Author Topic: Bad Start to the New Year (Read 242 times)

Midlife · « **on:** January, 01, 2009, 05:56:03 PM »

While going through my annual sorting of papers for preparation for income taxes, SWMBO comes in and says the TV in the bedroom doesn't turn on. Of course, I'm not allowed to finish up totaling up a column of numbers, so I go to the bedroom. The TV switch does nothing, but the remote briefly shows the channel and then shuts down. OK...

Take the TV down off of the dresser and take the back off. Inside is 22 years of dust, dirt, and cat hairs. Any wonder why it doesn't work? Off to the garage where I have the air compressor, and I give it a good shot of air. Still nothing works. I check the input AC line, and it is good. The switch is buried and I really don't want to get into it...I declare the TV dead.

Fortunately, we have another TV stashed out in the attached garage that we replaced a few years ago. At the time, it was flakey, but when I finally hooked up its replacement, I found a faulty cable. So...thinking that this TV was good, I hook it up. It shows up nice and wavy along the vertical, and does its thing to find all of the cable channels. Great! Only that none of the channels display: everything was streaky black stuff. TV #2 is dead.

SWMBO finds a nice 19" tube TV on Wal-Mart website for $124, which is good enough for me. I go to the SuperWM and all they have are flat panels, and expensive at that. Ugh. Off I go to Best Buy, and they only have 2 tube TV's: both the same model and less than $200. One is a floor model (that's OK by me), but they are too deep for the dresser in the bedroom. I find a 22" flat panel for $250 and buy it.

Just yesterday, I told SWMBO to buy the 2nd freezer, now that the bills have all been paid. She jokes with the salesman: "Does this come with a free TV?"

Crap.

Flysure1 · « **Reply #1 on:** January, 01, 2009, 06:32:31 PM »

Buying a tube tv???---come on get out of the dark ages---I wasn't sure they even made them anymore, why the freezer? are the melting blocks of ice getting messy?--just having some fun, I have not had any appliance last that long except for the deep freeze my folks gave us for a wedding gift. It turned 25 in 08

daveSanborn · « **Reply #2 on:** January, 02, 2009, 05:41:04 AM »

Randy,

LMAO.... 22 years out of the old TV.... were you expecting it to last forever?

Like you, I have a bedroom TV "situation". The TV still works okay, but the remote feature no longer works. Having to get out of bed to change the channels and ultimately turn the TV off negates the luxury of having the TV in the bedroom. Having to change the channels manually is frustratingly slow, thus the TV in the bedroom has been relegated to the status of "the weather channel" TV. We just leave the channel on "the weather channel" and'll turn the TV on and off for the "local on the 8's" each morning before work. I've been living with this for the last 2 years and am too cheap to buy a replacement. One of these days I'll break down and replace the old TV.

On a side note, if I hadn't picked up the bar bill from last weekend.... combined with the tab from the New Years Eve party.... I could have easily funded a new flat panel TV for the bedroom. I guess it's all about priorities.

Happy New Year!

Dave