Couch Potato Talk

Let's talk about tv - we watch it every night - what a terrible habit, but it is so easy - shifts you into escape mode and you can veg your way through the evening.  But I am really frustrated and fidgety with tv in Canada.  We thought Doha had scant programs to view, but coming home has been an eye opener - reruns everywhere, 8 minutes of show then 4 or 5 minutes of adverts of the most inane type - self-important bozos strutting their stuff trying to exhort you to buy their often useless product.  And all those reality shows - not sure I want to watch non-actors perform hum-drum daily activities engaging in prattle of the pathetic or boring sort.  And we can't find any decent movie channel either. 

So to stop the whine refrain, we spent some time last night going online to try to change things on a complicated website that was hard to navigate.  We also wanted to install our PRV box from Calgary (paid $500 for the thing and used it for about 6 months before mothballing it)  Of course, this means an in person visit that we now have to wait for.  But this is the funniest of all - they make it sound like they are really customer friendly - start off by saying: "When would it be convenient for us to call you?" and you get ready to specify a time, but with the next click of the button your choices are: 1. between 8am and 12 and then 2. between 12pm and 5.   Wonderful choices those!  If you are a working individual you just get to use a vacation day, I suppose.  But one has to wonder - at whose convenience is this????


And I guess this is what they call service:  bash your way through the jungle of non-human voices telling you to choose which service, spend 5 minutes tapping phone buttons in a desparate attempt to find a real person who can be of real help.  Finally make it to the real rep, only to discover he is sitting in India and doesn't really understand what you're asking.  Then get to the aha moment when you think your request will be approved and then it's: "we can come next week, but only between 8 and 12 or 12 and 5 - what would be convenient?"       Convenient he says?  Really, convenient?? 


The best part of this tale: even though our PRV box from Calgary is absolutely the same PRV box in Burlington - it cannot be installed ..... because it's from Calgary.  If we want to skip the adverts and only sit and watch the shows we really want - yes, you guessed it: we will have to spend another $500 for the privilege.  What happened to us being Canada - from sea to shining sea?  These are somewhat like my Doha moments.


We should just go cold turkey and give up on this tv watching thing.