Packages in the mail today: Direct TV Tivo and satellite dish. An upgrade in technology as well as a private little protest against the rising cost of digital cable. For years I lived without a television, or when I did it was with a small pair of rabbit ears to tune in three maybe four stations clearly at best. It seemed I was much busier then, or when I wanted an evening to myself I would spend it reading or bouncing around my place listening to music. When Mark and I first moved in together, that was the situation. We were both adamantly against cable, against spending any money on something that would inevitably cause us to spend a significant amount of time planted in front of a television. I proudly would proclaim this fact. When asked, "Have you seen this wacky commercial?" or "Do you follow the story of this show?" A resounding, "Oh god no, I don't watch TV" is all you would get from me, because I just didn't watch it, didn't have the time, or had much better ways to fill my time than vacuously staring at the screen. I know other people who are like that now. I hear their proclamations of, "I don't watch TV!" as they glare down their nose at me. I think to myself, did I sound that smug? Did I really come across that haughty and condescending? Now don't get me wrong, I still strongly believe that my time is much better spent with other activities, doing something that involves actual action. Here I am on the other side. Now TV has infiltrated and permeated my life, it's become a habit. I end up plopped on the couch, picking up the remote and finding something to entertain me while I eat my dinner, or catch the morning weather and traffic over my coffee, or just to have another voice in the empty and quiet house during the day while I'm home alone. At least I'm flitting about the house working on any number of projects, painting, organizing, cleaning, something constructive is getting done so that TV time doesn't count; I just as easily decide to turn on the stereo for company. That has the added bonus of making move around a little faster as I dance and twirl from room to room. When the weather is nice, that is when I'm in my prime. All of my favorite past times take me outside; brisk walks or bike rides around the neighborhood, fiddling in the garden, planting seeds and bulbs or assembling fresh bouquets and doing yard work (depending on the season), going for 9-13 mile day hikes or mountain biking. When I can get a little further away and on water, I love my little Perception Swifty kayak and the adventures we have together. It is not a high performance vehicle, it is one designed for touring on lakes or slow moving streams. It handled the class I & II rapids we encountered on a 10 mile paddle down the Conemaugh River with dignity, I'm not out to prove anything or get killed, just to enjoy a good paddle. Even 10 miles on a shallow and slow moving river provides a good full body work out. When we can, and it has been awhile, Mark and I go sailing on local small bodies of water with our Prindle 19 catamaran. After the sailing adventure in the Outer Banks when we were faced with 6-7 foot chop, we are certainly confident we can handle anything a land locked body of water can throw at us. Winter puts me into a weather imposed hiatus from my favored leisure activities. Home bound during the winter, aside from frolicking or sledding and playing in the snow, creating sculptures of grand proportions or simply giant snow mounds through play or by necessity of shoveling the driveway, I tend to become a bit more sedentary. If there is a hint of a rise in temperature, I try to get out for at least a walk. I'll sit at the kitchen table with a cup of tea and a good book, getting excited as a new species of bird visits the bird feeder out the window. I keep track of these things; I keep handy a small field guide to Pennsylvania birds on the table for anyone who's curiosity is struck, the book is in reach for ready reference. Perhaps a new list will get added to my website? I periodically have to scare away the squirrel who visits and plunders the feeder. Although I do not mind his presence most of the time, he is amusing, and even more so when Greenbean finally notices him there. She sits stoically, perched clicking and smacking her tongue rapidly, causing her whiskers to shake and shimmer, her tail pulsating back and forth with a life of its own. Our evenings have evolved into something different now. They are quiet times, we try to find an interesting movie or informative documentary, or catch a favorite comedy (Coupling, Father Ted and Manchild on BBC America are the current favorites and we've become followers of The Soprano's and Six Feet Under). It's particularly nice when we get a fire burning in the hearth. Then I find myself getting hypnotized by the flames, out comes the marshmallows or veggie-dogs (perhaps chorizo sausage for Mark) pierced with Mark's foil of fencing years gone by. Occasionally I amuse myself by tossing a few kernels of popcorn onto a cleared portion of the super heated brick surface. Shocking myself with the explosive pops or transfixed as some seem to emerge in slow motion all the while considering the physics behind it all. Or I may simply drift off for a shallow nap, so intensely focused am I on the crackling, hissing and popping of the fire, that I enter a meditative state, all else around me registers as static. Now this new television watching technology will change our viewing habits, once more our television watching philosophy will evolve. No more commercials, no more surfing through inane chatter, we will be able to program and record the items or movies we wish to watch later, at our convenience. Hopefully this means we won't end up lazily draped across the couch as frequently, watching programs just for the sake of watching something for lack of anything more interesting at our immediate disposal. With even fewer friends around, fewer folks that have similar interests and favored past times, we find ourselves quite contentedly communing with the cat by our sides, snuggled up by the light of the TV.