2006-12-19 - 2:49 p.m.
My parents are getting TV!!!! I know this seems like a start that would have been more appropriate, in oh say 1955, but nonetheless, it's true. Satellite TV. The big deal here of course, is that up until today, our house has been TV free.
It all started years and years ago, when I was six. My parents were living in a house that was rapidly becoming too small for the family. There were only three kids then, and already Tim and I had to double up on rooms. Dad not being one to do things half way, he renovated and added on to the house. Prior to the construction, we had an antenna mounted on the roof, which was enough to bring in CBC, which at the time was enough for me. During the construction, the antenna necessarily came down, and it just never seemed to go back up. I don't know if Dad just never got around to it, or if they didn't want TV, but either way we did without.
I don't recall minding too much, however, since Grandma lived just a block away, and she not only had TV- she had cable! For the next fifteen years anytime there was anything anyone wanted to watch, we would go visit Grandma. Sundays nights we would go for supper at Grandmas, and spend the whole evening in front of the TV. The system worked out pretty well all around- Grandma was always happy to let us watch what we wanted, and more often than not would watch with us. Towards the end of her life she even became an ardent Oilers fan, and would occasionally watch the games even when no one else could come over.
When Grandma died, my brother Tim moved into her house. This was convenient for a number of reasons, among the least of which was that the TV was still free for the asking. This summer, however, Tim bought the house, and found a couple roommates. My parents and my sister are fairly reluctant to be hogging the TV of someone they aren't directly related to, and so enter the satellite TV.
I quite enjoyed growing up with out TV. If there was something to watch, a show I liked, or a special that was on, I could see it courtesy of Grandma. For the rest of the time I was forced to find alternate means of entertaining myself, including delving into books to a worrying degree, and developing a rich imagination. I think Mom and Dad, faced with the products of my TV free imagination often wished they had shelled out for a mind numbing box years earlier.
Other than TV, things are going very well. I'm continuing to enjoy being home, and have kept myself quite busy. Tim is renovating his basement, and I've been able to help out with that quite a bit. He had some flood damage from a backed up sewer not too long ago, and the insurance people are coughing up for a new floor. Since they are putting in a floor, Tim decided to see what else needed to be done. Turns out that when the house was built in the early fifties, insulation was optional. This seems like an odd choice for rural Alberta, where the winter temperatures can get down to minus thirty in the sunlight. Still, as Dad told me, at the time heating oil was cheap, and insulation was expensive, so it just made sense to crank the heat and not insulate. Tim is working on insulating the house, as well as renovating the bathroom. I've been giving him a hand, which I quite enjoy. Nice to have something concrete to do after five months of stressful idleness.
We went out on Saturday to find our Christmas tree. This is one of the many benefits to living in rural Alberta. All you have to do is buy a five dollar permit (good for three trees!) and go find one on crown land that is to your liking. This year it took us about forty five minuets. It used to take hours and hours, but now we look a lot closer to town. On Sunday we decorated. My family is one of those with all the old hand made decorations. All the kids have a box of specific ornaments, and there are hundreds of communal ones. On good years, with a big tree, we can fit about half our ornaments on. The tree we chose this year is quite nice, but has thin branches, which are now bowed to a nearly alarming degree with all the decorations. It does look good though.
