Getting my Money’s Worth Out of my TV

At the end of my day, I retreat into my living room and turn on my TV to relax. I pay for over 400 channels and feel I should get my money’s worth, but I have a hard time finding something I like to watch that keeps me entertained.

I watch local news and avoid the national news. I do it because I need to bring down my blood pressure and not elevate it. Adulting has bombarded me all day long with its heaviness and I need to relax and feed my brain with positive thoughts.

I watch game shows, rerun comedies, and old movie favorites. I find I go through cycles. I’ll watch the same game shows for months and then when I tire of that I switch to reruns. If I am in the mood for a movie, I’ll do a search and choose one that might sound interesting. If none sounds good, I go to my DVR’d list and watch one that I’ve seen multiple times.

I’ll let you into some of my TV watching secrets. I’ll tape Jeopardy and then go back and watch the episode, answering the questions before the participants. I pretend to be this amazing genius.  The best part of Family Feud is the last five minutes, so I time my finger on the remote so I can go back to the show and only watch that part. In my imagination, I’m standing next to Steve Harvey and I have only twenty seconds to win the $20,000. I’ve watched my favorite movies on mute because I know the dialogue so well; I can recite it verbatim. I also watch political debates and sports games on mute. Who needs that aggravation? I can assess what I see without commentary. Remember, I’m trying to relax.

I figure I pay for the TV service, the 400 channels, so I maneuver my way around that matrix however I see fit. It’s no different than how I treat any other media. I own it; it does not own me. Someday I’ll share with you what I do with the daily newspaper. Yes, I am one of the few who still gets a daily paper delivered to my house, and I find ways to get my money’s worth out of that too.