Step by step

I admitted last week that the idea of getting a new TV has been hanging over me, causing me stress. Because it's not an event, it's a transition! The cable company will soon stop supporting the box next to my dear old tube TV, and if I don't take action, I'll no longer have service.

To escape my fog of overwhelmedness* I've decided to start moving through the process of switching one step at a time.

1) Call Comcast/Xfinity for advice. They were really very helpful and nice. I didn't like what they had to say -- hell, I don't want to be doing this at all! -- but it now sounds very doable. I'm going to lose everything on my DVR, which leaves me feeling desolate. But it is what it is. (If they could transfer content from my DVR, it could be bootlegged, and that would violate all those FBI warnings you see at the beginning of a DVD.)

Since it's a 23" set, this is nearly life sized

2) Comparison-shop for a new TV. My new best friend from Xfinity kinda/sorta recommended LG or Samsung. Neither manufacturer offers a smart set in the exact size I want, and I don't want a massive wall-mount TV. I don't feel like rearranging my living room and I want to continue using my cabinet as a TV stand. So I landed on a 23" LG on a stand and I'll order an Amazon Fire Stick to make it smart. 

I ordered it from Best Buy. Free shipping. It's in my den right now.

3) Order the Fire Stick. Haven't done this yet. I think I've settled on "Lite," because if I find I need more bells and whistles I can always trade up. But I want to do a little more research before I pull the trigger.

4) Make the appointment with Xfinity. They said it might take up to 10 days for a tech to get out here. That's fine. As I said, I don't really want to do this at all! The 10 days will give me more time with my 97% full DVR. 

Farewell, old friend

5) Persuade the tech to take my 20" tube tv into the bedroom and set it up, replacing the 14" tube set that's in there now. I picked that on one on impulse back in 2001. I bought it at Walgreens during the period between closing on this place and moving in. I was going from a 3-room apartment to a 2-bedroom apartment and it occurred to me I might want a second set. That's the set I was watching on 9/11/01 when, while tying my tennies, Matt Lauer reported a second plane hit the Twin Towers.† My 14" set still works, too, but I can tell it's crapping out. The colors are too saturated and the adjustable buttons no longer work.

6) Call the junk service. They can take away the 14" TV and the broken stereo, and the 20-year-old AC unit that probably no longer works, and the carpeting remnants, and the old window screens. and ... I have so many things in this apartment that I've hung onto just because I thought I might need them someday, or because they're too heavy for me to haul to the dumpster, or they have to be disposed of carefully.

It still seems like a lot of work, especially for something I don't really want to do. But it has to be done, and now that I'm moving through the steps, I feel more confident. And while I'm losing a shitload of beloved content on my current DVR, the new one will hold more and I'll be able to watch Netflix and Prime on my set instead of on my laptop. 

I'm finally entering the 2010s, I guess ...

*"Overwhelmedness" wasn't a word before but it is now. I say so.

†That was 8:03 AM. I had to be out the door at 8:10 in order to make my train. I did it, in a daze. I still don't know why I went to work that day. Why on earth was I willingly traveling to the city that is home to Sears Tower and the John Hancock Building? Plus, my office was in the same building as the Israeli Consulate. I had no sooner arrived at work than the Chicago Police Department evacuated us.