The Grand Experiment

And so the great experiment begins...

In a moment of madness I decided to cancel our cable. That's right NO TV, cold turkey. Originally I called the cable company to cut back on some channel that we don't watch and then suddenly there I was telling the man, "You know what, get rid of it all." What was I thinking? Well, let's see how long the Branecki family lasts before we crack. So, I will be documenting these next few weeks, months, or possibly just days of being without a TV.

It's my belief that we don't become more active in the summer because of the warmer weather and longer days. This is San Diego, it's always warm. No, it's because there's nothing but reruns on TV. It forces us to get out, read a book, interact with others; in other words, get a life.

I want to break the Pavlovian response to automatically schedule my life around a little black box. How often have I thought "Oh, I'll sew tomorrow because NCIS is on tonight." Exactly how much of our lives do we schedule around a TV? We practically salivate every fall over the new shows and lament the demise of the ones we loved that were cancelled. We believe that the bachelor will find true love in a few weeks and we made "The Situation" a multi-millionaire!!

It's not a complete break—I'm not that crazy. There are still shows you can watch on the Internet. But what I want to break is that mindless need to turn on the TV the minute I'm in the door or waking up. What happened to those younger days when I got ready for work or school while listening to great music? I didn't grow up with a TV in my room but I did have a good stereo. Listening to music started your day on an upbeat note. You were bopping around the room while you were getting dressed.

So how was the first day? Not bad. I have a new Nook so I'm reading more anyway. Bruce is in the garage watch wood turning videos on his computer—no change there. It was strange not to turn on the TV when I walked in the door. I didn't realize how much of a habit it was until I stopped doing it.

I actually did turn on the TV this morning before I realized what I had done. It's my morning routine: turn on the TV on my way into the bathroom, grab my housecoat, go get coffee and then sit for 15 minutes watching the news. Don't know why, because the morning news was pretty well the same news I watched at 10 p.m. before I went to bed. I have to admit that I'm a news junkie so that's going to be a hard adjustment. But, I can always listen to NPR in my car on the way to work. It's better news anyway.

The TV does look strange just sitting there, all dark and broody. It's like having a big black hole in the wall. Maybe I'll put a plant in front of it.

I will miss the educational shows on the History Channel but they may be available on the Internet. The difference being that I will set time aside to watch something that I'm truly interested in instead of mindlessly watching anything. Either that or I'm going to go start raving mad.

Stay tuned!