8:20 p.m. | 2005-05-01 The Things I Take For Granted. They�re Numerous And Often Obvious. Yesterday, I went to brunch, grocery shopping, ran errands and did my laundry. Today, I did my normal household chores and cooked my breakfasts for the week (steak fajitas cooked in the crockpot). I also turned off the TV and spent several hours working completing two projects that I�ve been working on for several weeks. Finally, I sat down to settle into a quiet evening of TV watching. I flipped it on and, well, no TV for me. Apparently, there�s a cable outage which leaves me with super poor reception of the major networks only. It reminds me of my youth actually. I grew up in the pre-cable era. Lots of years of sketchy reception and limited viewing choices. Lots of years of adjusting and holding �rabbit ear� antennas and jumping up to change the channel. (At the direction of my parents, of course. Children served as the prototype for remote control devices.) However nowadays, TVs don�t come with rabbit ears so there�s no way I can improve the quality of my reception. I�ve discovered that my reliance on TV, specifically cable TV, is rather pathetic. It�s not as though my TV is the only form of entertainment available in my house. Matter of fact, I�ve barely begun to read the Sunday paper and, in addition, there are about a gazillion books I could read. On top of that, I need to get all caught up on my diary reads. However, right now? I want to watch TV. Mostly because that�s what I typically do on Sunday nights and well� frankly, because I�m experiencing a cable outage. I want that which is denied to me. Very human response. So, of course, it�s still on. I only get one channel that has picture and sound. The sound is okay, but the picture? Yeah, it�s like walking around without my glasses on. I can see forms and whatnot but not really any detail. But, I am going to take this moment to update because I don�t like the one show I can watch. Obviously, I�ve become TV-centric. That�s probably not a good thing yet there it is. There�s only one thing to say about that� Happy May Day! your thoughts? seed flower