don't go changing

I was thinking about changing blogs but there's just too much of a comfort level here. Guess I'm just chicken

tv or not tv, that is the question - or, instead of breakfast have a brady brunch

Offering my final thoughts on the whole rabbit ear issue - at least until the next time.
I recently had a friend tell me how sorry he was to hear we gave up cable. I told him it was voluntary and we had been discussing it for some time. He related how he could never give up Kim K or Real Housewives of Elm St or some other program. Is this what life is like now? Drinking a shot, calling it a day and peering into the lives of some Christi knows best wanna-be? Are we that willing to worship St Honey Boo-boo and watch TLC, all dwarfs all the time? While I admit to watching Long Island Medium I also admit I don't miss the dollars being spent on endless SVU marathons.
Maybe it's the radio listener in me that's curious what we'll find on other channels, I don't know. I will, however, offer this: You can find it for free, whatever your interest. In my neck of the woods we have 45 free stations, all it takes is a one-time payment for a converter per tv (my tvs are pre-HD VHF/UHF, no LCD tvs)
PBS has 8 channels including "World" (think National Geographic), "Kids" (think Nick) and "Create" (think anything from Food Network to a craft channel); of course if you want HGTV, regular PBS will do.
You want movies? M!ovies, This, and GetTv. Nostalgic programming? Me-tv, Decades (TVland when it was good) and LAFF (TVLand when it went bad). Want manly programming? Grit which includes The Rookies (yes, the one from the 1970s with Kate Jackson) and Escape (more of a crime//reality station) QVC and all the others are available and even BET and UNI-type stations are available. With all the local stations (WBZ, WCVB, et al) also the available, the only group not represented is the LOGO crowd.
Stick around, that will probably change.
And don't think cable hasn't noticed. Verizon (my old cable), and Xfinity are offering slimmed-down versions of their packages for those who wish to cut the cord due to prices but to get everything you're used to or if you want ESPN you have to (again) add a tier to your package.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/102602780?__source=synacor&par=synacor

To get around this, invest in Netflix. While it may sound like a defeat of purpose, it's only $9 a month (depending on package) and already saving $$ if you watch a movie, even more if the movie is a dog. You have more choice than TV but costs pittance. I am currently watching whole series of Dr Who, Different World and Adam-12; and if it can't be found on Netflix, Hulu or Crackle, it can be found at the library

It's not easy, especially for anyone born in the 1980s after the cable boom (post-MTV generation) but is extremely worth it. And most of all, the family time you gain from this is very much worth the risk.

a waist of time

 
Eating pineapple with Trader Joe's Jalapeno Cranberry sauce and 6 gf chicken nuggets after church, watching Peter Lorre in "Thank you Mr Moto" on M!ovies.
The decision to drop cable was not only a monetary decision but a sane decision as well. While cable offers a variety of niche programming we as a family have come to notice the variety becoming less so; a sense of "sameness". Sure my cable company was offering free HBO until  March but watching only emphasized this fact - 10 channels with repeated movies and programming. Add this to the fact that 3 stations were playing Rosanne or Cosby at any given time and USA, TNT and Lifetime were running the same programming day in/day out which led to me saying "How many times can one watch Charmed?"
I realize the honeymoon isn't over yet and I may still be experiencing the newness of broadcast tv but the effect on Bumper is worth it. He is no longer plopped in front of the tv unless it's to play a game and he has become more interested in working with software to create or expand them. Though he and I have never really lacked communication he is talking to me more about school and less Bakelady is finding different stations and movies to enjoy and you already know how I feel.

to market (basket) we go

 Ever the ones to try and save a buck we have shopped at Aldi's (great prices), Walmart (until their prices started to stink), and (for my foods) Trader Joe's but at least twice a month we find ourselves at Market Basket in Bellingham (we tried Raynham and West Bridgewater- too far, especially West Bridgewater)
More than 2 years ago we heard the rumors MB would be taking over the long-abandoned Shaw's in the Attleboro MA K-Mart Plaza (where I tried my first ketchup potato chips) Almost a year ago construction had been completed and for almost a year Bakelady and I would press our faces to the glass wondering "when, when?"

Well, today was opening day and I'll be the first to tell you that although there was a lot of people but not nearly as many as originally assumed. Samples were given out, employees and management were on hand to meet and greet and everyone was cordial, polite and helpful, everything we have come to expect from Market Basket; and the prices were as low as expected as well (insert happy faces here). The customers that were there were also very polite and very happy and listening to their conversations you could tell who had shopped at other stores and who had only discovered it for the first time in their own back yard. The crowd was much thicker after 9am with the late comers and those who had elementary school children (mother's hours, you know) so I was happy being at the check-out when we were.
The only complaint we have is the store is set up "backwards" to the floor plan of the other MBs in the area and the Land O'lakes Low Salt is not competitive to Shaw's or Stop and Shop.
Minor complaints they are and kudos, Market Basket, may you be here for a long time.

Pictures from Sun Chronicle and Valley Breeze
See also http://www.abc6.com/story/27780135/south-attleboro-market-basket-open-for-buisness

Cutting the cord

Well, we finally gone and done it.

Removed the adapters from the bedroom and rec room, removed the parent box from the living room. 

The party is over and all we're keeping is the IP and the phone (for now)

G'bye cable, g'bye Verizon, g'bye Fios.

Hello sanity.

When television changed to digital (which I knew was coming from articles in Monitoring Times) I bought two conversion boxes planning for the cable-less home. Never happened. We, along with most humans we know, had become accustomed to cable and the clarity of  the video and the fact that we could all find our niche channels. I have talked about this many times ad nauseum to the point that even I never believed it would happen. I and Bakelady had read the articles, heard "how simple" it would be, how much we would save, etc etc - still nothing. But after seeing our last bill a horrible scream was heard through-out Thena-land - and it was me AND the Bakelady. 

Down-side: no more niche channels (TCM, TNT, TBS, Food Network...et al)

Up-side:

Savings on cost of box

Savings on cost of two adapters

Savings on monthly cost of cable plus taxes plus franchise fees

Investment: $24.98 x 2 ($49.96 incl tax, less than 1/3 my cable bill) plus the use of my son's WII in the living room for wireless video and library rentals of dvds (hell, Bumper and I live there anyway)

And as a bcdx/swl I am totally at awe with the programming I was unable to receive on the cable box. You would NEVER believe what blinders one is wearing when only viewing what cable "allows" one to view. Bounce, ME-tv, M!ovies and the THIS network are standard sub-digital channels but I for one have already become a fan of Escape and GetTv

And the almost $1800 in savings will make us feel better also plus the fact that Bumper was in agreement helps (altho being born into the cable age he is having second thoughts about losing Cartoon Network and TeenNick but he is adjusting - he was never part of the age of having only a few networks plus the independent UHF channels)

Maybe later we might invest in a Rocku, maybe not...I will let the honeymoon period of our first step sink in before we make any other decisions.

http://get.tv/
(great replacement for TCM as is Boston PBS channel 44)

http://www.escapetv.com/tv-schedule/
(some great 80s/90s movies plus specialty programming)

http://moviestvnetwork.com/schedule/
(another great replacement for TCM)

http://metvnetwork.com/
(while I miss Dragnet and Adam-12 and can do without CHIPs, great                                                    station)

trip to plymouth

Spur of the moment trip to Plymouth this past week-end; 53 degrees and sun after such a "lovely" winter. As always we hit Wood's Seafood, our favorite seafood restaurant in the known universe. Bumper had a filet of fish (cod!) with fries and Bakelady had a bowl of home-made clam chowder. I had the best seafood salad ever (tossed salad topped with crab meat) with a side of fries (which I had to share there was so much)

I found this as an unpublished draft, I think from this past fall. Even now, December 2014, I can feel the the draw of the waves and thoughts of sea gulls flying over head. 

in memory of a friend

Over the past couple years I haven't written as much as I wanted. If I did write it was usually deleted because I didn't think it was good enough or that I wasn't writing from the heart. a couple weeks ago I finally realized the reason why.
About two years ago a very good friend, much like an adopted grand-mother, passed away. It had come as a surprise, and ironically I found out on-line. After not hearing from my friend for a few months I got the perverse notion to Google her and was stunned when I found her obituary.
Bonnie Merritt was my mother's sixth grade teacher who I was introduced to via mail at age 11 or 12 and who I continued a life-long correspondence with until her death. Not only did she take the time to listen to a pre-teen's problems and interests but she also furthered his interest in the printed word, both reading and writing. She was there to listen to all this writer's stories about his then-girl friends, heartaches, marriage plans and she was there to become (in her words) my son's "great grand mother" and started writing to him as well, continuing a trend she had started with his father.
Along the way I learned of her love of of teaching, volunteer work, music aspirations and how she had taught her children to sing harmony - she even played the zither! She taught convicts in jail, wrote an autobiography and even when in the nursing home became a social director of sorts. There was no rest for Bonnie until the end (and she's probably doing the office work and filing for St Peter as I write this, teaching the angel the meaning of the word "pique")
It wasn't until I was a young adult that I appreciated the kind of woman Bonnie was, how she had to put herself through school and still be a wife, mother and home-maker; she still makes an impression on my life and she and I had bandied the idea of visiting her in Florida on 100th. Looking back I wonder if she had already known of her mortality and didn't want to speak of it to her long-time friend or actually thought she would be with us until then.
Be assured that she will always be with me and my family.
Rest in Peace Bonnie