Snip Decision

I keep looking for the clock.

For years I’ve been checking the time by the digital clock on the cable box that sat on my TV stand.

It was there to let me know when to go to bed, when to go to work and how much goddamn TV I was watching.

That thing was the main timepiece in my home, but I had to give it up now that I’ve finally severed nearly all ties with Spectrum and gone the streaming route like the nearly 5 million households that dumped cable last year.

I say “nearly” because I retained the landline phone service since I don’t want to rely only the cell phone and, as a child of the Sixties, I’m reluctant to cut that particular cord just yet.

This event has been years in the making, or, more accurately, years in the talking, as I have threatened to cut the cable for several years without taking any action.

But it took a rent increase and my spiraling grocery bill to make me finally realize that my cable bill was too damn high—like $232 a month high.

Spectrum was hurting my rectum.

The No Cable Guy

And I really want to cut down on my TV viewing.

I go on and on about my various personal projects, but there have been far too many nights where I wind up sitting on my rear end in front of the TV with the remote in my hand.

Yet it was so hard for me to quit.

I’ve been with my cable company for over a decade, and I was wallowing neck-deep in the comfort zone.

The pandemic only made things worse as I reasoned that since I couldn’t go anywhere or do anything, I might as well have all the entertainment I could get.

I’ve been using the TV as a companion and a connection. That was one thing during the plague years, but now that Covid-19 is backing off—we hope—it’s time for less watching and more living.

The operator at Spectrum wanted to know why I was cutting my service and I very politely told her that I can’t afford to spend this kind of money.

“I hear that,” she said.

I suspect she probably hears that all day long from people like me who can’t come up with that kind of dough.

And, for the record, I tried to stick with my cable outfit. I called several times asking them to find a way to cut this monstrous bill, but they said there was nothing they could do.

Well, there was something I can do.

I’ll be honest: the early days of the transition have been rather bumpy.

I learned my widescreen TV was too old to handle the streaming channels outside of Netflix and Amazon—both of which I have—so I opted to go the cheapie route and get an Amazon Fire Stick instead of a new TV.

Assault and Battery

The old Samsung still works—why should I dump it when I can boost the thing’s brain power instead?

The next hurdle was opening the Fire Stick remote—seriously, this thing was sealed up tighter than a clam’s patoot and there are honest-to-God videos online dedicated to getting the thing open so you can put in the batteries.

I wound up going to my local hardware store to get a pair of grip gloves and some guidance, and the very kind lady behind the cash register popped the remote open with a fingernail.

I’ll keep her in mind when the Duracells are shot to hell.

Next, I set up my new internet provider, Verizon, which is offering free (!) service for a year and then charging 25 bucks a month after that.

I had some problems with the download speed that had me on the phone for hours with a very nice tech guy on Thursday night, but I think (pray) it’s all good now.

I picked YouTubeTV for my streaming provider. It’s more expensive than the others, but I like their selection. I haven’t crunched the numbers yet, but I think I’m saving nearly $100 a month by ditching Spectrum.

On Friday night I went to Park Slope to attend a book reading by one of my writing class buddies. Tomorrow I’ll be heading up to my local UPS store to send back the cable box and the remote.

And just this morning my new digital clock/radio arrived and now sits in the cable box's old spot on my TV stand.

But I don't need a clock to tell me that cable TV has run out of time.