I’m just going to go ahead and say it right out loud.

We have chosen not to have TV.

I didn’t think that was a big deal but you’d think that I’ve been announcing my intentions to start weekly human sacrifice in my basement.

My parents are horrified. Each of them has pulled me aside and encouraged me to nag the SO into getting TV. I keep explaining that it came down to being my decision but they don’t seem convinced. My SIL was flustered and then said that my brother would just die without TV. Hopefully the implication was that I am made of stronger stuff. Other people who find out are flabbergasted. I’m not making a big deal about it. People just ask if I saw something and I say no and the conversation goes from there.

Interestingly people aren’t concerned that I’m going to miss out on world events. They can’t believe that I don’t know what is going on with popular shows.

I had lots of channels that I never watched at the old house. I called to cancel them today. I called a number and talked to a woman about cancelling. She was horrified that I don’t have other service. She kept saying that she didn’t understand. It turned out that she couldn’t even cancel my service but she did try to sell me a security system.

I got the right number and finally got it cancelled. I had a talkative tech support person but I’d learned my lesson and just said that I was “all set” at my new house.
I’m going to start a list of things you can do instead of watching TV:

1. Read a book
2. Take a walk or do other exercise
3. Cook
4. Blog (What can I say? I’m an internet junkie.)
5. Have a conversation
6. Quilt
7. Volunteer
8. Watch a movie or documentary on DVD
9. Clean (ugh)
10. Play – I’m including everything from tennis to trivial pursuit to wild s-x in that category.

This didn’t start out as a crusade. We just didn’t watch enough TV to justify the expense. We could change our mind any time. But I’m pretty sure we aren’t going to die. Just don’t ask me to give up my internet access…