Please take me back, please?

I miss my friend, cable TV. It is the silly, simple things I long for; looking at the cable box to see what time it is, using the remote to figure out if I should go to bed or stay up and watch something that could rot my brain, or the thrill of mindless HGTV where I dream of exotic vacation homes in tropical locations and how I would remodel my bathroom if given an extra $20K. Yes, I’m crawling back to Comcast, begging for a deal, allowing them to manipulate me into believing that life is better with 500 channels.

It isn’t until something is gone that you come to realize what you missed. I tried listening to Mariner games on the radio and following along using my laptop but that got old quickly. Sure ESPN 3 advertizes that you can watch sporting events real time but cricket and rugby are not sports I typically follow. And don’t get me started on Apple TV.

Actually, Apple TV was incrementally shortening my life. Literally every time I tried to use it I had some issue that entailed a call to technical support. For identification purposes I had to read off the teeny, tiny serial numbers and that required finding a magnifying glass. And then the hold time on the phone was ridiculous; I could feel my blood pressure start to rise and wasted dollar signs would waltz their way across my mind. Once I tried to watch a movie and it took SIX hours for it to download!

Other things were getting to me; 10 of the 55 channels were either in Japanese or Spanish and despite my best attempts I was not absorbing any of the language. Even as a spiritual person the six stations of evangelistic preachers talking fire and brimstone were a bit much.

I am admitting to you that I've made a grave error - not life threatening or world shattering but it is indeed an experiement gone wrong. Yesterday I picked up the phone and talked to Randy at Comcast and he assured me he was giving me the very best deal available. I’ve learned my lesson for now but I think after the two years contract is up and technology has advanced a little bit more, I may try again. Until then, where is that remote?