The TV Knew I Was Coming Home

Sounds like a horror movie plot, doesn't it?  (Ok, maybe a direct to DVD plot, "the TV is coming from WITHIN THE HOUSE!")

I think our TV must have a little bit of sentience.

I mentioned my trip home from my vacation to the Folks in Iowa the other day.  It seems I stopped too soon in relating my story.

Yes, our TV took one look at me on Sunday night and decided to commit suicide.  Not with an explosion, but with a "Pop!"

Ok, it probably didn't (though the wife tweeted that very thing Sunday night).  But it certainly seemed like it didn't want me back.  I got unpacked, the wife and I lay down on the bed and just caught up on what had happened while I was gone, and then we came out to the living room.  We finished watching a hockey game and then started watching one of the many shows we had on DVR.  Twenty minutes in, we heard a little "pop" sound (like when the TV is turned on) and it went all dark and fuzzy.  The sound was fine, and we could see movement in the background (think of a darkened version of the way scrambled channels used to be, where if you weren't subscribed to them, you'd just see a bunch of wavy lines and weird images), but there basically was no picture.  We couldn't even watch a DVD or play a video game.

The TV was bought back in 2006 and we had bought a 4-year warranty.  Guess what?  It hadn't expired yet!  I think it expires in June or August.  Anyway, we called Future Shop and they said that the TV repair shop that they alerted to the problem would be calling me within 2 business days.  I got a call on Monday and they said they would come this morning between 9:30 and 10:30 (a minor version of the Cable company).  Since the wife is on vacation and I had to work (I'm swamped at work and just got back, so I couldn't take the day off), she got to deal with the guy this morning.

This is where we discovered that "home service" is actually "home pick-up."  The guy showed up with no tools, wrote a few things down, and took the TV with him.  Nobody told us that this would be happening, though obviously it was a possibility if the problem was too big for one guy or if he didn't have the right part.  But we weren't told that it would be automatic.  Even worse, it could be a few days or a couple of weeks just to find out what the problem is!

Thankfully, Future Shop will pay for the repair, or pay for a new TV if the repair will cost too much.  However, it's already feeling like a LONG time without a TV, and it's only been three nights!  Who knows how long this will be?

I'm trying to look on the bright side, that it will be a good thing.  We're listening to the radio (actually the radio through our iPhone, as we have a speaker system that our iPhone can plug into) and we're getting a lot of jazz.  Maybe eventually some blues too.  Tonight, we're listening to the hockey game.  We have a TV in the bedroom, but it's not that comfortable to spend the entire evening in there.

So we're kind of roughing it right now.

Hopefully this won't last too much longer.  But we'll have to see.  I miss our DVR shows!

Personally, I just think that our TV doesn't like me.

(written Tuesday night, posted Wednesday morning)