SOME OF THEM WERE REALLY 'GOOD OLD DAYS'.

There are a rare times when 'the good old days' fill me with longing.  Yesterday was one of them.  The TV I watch when I am at the computer died, still in what should have been the prime of its life.  This necessitated an immediate replacement which offered some pleasant opportunities. " Should I get a flat panel?  Of course, am I out of my mind?"  I read up on LED vs LCD and finally decided on a 40" Led/LCD, thinking I would have had to mortgage my house a few years ago to buy one of these.but since I view it from at least a 20 feet distance, it works much better for these old eyes.

Here is where the 'gold old days' come to mind.  Before cable, FIOS, and all this 'good' stuff, one would have come home from the TV store with a guy (it would have been my husband then) carrying this monstrously large box.  The TV had to be removed carefully from the box and plugged into the wall for AC power and connected to an outside antenna and that was it!!!

Not in this new and improved world of technology!.  The manual was 48 pages long and that was a 'plug and play' tutorial about the TV only, not to do with cable..  It offered all the goodies (none of which I want nor have) that can be attached to it  Having finally rid myself of the VHS tapes I had made over the past many years because I didn't have time to watch when the program was aired, I found I never had time thereafter, either.  Creativity being so lean in today's world, if you miss a program , you can count on re-runs (or catch it on the computer) because everyone who has produced something worthwhile is going to squeeze out every cent that can me made.

However, the greater problem in buying a new TV is knowing how to make the proper connections and getting it to work on all channels, even the HDTV channels.  I had to remind myself that it was, in fact, easier and less messy than training a puppy off the newspapers.  Where there were once 4 or 5 channels, there are now hundreds  Just allowing it to program itself to the channels took an hour!  Getting Verizon to communicate with it was a bit more complicated but, those of you who may remember my ranting negatively 3 years ago about Verizon might be pleased to hear that the gentleman who walked through how to set up the remote was polite, tolerant, patient, and a good teacher.  He was thanked profusely and sounded quite surprised by it.  His directions were followed and worked immediately.  And just think of it; the whole process only took about four hours and a trip to the Verizon store to pick up an HDMI cable and an HDTV box to deliver the channels I have chosen.

Recalling that the first TV I had to watch had a 2" screen and, in only 60 years, it has now grown to 40".!