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Thursday, September 25, 2008

The night the TV went blank.......

Toni and I went for a walk.
Carmen was actually home. He read a book....


When we got married, Carmen's engineering group bought us a console TV. It was delivered to our first home---a cute little townhouse in the city--with great fanfare. It was a massive piece of furniture with carved wood sides and a sleek top. The screen itself was as big as you could get them in the 80's. It sat proudly in our little living room amongst the earth-toned furnishings, big hanging ferns and batik artwork. We spent many hours watching MTV on that fancy set. When we moved, that TV came with us. It followed us for 25 years. 25 years. We never had to have it repaired---it always worked when we turned it on. But, Carmen grew tired of it and longed for a bigger, fancier and more modern TV. I, on the other hand, thought it was just fine. My stubborness worked for a few years. But, soon, Carmen wore me down. He said it was time for a big screen, HDTV. And, I said...okay, with a few conditions. It could not be tooo big. It had to be housed in an armoire that had doors and it had to be just the right armoire. Meaning--it had to fit into our decor. With that, Carmen set out on his multi-month just the right TV research project and I set about finding the armoire. After several months and several visits to various electronics stores, Carmen zeroed in on the TV of his dreams. We made pilgrimages to visit it a few times just to make sure it was the one. And, when he was finally convinced it was, he brought it home. My armoire search was not quite as complex. I decided on having one built and I refinished it to my liking. Within a few weeks, our old console TV was out on the street and our brand new TV was tucked away in it's new armoire. Just in time for football season. Carmen basked in the glory of that TV....for a few months. Soon after, he began noticing lines across the picture of his new TV. I never saw them. But, each time we'd watch TV, he'd try to get me to see them..."look, don't you see them, they are right there....looooook!" If people came over to visit, he would have them look for the lines. Some people saw them. Some people didn't. No matter what, he was convinced there was a problem. So, we had a repair guy out--only to learn that it was a rather extensive problem. Carmen was devastated that his perfect TV was not so perfect afterall. Thankfully, it was completely covered under the warranty. After that, Carmen has been convinced his TV will never be the same. Now, every once in awhile, Carmen will panic...thinking that he sees lines again. Sometimes when we go shopping, I catch him standing in the TV section staring at the TVs....watching them intently. He'll call me over and ask.."do you think this is a better picture than ours?" The man has been having serious TV confidence issues for a year now. So, when the TV suddenly stopped working last night....first the sound went and then the picture went....immediately after Carmen had finished watching something on demand....he went into a complete tailspin. In fact, he stayed up past 10 pm (every unusual for him since he is out of the house so early each morning) to try and figure it out. When he could not make heads or tails of the problem, he called the cable company. Now, I have to tell you that Carmen does not make phone calls. Nope. He is not that kind of guy. He leaves the phone calling up to me. But, this was a problem with his TV. So, not only did he stay up way past his bedtime, he also did the unthinkable and made a phone call. According to the cable company, our cable box is not receiving their signal. Which means our cable box is broken and needs replaced. Which means we are without a TV until the weekend. Of course, we have a few other TVs. But, they are scattered about the house. So...we had to do without our main TV last night. It wasn't the worse thing. Not at all. We missed the President's speech. We missed more news on the bailout. We had the chance to clear our heads instead. Toni and I took a walk (and we finally got to visit the newest upscale vintage store uptown...oh how fun...). Carmen read a book. We have no idea what happened in the world for the past 10 hours. But, we're doing fine. Just fine, thank you.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

omg Judi, that is actually funny!! Men and their electronics!! I cant believe he even waited that long for a new TV. No, they do not last that long anymore, whatever happend to the 'good ole days'??? I get almost terrified when I have no TV....I am SOOO addicted, it is not funny...sad really!! But, it is nice to have quiet once in awhile and I have to say that yesterday afternoon, I did not turn on the TV at all until 7 p.m.!! I did surf the net and checked my blogger friends, BUT I did not turn on the TV!!

have a great day!!
Jill

Ashley said...

i find it funny because i know how carmen is and how he rehashes things over and over again..especially with my dad:) hopefully it gets fixed quick and easy for everyone.

luv ya
ashley

Eileen, Founder, Organizer, Mayor and Chief Cook And Bottle Washer of the Anger Management Girls. said...

Why don't you just take one of the cable boxes from another tv in your house and connect it to "His" tv? I have done that before when cable boxes go bad. You put the other box on top of the broken one and take the two wires off one and put in exact place right above so you know exactly where they go.
As a matter of fact, to show my laziness, or unwillingness to make phone calls, when mine went bad in my bedroom last year, I think my son and I shared one for about a month before I got around to calling about it. We just kept dragging the damn box between our rooms. It's really easy.

I also used to change my livingroom around with the seasons in my house. I wasn't settling on leaving tv in one place so I used to have to disconnect and connect all the time. Got pretty fast at it after a while.

Daffodil Hill said...

Had to laugh at your "requirements" for the new tv. We went through the same thing. The guys wanted BIG; I insisted that it fit within a certain space. Miraculously, we actually found something that we all were happy with. Hope Carmen gets his cable box very soon. : )