Our first TV was a small, ancient cast-off from Granddad. It was plenty good for watching the occasional video; we were about 1 year newlywed and thrilled.
TV number two came from Pattie. We were friends with her first and then were lucky enough that she wanted to buy the house up the street from us. When they moved in she took a look at our tiny TV (the kind before there was such thing as remotes) and declared they had one TV too many at their house. She gave us her 19" television and it was so great to have a big screen! (By the way, we still have it - and still use it downstairs in the family room.)
We felt so blessed by Granddad and Pattie's contributions, but the next television that entered our home blew us away. At the office, Tyler had some Australian partners that were getting ready for the annual trade show by our house. They decided that it would save them money to buy a television rather than rent one, and would we mind housing it - even turning it on once a day or so to make sure it still worked? They would only need it one week out of every year. Wow. Tyler picked up the TV that they picked out and all the sudden we had a flat screen, 40-some inch television (we could only go so big and still have it fit in our armoire). I still think WOW. They used it 3 or 4 times, the trade show fizzled out, and we still had this great TV - free.
Fast forward to the Sochi Olympics. We don't do cable but we DO do the Olympics - I happen to be a bit fanatical about them. We got cable for the last summer Olympics and it turned into a little bit of a fiasco so this time we thought we would go the digital antanna route. The week the Olympics were to begin Tyler searched in earnest. He spent all breaks from working researching or shopping. He came home one day and spent all evening trying to set up an inside antenna, but it never worked. It went back to the store and another day he came home with an outdoor antenna. The night of the opening ceremonies we planned to have a family party and watch together. I put on the party, Tyler tried to put up the antenna. All evening. Out in the wind and rain. I had down-loaded the NBC Sochi App so we watched little video clips, ate, and got generally amped for the Olympics before tucking the kids into bed. The antenna never worked - the card that read "call, don't return" went back with the antenna. After 45 minutes on the phone waiting for customer service and then getting knocked off the call Tyler didn't want to try again.
Saturday morning we sat down. The Olympics have started, and we need coverage! Tyler called the cable company and learned he just needed to go pick up the equipment and we would be in business that afternoon. It took him 3 hours because of where he needed to drive, and having to wait in a long, long line. But he got the stuff and he was headed home.
In the meantime, the kids and I were having some fun playing MarioKart on the Wii. Drew had a particularly great round and was pumped. He ran up to the television to see the results and punched his fist in the air "OH" - but before the yeah could escape his lips we were dumbfounded to see the controller fly out of his hands and point-blank hit the TV, and then, this is all we saw:
Poor Drew collapsed to the floor and bawled. "I don't want to have to pay for it! I don't want to be grounded!" He was uncosolable, and the television was not to be revived. After the shock wore off, I had to admit the irony of the situation was ridiculous. After Tyler spent about 15 hours this week trying to get us Olympic coverage, he was now 15 minutes away from our house with the right equipment, but we now had no television on which to watch! Tyler came through the door pretty pumped and immediately started unpacking what he brought. When I said, "Tyler, before you open that up..." He immediately thought "uh oh, what did Drew do? I drove the Porsche so it can't be that..." Never did he dream it was the television!
And now we were faced with a decision. I didn't want to run out and buy a television because then what would Drew learn about the situation? Break one TV, run out and buy another one. But Tyler had had enough - he did not spend every spare moment this week getting television coverage to NOT watch. Did we have the money? Yes. Then we were going out to buy a television. We prayed and decided that Drew could give us all of his money, and then do an extra daily job for the next three weeks, but since he could not possibly pay for a new television, that was enough. He had hidden in his bed - he felt awful - and he was OK with what we told him. The girls graciously stepped up to help, making dinner and bathing/tucking kids while we ran out.
Stop 1: Costco, to verify that they don't sell televisions as "small" as we were looking for, and to eat a quick dinner.
Stop 2: Best Buy, where we found two good options for a pretty good price. But do we go plasma and feel a little more secure with a glass pane in front of the television to protect it from future flying objects, or LCD again?
Stop 3: Walmart, where we got a few groceries and decided that we wanted to buy at Best Buy.
Stop 4: Best Buy, more waffling about which one and then we told them we wanted the LCD that was on sale. Great, let me make sure it is in stock. And it wasn't, but they could have it in by next week. At this point Tyler, who had amazing composure through EVERYTHING he had been through this week, said, "Listen. I need to take a television home so that I can watch TV TONIGHT. What can you do for me?" So we bought two TVs - ordering the one we wanted, and walking out with the plasma and a 15 day return guarantee. And by 9:30pm, we were watching the Olympics.
The Olympics were awesome. Not noted on an international level but particularly notable to me was my husband. He persevered through a ridiculous amount of obstacles to get us Olympic coverage. That was a gold medal to me, so thanks a million for buying us our first TVs - both of them.
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