Compartment 14B

What is this "cay-ble" you speak of? 2004-09-30 - 2:18 p.m. Oh that wascle-y wabbit of a cable company; it�s found me out. This morning there was an oversized business card in our mailbox from one of its drones offering us free installation and half-price for two months if only we�d PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, agree to hook up its corporate umbilical cord to the house. They must have noticed that there was an address left blank in the rank and file and they decided to try to nip that pesky holdout with a personal visit. Let me �splain. We don�t have cable. This is not because J doesn�t want cable, but because I don�t want cable more than J wants it. His chief reasons for wanting it are: He�d like to watch hockey (well, normally he�d want to watch hockey) but can�t because we don�t get CBC well because, We have the worst reception ever seen in an urban area. Sadly, J has a point as this is true. My mother lives almost an hour outside the city and has fabulous reception for channels we get nothing but snow on. Our friends that live in the city, but a 10-minute drive from us, also get great reception with rabbit ears. We? Do not. Despite the super-duper, plug-into-their-own-power-source rabbit ears. Our neighbourhood seems to be in a weird dead zone when it comes to radio and TV reception. Fortunately for me, however, with the exception of hockey and Survivor, the few shows we really watch are on the channel we get the best (though still not perfect) reception on (CTV). Yes, on nights when reception is particularly bad it�s kind of frustrating. But to me, it�s worth it to not have cable in the house. You see, if we had it, I�d watch it. I have had one of J�s friends try to shame me with the argument, �So you are denying J cable because you lack the willpower to stop yourself from watching it? Do you think that�s fair? Why don�t you just not watch it?� I bet that if I was on a diet they wouldn�t be telling me to stock my cupboards with junk food so that J isn�t deprived. And that�s what TV is � junk food for the brain. Perhaps more importantly: why do they even care? J�s mom is the same way � she offered not only to pay for cable to be installed, but to pay for it for a full year as a �gift� to us. She doesn�t want her son to have to go out to watch hockey games. J eventually told her to cool it and explained to her that we don�t not have cable because we can�t afford it, we don�t have it because we don�t want it. It wasn�t a unilateral decision; we had a few discussions and, while J would have preferred to have it, he�s ok with not having it too. So J spends a bit on going out to watch hockey games with friends at the pub; I spend money on going for dinner before Survivor with my fellow Survivor addicts. I think I�d rather do that than sit in front of the TV alone at home, even if it ends up costing as much as, or even a bit more than, cable. Before - After All content � Shawna 2003-2010 That means no swiping my stuff - text, images, etc. - without asking. P.S. If you're emailing me, replace the [at] with @ in the "to" line. Oh, and if you put the word "journal" in the subject line it'll have a better chance of making it past my junk mail filters. recommend me HTML and design help by Jo hosted by Diaryland