Television Incompatibility

How many television stations do we really need? If you ask John, he'd tell you that he can't live without the NASA channel, the Military channel, or the Western channel. I could. It's alright, though. I have an iPod with really good headphones. He also would have trouble living without whatever stations carry Numbers, Bones, and House. We also depend on Fox News and the Weather Channel.

Me? When I'm working on knitting, I like to have the Game Show Network running in the background. I can ignore it during difficult stitch counting or pattern-following areas without missing anything, but enjoy answering the questions when I'm just doing straight work. If I'm wanting to be entertained, I tend to gravitate toward the Food Network or Discovery channels. I also enjoy the singing and dancing shows, where I can argue with the choices made by the judges. Yes, I watch American Idol and Dancing with the Stars. I even vote, although that's difficult. 

Why is it difficult for me to vote? We have Voice Over IP. That means our phone isn't a typical land line. It goes through the computer's internet router. Since we had our California phone number for over 30 years, we kept that and added a Colorado number to it. Both numbers ring at the same typical telephone. You can't tell the difference if you're in the house. It acts like a normal phone. When we call out, however, it always looks like we're calling from California, since AT&T refuse to let us reverse the order of our numbers, making the Colorado number primary. None of their competitors will let us have two numbers yet—we checked—so we're stuck with this. So if I vote, I have to wait for California's show to end. They start two hours later than we do, since we get Central Time TV programming, even though we're really in the Mountain Time Zone. 

Here's why it all works for us. John and I both get up between five and six in the morning. That's where the similarity to our sleeping pattern ends. He goes to bed about seven at night. I follow him about four or five hours later. If I lie down more than six hours at a time, my back tends to go into spasm. It can hurt for a long time. I'm not fond of pain medication—or pain, for that matter. I've worked a system where I sleep about five or six hours at night, and take a couple of hours to nap in the afternoon, usually between one and four o'clock somewhere. I lie down and listen to an audiobook until I fall asleep. Sometimes it takes awhile, but not usually. Then I'm ready for the night.

John spends the mornings in his radio room,  has the afternoon for his shoot 'em ups, and after dinner he heads off to bed pretty quickly. That's when I can indulge myself in reality TV if I want to. I thought Top Chef ended nicely.