The Vent

Does anyone read the vent column in the AJC?  I love how random it is.  Maybe I’ll start my own link up weekly post where we can all vent about something randomly annoying. 

Today’s vent?  TV.

Why does it cost so much money??? Does anyone remember the days when you could have an antenna on your roof and you got whatever you could pick up?  We had a little box on top of our tv-in-a-box that we could turn to change the antenna’s directions so that we’d get better reception for Saved by the Bell in the afternoons.  I mean, seriously, I’m not that old and I can remember that a satellite tv bill used to not be part of a household budget.

Disclaimer: I am from a very small town and my parents did not actually get anything other than local channels and what could be picked up by the antenna until after I was already married and out of the house.  And even then they only caved because my sister was on Endurance, this Survivor show for kids on Disney.  And that’s our claim to fame.

Back on topic.  My vent.

A year ago, I caved to my mother who wanted to watch Anton Ono skate for gold and my own selfish desires to have something mindless to do while nursing every other hour and we added television back to our family lineup.  For 18 months previously it had been movies and series on DVD and lots of Disney princesses occupying our talking box.  And we didn’t miss regular programming.  We enjoyed it when we were with others but that was it.  Until last February, our kids had no concept that you couldn’t pause and rewind television shows.  (And they still don’t think you can pause real tv because we don’t have DVR.)

But it’s been back for a year and I’d be lying if I said we didn’t enjoy it most of the time.  But I can count on one hand the channels we watch: HGTV, Food Network, Disney, PBS, and local news.  That’s it.  They gave us free Starz for a year for being such good customers.  I don’t even know what channel that is. 

So clearly, it’s not worth our $46.26 a month which is what the new bill was when our “new customer” plan ran out.  So I just down graded to the “family” plan.  Why is it that the family plan has no actual family channels?  No Disney.  No ABC Family (I would have thought this was a given).  No HGTV.  So what’s the point?  It’s ridiculous the hold these companies have over my family time, my checkbook, and my relaxation. 

If I want channels we’ll actually watch, I have to upgrade and spend more money.  If I want to cancel, I’m stuck with a monthly cancellation fee until next year. 

But I have a solution.  At the same time we added back tv, we discovered how truly awesome NetFlix is.  And we got a Wii.  So now we can stream anything.  So bring on the cancellation fee, Dish.

I’m done with you.