February 17, 2010
Dear Everyone:
“Jeannie’s” TV was dying.
You could tell just by looking at it.
The tiny crystals were losing whatever it is that the crystals
have to make them light up.
(Liquid Crystal Display = LCD TV = crystals that light up and change
color when electronic charges pass through them.)
There was a horizontal line beginning on the right side, making
its way across the screen, branching out as it went.
This line became darkish, sometimes red-ish, as it progressed.
“Jeannie” said it made it look like the people had black eyes.
We both bought the LCD TVs at the same time, in 2005.
If her TV was dying, could mine be far behind?
(Evidently, “Jeannie” watches her living room TV a lot more than
I do mine. The dark lines
were just beginning on my TV.)
So last Saturday, we went to the Big, Blue Electronics Warehouse Store
to look at TVs. The first
thing we noticed: All the
TVs are LCD now. No more
Cathode Ray Tubes (CRT).
Anywhere. The second thing
we noticed: All of the TVs
are
big.
The only “small” screens turned out to be portable
DVD players.
A salesman asked if we had any questions.
Foolish man.
“Jeannie” bombarded him with questions.
“Why is this make and model so much more expensive than that make
and model?” The salesman,
we’ll call him “Patrick”, went off to print out specifications for both.
By the time he returned, “Jeannie” had picked another two
machines to ask about.
Finally, she asked the penultimate “Jeannie” question:
“What’s the top-of-the-line around here?”
“Patrick” pointed to the end where the
LED TVs were.
So while “Patrick” was retrieving yet another set of
specifications, we went to look at the LED TVs.
(LED TVs are actually LCD TVs that use LED as a light source.)
There was a 40-inch TV on a stand, priced at $2000, but marked
down to $1199.99. Some woman
came up to look at it with us and reported that she had bought a “little
36-inch” LED TV for her “breakfast nook” and loved it so much she was
thinking about getting another one.
By this time, “Patrick” was needed elsewhere in the store, so he passed
us on to “Brian” who looked in the computer and discovered that the
store actually had two of the 40-inch LED TVs in stock if we wanted to
buy them right now.
“Jeannie” called one of her
court reporter friends to see if we could
borrow her truck to transport the two TVs.
Otherwise we would have to arrange for delivery and even though
delivery was “free”, provided the TV cost more than $1000, it would
involve the hassle of setting up delivery times and being home to
receive and all that. The
court reporter friend said yes, we could borrow her truck.
By now I had put over $3100 on my credit card.
Not only the TVs (plus $25.00 each for recycling), but the best
way to protect an LCD TV is with a really good
surge protector
($129.99), so we had to get two of those.
And special cables for
HD ($69.99), even though neither of us was
using an HD cable box at the time.
I left “Jeannie” at the store while I drove to the friend’s house
to get the truck, which turned out to be a
Lincoln Navigator
SUV.
I did have the presence of mind to take the
Disabled Parking
Permit, my little folding hand truck, and the remote control to the gate
at my community with me before leaving my car at the friend’s place.
Back at the store, a nice man loaded both
big
boxes into the back of the Navigator.
Then “Jeannie” and I drove to my place.
“Jeannie” was in the back seat and, being concerned about the
boxes bumping against each other every time there was a bump in the
road, squeezed whatever she could find, including my purse, between the
boxes.
As we were leaving the store, I made a mental note to pull the boxes
back towards the last seat before opening the back door.
But by the time I had wrestled my way out of the Navigator,
“Jeannie” was already tugging at the back door.
Both boxes came cascading out of the back of the Navigator,
although only one actually landed on the pavement.
We manhandled one box into my living room, pulled everything out of the
box and discovered that we were expected to assemble the stand.
This was a challenge, but one we were up to; we even had extra
pieces left over at the end.
Once everything was connected, I turned the TV on.
At first it wanted to go through some kind of automatic channel
detection, but I interrupted that since the TV is only tuned to one
channel. Everything else
comes through the cable box.
I tuned the TV to Channel 3 and instantly received a threat that the end
of the world is coming.
This told me that I had left the cable box tuned to
CNN as I had seen
this commercial before.
“Jeannie” wasn’t so sure.
Once we knew that the TV worked, it was time to take the other one up to
“Jeannie’s” place. Again, we
used the little folding hand truck to get the big box into “Jeannie’s”
living room. We left it at
that as it was getting quite late in the day.
I drove the Navigator back to the friend’s house, but when I rang the
doorbell, the only response was the dog barking.
I called “Jeannie” with my
cell phone and she suggested that, it
being Saturday night, they were probably at church.
I told her I would keep the car key with me and return it to them
the next day on my way back up to “Jeannie’s” place.
Sunday morning, I drove up to
Concord, stopping at the friend’s place.
No one home. I
continued up to “Jeannie’s” where we put the second TV together and set
it up. “Jeannie” told me
that her friend had a second key to the Navigator and was able to put it
into the garage Saturday night.
She also told me that I could leave the key under the door mat on
their front porch.
As for the new TVs? The
quality of the picture, compared to everything I’ve ever seen to date,
is astonishing. And even
though it’s 40 inches, it doesn’t seem too big, although it makes the
27-inch LCD TV that it replaced look like a toy.
“Jeannie” called me last night to say that she had gone to the
cable company and traded the cable box in for an HD cable box.
It turns out getting HD only costs an additional $7.00 per month.
Next weekend I’ll go up to her place and see how much of a
difference it makes. After
all, I already have the cable for it.
Love, as always,
Pete
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