Leap Blog

Saturday, March 23, 2012 - Today, I'm taking a break from my series about my brother, Dan, to talk about big electronic leaps. My husband has always been the one to take a big leap. I'm talking about getting new and  improved electronic devices. I have always been the timid one, not wanting to chance it, wanting to be cautious. I remember when we were first married,  the only TV's we had were Steve's little black and white TV, which had like a 12" screen and my grandmother's old black and white TV which was bigger and sat on a serving cart in our living room. Color TV had been available for years, but we just couldn't afford one up to this point and our parents had given us these TV's; we were happy to have them. We had been married several months and both had full-time jobs but they were entry-level jobs and the pay was also entry-level. Having just come from Ohio where jobs were scarce, we were happy and thankful to have our jobs. Steve at Radio Shack and I was at Tandy. A friend at work had told Steve about this special deal on a color TV at a place in Fort Worth called 'Rave.' We had never heard of the brand before, it was 'Samsung.' It's a well-known brand now, but not back in 1983. Steve told me about it after work. Of course, cautious me, I wasn't sure. I wanted to make sure we could afford it, but after lengthy discussion, we decided we could. We went down to Rave, bought it and brought it home. It was our first big purchase as a married couple. Steve was so happy he gave me a big hug. We finally had a color TV! Steve was the one who wanted to take the leap. I had been content to continue on as we had, but he took the initiative to take the big leap and it was a really good one. That TV lasted for years and years. It's been sitting in our garage for some time now because the alignment in the colors on the picture was slightly off, but the last time we ran it, it worked fine. We wouldn't be able to run it today without a converter unless we hooked it up to satellite because some dodo out there wanted to make everything digital and do away with analog signals.

Steve also took the big leap when we got our first VCR. It was a great big unit, with a lid that popped-up on the top. It had a remote with a wire on it. It was state-of-the-art for the time. It was great. We could now rent movies and watch them. We just had to remember to rewind. The best part was that we could record shows and watch them at our leisure. I let Steve do the programming. I remember Steve programming the VCR to record 'The Paper Chase.' We still have those tapes. I ran one when we got the VCR we have now and the quality seemed fuzzy, but for the time, it was great.

I remember when I was pregnant with Stacy, Steve wanted to take another electronic leap and get a CD player that played 5 CD's at one time. I wasn't sure, of course I was worried about the expense with the up-coming baby and we had a CD player that played one CD at a time. Steve said that one didn't sound right; it sounded too crisp. I still was the cautious one. He had gotten it, but had packed it up to take it back to the store because I was so hesitant. I told him that we should keep it. Boy am I ever glad we kept it. It sounded great! We could play a whole bunch of CD's on it. We got a lot of enjoyment out of it. I don't know why I am so cautious, maybe it's a part of my mom that's in me. Maybe it's the OCD part of me that rejects change, I just can't figure it out.

The same thing happened with the TV we had in our living room in the house in Arlington, I was the hesitant one, but Steve was the one who wanted to take the leap and get it. It turned out to be a really good deal and gave us years of enjoyment. It was a wonderful TV.

I've also stubbornly held on to cell phones until they were considered archaic. I held onto the last phone I had for a long time, even though I had to hold it shut with a rubber band. I had one for years that had an antenna, long after it was probably a museum piece. When my phone was being held together with a rubber band, Steve finally took me into Verizon and helped me pick out another phone. I was going to go with one model and he encouraged me to get the next step up and I'm glad he did, I'm a lot happier with the phone he suggested I get.

Also, as years have passed by and electronics got more complicated to operate, I have been afraid to learn the operations of new electronic stuff. I still don't know how to watch a recorded show on the TV upstairs. It's Jeff's TV, he bought it. We got HD upstairs and had to give up our TiVo up there. The HD receiver looks really cool with its bright blue display, but I don't have a clue how to run it or which remote to use. Jeff taught me how to turn off the TV one night because he didn't feel like getting up out of the chair and I was right by the TV. I'm glad he didn't feel like getting out of the chair, at least I know how to turn it off and on. I do know how to watch a movie in HD on the Xbox because Steve and the kids taught me how and I wrote the instructions down and keep them in the box with my favorite HD movie, Planet Earth. I don't get stuff like that easily, I get steps mixed-up or press wrong buttons and get things really screwed-up. I never knew how to program a VCR either, but I know how to copy a video tape to DVD on our new VCR because Steve taught me. If it weren't for Steve, the clocks on our VCR and DVD players would have had blinking 00:00's on the display.

There's been another big leap in the works. Steve's had been wanting to get one of those flat screen TV's for the bedroom. Of course, true to form, I have been the hesitant, cautious one.  He also wants to get HD on our satellite service for the bedroom and that means we'd lose the TiVo. Now I LOVE the TiVo in the bedroom. It's an older TiVo and it's so EASY. The way it's laid out, I learned how operate it easily and operate it every day.  It's so easy for me to record a show and then watch it when I want to. So, needless to say, I am the hesitant one, more than that, I've been downright stubborn when it comes to my TiVo. It means I'd have to learn a new DVR and it wouldn't be a TiVo because the new TiVo's are way too pricey. There is also a remote that does everything and I wouldn't have to think about it, but that sucker costs $60.which seems way too expensive. I tend to get scared about learning new electronic stuff because it takes me a long time to learn it and it's hard to learn. I get the steps mixed-up or leave out a step and things get so messed-up that I have to get my husband or kids to restart everything. The funny thing is that I'm pretty good about learning stuff on the computer. I've been learning the latest versions of Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator and am having fun doing so.

As far as getting HD on our downstairs TV,.I'm also not real thrilled about everything getting uprooted so they can run a wire through the wall. I wish this whole operation could be done wirelessly. I wish getting HD was as easy as setting the 'Sharpen' filter on Photoshop. Still, being able to see a nature show about ocean life in HD just might make the whole running a wire, getting HD and learning a new DVR thingamabob, worth it.

The TV picture is supposed to be clearer with HD. I've never really paid much attention to the difference. It has all looked pretty much the same to me, HD, regular D, stuff like that. I mean like HD is a little clearer, it's like getting new glasses or like using the 'Sharpen' filter in Photoshop and the colors seem a little brighter, but that's about it. It also might help if I would clean my glasses now and then, maybe that would help make the picture a little clearer too. Sometimes, something on TV will look real clear to me and I'll ask if that's HD and they'll say it's not and that will surprise me. The kids and I watched Jeff's Babylon 5 DVD's on his TV upstairs and that looked really great to me, but they said it wasn't HD. It sure looked like it to me, but apparently it wasn't. Maybe my glasses were clean then. The only time I've ever really seen much of a difference in the TV picture was when I watched my favorite video, 'Planet Earth.' Some of those scenes are really magnificent.  Anyway, I'm happy to have the service we have downstairs because I can operate the TiVo, record what I want, when I want and watch what I want when I want, without having to ask someone to set it up for me. Still, a nature show as clear as 'Planet Earth' sounds pretty cool and would be worth running the wire and learning the new DVR thingamabob.

I wish I was as smart as my kids are with stuff like that. Both of them easily picked up running the system upstairs and that includes the video games. Stacy picked up how to do Netflix on the new TV instantly  I really hope my reluctance with new electronics is not an 'old' thing. Believe it or not, my kids consider me 'old.' I don't. Anyhow, I got frustrated with my mom because she would have nothing to do with computers. One time, when I got to her house, the cable on her TV was all screwed up and the picture was really grainy like the signal wasn't coming in very well. It had been like that for some time and she was paying for cable and getting crap and she didn't even realize it. One phone call by me to the cable company fixed it. I hope I'm not getting like her. Still, I can't imagine her playing 'Angry Birds' or adjusting photos in Photoshop.

Anyway, Steve said he was going to research them and shop around. I told him that was fine and to take his time. I told him to pick out whatever he wanted because I trust him. He knows what he's doing and I don't know that much about flat TV's. I also knew he would get the best deal. He's real good at shopping around for the best deal.  Every once in a while, I'd get an e-mail from him with a link to another TV. They all looked very nice. He would show me TV's when he was on the computer in the evening. I really wasn't in a hurry, and he's so good and thorough when shopping for something. I figured that I still had a little time with our old system.

Today, he took another big electronic leap. When I got home from work, it was like any other day. I walked into the bedroom and my jaw dropped! I said "HOLY S*#t! There, on top of the dresser was a flat TV. Not only that, but it's a 3-d flat screen TV and they bought a Blu-Ray player. He got a good deal too, I knew he would.

So now, it's time for another leap, I'm talking about the one to get HD on the satellite downstairs. My husband would really like to get it and said we won't be getting the best from the TV unless we get it. I figure if we made an investment in the TV, then we should go the whole nine yards even though I have to learn new electronic things. I'm sure I will like the end result of this leap, especially when a really good nature show comes on. I just have to learn to adjust to change. I have to learn how to operate, record, watch shows, etc on a new DVR so I don't have to ask the kids how to work the TV every time I want to watch something. I also better clean my glasses.

If it weren't for my husband, I would probably still be watching an old black and white TV and using a cell phone that was held together with a rubber band.

We just keep leaping. Ribbit.

Postscript: A few days ago, Steve showed me HD by showing me an episode of 'Game of Thrones' in Blu-Ray and yesterday I saw a little bit of the 'Caves' episode of 'Planet Earth' and the clarity was amazing. I mean like on 'Game of Thrones' the detail in the snow on the trees almost showed every little snowflake. In the 'Caves' episode of 'Planet Earth' it was like I was standing right there in that cave, viewing each and every one of the three million bats in that cave!  The insect being consumed by the glow worm almost looked like it was under a microscope. Steve told me if we get HD in there, that anything telecast in HD would be that amazing. There's a National Geographic channel in HD and KERA (our local public TV station) also broadcasts in HD which means I could see NOVA and other shows like that in the same clarity as 'Planet Earth' and 'Game of Thrones.' Looks like I've been won over. Looks like soon I'll be learning a new DVR and enjoying the results.