TV and Books

Watching TV was also a relaxing way to end the day. Jim and I both were TV addicts and could watch that little box for hours. We would curl up on the couch and end up with a dog on either side of us and watch a movie or a few tv shows we recorded when we couldn't watch them live. Gosh I love my TiVo's.

Being that we met in a movie rental store this is not surprising. Blockbuster Video. Remember vhs tapes guys? You know, you would go to buy one and they were 89.99 or maybe on sale for 69.99 for just one movie. Oh those were the days. Now they are 14.99 at Wal-Mart or you can just stream them direct from Netflix.

We were able to respect each others tastes and there were some things we loved to watch together and some shows that we went into seperate rooms to watch. I think I have told the Columbo story in an earlier blog, but a recap - we were married about 3 years and had moved into our first townhouse. I loved to watch Columbo (dating back to when I watched it with my mom when it was on the mystery movie night in the 70,s) and it was on one afternoon. Jim was watching something downstairs so I turned it on and lay out on the bed. About a half hour later I went downstairs to get a snack and there it is on the downstairs tv. Jim and Gryphon (our first Dal) were on the couch. We loved the fact that neither one of us knew the other was a Columbo fan and we went on to learn more about each others tastes.

I do love older classics - film noir and comedies from the 40's and horror movies from the 50's, so we were well suited in that manner.

One thing I have learned is that since Jim died I am binging a lot more on tv shows. Some of this is also thanks to Netflix and some because of the excess time and need to escape the bleh of the home. I am watching tv shows/series that people have been telling me for a few years to watch. Friday Night Lights is my new favorite, Robin Hood -the UK version, The Office and some others. I love watching these without commercials and with awesome picture quality.

Don't get me wrong, I haven't given up my first true love - books. I have taken it up a notch and moved into the 21st century. I bought a Kindle from Amazon. I am enjoying the ease of this and am searching out sites for free ebooks. I went shopping for ebooks on Amazon and felt like I was back in the video store where the movies were 89.99. One ebook for 9.99? no thanks. I wish there was a way to get used ebooks. I mean, I love books, but I rarely pay full price with all the used books stores and things like paperbackswap where they are free. I hope the ebook market goes down sometime soon.

One change that I have made, or maybe a habit I went back to, was to have no tv in the bedroom. I read to put myself to sleep. I have done that since I was a kid and sneaking under the covers with the flashlight to read "My side of the Mountain" or "The Black Stallion". Those are treasures I still have on my shelf.