After 20 years....
 

Cale and I have been married over twenty years now and for most of that time we have had TV reception of 2-3 channels, except the four years when we lived on the creek bottom and we received one channel! Well we decided to get Dish installed. By bundling it with our phone and DSL it is only going to cost us about $17 additional a month for 120 channels. It was installed on Saturday to four televisions. So far Cale and Brady have watched some hunting and fishing shows, I have watched a few things on HGTV, and the girls discovered a channel with Full House which they used to watch when they were kids! I see a lot of shows that look interesting but have not had a chance to watch them yet.

Do you have enough popcorn for us all to come over? Also, real butter...

Of course real butter!

I, personally, really enjoy Food Network and the Travel Channel.

The kids n I watched a great show on location in Venice, Italy, today on the Travel Channel--good enough that the girlie wanted to know where the host would go on the next show. We learned alot!

The girlie here loves 'Full House', too. She's a Food Network fan like her mama, as well. :dance:

The boy loves the Military Channel, as he's very interested in WWII-- and branching out to other wars as of late. The History channel catches his eye now and again, too.

That husband o' mine is a Science Channel and Weather Channel frequent-er, as well as FoxNews.

With satellite, we can watch some really neat stuff....we really enjoy it--especially in the wintertime! Have fun!

~~

Are you 'skirting' the popcorn issue? What about enough chairs?

That's funny as we just cancelled our DISH after 9 years...with 50+ channels we rarely found anything we wanted to watch!! Boy, the antics they've pulled to convince us to sign up again--free movie channels for 6 mos,more channels for less. We'll see if we decide to get it later; right now we actually haven't missed it at all. DEE

We got Direct TV 3 years ago and I love it. We watch a lot of shows on Discovery, National Geographic, Animal Planet, BBC America, Bravo, etc...

We also have a DVR which I LOVE.

You really can find some good shows to watch. I have learned a lot from the cooking shows even though I did consider myself a good cook to begin with.

We recorded March of the Penguins the other day and we're going to watch it as a family on the weekend.

Who needs chairs?!? The floor'll work just fine ifn' the popcorn is hot n buttered! :baby04:

~~

The History channels have good stuff too and I love the channels that show old movies, but HGTV is my favorite.

We had Dish for one year and hated it. Got rid of it and put up an antenna instead. Now, our local cable company (Comcast) is offering reduced prices on bundle deals so on Monday we will be getting high speed internet, VOiP phone service, and over 200 digital channels to our main TV and a batch of regular channels to the other 3 TV's. I might have to start taking off from work just to get enough time to watch all of those channels!!! :happy:

Ken in Glassboro, NJ

We had Dish Network for about 5 years, then a couple of months ago we lost reception. A tech came out and said a tree had grown in the way was why we lost reception. At first, we thought we'd live without it, but we don't get much without satellite. I really missed the news and weather. So, we had the tree cut, called them to turn us back on. Still no reception. Another tech came out. It wasn't the tree in the first place. It was receiver all along. Now we have reception and a tree on the ground in our front yard.

I remember.......DH got TV right after we were married 18 years ago....I cried.


Yes........IMO it was the end of family interaction (at least for me) :Bawling:

Has the TV shock hit you yet? We didn't have TV for about a year. When we got directv, it was really a shock to see how much the programing had changed.

When I watch, I usually have it on either History channel, or HGTV. Sometimes CNN or the Western channel. I really like the old black & white shows. It totally amazes me that I have 150 channels and usually there's nothing good to watch.

Lucky you. If I had my way I'd toss all of our TV's out the bleeping window.

Sorry....I've had a bad day.

DH is livid right now because out of the 100-some channels we get on our stupid $60 a month cable they "can't live without", the ONE channel he wants to watch some kind of sports thing on tonight isn't included. It's a regular network channel out of Cincinnati and he can pick it up fuzzy on the antenna TV in our room, but since we live nearer to Dayton now, the cable doesn't cover it. Figures.

Really???????? I turn on the tv when dh and I travel and stay in a motel room over night. It takes me about 10 minutes to go through ALL the channels and I'll be darned if I can find anything that looks interesting. You must have different channels.

donsgal

When I was in the hospital for surgery & when I had the kids, I did the same thing. Flipped through every channel & still couldn't find anything worth watching. I kow DH & the kids would enjoy it, but I hate for them to become zombies in front of the TV.

Get rid of it now...........While you still can.

You should try RFD-TVThis is a great channel. No. 379 on Direct TV. I don"t know the NO. on DISH but it is on Dish Network. For a TV guide Try www.rfd-tv.com Jay

I chuckled over this. :p

No TV here, so I can't add an interesting comment except to say that - to each his own and be sure to enjoy what you have.

I agree, there's a reason tv is called 'opium for the masses'.

After 20 yrs...
 

Moopups,
Take a sleeping bag..don't need any chairs.. Invite someone else from the board that has corn right from the field to make the popcorn. Now who is bringing the home made butter??????????

PQ

Shakin' my head here....Television isn't to blame for family interaction troubles anymore than hunting, sewing, scrapbooking, sports playing, internet message boards or whatever the chosen past-time. It's but one of a seemingly infinite list of entertainment/educational tools out there.

In THIS family, TV watching is far from a zombie-like experience lol. I stayed up a bit later to watch a Travel Channel show on Milan, Italy. Italy is my current info-junkie craze....the kids n I ended up online looking up all kinds of things about Italy as a whole, the city of Milan and somehow ended up talking about the Titanic?!?!

...Merely replying to what's already been posted.

~~Enjoy whatever pursuits you choose AND join your mate/family members in theirs now and again! :dance:

I live 30 miles outside the city I work in. Antennae with one TV. About 6 stations that come in real good. Dialup internet because no cable out here.
3 PC's, 2 with internet access.
What gets me is in the city, cable access is as vital as gas or electricity.
I drive through the neighborhoods with the huge houses and fenced yards and noboby is outside other than mowing the grass or raking leaves. That all has to be done because the home owners association says so.
I would be outside right now but a blizzard came through yesterday and left a foot of snow and is 0 degrees out. I'll give it another 2 hours and will be mounted on my old tractor attempting to dig out. 1/2 mile drive with a hill. Kansas is kind of weird. It was 70 tuesday.

Melissa,

You HAVE to check out "If Walls Could Talk" on HGTV. It's my favorite show. It's about people who buy old houses and then find all kinds of interesting old relics in the house and yard during the "fix up" phase.

:) RedTartan

Got cable for TV & internet about 5 months ago after about 10 yrs of trying to watch fuzzy TV with a regular antenna. My nearest neighbor, across the road, has a tower like thing & his hobby is Ham radio, which he usually got going around 8:30pm just in the middle of a show. Now, here's the kicker, my special price offer will expire next month, so I'm wondering if they'll start going up on the cost. Afterall, it was an "Introductory" package deal!

We have Dish also. Check out the RFD channel. They have Eleanore Burns' Quilt in a Day on. I think it's Wednesday evenings
karen in Indiana

There is a Rural TV show, I think it is in the 900's. There are a few shows on HGTV where they come into your house and fix up and rearrange with what you already own. Those are pretty cool.

There is so much going on around here and so many people in and out that I don't think we will become TV zombies!

Melissa, I think that's great and I hope you and the family enjoy it!

I have popcorn, butter, homemade cider, lots of chairs, big floor-space.... Anyone is welcome!

We get 4 channels here too and have talked about getting a dish off and on but we try not to watch TV much and if we had all those choices we'd probably watch more and read less so haven't got hooked up, at least not yet. Hope you enjoy your new found shows.

You are not alone in this feeling. We spent the first years in this house without TV, as I hadn't bothered to get it hooked up and we were only there on the weekend.We moved here in May and well when august rollled around (Football season) the boys (DH and DS) threatened to go on strike unless I called Direct Tv. Well they have 250 channels, some NFL football package..each has their own room and own Tv..and I sit by myself in the not quite finished kitchen or out in the yard. It was so much fun when we all had to interact because there was no TV...I rarely watch any TV except the news. I should have let them strike..no difference really :rolleyes:

Um, I think it was "Religion is the Opiate of the masses, maybe I am wrong?)

I think you will enjoy things like the history channel, it has some really neat shows.

I agree with Jeff, get rid of it now.

Go outside, make a mental note of the color of the dish...

"I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth"
Rev 6:8, NIV

I wonder what percentage of the earth has TV access on a regular basis now?

;)

Good grief... I hardly think watching a few cooking, gardening, or decorating shows once in a while is going to lead to the downfall of the entire earth.

Don't people have discipline over themselves? I don't think every family in the world who watches a few television shows once in a while self-destructs!

TV is like every other aspect of our lives. It's what we choose to do with it. We square dance and a lot of people think this activity is where affairs start. Well, I've know quiet a few affairs that started in church (church leaders, I might add). It's whatever is the desires of the heart. Anything can be turned into something bad. Melissa, congratulations on getting your dish.

Thank you. I am sure we will enjoy it, but not too much... :rolleyes: :p

Another vote for RFD. :cowboy:

No Melissa, they don't.

My post was tongue in cheek, kinda. I know myself and my weaknesses. We have a Direct TV dish set up with a decoder (previous owner) and I won't pay for the card. Four channels is already enough to get "sucked in".

Yes, I LOVE the History channel and sports... Discovery Channel and Sci Fi are cool too... but I don't trust myself with it.

Congrats on the install though... I know that you'll treat it FAR more responsibly than would I (which is why you have it and I don't).

Ron

I would agree with you. Not "every" family self destructs, but most do.

Try this, keep a little notebook starting today that notes how long each day the TV is on. See if that time grows or shrinks in the days, weeks, and months ahead.

TV could have been a great tool and entertainment device. Without going into an entire essay on TV, it is worth learning just who owns the major networks and who controls programming. That alone should be enough to keep anyone away from the highly addictive propaganda tool.

That's just my 2 cents worth, for someone else TV may be just the thing!!!