The Great TV Experiment

We finally did it: we got rid of our DirecTV. When we moved to Cleveland, Keith had stipulated that we get DirecTV so that he could watch Bengals and Reds games. I thought it was a fair trade.

But it eats up a big chunk of our monthly budget. And lately, we really haven't been watching much TV at all. Since we don't allow Eleanor to watch TV yet, that means we don't watch TV. We could in the evenings, after Eleanor is in bed, but there never seems to be any time. We are too busy cleaning up the kitchen, getting ready for the day tomorrow, working out .... trying to fit in everything else that happens in our lives that does not rely on Eleanor's presence. So we have a huge backlog of shows on our DVR and it starts to feel more like work to keep up with them than entertainment.

I left the decision up to Keith, since he is more of the TV watcher than I am. I've maintained for many years that I could do without TV. So just a few weeks ago, he pulled the plug and cancelled the service. Now we have just the basic stations that we can pick up with the digital tuner. The living room TV is actually useless for anything except movies, because it doesn't have a digital tuner.

I'm a little nervous because now I need to put my money where my mouth is. Do I really watch as little TV as I think? How will I manage without Project Runway? We can still watch TV on the Internet with Hulu and in "real time" (whatever that is—I can't even remember!) ... but I will miss the DVR, I'm sure.

On the other hand, I'm pretty excited. We've put off getting rid of the DirecTV for a long time because we were scared. Could we do it? I couldn't even imagine?!? But now we'll find out.