This is probably an "old person" thing, but as we have aged, my husband and I have looked for things to lighten our burden, both personally and financially. Two years ago, we started the cliche retired life of spending our winters in a warm-ish place (it's 39F outside right now so 'warm' gets an 'ish') in the winter and a cooler (winter-like according to my husband who thinks anything below 80F is inhumane) place in the summer. I started writing this blog while we were up there last year.
When you live in a 26-foot travel trailer for four months out of the year, you learn that you don't need as much 'stuff' as you think you do, and your entertainment shifts. You don't need a stand mixer, or a large oven. You don't need a television, either. But apparently you do need the internet. You can sit around a fire, look at the stars or gather with neighbors in a cobbled together shed with a woodstove to have a beer and talk about absolutely nothing important whatsoever. Such is our life 'on the hill' when we camp in the summer. Or you can sit with your phone and go down many unhealthy rabbit holes of Facebook and Instagram reels.
How my husband and I entertain ourselves these days has changed from 20 years ago. From the time it became readily available, my husband and I have had some sort of cable or satellite television service. Sometimes we had premium channels that we subscribed to, and sometimes we didn't. In the last few years, we realized that we were watching our stand-alone subscription services more than we were watching our TV subscription service. So, we decided to get rid of it. We felt we could make do with Amazon and NetFlix. We can... BUT...
There is always a 'but.'
First off, we live in a very rural area of Texas. We do not pick up any local over the air television stations being broadcast because they are too far away. We could put up a big antenna but that's just more stuff. Second, one of my secret passions is American college football (not to be confused with what we call soccer for those of you not in the US). I became a football fan when my kids elected to be in marching band in high school. I became a really big football fan when both of my kids went to the same college in Texas, and my son was part of the most awesome college marching band (yes, I'm proud).
If you don't know anything about the state of Texas and its relationship with football, let me put it this way. Texas is a very horny dude and football is a very high class 'lady of the night,' so to speak. The football programs want money, and they are willing to pander to the horny dudes to get it. The high school football stadium my children's band marched in was a decadent palace compared to the football stadium I would sit in on cold weekends in New England when I was attending a university there. I look at my old alma mater stadium and shake my head. It looks like a Texas grade school football stadium by comparison. There is no doubt that football is a religion here. The television show "Friday Night Lights" illustrates this very well.
In any case, I got sucked into high school football, and later was thoroughly wooed into the world of college football. I'm not going to discuss whether I wear maroon, purple, orange, green or red on game day... I don't want to cause a fight or have to engage in any smack talk..... unless we are talking about the Tide. Then all bets are off...
One thing I notice about some people who have cable-type television service. The television is on. A lot. Have you noticed this? You go to people's homes and even though they are not sitting in front of it, watching it, it is on as background noise. I used to do this as well. Especially when the kids were little, and I was a stay-at-home mom. What drew my attention to it recently was living next door to my sister all summer, who has satellite television service. I would go over there and even though she wasn't watching the television, it would be on. When it became a distraction to our conversation, instead of turning the television off, she would mute the sound. I finally asked her: "Can't you just turn it off?" She then realized what she was actually doing and turned it off.
I did not realize how hard it would be to watch college football without a television service subscription. Yeah, ESPN has it all locked up and ESPN+ in the US does not broadcast many (if any) Division 1 college football games. So, I've gone on a football 'diet' with only after the fact stats. We did manage to catch a game here and there, but I think I only saw one or two games for the team I supported this past fall. That's okay, though. I didn't miss much. I'm also an F1 fan, because I got hooked on "Drive to Survive" on Netflix. I never realized how exciting auto racing can be. Luckily, some races were broadcast on ESPN+ but not all.
Did I mention we subscribed to ESPN+ because we thought it would solve the college football dilemma? It didn't..... I screwed up, but at least our grandkids can watch Disney+ when they come over, which has been VERY helpful.
So, have I missed having TV? Somewhat, but not enough to stamp my feet and demand its return. I'm even contemplating creative ways to watch football without it.
Our relationship with food can be like this. We can go to the store or get on a smart phone app and just buy certain foods out of habit, because it's what we are used to doing, because we like those foods and believe they are foods we must have. I really love football, but the world didn't end because I missed a bunch of games. Yes I might pout a bit but I'll get over it or find an alternate way to get my football fix.
You will too!
Taking Stock of Day Eight:
Got on the scale, lost five pounds over last week.
went over my daily calorie count.*
did not exercise.
*Was gone all day visiting friends and our. grandkids. We ate out twice today (ugh).
(photo courtesy of Jean-Daniel Francoeur)
