Finally enough talking about it, we finally did it — we cancelled our cable TV. As I wrote about before, it was strangely painful for me. My wife? No so much. She was ready for it to be gone. Really we didn’t watch much on the HD-Expanded-Basic-Digital-blah-blah-blah that we were paying an absurd amount for each month. We were afraid we’d miss Psych on USA and the NHL games on Versus. Well, we can catch Psych on Hulu and, well, I just miss hockey.When we have told our friends we were going to do this, it seemed like the guys were generally shocked and wondering what we would do for TV — the women were happy for us. It really was a strange dichotomy of results.
We have our home computer hooked into the TV now — in fact, that’s where I’m writing this post (and it’s a little hard on the eyes). Eventually I will want to get a “nettop” to replace the ginormous desktop computer sitting next to the TV, but it will take a while for the finances to allow it.
So why did we really cut out the cable?
(More after the jump)
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This is the second part of a series of posts. Click here for part 1.
Let’s go ahead and stick with the home buying theme here. I mean, the first one wasn’t really a “panic” when we bought it.
After we lived in the townhouse for a year or so, we decided to start looking for a rental house again. But this time we finally found one from a nice husband and wife. It was a nice place with a giant backyard – deck, big trees, on a cul-du-sac, quiet – you get the point.
We had been in this place for probably 3 years when we had a knock on our door one morning just before Thanksgiving. We usually didn’t get anyone knocking on our door so it was incredibly unusual let alone at 7:30 AM. I was getting ready for work and wasn’t dressed at the time, so my wife hands me the baby and I stand around the corner while she answers the door. It was the wife of the couple we were renting from and she was visibly upset when the door opens. Read More »
Welcome to Volume two of STID – Stupid Things I’ve Done.
It seems like we have never been able to make a large purchase without having to do it in a panic, be it real or imagined. “Never” actually might not be the appropriate word, but let me explain. I’ll describe the purchase itself and what led up to it and then what the consequences were for our family – either positive, negative, or neutral.
It started with the house we bought in Wichita after college. This “panic” was self induced and not real. We were married right out of college and decided to move away from our home/parents to get started off on our own two feet. We started off renting an apartment on a short-term lease of 6 months. And after living below an apparent herd of elephants for those 6 months, we decided it was time to move. “Rent a house, that’s the way to go” we thought and we were right, but that’s not what we ended up doing. After looking for a rental for a while didn’t really come up with anything we liked so we made the mistake of walking into a realtor’s office and asking if they managed any rental houses. “Oh, why would you rent when you could buy?” the realtor asked.
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Finally enough talking about it, we finally did it — we cancelled our cable TV. As I wrote about before, it was strangely painful for me. My wife? No so much. She was ready for it to be gone. Really we didn’t watch much on the HD-Expanded-Basic-Digital-blah-blah-blah that we were paying an absurd amount for each month. We were afraid we’d miss Psych on USA and the NHL games on Versus. Well, we can catch Psych on Hulu and, well, I just miss hockey.When we have told our friends we were going to do this, it seemed like the guys were generally shocked and wondering what we would do for TV — the women were happy for us. It really was a strange dichotomy of results.