Monday, May 2, 2011

Why Fie?


I recently spoke to our local guy (a great guy) in charge of installing WiFi service at our cottage.

It opens up a whole new world up in the wild, wild woods and it allows me to work from there. I discovered its joys after he put one in our cottage last year. Now he's going to install another unit in our guest cabin so while the birds are twittering, so too can our guests.

The conversation today went something like this (I'm paraphrasing here):

Him: Okay,, so I'll just attach the unit on the satellite arm.
Me: The what?
Him: You know, the satellite arm.
Me: Are you talking about a satellite dish?
Him: (slightly annoyed) No, the satellite dish is attached to the satellite arm. I'm going to put the Wifi unit on the same arm.
Me: We don't have a satellite arm.
Him: Sure you do (getting more annoyed) because that's where your satellite dish is attached.
Me: But we don't have a satellite dish.
Him: What?
Me: We don't have a satellite dish.
Him: WHAT?
Me: We. Don't. Have. A. Satellite. Dish. Hence, no satellite arm.
Him: WELL HOW DO YOU WATCH TV?
Me: We don't really watch TV.
Him: What? No seriously, how do you watch TV?
Me: We don't.
(crickets)
Him: What do you do?
Me: Well, we read a lot. We used to take the kids camping when they were little, and we'd read books to them, and we just kept the tradition going at the cottage. Why, I read the whole Harry Potter series to them and I ---
Him: Well, GEEZ, they're not kids anymore! Give them TV for God's sake!

I could not stop laughing on the phone. Literally. He had to wait for me to catch my breath.

Am I the only one who thinks it's better without TV at the lake?

Hands up those who think I'm nuts.

Hands up those who prefer a good book, or a rousing game of Balderdash, Scrabble, Pictionary, Cranium or Cribbage and a gin and tonic?

10 comments:

Julie K said...

I thought the whole point of a cottage was to get away from things like TV and read, rest, relax, go swimming, drink copiously, play games and I dunno, maybe talk to each other? Who knew!

nightsmusic said...

I'm still laughing!

Honestly, though the places we've rented (I'm still trying to talk my DH into the joys of ownership) have TV, even if we were so inclined, by the time we get back to the room from too much fresh air and beaching and such, I'm too tired to watch any. The thing I really don't ever, ever miss though when we're at the lake is the phone. It's like heaven not hearing any ring...

I'm with you though. Reading, games, just staring out the window at the water...much better than TV.

Diane T. said...

LOL. I'm with you... lots of reading, games, relaxing. Also, it's amazing how much earlier we go to sleep when we don't watch TV. Like nightsmusic, even when it's available (at places we rent) we don't use it.

Deniz Bevan said...

Of course no tv. Good grief. As if the lake wasn't enough, there's books and games and conversation and toasting marshmallows over a fire and walking in the woods and... I mean seriously, need I go on? What is this world coming to?
(Hey, look, my word verification is monitero. No, I say! No! No monitors!)

Debby said...

My kids tried to tell me that not having satellite TV at home actually constituted child abuse. Back in those days, we got four channels. They'd have a fit were they still home. Since the big switch to digital television, we now get no TV reception at all. If we are in the mood, we can always dash off to a redbox, but surprisingly, we are not often in the mood for that. Yes. I love to read. Tim likes to putter on the internet. We talk.

A Novel Woman said...

See? I knew you were my kind of people.

Boo yah!

BB said...

Ha!!! Funny... apparently the TV-free holiday is a dying artform?

We have recently moved (at home) from Maximum of Three Channels (and regular no-tv nights) to about 20 channels (and lots of channel changing in an effort to find SOMETHING worth watching!). It's a complete waste of time usually. Mostly cause I cannot find the one show I flicked past earlier that looked promising...

:-)
BB

Connie said...

When my DH and I were planning our long-ago honeymoom, I said, "Let's go to a cabin in the mountains with a big fireplace." Looking aghast, he said, "What in the world will we do in a cabin in the mountains for two weeks?" You see my problem. :-) Sounds like heaven to me.

A Novel Woman said...

Oh Connie, I hope you showed your husband the error of his ways.

BB, I hear you.

Julie said...

I totally agree to no TV at the lake. It's supposed to be a sanctuary.

It cracks me up to see people camping and huddled around their TV's in their RVs. As long as I have batteries for my headlamp and a good book to read, I'm dandy like candy.