Back again

We’ve been remodeling our teen center for the last couple weeks. This has caused me to be without internet access (and cable TV) for the last several days. (Special thanks to Steve Maxon for managing my fantasy basketball team while I was incapacitated. When we win the title, you will get a full share of the championship monies, as well as that elusive ring you've been chasing your whole career).

Saturday was a ridiculously beautiful day, so I went for a walk. During the course of this walk a truck passed me with its windows down and its radio up, and I heard, “Vinatieri makes the kick and the Colts are ahead 3 – 0.”

The playoffs! How could I have forgotten the playoffs?! I rushed home to watch. Again, I don’t have cable at home but I’ve had a $2 antenna since shortly after I moved in. One of the antennae recently snapped in half but it still gets the same two channels it always did: CBS and Fox. Otherwise known as the two channels on which most football broadcasts are televised.

No dice. I knew the game must be on NBC or ESPN. I decided it was time.

Time to call my cable provider? No way.

Time to call 1-800-directv? Not hardly.

It was time for a new antenna.

It’s a decision I’ve been considering for a while. I knew I could get more channels with a better antenna. Understand that when I moved here I was broker than broke, so a $2 antenna was quite a splurge at the time. But now I’m doing okay, so it was time to upgrade. Time to go top of the line.

Time for the RCA ANT401.

It’s a thing of beauty really: amplified with a six foot coaxial cable and it reaches almost all the way to the ceiling. And it only cost me twenty-some-odd dollars.

I brought it home and searched for the new channels. Numerous, including the two missing networks, most importantly NBC and a certain football game(s).

That night I sat in the comfort of my own home and watched the Dallas Cowboys go down in flames. It was a good night indeed.