Happy Birthday to Grasshopper No.1. She was born on Sept.19, many, many years ago. She was the first. We have the pictures to prove it. The first born is always perceived as being the favorite. That is because she is. On your special day, may all your dreams come true.
Yesterday I had my annual “come to Jesus” meeting with my local cable company. They raise rates every October by 10%-15%. I respond by calling to complain. By some sort of magic, we reconfigure things and by the time we are done my rate somehow drops. Our new deal includes improved “whole house DVR” digital service capable of recording 6 stations at a time with a few premium networks thrown in. My bill went down. How does that work?
The service technician for the Cable Co. has been here and left. We have the new DVRs installed. We have new remotes. We have a reconfiguration of stations we receive.
What we do not have is access to old recorded programs. Sh–! When our DVR was replaced, we lost all stored data. Things like “America Has Talent”, gone! “Dancing with the Stars (2 years worth), gone. Old time cowboy movies starring Randolph Scott (he got me through my hospital stay several years ago), gone. We will survive but it is a shame recorded programs could not be transferred.
As I analyze my cable bill, it has dawned on me that the charge for a phone service, internet (super turbo) and TV is fairly reasonable (around $100) month. The devices needed to support the services like DVR’s, digital adapters, and internet modems are rentals. The cable company makes almost as much money on the equipment rentals as it does on the service. As the cable service tech was leaving our house with an arm full of “old equipment” I discovered that nothing gets thrown away. They rebuild each electrical box with new chips and reuse everything. Let me see, refurbish old equipment and charge full price rentals. Clever!
The Packers travel to Minnesota for a Sunday night game against the Vikings in their new billion dollar domed stadium. I would like visit the dome just to see what a billion dollars looks like.
Love,
Dad