Unfortunately, tech is not one of them. Nor am I what anyone would call "handy around the house."
My sad saga began when this behemoth died. I got this Sylvania TV shortly before 9/11.* It was a fine set for its day, but its day is long past. I moved it from the living room to my bedroom five years ago,
when Xfinity's system requirements demanded I upgrade.
The Sylvania was fine. But it was 25 years old. The picture quality wasn't very crisp. I could no longer turn it on/off with the button on the front because the button disappeared into the set. Really. I pressed the poor brittle dot one time too many and the set swallowed it up, so I needed two remotes to operate it: one to turn it on/off and another to change the channels. It's also huge, measuring nearly 20" in depth and taking up the entire TV stand. It weighs 50 lbs.
Last Friday morning, it just died. Soundlessly – with no snap, crackle or pop – it just went black. It served me well, but it was over.
I had a plan: Buy a new, (slightly) bigger TV for the living room and move the living room set into the bedroom. The new set I settled on has a 32" screen, costs less than $100, and weighs just 16 lbs. This will never fail to amaze me. I grew up in a world where TVs were furniture.
This undoubtedly uncomplicated scheme took me more than two hours to execute. The first hour was me on my own, and some of it was spent on trying to find my Phillips head screwdriver. (You couldn't just have a little stand that snaps into place, could you?)
The second hour was spent with the very patient Amanda of Xfinity. She took me step-by-step through getting my new smart TV to talk to my cable box. That call, while fruitful, got off to a rough start with me yelling "rep-re-sent-a-tive!" over and over, trying to get past the automated system.
I suspect this all would have taken my nephew 20 minutes.
Now I have to figure out what to do with the Sylvania TV, which is sitting like a 50-lb. brick of concrete in the middle of my bedroom floor. This may inspire me to get it together and designate more refuse for the junk man to haul away.
I suppose I could ask for help. But I want to figure these things out by myself, even though these situations do not play to my strengths.
*It's funny that I remember the set I watched during those dark after the attack, but I do.
