Fixing Things
Our DVR has been on the fritz for eons. There would be times when you'd turn it on and if you chose a show you'd get a blank screen. You can phone Comcast and they do what I guess is the equivalent of a reboot and it would work again. But they advised us to swap it out when we could.

About 2 weeks ago the menu screen went wonky and it would be smudged black and dark green. You could just make out your show title and the show would play fine so again, I put off the swap.

Today I had time and since almost all my shows are on hiatus for the holidays or writers strike, the thing was cleaned out, I took it in. This is at least our 4th DVR. I always worry when people tell me they have a seasons worth of Show X that they're saving. I've lost a lot of shows. I watch and delete as soon as possible.

Going to Comcast is sort of like going to the DMV. The parking lot is poorly paved. There's a gadget when you walk in where you press a button depending on what you're doing there and it prints out a ticket with a letter and number. You sit around with the masses, waiting. Then an automated voice announces your number.

The employees are also like the DMV. They don't smile. They aren't friendly. Anything you might have done to anticipate what they need to make their life easier, say, previous paperwork, if they don't need it it's like you're trying to hand-off chicken guts or something. I'm sure they deal with moronic, frustrated people all day long. You'd think they'd appreciate a friendly face.

I got it home and all hooked up but there was no color. The online guide was worthless so I phoned for help and sorry, but I don't speak TV. I don't know a coaxial video output zebraphone from a deltawire fusebar high-def jiggiwonker. Turned out I had to take out the red, white and yellow things and then put the yellow thing in the green thing and put one red thing back. Hard to believe I didn't figure that out on my own.

And I got my dead presto-log from last week to light. I guess it needed a week to cure in the fireplace. Probably the Sunday paper and kindling I added to the mix helped.