For a few years now, we’ve been cable free. Not internet free, not without TV, just cable free, and it’s been grand. We’re not tied to the schedule of a show, or compelled to watch something. We have no ads, keep up to date on the shows we’re interested in (mostly), and manage (somehow) to fill the rest of our lives with other things to do. We aren’t puritans, we aren’t technophobes, heck, we aren’t even avoiding anything. It was just an expense we didn’t see the need for any more. Between Amazon Prime, Netflix, and Hulu (without ads – very nice, btw, for the extra $2 – binge watching current shows is amazeballs), we manage to keep ourselves entertained when we aren’t doing other things.
But that time has passed.
When we moved cross country, we kept our old cell numbers. That hasn’t really been a problem until recently, when the folks that are supposed to accept deliveries for us at the office have become sporadic. The alternative is to have a phone number tied to the gate console so deliveries can call us to let us know a package is here (or a pizza, theoretically) – but without a local number, the system doesn’t work. Plus, as Middle Daughter has reached the maturity of being able to stay home alone, it’s become necessary for her to be able to make a call in an emergency.
Unfortunately, the cheapest phone line we can find that also has somewhat reliable service is through our cable company, and is only cheap if we get cable TV with it.
And so ends an era. I really hope this doesn’t mark the decline of the family playing games every so often, or going to Pokemon as a group, etc. But I for one am not ecstatic (although accepting – it’s not all bad things. I mean, Family channel still does Harry Potter marathons, right?).