One step closer to cutting those strings (from more than just my cable company, too)

 

A couple months ago I wrote about the possibilities of “cutting the cable cord” by getting one of those indoor hi-def antennas.  I hated that I was paying $119.00 a month for dozens of nonsense channels I only saw in passing on my way to the few I actually watch.  And it kills me that I’m charged extra for the hi-def channels that are broadcast over-the-air for free!

So I bought a Mohu Leaf (a thin white square with a rubbery texture, $39.99) to try out.  (If you look to the right of my tv in the picture above, you’ll see it hanging on the wall.  It’s a lot more obvious in this photo, in person it’s nearly invisible.)  

Anyway, I’ve been “testing” it off & on for a couple weeks.  I’ve hesitated talking about it, when I first mentioned my plan at the office, my friend Kathy mumbled something that sounded like “damn penny pincher” (I know she loves me) and when I told my friend Danielle about a girl at the eye doctor’s who I thought was cute, she said “hey baby, come up to my place & check out my tv with one channel!” 

Well I wasn’t going to settle for one channel—if I was going to do this I still wanted CBS, ABC, NBC, PBS, CW & Fox as good as I got now, and the folks at tvfool.com supplied me with this list of channels I SHOULD pull in with an indoor antenna, based on my zip code:

So when the Mohu antenna arrived, I promptly hung it up behind the tv.  I got everything I wanted EXCEPT for ABC & PBS, a real bummer.  I spent the next couple days hangiing it higher, testing it in different locations but still no luck, until it hit me to hang it on the side.  (I like it there even better, I’m planning on painting the wall behind my television a kilim-beige soon, but that side-wall will remain white.)  Hooray, it worked!  Well, SORT OF.  I was getitng PBS now, but only after dark, and to get ABC I had to reposition the leaf (losing PBS again) & STEER CLEAR OF MY COUCH.  I’m not kidding, the minute I took a seat, ABC became “Channel not available”. 

I finally decided I wasn’t ready for high-maintenance television, and packed up the Mohu Leaf to send back; I’d probably remain Comcast’s bitch.

UPDATE:   After doing some additional reading from other cord-cutters, I discovered that for some that had issues with the Mohu Leaf, the Mohu Curve (same size and shape as the leaf—but is rigid, and sits on a shelf or table near the tv) is better.  I exchanged the Leaf for the Curve—and they’re right!

The Mohu Curve is now getting all channels with no issues—it sits atop my bookcase & stereo, right beside the tv

Now I’ve got to give this a few more days; if my luck holds out, I’m going to buy that Tivo Roamio (over-the-air dvr) and have OVER AN EXTRA HUNDRED BUCKS in my early retirement budget every month! 

Will I miss those endless repeats of Honey Boo-Boo & her clan on TLC?  Sure!  Nothing beats watching them bob for weiners in a washtub full of eggnog or eating armpit fudge—but I can’t help thinking it will help make me a better person!

 

Oh Comcast—you were always pricey but you hiked your rates like 30 percent in the last few years!  You brought this on yourselves!   

To be continued…  

I’m still here… in spirit at least

 

In my blog travels (I like to browse other’s personal blogs sometimes, just to see what’s on their minds & if I still hold the honor of being the most boring blogger on the internet) I’ll occasionally run across something like this:  “Sorry I haven’t posted anything for awhile, just been crazy busy!  I promise I’ll be back soon!”

Then I’ll check out the date of that post:  March 21, 2010.   I don’t think they’re coming back.  I wonder, if a personal blogger falls in the Internet Forest, does anyone notice?  Or care?

I always promised myself I wouldn’t do that, if I didn’t have something worthwhile to write about (cough) then my last post could stand on its own.  But it’s been three weeks now & I’ve still got nothing I feel compelled to share.  Just been going to work & enjoying the warmer weather, started Stephen King’s latest novel (a surprisingly un-supernatural crime thriller “Mister Mercedes”) and doing a lot of thinking about a lot of nothing. 

Well, it seems that lately I’ve been getting questions about earlier stuff I’ve shared on here—maybe a follow-up is in order. 

So until we meet again, hope everyone is enjoying their summer. 

Ann B. Davis: hello & goodbye (and a brief but personal memory if that’s okay)

Well, it’s been a day since Ann B. Davis passing, and I can’t help but feel a little sad.  I’m just another one of the hundred million Brady fans out there who watched the show and wished for an Alice for our bunch of six kids as well.  She was just one of the guys, a friend and confidante, but an adult when you needed her to be. 

And c’mon, who wouldn’t want to come home from school and find Alice in your kitchen basting a giant meatloaf?

There’s nothing I can say here that hasn’t been already said or felt in a thousand other places, other than a brief moment when I got to meet Ms. Davis in person.

In 1993 while working downtown as an IT consultant at the Department of Aging, I received a call one afternoon from my friend Sue (a contractor like me who worked at another county office, MHMR).  She said “Doug, it’s Sue—I’m calling from Warner Centre, Jerry & I came up here for lunch and guess who was right behind us on the stairs?  Alice from the Brady Bunch!”  

At the time, it was known that Ann Davis had settled in Ambridge, Pa (about 15 miles north of Pittsburgh) some years before.  (She was very religious and lived with an Episcopalian minister’s family.)  Anyway, Sue knew of my Brady.. whatever and said “You better get over here!”

Warner Centre on Fifth Avenue, downtown; it was a movie theater for most of Pittsburgh’s history, but had become a collection of shops with a food court on the second floor by the time I moved to town.  It was steps from my office.

I said “Well Sue, I’d feel kinda silly…” and she said “C’mon, it’s just around the corner!” I grabbed my coat and ran for the elevator.

When I got inside Warner and up the stairs, I looked about for Jerry & Sue, and saw them sitting in front of the Chinese place. 

Sue saw me and motioned towards the Chick-fil-a, and I saw HER:  Ann B. Davis, with her purse on a chair, a Kaufmann’s shopping bag at her feet, and eating by herself. 

I was in shock, other than 3-4 people who were watching her from a table nearby, no one had approached her.  I shrugged my shoulders and walked up to Ann’s table.  I said  “Excuse me, Ms. Davis, hi I’m sorry for interrupting your lunch… I just wanted to say hello and that I’m a big fan.  I’m sure you get that a lot.”  She smiled at me and said “Yes I DO get that a lot, but thank you.  What’s your name?” I said “Um.. Doug” and she said “Well it was nice meeting you Doug, take care and God bless.”

Feeling embarrassed, I smiled and nodded quickly and thanked her and backed away, then hurried down the stairs and back to the office.  Later that day,  Sue called and said “Why didn’t you join us at our table?  You could’ve watched her read her magazine!” and we both had a good laugh.   Still, it was a moment I’ll never forget.  

Ms. Davis honestly felt like a relative, like a great aunt I hadn’t seen in awhile.

The ironic thing here is, just a couple months ago I learned that Warner’s food court was shut down.  And I was reminded of the many good times there with friends, and meeting Ms. Davis in person.

Ann, take care & God Bless