And Danced By the Light of the Moon

I suspected, but didn’t realize the full extent to which I’m addicted to television. I’m finding out now because my brand new HD DVR in the living room is fried. Now I have to wait 3 full business days before getting a replacement, which means no TV in the living room. That wouldn’t be so bad, except that the only other TV in the house is in my mother’s room and she is, shall we say, not exactly the night owl that her son is.

I took care of the big TV conversion, since I am the arbiter of all things technical in this house. I’m proud to say I’ve taught my mother a great many things to bring her into the 21st century. I’ve taught her computerey things like using the HOME and END keys on the keyboard to skip to the top or bottom of a web page. Hell, she’s even using Google Reader now, which is astounding.

I’ve taught Mom various and sundry things about using her cell phone…speed dial, setting the alarm clock, etc. And I’ve taught her the amazingness that is Tivo. OK, even if DirecTV doesn’t use Tivo any more, I’ll always call my DVR Tivo.

So basically, what I did with the TV situation was upgraded the living room to High Def DVR and then put a new Tivo in Mom’s room, which is standard-def. Slowly but surely, Mom is coming around to realize that you can press PAUSE at ANY time. AND fast forward through commercials for the taped shows. Soon I’ll have her hating live TV, just like I do, because you can’t fast forward through ads when it’s live.

But the DVR in the living room has been giving me fits almost from Day 1. And it finally croaked, after less than a week. Now I see on the DirecTV forums that this unit is plagued with problems. I’m not the only one suffering. The thing mysteriously reboots itself for no reason, locks up when I’m fast forwarding or rewinding, the remote locks up and doesn’t do anything until I reset it. It’s a mess. And I’m hoping that a replacement will fix all my ails.

In the meantime, I have to wait until WEDNESDAY to get a new unit. That’s fucked up. There BETTER be some serious bending over backwards and compensating me. I can’t even watch Saturday Night Live tonight until the morning because my mother has the annoying habit of having to sleep. I’m missing all kinds of TV and it’s making me insane.

I have the TV on all the time during my waking hours. CNN in the morning, followed by a little Regis and Kelly and then The View. Catch up on a couple of shows during the day. Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy from 7-8pm…then the nightly shows. Argh! DirecTV should have this stinking DVR FEDEX’d to me!

And I can’t wait to get rid of this beard. Total non sequitor, I know, but it has to be said. It’s annoying, it’s itchy. It comes off after Halloween, of that you can be sure.