Ties Have Been Severed

Well, we did it. We no longer have cable TV or digital phone. I took what I needed to take back to the Spectrum place in Hanes Mall. The irritating thing, they moved the Spectrum store. So, I ended up hiking upstairs where I had to rest there at the Hanes Mall summit. Once my strength had been replenished, I finished the rest of the hike through the J.C. Penny’s and around the corner where I could see the Red Robin through the glass doors. I was a bit perturbed that the location hadn’t been changed on the Google Maps. Yeah, I checked before heading out.

I managed to have it all and we’ll only be charged for Internet from here on out.

If you know me then you may have an idea that I’m a bit of a TV junkie. We finally went with YouTubeTV for our live TV needs. The indoor antennas just weren’t cutting it and plus, I need some DVR like service. And I just didn’t want to hoist up a pole with an outdoor antenna. I’m sure that all of the adjusting for maximum picture quality would drive the MIL into thinning her already thinning hair out even more. Believe me. If you handed a laptop to an Aborigine child that has never seen one and have him race against the MIL to turn it on, the child would win. Just learning how the Roku remote worked turned out to be a few hair-thinning moments for me.

We ditched Hulu. They have some things that I liked, but the only real use of them would be for watching the OTA (over-the-air) network shows because we don’t have a DVR for that. We definitely kept Netflix and the MIL is watching so much on there that I’m astounded. ASTOUNDED! She’s binge-watching all kinds of things. She really got into ‘Grace & Frankie’. And finished up just before the new season drops in a few days. She’s also found a good stash of murder porn on there too. But I just couldn’t get her on ‘Mindhunter’ or ‘Breaking Bad’. She tends to have problems with series that aren’t linear and have to explain things like ‘Criminal Minds’ does to the audience. While watching ‘The Haunting of Hill House’ she felt confused and clueless. So, I would pause things and ask, “What do you think is going on?”

Most of the time, she was on it. But since the timeline was spread out all over the place, she was having a hard time knowing where she was in the storyline. She’s not dumb. But she has gotten so used to being spoon-fed every tiny detail from the characters of ‘Criminal Minds’ that her ability to think while watching a television show just needed to be dusted off.

Overall, the transition from cable TV has gone over smoothly. When I called to cancel, oh they had a deal for me. I could get all the locals and ten channels of my choosing for a comparable price. I asked, “Where was this deal when I asked about the lowest tier available after losing my job?”

“This offer only recently became available,” he said.

I politely declined because I’d still have to pay the rental fees on the boxes. Plus, I love having six profiles on YouTubeTV with no hardware to pay rent on.

If you’re thinking about ditching the cable company, I cannot recommend getting a Roku along with Netflix and YouTubeTV enough. Now as streaming apps are on the increase with things like DC Universe and the Disney app, content will greatly diminish on Netflix. But Netflix has some really strong original content and I just don’t expect that to change.

I’m so pleased with it what we have now that I don’t miss the cable at all.

Tossing Away A Lifeline

Today has me nervous. We’ll be taking a step that has me unsure. We’re cutting the cord… Getting rid of cable television. It makes me uneasy just by typing it out because I haven’t been without cable or satellite television since MTV was a new thing. Ronald Reagan was in the White House. And everything on TBS ran five minutes later than every network.

The new Roku 4 arrives today from Amazon. I’m excited about that. We have one of the first pucks in our bedroom. The thing has provided excellent service for like 5 years now. And since the Roku 4 has a remote that you can talk into, the MIL shouldn’t have any problems.

The Spectrum remote kind of gives her a fit. For one thing, she’s too vain to wear glasses. Oh, a housecoat is a fine and dandy garment to spend the whole day wearing, but glasses? Oh no. She cannot have that. So, she can’t ever see anything on the remote. She’ll pause her “story”, ‘The Days of Our Lives’, but she won’t fast forward through the commercials for fears of hitting a button that she cannot see and messing it all up. She was a bit delighted to know that the Roku remote has about 20% of the buttons that the Spectrum remote possesses.

I’m thinking about adding a live streaming TV service. It’s a lot cheaper than cable and I get a lot of the networks that I actually watch. As for Spectrum, I get a lot of crappy networks that I never watch. As for the MIL, she watches some of those, in my opinion, crappy networks. She loves her murder porn on the ID Channel. But I’m sure that she can find something interesting and basically on demand with the Roku. I’ll be looking for a housecoat enthusiast channel. I’m sure that one exists… A lifestyle housecoat channel with programs like…
‘Housecoats Weekly’
‘Housecoaters’
‘Housecoaters International’
‘This Old Housecoat’
‘Little Housecoat on the Prairie’
‘Housecoats of the Rich and Famous’
‘Desperate Housecoats’
‘Housecoat Improvement’
‘Housecoat of Cards’
‘Better Housecoats & Gardens’
‘Housecoat M.D.’

If you have one to add, leave it in the comments.

I’m sure that I’m going to lose a lot of NASCAR coverage unless I get a live streaming package. I’ll probably miss out on one of my favorite programs, ‘The Walking Dead’, when it comes back on in October. I’m sure there are some less legal ways to watch my faves online, but I just don’t like taking chances with a computer. There’s no telling what I could pick up. Tracking bugs and viruses. Maybe I’m paranoid, but that’s what I think about those sites. They lure us in with the shows and sports that are being illegally transmitted and while we’re there, they’re getting all kinds of information from us. Passwords to bank accounts, Social Security numbers, and how many housecoats that we’ve ordered from QVC.

The experiment begins this week while I manage to clean off the DVR of programs that I need to watch. I’m nervous and yet excited. But part of me feels like it’ll be like losing my right arm. I have a fear that I’ll be wandering the neighborhood looking for a televised fix through the windows of our neighbors.