(Sunday Paper, Year V, Issue 9)

A few weeks ago I told you that we had finally made the decision to cut cable.

We went with YouTube TV as our main channel source - you can read about the decision itself at this link.

And last week, sick as I was, I spent an awful lot of time just watching TV…

So I thought it would be a good time to fill you in on how it’s going.

Here’s the dirty little secret about our TV-viewing habits:

We don’t watch a lot of TV. Especially lately.

Kathy and I used to make time to watch at least one TV show together - for many years when we were first married it was How I Met Your Mother, and in more recent years it was Modern Family.

Due to various busy things in our lives we haven’t watched Modern Family in a while. (I can’t speak for her, but I don’t really miss it.)

If I had to boil our TV-watching habits down to a quick laundry list it would be this:

The girls will watch Nick or Disney Channel once in a while. (They’re not big TV watchers.) Kathy doesn’t have a show she’ll watch outside of Netflix stuff. I need regular channels to watch NFL football, March Madness NCAA Basketball, and the occasional game on ESPN or MLB or NFL Networks. That’s really and truly it. (I watch Mets games on the MLB app and we’ve been watching shows on Netflix or Disney+ lately.)

So, cutting the cord was not a big deal - and I’ve actually wondered if we even need to bother with YouTubeTV for part of the year - like maybe it would be beneficial to unsubscribe and then re-subscribe at certain points of the year.

Which brings me to this past week - because this is one of the times of the year we would need the channels. I need my March Madness.

BUT - and I might need your help here - I don’t know how to change the channels on YouTubeTV. I need to go back to the guide every time I want to find something else to watch,

And I can see this being a problem when I want to switch from CBS to TNT to TruTV (Oh, I bet I don’t have TruTV) during the college basketball games.

So time is running short for me to figure that out.

Other than that, it’s really been a smooth transition to a cable-free life.

The biggest drawback continues to be the fact that without the time display on the cable box I have no idea what time it is when I’m sitting on the couch.

Writing

*It was a good week back to work after the vacation and sickness of last week. Looking forward to a busy March…or at least until the basketball games and baseball season start.

Also, at the beginning of the year I told you I was doing some submitting…and those rejections are starting to roll in. (Well, responses, should say. It just so happens they’ve all been rejections so far.) In the interest of accountability, though, I’ll tell you that one of those was a writing contest, and a few days after learning I was rejected, I got an e-mail that told me I had advanced to the second of three rounds. Which on the one hand is better than nothing…but on the other hand, I’d almost rather not know.

Comedy

*Not a lot to report in the comedy department other than we’re another week closer to the March Comedy Night in the Brewery at Exhibit ‘A’. Tickets are still available here.

What I’ve Been Enjoying

*Since we’re talking about YouTubeTV I should tell you what I enjoyed on YouTubeTV, which is college basketball. Watched a lot of college basketball while I was sick, and if I’m ever going to watch a lot of college basketball, this is the time of year to do it. At first, I was shocked to learn how highly ranked Dayton was…and now I, of course, am ready to pick Dayton to win the Tournament. That’s just how it goes this time of year.

Thoughts On Dog Ownership

*Each week that goes by feels like a week of progress with Tate. Lately she’s been much more well-behaved around other people. She always loves other people but she gets a little jumpy around them and sometimes pees a little. And as someone who has always been a little nervous around someone else’s dog getting jumpy around me, I’m a little over-conscious of when Tate does it because I know she means well and I want the other person to see that too. And she’s been doing that a little bit less and it’s nice to see. The pee is less too.

Notes

*Let’s just jump straight to these plugs: You can follow me on Twitter here, you can like the Facebook page here.

*Can you believe it’s March 1? We did it. January and February are not my favorite months. But we made it.

*Took the girls to Dave and Buster’s on Saturday. (Postponed a week because it was supposed to happen before everyone, well…I…. got sick last week.) It was a fun hang-out while the girls played some games. We’ll do it again.

*One…week….closer….to….March Madness and baseball season. Can’t wait.