Tube untied

So I've gotten very philosophical and serene since I've been up here, and there are lots of reasons for that. It is easy for me to overestimate the value of being Away From The City, which probably matters. But there are other things that also matter: leaving behind some stuff in that city that is not city-specific, getting settled into a job and not sitting around unemployed, meeting (or reconnecting with) some wonderful people up here, yadda yadda yadda.

But it would be too bad not to talk about the effect of not having TV.

I still have my TV; it looms monstrous in what I am alternately calling the Media Center and the Family Room, but which is really just a smallish spare bedroom with my giant TV. But I moved up here and got myself a mortgage and started thinking about what expenses I could cut to pay down my principal (that is really how I think now). And I decided I could do without the giant bill I had every month for TV, including my DVR. I do love the DVR. And I looooooooved having access to so much television through it.

But I've been without for coming up on a month, and the only two shows I miss at all, as it turns out, are The Office and 30 Rock, both of which can be viewed for free on the NBC web site. When I get a specific jones for trashy nothingness, I have DVDs, of many things, including but not limited to 80s private-detective classics Riptide and Simon & Simon. But I don't waste my life on them. Any more.

And I really think not having all that racket in the back of my mind has helped me, a lot. So we'll see. I'm not swearing off forever, but maybe through the end of the year. And maybe longer. But Lost is returning soon, isn't it?