Thursday, February 11, 2010

Hot Tubs, Beer and Cigarettes

One more day 'til the weekend. We should have very nice weather. They promise 70 degrees and sunshine. This is why the snowbirds come here. My water tanks are full so I will be glad to see the rain go away for a while. I am not very fond of wet dogs.

I heard on the radio this morning that someone wants to pass a law that people on public assistance can't smoke or have cable TV. There were other things that they couldn't have but those are the only two I heard. I wonder how they propose to regulate something like that? Cable police? Who would pay for the cable police? It is annoying though. My old renters were on as much public assistance as they could get and they lived better (from an outsider's view) than I did...big screen TV, cable, hot tub, beer, cigars, cigarettes, video games, drugs. I couldn't afford their lifestyle. Of course they were saving money by not paying their rent or utilities...haha.

Anyway, we were talking about it at lunch and one lady mentioned a show on HBO. I said that I have never had HBO and the other lady with us had never had it either. I don't know where I am going with this story. I think I am rambling now. It was just an example of how something is considered a necessity to one person and it is a luxury to another. Since I only have free TV, even basic satellite TV would be a luxury. I'm not sure what I would watch or when I would find the time but I do consider it a special thing. I think, maybe, I will get Netflix when I pay off my mortgage. That would be better than satellite TV because I could see what I want instead of just watching the junk on TV.

One more day 'til the weekend...I need more sleep.

6 comments:

Over the Cubicle Wall said...

Someone I work with was babbling on about how cheap another guy at work was because he just now got cable. I told him I didn't have cable and he was pretty much speechless.

I'm not sure why cable is a benchmark for how 'cheap' someone is, but it seems to be.

Enjoy the nice weather!

Daizy said...

I know, some people can't dream of living without cable. I can't believe how expensive it is and how much longer I would have to work to pay that bill every month!

Lizzie @ her homeworld said...

This is only sort of connected to what you are saying but i felt like joining in!
We haven't had satellite TV for four years but now I have taken up an offer of bundled satellite, broadband and land line phone so now its a really cheap luxury. I got it on the understanding that we dont rent DVDs though, so I am pretty sure that overall it is saving but no-one realises and they all think mum is being real generous suddenly.
Lizzie

Dave said...

I got basic cable many years only because my regular TV reception got so bad. But, the cable guy lacked the box (for the junction box room, not inside my apartment) needed to screen out some of the extra (non-premium) channels I was not paying for. So I was getting about half the non-premium channels for free.

The cable guy told me he would return to put the box in. [I had him write on the work order what he did so the cable company would not come back to me for theft of service.] That was 13 years ago and they never returned.

Over the years, the local cable companies changed the alignment of their cable channels and I found myself getting more and more channels. Then, starting in 2008, they started switching some of their channels to HDTV so I would need to rent a special box (and probably lose my freebies once they came over and figured out what had happened years ago) to keep getting them. I have lost some of those freebie channels but still have about 25 of them including my favorites. And I pay only $15 a month (up from $10 a month 13 years ago).

Daizy said...

Lizzie, uh-oh, will they revolt when they learn the no DVD rule? Maybe they will pay for them themselves? Do you have a way to record movies off TV at least?

Daizy said...

Dave, $15 for cable TV is very fortunate indeed. I'm too far out for cable so I'd have to have satellite and I don't think they make mistakes like that with the Dish. Too bad.