I’m such a cheapskate.\u00a0 No daily newspaper, no cable TV,\u00a0 no super fast internet.<\/p>\n
Say What?? <\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Yep.\u00a0 As I told you, I’m a cheapskate.\u00a0 Well sometimes.\u00a0 My beautiful girlfriend and I are in complete agreement about the newspaper and cable TV.\u00a0 We used to get the paper, but it became a recycling headache.\u00a0 We’ve changed from a fairly fat daily newspaper to a weekly local rag called The White Lake Beacon.\u00a0 When we got daily delivery, the papers piled up and we kept paying for the paper lady to keep bringing more.\u00a0 Then we quit and started gaining weight from the loss of regular exercise that came with hauling all that paper to the recycling center (a.k.a. “the dump”).<\/p>\n Well, OK, maybe that’s not really <\/b><\/i>why be started gaining weight…<\/p>\n My Honey Pie and I have always agreed that TV should be free, like the radio. Then, way back in about 1992 or so; our family\u2019s TV time dropped to a bare minimum. You see, that’s when our daughter decided to slack off on homework.\u00a0 She started flunking math, but it was all our fault really. We would have the TV on when the kids got home from school; and it became a pretty important diversion. But when the school grades began to slide into the sewer; we tried rationing TV. We\u2019d say really wise things like, “no TV till your homework’s done!!”\u00a0 That gave both of our wonderful offspring remarkable energy, and they\u2019d whoosh through whatever homework they had so they could catch their favorite shows.\u00a0 Of course, the result was substandard work.\u00a0 Better, but still pretty lousy.\u00a0 Mind you, their very important programs came from our antenna, without a cable subscription.\u00a0 <\/b><\/i>Anyway, we ended up doing THE UNTHINKABLE!!<\/b><\/span>\u00a0 We laid down the law:<\/p>\n No TV from Monday through Thursday; unless there is some special event or a program that constitutes required viewing for school.\u00a0 Video games are considered TV time.\u00a0 Friday night and Saturdays are free time, Sunday TV depends on the amount of homework.<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n Needless to say, when we first uttered these bone-chilling rules the kids were mortified.\u00a0 “Will you tape (remember VCRs?) our shows???” they pouted.\u00a0 “OK,” we conceded, “but only if you promise to bring the grades up.”\u00a0 So they did.\u00a0 And after about a month, they quit caring about what was on TV.\u00a0 And even more ridiculous, they started reading for fun.\u00a0 <\/b><\/i>Holy cow!!\u00a0 Now, don’t get me wrong, I like vegging in front of the tube and I do have favorite shows.\u00a0 But Mom and I both have addictive natures, and we are very much aware that if we actually paid<\/b><\/i> for TV we would feel the need to watch <\/b>more.\u00a0 Speaking of vegging, I had to look up the spelling…\u00a0 I guess I spelled it right but it looks like “egging” with a “v” in front to me.\u00a0\u00a0 English… whatchya gonna do?<\/p>\n Anyway…<\/p>\n Fast forward to 2004, when Aunt Joyce came to live with us. She got us hooked on NCIS and CSI.\u00a0 CSI is off the air now, but NCIS has like 3 different flavors to choose from, and we love every one of them. Still; we\u2019re talking free TV.\u00a0 I do have to confess a bit here:\u00a0 we upgraded our “high speed wireless” internet, which was slightly better than dial-up; to some screaming fast Comcast internet.\u00a0 A whopping 25 Mbps!!\u00a0 OK so that’s not screaming fast… but I’m a cheapskate, remember?? \u00a0 Then I made the mistake of getting a trial version of Netflix when my Beautiful Girlfriend was recovering from knee surgery.\u00a0 We’re way past the trial period now; although we go for the rock-bottom rate of $8.99 a month.\u00a0 OK… more confessions we do have a few dollars going out the door for entertainment.\u00a0 With the internet, contributions to PBS, Netflix, and CBS All Access (sometimes channel 3 is naughty and won’t come in worth a poop), we pay a whopping $51 a month for more than enough TV.<\/p>\n As I listen to more and more folks talk about shows on platforms like HBO Max, Amazon Prime, Disney, and so on; I\u2019m thinking there appears to be a growing subscription addiction in our culture.\u00a0 More and more people are paying for more and more internet and TV stuff.\u00a0 And of course there also seem to be lots of folks who simply\u00a0must<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0<\/em>have the latest gadgets to watch their shows or play their games. It’s getting to the point where there’s really no need to go outside anymore with all the junk you can watch on TV or all the interactive gaming you can do in high-speed internet.\u00a0 I also saw a report a while back (on TV of course) that more and more Americans are suffering from vitamin D deficiency.\u00a0 So they’re rattling off all the ways you can get more vitamin D in your diet.\u00a0 Well guess what folks, back in the “old days,” meaning before the internet and cable TV, vitamin D was called “the sunshine vitamin.”\u00a0 In other words, your body actually makes vitamin D when you’re outside in the day time.\u00a0\u00a0 Is that a weird idea or what??\u00a0 Going outside I mean…\u00a0 But then, even when folks do <\/strong><\/em>go outside, you can see all too many of them fixated on their handheld doohicky thingamabobs.<\/p>\n Guess I’m a dinosaur.\u00a0 I still love the Beatles and The Three Stooges.\u00a0 We heat with firewood.\u00a0 We grow organic vegetables.\u00a0 We do stuff with friends that does not involve electronic gadgets.\u00a0 And so far, I have not become so enmeshed in the habit of watching the tube that I have to worry about video-addictive behavior problems.\u00a0 Perhaps recovery groups will spring from this trend… you know, places that are actually out of the home where people can discuss their multimedia dependencies with others, and maybe even have some real-time interaction with live bodies.\u00a0 And if I ever become one of those who is hopelessly addicted to TV, etc., I hope I have the courage to change the things I can.\u00a0 I’ll go to my first meeting, clutch my cup of coffee, and say the magically freeing words:<\/p>\n “Hi, my name is Ken, and I’m a vidiot.”<\/p>\n When our grandsons have a tradition of watching cartoons before bed time.\u00a0 Prehistoric cartoons, of course!!<\/p>\n