Frustration; A "chip" on my shoulder

I feel a disjointed geezer rant coming on. Do you have cable TV? Remember sometime back all the old TV's that weren't "cable ready" had to have a set top box to make the cable work. Then not too long ago the cable went digital and was still partially analog. Now the cable company is telling us they are going "all digital". We now have to go back to a "set top box" on our "cable ready" TV. Kind of like the old boxes we had when cable first came out. We got via UPS: one set top box, and two adapter boxes, so we can have three TV's set up. The hardware is free and the monthly bill will not change. And we will get more channels and better picture. Here's the problem. I'm a 61 yr. old cynic. Nothing is free. I don't want anything that is free. I don't want to change my GD TV set up. I don't want it to be better. I pay a lot every month now. Leave my service alone. I'm very wary of these "improvements". But I have no choice. I'm betting after a few months they will start raising rates to pay for these "free" upgrades. Then their customers will be embedded in the new system and just keep paying the newer, bigger bill. The cable company, like City Hall, will always win. If I want a "fourth" TV adapter, it is $1.99 per month. I have a little 13 in. TV in the kitchen. I have it on while I do the dishes. Or watch the weather channel while I have breakfast. I love the little TV. But I don't know if I want to pay two bucks a month for it. And I have a fifth TV in my son's room which will be a guest room. So it will die too when the new "better" service starts, unless I pay another $2/ month. We have installed the set top and the adapters and the remotes. My wife has spent most of the day on the web and on the phone with Comcast trying to get our new digital service initiated/activated. Now we have been told that we must take it all down and pack it up and take it to their service center as it it not initializing. We will be issued another set of equipment. And they are going to do this with millions of households! And we lose two TV's! I'd like to share my secret scenario now: In a few months, the cable bill will go up quite a bit. When it does, I will take reactionary irrational action. I will calmly disconnect the new set top box, and the two adapter boxes, along with the three Comcast remotes and take them out to the back yard. I will set them on a cinder block or two and smash them with a sledge hammer until they are in small pieces. I will put the pieces in the original box and ship them back to Comcast. And I will of course, terminate my relationship with comcast. Including my computer cable contract. I will then go 60 days with no TV at all, just for principle. Then go satellite. This is just a fantasy. So I'm just kidding, I guess. But I suppose it could happen. A clearer head will prevail. My wife will get the new equipment and I'm sure the new "sort of free", or "free with a lot of strings and catches" digital cable service will be fine. There will likely be an after market gadget that I will be able to buy to hook up to the little kitchen TV to make it work too. And if we ever go HD with our sets, we'll be all ready. But somehow, someday, there is a sledgehammer/electronic device episode in my future. It will probably involve a computer and/or a cell phone. :::::+::::: LLITTY

Journey On

My wife and I went out tonight to the Avalon Theater to see Arlo Guthrie live on his "Journey On" tour. This was good for me because I have been slowly crawling out of a very deep mental abyss which started maybe a score of days ago. My wife has been very kind to me indeed. So I'm glad I could atone a bit and join her in "going to town". She really had a good time. And she's not into folk singers. She likes blues. But Arlo did some stuff that suited her. A Leadbelly tune. And an excellent rendition of St. James Infirmary. Damn Arlo was good. He had an ensemble of seven behind him. It was interesting how his band backed him up. They kept the theme of Arlo being a solo act. Often they were quietly sitting out because Arlo was being Arlo. He had three ladies, a sister group, who were his back up chorus. A drummer and bass player. His son Abe on keyboards, and an incredible lead guitar player on fender tele who played violin nicely on slow songs. Arlo also played piano on maybe six songs, instead of guitar. He used 4 different guitars, all acoustic. I hadn't listened to Arlo in thirty years. He sounded just like he did way back when. He talked before every song in warm, comic, introductions, and we found ourselves laughing out loud. He did a long funny story leading up to "Coming into Los Angeleez". Which I loved. He talked about his wife of 42 years. He played tribute to Hoyt Axton who was his dear friend. To Leadbelly. To Janus Ian. But most of all, he played tribute to his father, Woody. Near the end of the concert, he sang "This Land is Your Land". He would sing a verse, then stop and talk and explain something about Woody. Then do another verse and stop and talk again, on and off for five verses. He said he "learned" the song in fifth grade like many of us did. He went home and got out his 3/4 scale Gibson guitar which his father had given him on his fifth birthday and tried to play the song. His father saw this and went and got out some old papers. He showed Arlo some verses that would not have been "allowed" in the grade school songbook. I didn't buy tickets to Arlo so that I could hear "City of New Orleans" live. Which he did at the piano, by the way. I wanted to touch a legacy. I wanted to be near an icon. I got exactly what I wanted and more. This guy is a real live genuine legend. And thanks to my wife we were in the second row center and the first row seats in front of us were empty! And the 400 seat room was sold out. So just call me star struck if you like. I was ten feet away from Woody Guthrie's son and grandson for a nice two hour concert. Two nights from now wife and I are going out again to live music. This time a local geezer country rock band. Of great players and great guys (and girl). There will be friends and relatives there. And people that like me. And people that I want to like me. Somehow I care again. Thank goodness for my wife. Thank goodness for music. Thank goodness for Spring. Thank goodness I can Journey On.