I sold my T.V. (actually it went to live at the pawn shop permanently)
I’ve actually owned a television for a few months now, but have only used it to watch movies I borrow from the library, or rent from Redbox. I haven’t had service for public programming since HD took over and thought perhaps things had changed, and I might at least get a good dose of news and important events. I poured a glass of wine and settled down to tackle the task of hooking up the converter box, which, as it turns out, was relatively easy. After five minutes of fiddling with cords, I anxiously sat down to see if my efforts had been futile.
Much to my delight, as soon as I hit the power button I was rewarded with a high quality picture of a television program. Much to my dismay, the woman was speaking Spanish. After twenty minutes of reading the manual and pre-programming the channels, I sat back to surf programs. Apparently with the new system, the regular channels, 2,4,5 and 13, are no longer located at their designated numbers. In fact I’m not at all sure they’re even available any more. I finally landed on what I think is channel 4—Home Makeover. Things went fine for the first three minutes, until I got up to refill my wine. As soon as I moved the picture cut out and froze. Apparently the antenna is very sensitive. No worries, I just needed to adjust it. Or so I thought. After adjusting, re-adjusting, and applying aluminum foil, it became obvious that the picture was only going to be clear as long as I was physically touching the antenna.
Damn! My frustration of old was returning ten-fold. Needless to say, I quickly gave up, scanning the channels in search of any picture that was clear. I stumbled upon a station that I do not know the name or number of, but was finally rewarded with re-runs of Happy Days and Too Close for Comfort. Not the exciting, up-to-date programming I had hoped for, but at least it was something, and I dozed on the futon watching the antics of Mrs. Cunningham going to jail.

December 18, 2011 - Posted by Tabatha Stewart | Uncategorized