First Sunday of Advent

Life Without Cable

has hardly caused a blip in the household. The only one who has had to give up the most is Himself. He's no longer able to watch his favorite team sports. Good sport and team player he is, he's been able to listen to the games on the radio.

Everyone has their Netflix favorites to while away the hours. The only problem has been watching the news. Supposedly through the Blu-ray player we can connect to the internet. We've been able to get to the tv news sites that offer live video, but the video won't play. I suspect it has something to do with the Blu-ray player not having Adobe Flash.

Himself took his laptop and slaved it to the monitor so when we want to watch the news, we do it through the laptop, but watch on the big tv screen. Himself and I have been able to catch up on Supernatural and Gracepoint this way.

At an elevation of 706 ft., in the middle of the woods, and being some distance away from local television towers, we never got good television reception when we first moved here, 29 years ago. But times change. Himself suggested while I was out running errands that I pick up a an HDTV antenna. The antennas are fairly inexpensive. I found one at Wallyworld for 20 bucks. It's a nice sleek design and not the old rabbit ears. Television networks broadcast a digital signal for free. Like the old days when homes had an aerial antenna on the roof. A one time payment of $20 is way better than paying the  monthly nearly $60 digital set-top box fee for 3 televisions.

With some fiddling and a call to tech support, Himself  was able to find the local Boston ABC, NBC, and CBS affiliates. This makes watching the news easier. I think  he was also able to find FOX so we'll be able to watch Gracepoint live. Still haven't been able to bring in CW so will have to watch Supernatural online.

Without cable, life is still good.

The Friday Five Good Things

Five good things that happened this week.

1.  While Himself was at a Black Belt clinic, The Eldest invited me to an X-Files marathon. In my room. On my comfy Sleep Number Bed in the upright position. I prefer to think she wanted my company and not the comfort of the bed.

2. While driving home, I saw a blue heron sail over the highway.

3. The physical therapist thinks the problems the Young One is having with her shoulder might be something happening in her neck. A call to the doc to order an MRI. Good news, bad news. The good news is nothing showed up on the MRI. Bad news is the Young One is still in pain.

4. The day before Thanksgiving is baking day. The Eldest has taken an interest in cooking and asked to help.  We baked an apple pie and her favorite, pumpkin pie.

5. We had a quiet Thanksgiving. Just Himself, me, and the girlies. A slow day. No rush. Everyone hung out in pj pants, watched TV, played on the computer, and ate. I was happy everyone was home safe the day before, and the storm for us wasn't as bad as predicted. Had to laugh. While waiting for the turkey to roast, I looked out the front window. In a great escape, a herd of turkeys made a mad dash across the street to the safety of  Prissy's yard.

How was your week?

Throwback Thursday

Remnants of Thanksgiving 1967 at Uncle Mario's
Left to right: Ma (seated), Auntie Emma, Auntie Phyllis, Auntie Olga, me, Uncle Tony, Uncle Jack 

Here we are waiting for Round Two of eating. Have a little something before you go home. Another plate of lasagna or eggplant Parmigiana. Maybe a turkey sandwich. Another slice of pie, fruit and nuts, or Auntie Emma's pizzelles  (Italian, anise flavored, waffle cookies)

If you celebrate the holiday, have a Happy Thanksgiving. If you don't celebrate the holiday, have a fabulous Thursday.

Wordless Wednesday

Work in Progress - A Painting

Canvas size 24 in. square

Layout done with a blue chalk pencil. Chalk lines are easily brushed off with a microfiber cloth. Still some tweaking to do, but overall, I'm pleased with the design.

What are you working on?

I Got No Strings To Hold Me Down.

While I was on the phone to Verizon to cancel the landline, I also cancelled our cable subscription. We don't really watch much television anymore. We're all quite happy with Netflix. I can watch the news on the computer or iPad. Even the shows we do watch (Supernatural, Blacklist, Gracepoint) can be seen on the computer, a day or two, after they are aired on television.

The only show I didn't really think about was Doctor Who. The last episode of series 8 ended two weeks ago. BBC America doesn't offer the show for viewing on their website. I won't be able to see the Christmas special. Not really a big deal. I like the new doctor, but he's not my doctor. I can happily watch my doctor on Netflix and wait for the new doctor's episodes to be aired on Netflix in the near future.

Dealing with Verizon wasn't too bad. The first customer service rep was flustered when I told her I wanted to cancel the phone and cable. She put me on hold while (I assume) she contacted her supervisor. While I waited forever, I tweeted my frustration, and got a response from AT&T

ATTCares ‏@ATTCares  Nov 17

@CJKennedyink Oh no! Join the #ATTFamily @ http://soc.att.com/SwitchNow  ASAP for service that will make you smile! ^Colton

Made me laugh. Gotta love social media.

Finally, another rep. got on the line to take care of me. I didn't like having to justify my reason to them. I'm not sure Verizon liked hearing I didn't feel like making two more car payments or another mortgage payment. Yeah, the bill was that high, and we didn't even have premium channels except for the Sports package for Himself. The second rep. cancelled everything instantly.

We still have Internet service with them, and I don't have a problem with that. Though I did drop the Internet speed. The speed we were (supposedly) at 35/35 was no longer offered. I dropped to 25/25 and haven't noticed much difference. If it does pose a problem, we can always upgrade.

 I'd really like to drop the cellphone service. That's where the real expense on the bill is. Friend and colleague, Andy Fish, switched his cell service to Republic. You can read his reviews on his service.(Scroll down because the first search of Republic is from Republic Pictures) Andy's a savvy fella.  Unfortunately, I read Andy's reviews a couple of weeks after I renewed my cellphone contract with Verizon. Terminating the contract is too expensive, so it's marked on my 2016 To Do calendar.