HDTV
12.16.7
When I walked into Wal-Mart the other day, I had initially planned only to buy more clothes hangers. See, Autumn's wardrobe has been inexplicably growing ever since I met her. It's almost as if her clothing has somehow found a way to mate and create little synthetic polyester offspring...kind of like the male dinosaurs in Jurassic Park. We finally realized recently that we didn't even have enough hangers to store all of her clothes.
Autumn told me that she could get some wire hangers from her family, but I refused the offer because they wouldn't match our current white plastic hangers. I opted instead to pick some up from Wal-Mart that would actually match.
After entering the store, I walked around for perhaps 10 minutes trying to find the right section. Where were they? I couldn't see them anywhere. Last time I had been at Wal-Mart, there had been a giant wall of clothes hangers right in the main aisle. I waited for one employee to get off the phone for several minutes hoping to get some assistance. Eventually I tired of waiting, though, and continued my search. As I reached the back of the store, I saw them...
Not the hangers. I didn't care about those anymore. No, it was a series of HDTVs, all displaying the special features menu for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I stopped in my tracks and stared at them. The text was so clear...so beautiful.
What struck me the most about these TVs, however, was the price. It seemed that somehow, without my knowing it, HDTVs had suddenly become affordable.
I spent the next half-hour looking around at all the HDTVs, trying to get a handle on what I should get. Resolution, contrast ratios, size...there were so many options. I finally settled on a 32" Westinghouse LCD flat-panel with 720p resolution.
The act of actually purchasing the damned thing was another story altogether. The fiasco started when the cashier fucked up the process of ringing it up, and unfortunately, couldn't fix it herself. This led to a seemingly endless parade of unapologetic assistant managers who didn't seem to be any more competent than she when it came to register problems. Eventually I became so hungry that I had to run over to the in-store McDonalds for dinner (which led to the disappointing realization that the Filet O' Fish only comes with half a slice of cheese). By the time I finally left the electronics department, they had been working on fixing the problem for an entire hour. As I picked up my TV and began to walk away, the cashier said to me with a smile, "At least you got to get some food while you waited."
On the way out of the store I completely ignored the man asking to see my receipt. I did this partly out of spite, and partly as an experiment...just to see what would happen.
What happened was that he simply followed me out to the car and watched me put the TV in it. He wrote down my license plate number and informed me, "You've got witnesses watching you, bud."
I never did get the clothes hangers that night...
The TV itself is great. About an hour ago I watched a nature show where a praying mantis caught and killed a hummingbird, a mouse, and a snake. I could see every little scale and hair on every little creature. It's pretty amazing technology if you ask me. Of course, it comes at a price. I've had to special order new cords for every peripheral device I own. I also had to trade in my cable box. I chose the version with a DVR so that Autumn and I won't have to miss any episodes of LOST when it returns this February.
That's all beside the point, though.
One thing I will say, however, is this: Looking at the HDTV sitting on my mantle, makes me feel really great about the direction my life took when Kris left. I'll admit that Autumn and I have, on occasion, looked at MySpace "blogs" written by our ex-signifigant-others over the years. It's mostly a morbid curiosity that causes us to look, but we've found that each glimpse into their lives, only serves to make us realize how good we have it. This is a perfect example.
In looking through Kris' past writings, it seemed that the most exiting thing in her life since her son's birth...had been getting cable and internet access. We haven't really heard anything new, though, since those first few excited journal entries about finally being "Comcastic." In fact, her last log-in was way back in May. This leads us only to the conclusion that they can't even afford such basic amenities.
We could be wrong, obviously. It's completely possible that Kris decided suddenly that she actually wasn't excited about MySpace or the internet, and just gave them up. It's always possible...
But I think our assumption is probably a good one.
Anyway...I'm going to get back to watching Lord of the Rings now. I don't even like this fucking movie, but it just looks so good in HD...
