Nineteen Years
The television in our family room is nineteen years old, and it is showing its age.
My husband bought this television in the spring of 1988. He was just home from six months in the Netherlands, about to start a graduate program, and moved in with a high-school friend. I think the deal was that my husband buy the television and the roommate buy the VCR. The television has had one repair that I can remember. About 1991, I think.
About a six months ago something happened with the inputs and we now have to manually move around cables if we want to try to watch a DVD or something. More recently the sound is starting to go. S is trying to watch Dora right now and the sound goes in and out every two to five seconds. It's kind of amusing, kind of annoying, and signals that it's time to researching current technology.
I've been fairly proud of the fact that we have a not-too-big television. It's smaller than the set my family had growing up, and definitely smaller than those I've seen in the homes of my kids' friends.
Overall, we try to limit television. The boys usually are limited to a half hour per day during the week, and never in the morning before school. S, depending on the day, may get a little more than that if I let her watch a Dora DVD (I do that if I need to get something done) or none at all. When the boys do watch, I also limit what they watch. PBS is almost always allowed, Animal Planet and Discovery are mostly okay, and then there's baseball. Whatever they choose has to be okay for their sister.
I've toyed with the idea of letting the television die and not replacing it, but I like renting DVDs and watching baseball games, too. In fact, I might suck it up and order some premium channels on our cable; the new seasons of "Big Love" and "Weeds" are coming up this summer.
I suppose the thing to do is find another not-to-big television and maintain the rules. I am daunted by what I see when I try to research. Hi-def? Flat screen? Digital? LCD? What? I just want a basic television that will last us another nineteen years.
4 comments:
ah, finding a lilliputian tv in a world that celebrates gulliver tvs. according to amazon, they still make 19 and 20 " TVs and they're incredibly cheap and flat. the technology really has changed.
(I still have the old fashioned kind -- 13" -- bought in 2001, with a VCR player built in, but I haven't turned it on for over three years.)
Way to make a TV last! That is impressive. Your TV is almost as old as I am.
I also severely limit Little C's TV intake. But what always gets me is commercials. We can be watching a totally child-appropriate show, and really scary/totally inappropriate commercials come on. It makes me mad. I'm sure you know what I mean.
And incidentally, since you wanted me to call that guy... I did. And you were right. We're going out tonight.
Woohoo, Ruthie!!! I hope you had a wonderful time! What field is his fellowship for, by the way?
Yes, The commercials are terrible. I especially cringe at the ads for things like viagra during baseball games and herpes treatments during shows like Mythbusters - in the middle of the afternoon!!
Psychiatry. It's at the National Institute of Health.
And I LOVE Mythbusters!
Post a Comment