The Joy of Commercial Free-dom

January 30, 2007

Last week, I had a scare. This, a pathetic, sad, really ridiculous kind of scare, that I'd only ever admit to my 21st century diary...this blog.

After work, I ran to the gym, stopped by the grocery story, and returned home to prepare for my bimonthly Monday night dinner guests. Our weekly itinerary is dinner, The Class (I hyperlink because its great, and you should watch it), chat amongst ourselves until 10, and then, conclude with What About Brian. Dinner usually starts around 8, which means The Class would get missed if not for my savior and yours, DVR. Even better, by doing it this way, we get to fast forward right through those commercials.

But to my dismay, my trusted DVR that I've grown to love like a favorite pet, was broken. Stupid piece of crap (in the nicest way possible, that is).

I never realized how attached I'd grown to the box of bliss. I never realized the freedom it allows me. I can go out, and not have to worry about missing a show. I can peruse the channels, during my favorites, because, its taping, and I can watch it later. And unlike the old school VCR, it tapes multiple shows at a time!

So, in a frenzy, we ate dinner in 5.3 seconds, waited until commercial to brew a pot of coffee, and the very next morning, I called Comcast and begged them to fix it. If I had known they could send a magic signal through the air to make it work, I would have called the night before, and I could have saved myself the anxiety attack and the indigestion.

Someone very wise once said "You never realize what you have until you're about to lose it." Ain't that the truth. But I bet when this was said 473 years ago by some philospher-y person, they didn't realize this would ring true for more than just relationships.