Out With The Old and In With The New - A Melodrama

We all start the day differently. For some people it's brewing a cup of coffee and looking out on the world, sniffing the fresh brew while watching the early morning sun creeping over the surroundings. For others, it's waking the kids and hopping into the shower before heading out the door to work. For a few people, it's probably both. For my DH, it's turning on the TV and sometimes the computer, then starting a cup of coffee brewing and hopping into the shower. By the time he's awake, often two TVs are on - upstairs and downstairs - and he's drying off at the computer with coffee at his right hand. He wakes up and turns on a TV, and goes to sleep by turning off a TV as the last thing before the lights go off. 

I like quiet in my mornings and if I listen to anything, I bluetooth
my Sirius subscription through my phone. Still, silence can be
golden and allows my thoughts to get into order for the day. 

I'm a bit different. I wake up and after morning hygiene, I settle myself at the computer. The TV behind me is off. The radio is off. in fact, any sound at all is off because I usually also have my computer sound (which I only access via headphones anyway) set to off. I enjoy relative silence without a lot of media throwing itself into my day. 

No TV for DH equates to "Mayday, Mayday ... the
ship is sinking! 

While at work yesterday I got a text from DH. Although it simply said that the upstairs TV was broken, underneath the mild words stood a larger statement. Something along the order of "My God! The TV is broken! How can I survive without my daily influx of constant news and stock market reports! The world itself is coming to AN END!!!" ... followed by a gasp and a collapse into uncontrollable tears. Melodramatic? Yes, but not too far off the mark - LOL. 

Oh no! The TV is broken! Whatever can be done???

I suggested that we could watch whatever was on our Tuesday schedule from the downstairs TV and go to Best Buy on Wednesday, choose a new TV, and have it set up soon. His reply to that? "I'm there." He was already at Best Buy, preparing to purchase a replacement TV. My reply was "OK then - go for it." 

He ended up with a 43" Samsung flat screen TV for
less than $250. It's a nice TV. He bought a sound bar
to go along with it because his hearing is so bad
that he wanted the extra control a sound bar brings. 

When I arrived home again, box parts were strewn across the bedroom, a new TV and sound bar were set up where the old TV had stood since March, 2004, the old behemoth TV was taking up a good chunk of the bedroom floor, and he was cursing at the controls because he didn't have the password for our home network. After I grabbed the code for him and learned how to operate the input device on the remote control, I got him set up and within 30-45 minutes, the new TV was functional and purring happily. 

It's going to take a while before he figures all of the controls
out on the new TV. The old TV was huge, clunky and heavy.
The new one is sleek and light-weight, but has a whole
new set of remote controls. 

DH wrangled the old TV into the back of Minion for a return trip to Best Buy. They accepted the old TV for recycling for a $25 fee - less expensive than anywhere else I knew of. After looking at other TV's he had looked at, we went to dinner at Olive Garden, picked up cupcakes for a late dessert (so late that they're actually going to be eaten today) and called it a night. The old TV had been ours for 14 years and 2 months. I'd say we got our money's worth from that set. 

Have a great Wednesday and enjoy your particular happy place this morning. DH will be happy because he has a new TV, I'll be happy because yet another crisis has been weathered. LOL.