In November I chronicled the death of our TV, and our decision to go without it for a while. The last time I posted about this, we were talking about hitting the Boxing Day sales. So now that Boxing Day has come and gone, what’s the scoop? How big is our new widescreen? Have we signed up for HD? Or have we given up the trappings of our materialistic society and started a soup kitchen out of our garage?

(Oh, and if you are totally bored by the saga of How Our TV Died One Day, this will be the last post on the subject, I promise.)

The story is that for now, there is no story. We’re doing (mostly) OK without the TV, and so we’ve decided to extend the experiment. We’re not setting any sort of timeline, just taking it day by day. In fact, we’ve even gone so far as to cancel cable and Tivo, and re-arrange our living room furniture. Why orient the room around something that isn’t there? We might as well save money and enjoy a new set-up that’s more conducive to conversation, right?

Calling the cable company to cancel

Jon and I are still catching up on our shows through the magic of the internet, so for us it’s not actually like we’re giving up much. Hannah remains the most affected by the loss of the magic box. When we visit her grandparents she’s glued to their set, but I don’t really worry about it since she doesn’t watch any at our house. Her idea of great entertainment these days includes books on CD, her singing Barbie doll, and Hallmark E-Cards. The girl loves her some Hallmark E-Cards.

Disconnecting the Tivo

It hasn’t been all sunshine and roses, though. We’ve all been at home since Dec. 19, and for much of that time we’ve been snowed in. It’s too deep for Hannah to play in, and Jacob is too young to really enjoy it, so we’re more or less trapped indoors. On top of that, many of the family activities that we had planned were canceled or postponed. You know, because those of us here on the ‘wet’ coast don’t like to drive in the snow. And, may I add, with good reason.

Car in the ditch

We’ve held firm, though. Because as much as there are moments when I fantasize about plugging my kid into Dora and doing my own thing, what I don’t miss is the TV-related screaming. No TV = no TV-related screaming. And also I know that as of Monday school will be back in session, and I will have 3 days a week to do all that stuff I can’t get done now. These past two weeks may have felt long at times, but it was always a temporary situation.

Clearing snow from the roof

Maybe I’ll even miss it a little, having all this time together with not much to do. Who knows? Stranger things have happened. For now, though, we’re going to keep up with the experiment. And this is the last that you will hear about it, at least until we cave in and buy a new TV. And have no doubt, it’s only a matter of time. The only question is, how much time?