First it was my radio, boom box, and then my Walkman. I have, over the course of the last several years, shed all my audio toys for iTunes downloads and a device I clip to my shirt that is so small I just know I am going to loose it. Now it looks like my precious TV is the next to go. Oh no!

I am trying to get used to watching TV, or not watching TV as it were, in a different way. My home has been infiltrated with technology—some that I am familiar with and want, and some I admit I am not quite ready for. I don’t understand what was wrong with watching TV like I used to. By this I mean at 7:30 p.m. I would turn on FOX 29 and watch Seinfeld. The first 10 minutes were my relax-and-unwind minutes, followed by the commercial break, which I always found well suited for making a cup of tea. The next commercial break provided a little time to surf CNN and then it was back to channel 29 for Jerry’s out-tro. I was fine with this. There was a certain routine in this I found comforting.

This changed late last year when my brother re-located back to the Valley from California and I offered him a room in my house. With him came a rather nice and large flat screen TV-something I had not yet upgraded to. That was all well and good, but then the DVR arrived and now my life has changed irrevocably and forever. There’s no telling when I may see Brian Williams on any given night now. There’s no system, no order. It’s cable chaos at my house. We need to start watching the Eagles game at 2 p.m. instead of 1 so we can zip through the commercials, but while we are waiting that extra hour we can watch Thursday night’s episode of 30 Rock. I am having a hard time getting used to the randomness of this. I have shows piling up in my queue and if I don’t watch them in time I could run out of memory and they can end up getting dropped off without my consent. This is actually stressing me out.

And then there was the day it all just stopped.

My brother had chosen to record two college football games simultaneously and went out. I turned on the TV but could not even change the channel. Apparently, this thing, this beast of a DVR doesn’t allow you to change the channel while two recordings are being made. Unless I stopped one of the recordings I was stuck watching CNBC. They televise infomercials on Saturday afternoons. Oh, the horror!

(Note to self: Prepare the “Why Siblings Should Not Live Together After Age 21,” blog.)

I managed to maneuver my way around the menu to stop one of my brother’s recordings and eventually moved on with my life, but that episode stuck with me. Part of the problem is that I have just one cable hook up in the house right now.
Yes, I know that sounds unbelievable, but my home was built in 1940 and the last homeowners opted for one cable connection in the family room and a dish on the roof.

Now I have heard from lots of people that they no longer even have cable-that many TV shows are just a click and a download away. I do have a wireless, high-speed connection in my house, but quite frankly after spending all day staring into this screen and punching this keyboard, I don’t feel like looking at this laptop anymore. It does not provide enough of a mental break from the workday for me. I prefer the cozy way I used to watch TV—curled up on the recliner with my trusty remote at the ready. (Now don’t even get me going on the instrument panels that these cable companies are passing off as remote controls. I mean excuse me while I clear the television for take off, engage the mighty converter, navigate through the guide, and hopefully land on a channel of my liking.)

Some say with all the programming available on the Internet, cable seems to a wanton, wasteful luxury. And the prices for the services are just ridiculous. The providers think if they slap on a wrestling channel and a monotonous all-day soap opera network they’re justified with raising the prices overall when most of their customers wouldn’t even watch that drivel.

Like the channels on the dial, cable knows its days are numbered. (Remember when there were just 2 through 13 and we were happy to have those?) I guess they are scrambling to develop new revenue streams.

I realize, though, I will need to make peace with the blasted DVR and embrace the modern mechanized convenience for what it is. This may mean going through the dreaded instruction manual. I must admit it was kind of nice last Saturday morning when I realized I could catch Friday’s NBC Nightly News broadcast while eating my Frosted Mini-Wheats.

For now I will call the cable company and have another hook-up installed so I at least have two TVs in the house and one that is free of a DVR. I am not ready to have two of those in my house yet.

At the end of the day, I presently can’t see the Internet as a viable viewing option for me.  I like to watch too many first-run shows. Thank God there are still pockets of premium programming like many of the great HBO series, like Entourage, AMC’s Mad Men, and FX’s Rescue Me. After all, it’s great writing and stories that will keep me watching TV.

And to me “TV” will always be that other glowy box that makes a little hum when you turn it on.

Stay tuned…