Doing Without

Today we were supposed to get a new satellite service installed.

"Supposed to" are the key words.

Without going into all of the insanely aggravating details, the installer that was supposed to come out ended up being over booked (or just had a call that lasted way too long) and was unable to come to our house. There were/are no other openings for installation until next Sunday so now we wait.
I was very close to cancelling the install and calling back our current service and telling them not to disconnect, but our new provider will save us quite a bit of money over the next few years (and hopefully beyond) as well as provide some channels and features that our current service does not. So even though I am thoroughly annoyed with them right now, I'm willing to give them another shot and see what happens (again, there are many more details other than just an overbooked installer that made this a ridiculous situation).

So after I calmed down (seriously, why do I end up dealing with this kind of stuff when I'm 9 months pregnant?), and talked with my husband, we decided to keep the install order and continue the plan to get the new service. In the meantime, our current service is supposed to be switched off at midnight tonight. I did NOT want to make the phone call to them to say, "Why yes, we are still cancelling but can you wait to switch it off?" I just knew it would turn into another conversation that I didn't have the patience for.

So for one week we will do without.

For some people, this is probably a normal situation. Some people don't care to pay for TV service, or just don't care about the programming on TV so they just don't watch. My husband claims that he could care less, but it will definitely be an adjustment for me. Since I've been on my own, I have never been without TV service (except for maybe a day or two when I was in the midst of a move).
I don't watch much TV...especially not live TV, but I do have some shows that I really enjoy watching and usually take the time to watch them in the evening after the kids go to bed. Luckily all of my favorite shows are on hiatus and so I'm not missing too much. We do have streaming Netflix so that's nice and will be helpful for the kids, since that's mainly what they watch anyway (when they watch TV) and, of course, we have DVD's but I rarely have time to really sit and watch a full movie.

I sort of freaked out at first, wondering how I was going to go without just turning on the TV at will to see what is on, or watching a show off my DVR, but now I'm taking it as a challenge. I am forced to leave the TV off...not just for me, but for my kids. They will be the bigger challenge...but I think we can handle it.
I'm sure this is one of the "blessings in disguise" moments so I'm going to take it as just that. It will be interesting to see how much we can accomplish (or how aggravated we get with each other) when watching TV is not an option. I'll let you know how it goes. ;)


Love and spending quality time,

Stephanie