Cutting the Cord

As promised, we returned all the equipment to Comcast a week or so ago. We now have wi-fi from T-Mobile. This drives our computers and televisions. Exchanged a $167/mo bill for one of $50/mo. Rocky has a few streaming services but we had those before. Cost savings are real. There was an overlap month, and we haven’t received a final accounting from Comcast, so we don’t know if we owe anything more. Even if we did, it would take a month or so to save the difference.

I had no trouble switching the computer to the new service. Rocky struggled a bit but a few hours later figured it out. His computer and I-pad are live and thriving. The TV portion of the project has been more problematic.

At the beginning of this discussion, I remind you I am a total klutz with electronics. My granddaughter Kira had to walk me through my new phone a year or so ago. She and my son finally figured out how to change my car’s clock off of daylight savings time last Thanksgiving. Now I need their help to adjust the clock again onto daylight savings! Such is my life! And television issues? Forget it.

Rocky was furious I put him in this position. But two days later he thanked me for doing so. He figured it out. We can now stream our favorite shows. We can even access live programming a day later, so it is not actually live. There are holes in our usual viewing habits, but slowly they are being filled.

I can turn the TV on and off. I can even find Netflix and select and view programming. Getting off Netflix to another streaming service is still outside my wheelhouse. But I am adapting.

The biggest adaptation is: No News Casts. No noise from news hypsters. Peace. Reigns. In. The. House.

We are not out of the news loop. I am on the internet many hours each day. I am fully informed and even better informed than TV news casts. They are short summaries of complex issues. I access deep reports on those same issues and understand them better than the newscasters on TV. Most of them are readers only, anyway. Someone else writes the copy they read. So, what do they really know?

Some day I am sure there will be a law made that requires public cable TV companies to provide a major price discount to senior citizens. We can’t afford what normal households can for normal cable services. And we often do not understand how to repair, adjust or fiddle with the cable connection. We are of an age where we cannot see what plug goes into which receptacle. Even if we can get down to where these connections are, we cannot get up without assistance. At some point we just leave the damn service as is. Until we finally are exasperated or broke enough to pull the cord. That’s what we did.

Another thing, cable connections are far too complicated. First, they should be cordless. Second they should be intuitive. Third they should be voice activated. Fourth, the service personnel should set this all up properly to begin with and visit free of charge when it goes out of whack.

Just saying. You want participation from the elder population, accommodations must be made. Otherwise, society simply doesn’t care.

Fix this.

May 25, 2022

 

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