Our TV Experiment Continues

You'll recall a while back I wrote of wanting to dump cable TV and trying that external antenna I bought, the idea being we could probably get enough TV broadcast signals to keep us entertained at night. As I wrote earlier, that didn't work. My guess is that we just didn't have the TV set right to receive broadcast signals. I gave up on that.

Some time ago the wife was surprised to find we were paying $74.00 and change per month for cable TV. She felt we couldn't afford that. I agreed but, when she suggested taking our cable box back even before we'd come up with an alternative, I objected...strongly. That seemed an assinine suggestion to me. I had to ask her: What are we gonna do at night with no TV...tallk? I don't think so.

As a compromise, I called Suddenlink and tried to switch to a lower cost plan, assuming they had one. I know I signed up for one years ago where you got something like 12 channels for $16.00 or some such, but the cost of that one increased quickly enough that it wasn't even a year before it was over $20.00, if memory serves me. The twelve channels seemed ok for me, though, and I thought maybe I'd get used to it again.

I first tried the Suddenlink web site which doesn't seem set up to change plans. I finally had to call one of their reps and she didn't seem all that adept at switching me to a lower priced plan, either. She finally seemed to get the gist of what I wanted and suggested a plan that would cost $75.00 a month, except I couldn't hear her well. She did say we wouldn't get BBC or MeTV anymore and those are my favorites. I went ahead and told her to switch us...hey, there but for the grace of God go I.

The next day the wife spotted some Suddenlink worker in our yard. I didn't bother going to talk to him but was surprised as it seemed to me they could switch plans at their office and nothing need be done at our house.

Then the bewitching hour came and we had to see what channels we'd be able to see. The first "problem", if you want to call it that was Suddenelink's"Guide"- the television schedule you see on the TV- didn't seem any different. It still doesn't, but maybe that doesn't change or, maybe they leave it up so you see what channels you're missing- a little sales pitch, so to speak.

That drives me nuts because you see a show you might want to watch and click on it only to get a black screen. But, we do get MeTV, although no BBC so no Star Trek, at least for now. it wold be nice if they marked the channels on the Guide so you could see which channels you actually get, but that might be the idea of doing it they way they do it. It's working with me.

Not much has changed as far as TV goes, at least earlier in the evening. I'm still able to watch the channel 3 news when I flop down on the couch around 5:30ish in the afternoon. And we still stay with channel 3 until after the Who wants To Be A Millionaire game show. After that it's MeTV and it does kinda bug me we're stuck with MeTV- hey, I like Andy of Mayberry but how many of those reruns do I want to watch? Despite it being one of my favorites, it bugs me knowing I can't go elsewhere, such as the History Channel or what not.

After I post this I'm gonna go to the Suddenlink web site and see if I can find out how much we're paying for this new TV plan. Wouldn't it be something if it does cost more than we were already paying? I won't be surprised, but then what do I do?