My TV hates the Olympics

I personally do not have anything against the Olympics but my TV hates them. Ever since the much ballyhooed advent of digital TV, I fight with my TV weekly to let me watch what I want to watch as opposed to what it will LET me watch. Even when I was 16 living at home, my parents did not give me as much trouble about what programming I wanted to view as compared to this dumb digital television? Forget the fact that the ultra wide and billfold thin beast actually cost MORE than my first car! The only thing wallet-thin about these new TV's is how much LESS cash you will be sitting on until the next 'great' thing comes along.

What's the problem you might wonder? Isn't digital TV supposed to provide absolutely crystal clear HD programming for the masses. In fact it is SO IMPORTANT, that the government put off implementing the changeover to digital TV just so EVERYONE could have the opportunity to buy a new receiver or a set-top box to watch TV - right?

Well yes, digital TV will do all that IF you live within a clear line of sight to a city based transmitting tower. Yes I know that should be most everyone but sadly it is not my case. I live in a cave, or well more like a canyon surrounded by hills of rich, lovely dirt and hundreds of trees. Its a great place to live when you are hoping on an off chance that if you encounter a stampede, the crazed animals will choose an easier route, or you just don't really want to hear anything that goes on outside of your backyard and immediate neighbors. Yeah the neighbors get cable and satellite but that COSTS MONEY! Who in their right mind PAYS for COMMERCIALS with a little random content mixed in to connect them together?

Most of the time, I do not care as the TV is simply a babysitter for me anyhow. Yes it is on and it makes noise but I only look up on occasion from my laptop to make sure it still is heating the room. Even for the Olympics, I don't necessarily have to see EVERY minute of the broadcasts but it would be nice to catch the unpixelated infomercial highlights or updates without the frozen ghost images hijacking my screen for minutes on end. At least with the old analog tube I used to irradiate my family - it would go grainy and have a few dropouts but the sound would hang in there like a loyal bloodhound. I miss that. Life was simpler then. I did not get the pleasure of seeing every swollen pore on our local news anchor's face BUT I could hear them almost no matter what. Like the days of radio, my mind could fill in the rest. If my talking head newsie wanted me to know that he had a pore problem, then he would TELL me.

Oh well, what's done is done. Like most good comrades I know my government knows what is best for me in all facets of my life, especially REALLY IMPORTANT things like what kind of TV I watch. I just wish the government would tell my TV too so I could maybe catch a few minutes of the NEXT Olympics in 2012! I hear they will be in London so to get ready I will start watching my TV on the RIGHT side of the room with a soothing cup of tea WITH milk.