Unglued

At some point last year, I began thinking about how bored I was with TV and how I was "so over" everything I watched... except for LOST ;) I just kept thinking how after a week or in a month... in a year... in several years... I wouldn't remember anything I watched. I was tired of spending my evenings glued to a box. I voiced my thoughts to my husband... who was quick to say, "I like TV... besides... look at all the shows you have recording." I did. And then I deleted every show-- even cooking shows-- that I had set up to record on our Tivo. It was then that I realized that I didn't really watch most of the shows that I had set up to record. The only shows that I watched were a handful of our shared shows and what I liked to call "support" shows-- those are shows that I absolutely LOATHED, but my hubbie was addicted to... so I would sit with him as he watched.

Then I saw the trailer for "No Impact Man"... and I was intrigued as movers (?) carried their TV out of their home.... I SO wanted that for us.

Over the year, I kept voicing my opinion about my lack of desire to watch TV and for all I cared... we could get rid of it. Gasp! Then I made the comment that I thought that the DVR is like a double-edged sword. It's great because you don't have to think about when the shows you watch are on... but then it sucks because the convenience of it all makes it so that you watch more TV than you would have ever watched without it in the first place. This all coming from the girl that told her Mom that she just had to get a DVR because it would make her life SO much easier. (Hindsight is definitely 20/20)

So... a little over a month ago... we finally rented "No Impact Man." If you haven't yet seen the film... I highly recommend it :) After watching it, I said to my husband, "See... she [Colin's wife] was addicted to TV." I don't know if that film (along with all my reasonings for wanting to rid our lives of TV) is what made this happen... BUT... not a week after... my husband cancelled cable and Tivo service. Needless to say, I was ecstatic...

He, on the other-hand, will admit that at first he was nervous about living without TV. When I went on my trip to LA... he said, "Great... we get rid of cable then you go out of town. What the heck am I going to do??" Here's what he did: Cleaned the entire house and played with our kids. He played more games-- UNO, Guess Who?, Checkers, Memory Match, Go Fish, etc-- than he can even count... didn't watch any TV and because of it had so much fun-- not to mention the memories he made with our 3 children :)

After 2 weeks... he was bragging about how cutting cable "was the best thing that we have done in years" and telling all his friends that they should do the same.

It's been a month of having no cable. It's been a month of not sitting on the couch in front of the TV... ok... we do still watch LOST for 45 minutes one night a week. Though, never on TV because we always forget it's on. We have absolutely no idea what is on TV... and it's great.

We have family time instead of TV time... and we're LOVING it.

Wondering what this has to do with the environment?? Simple, we're using less. Besides not turning the TV on, we no longer have a cable box, or tivo plugged in. Ahhh... two forms of vampire (or phantom) power removed.

Learn about stand-by mode (aka phantoms or vampires)

Check this chart to see how many watts your appliances are using in "stand-by" mode

Did I mention that by not having cable or Tivo, we save about $1500 a year?!

Hmmm...now what to do with that?? :)

Read this: No Impact Man: Who Needs Appliances Anyway?