Writing, Running, Being.

The finish line is a shifty Thing and what is life, but reckoning?
Ani DiFranco

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Primary TVs and Treadmill TVs

Every year Old Man Winter brings me the same things in varying degrees. Snow, ice, cold, and a case of seasonal depression. The Winter Blues, or "The Coldrums" as I call it. Well, not every year. The few years I lived in Colorado before becoming a mom, weekly snowboarding did an excellent job of fending off the Coldrums. Now here I am with a 2 1/2 year old who needs his outside time and long days that sometimes hover around zero degrees. Thus I have set out on a quest to discover the Great Indoors.
With my son, I play games, build castles with blocks and read stories. My husband and I have started a few home improvement projects that we knew we would only work on when we were "stuck" inside. We ripped up all the carpet in the bedrooms and stripped the hardwood floors underneath just before Christmas. We devised a plan and re-arranged furniture to maximize and create space in our little 800 square foot house. In the living room stood a humongous, obtrusive, particle-board entertainment center with a dinosaur TV in it. It took up precious Crossfit and yoga space and served as a "catch all" for junk mail, toys, etc. We had to get rid of that thing. But where would the TV go? We contemplated not having a TV but we're just not ready for that yet. It is a point we hope to reach in the future. TVlessness.

We rarely watch TV. We don't have Cable and with the switchover to digital TV, the channels we used to get just don't come in anymore. The TV does serve as a useful baby-sitting device at times when I need to make dinner, get a few miles in the treadmill, or have an important discussion with my husband. It also keeps me on the treadmill for as long as I need to be during Jonas' naps. I've found that watching a TV series on DVD works nicely because if it's a show I'm into, I can't wait for the next snow storm so I can get on and watch my "stories". Right now it's True Blood. I can run on that thing for almost 2 hours if Jonas sleeps that long.


We agreed that the TV stays. Well, not that TV. We bought a new flat panel television that mounts on the wall to save space. Really, we only bought the TV to save space. Well, that was my reasoning anyway. My husband was thoroughly geeked out over the pixel resolution, LCDness and general flatness of the thing. Like I said, the old one was a dinosaur. We went to Best Buy, found the cheapest one in the size we wanted and then I set off to find a salesperson to sell it to us. That was a lot harder than you might think. Those sales people don't usually hang around the cheap TVs. Finally I managed to drag a pale lanky gamer kid over to our aisle. I left Brian to talk with him and chased after Jonas, who had spotted the drums of the Rock Band display. Several minutes later, Brian came to get us, new TV boxed up and resting on his shoulder like a boom box (he would never have been able to do that with the dinosaur). I was impressed. "That thing must be light, " I said. "Yup, it is." Brian replied.

When we got home Brian told me that the young salesman had actually tried to talk him out of buying that TV. Some salesman, huh? He said that the resolution and quality were inferior to say the least. He asked if this would be our "Primary TV" and if so, he wouldn't recommend it. To get the guy to sell us the thing, Brian told him no. This was the Treadmill TV. We already have a sweet TV. A very big, very expensive, very high-def, (very imaginary) "Primary TV". The salesman was still hesitant to sell it. I can't blame him. If we all went blind from squinting at that low resolution, he would have it on his conscience. Brian had to convince him that I wouldn't mind low-resolution because I would be "going like this" (he mimed me bouncing radically while running in place).

I'm happy with the TV. I think it's modern and fancy and I don't care what that gamer says. I started wondering if everyone has more than 1 TV so I looked it up and sure enough, the average American household has 2.24 TVs. Wow. Ok then. I guess that salesman's question was legit. Here's where I would go into a rant about television's role in Americans' sedentary lifestyles and how it leads to obesity. But I guess I can't talk cause I do have one, and I do love it, bunny ears and all. It keeps me running through the Coldrums.

1 comment:

tara said...

marny, you are cracking me up and I won't tell you how many tv's we have, you would stop talking to me for sure.