Geth the picture? by Sherry Hopkins

(First of two parts)

I like to be right. I really like to be right. I try to always get my facts straight and can and will debate just about anything with anybody. Go on ask me.

I used to pride myself on this character trait but the older I become the more of a flaw it seems to be. Of course I can’t always be right. Sometimes I have to be wrong, if for no other reason than to let dear ol’ Don think that he’s right.

So here’s my story.

Back at the first of this year dear Don and I decided to get a new television. We knew that it would be a monumental purchase, for us anyway. We also had no idea what we wanted. We have for the past decade or so watched an old, 25″ portable with a bad picture and worse sound. Anything we purchased would have to be an improvement over that dinosaur.

So we began looking with thoughts of making our purchase around the holidays and thus giving each other a gift that we chose together. Sounds good thus far, huh?

We shopped at every store that sold televisions. We asked lots of questions from lots of folks who supposedly knew what they were talking about. I went online and compared types and models and pricing.

Eventually we decided on a flat panel HD LCD. Now to find the size that will fit in the armoire we bought years ago to house and conceal the ugly box. The armoire was a little pricey but it only has a small opening for television sets. We could not get anything any larger than a 32″ set if it was to fit in the armoire that’s supposed to hide the TV.

That didn’t sit well with dear Don. “Why bother getting anything if it can’t be any larger than that?” he cried.

I could easily see where this might lead so I took the road less traveled and mentioned that we really didn’t NEED a new TV.

“Completely beside the point,” I was told.

After many days and nights of discussion and measuring every TV within a 150-mile radius, ol’ Don conceded.

“Let’s just keep what we have and wait until we are forced by the federal government to pay out the Ying yang for the high definition signal we don’t want and haven’t asked for,” he mourned.

“That’s what I’m talking about,” I agreed. We have watched this set for many years; a few more couldn’t hurt.

Two days later and one day before our fall vacation started dear Don said, ” I want to look at televisions while we are on vacation.”

Gosh I thought that was a closed subject.

Vacation began on a gloriously cool sunny Saturday and we were off to shop. We again visited the same stores and look at the same sets we had been looking at all year. Nothing.

Again he conceded. “Maybe next year,” he said with a sigh.

Vacation week turned into winter with cold, 40-degree temps and rainy sunless days. We are not happy campers.

By Saturday we were stir crazy. Again we went out just to look around. We quickly found ourselves checking out console stands and televisions. Dear Don had concocted a plan to get rid of the Ben Franklin wood burning stove that has warmed us literally and figuratively over the many years. In its place we will put the new TV. The new big TV. The 42″ TV.

I felt a bit overwhelmed at this point. Things were happening at breakneck speed. We now had a console and were off to Sam’s to check out the stock that we should have known by heart at that point. That hour-and-a-half drive produced nothing and we were back to Batesville.

Our vacation time was almost at an end and we feverishly tried to accomplish a lot of things in a very short period of time.

We got back home. Don managed to rid us of the stove in rapid fashion. Great, now we’ve cleared a space and bought the console, what about the TV?

Sunday afternoon we took off once again trying to beat the clock. We went back to the first place we ever looked and in a split second we had bought the next to the largest set they sell.

Ouch, that hurts my feelings and my pocketbook.

By Sunday afternoon we had a TV, a console and a nice open spot to put it all. Everything is clean straight and quiet once more.

This is not the whole story. There is more. Stay tuned for next week and then you can get the whole 42″ flat panel, HD LCD picture.

(Contact Sherry  at sherryhopkins@bellsouth.net)