\tFor a few moments, I felt as if I had lost a child.<\/p>\n
\tI came home from work on Monday to an empty house. I had to stay late for an event at work, so Maria took Bridget with her to the PTO meeting.<\/p>\n
\tI figured I would cook myself a small dinner, plop myself down in front of the television, and relax until they got home.<\/p>\n
\tBut something funny happened when I went into the living room to turn on the TV. The box on top of the TV was flashing some crazy numbers. I had no idea what was happening.<\/p>\n
\tI did what any guy would do in the situation. I unplugged the cable box, then plugged it back in.<\/p>\n
\tNothing changed. The numbers kept appearing. So I pushed a few buttons. Nothing. I unplugged it again and plugged it back in. Still nothing. So I did it again and again and again.<\/p>\n
\tI couldn’t understand why that didn’t work. If you repeatedly unplug and re-plug something, that should fix things. That’s how electronics work, right?<\/p>\n
\tFinally, I broke down and called the cable company. They \u201csent a signal\u201d to the box, but I got zilch. I didn’t know what to do.<\/p>\n
\tAll of a sudden, I panicked because it was almost 8 on a Monday night. The cable box on the fritz was hooked up to the Tivo, which we use to record our favorite shows. I have a DVR in the basement, but that’s usually just for me, and we have managed to restrain ourselves and not put a DVR in the bedroom.<\/p>\n
\tThis escalated to a crisis in no time flat. The show we record at 8 didn’t matter that much, but I really worried about \u201cHow I Met Your Mother\u201d at 8:30.<\/p>\n
\tSure, we have two other TVs in the house, but we have settled into such a nice routine that this malfunction really threw everything for a loop. We watch some shows in the bedroom and some in the living room. Monday is a night to watch the living room TV.<\/p>\n
\tWith Maria not due home until sometime between 8 and 9 and the task of making sure Bridget got to bed ready on time, I had to call an audible.<\/p>\n
\tI managed to set the show to record on the basement TV. I knew that wouldn’t be the first place Maria would want to watch it, but it would have to do.<\/p>\n
\tThey didn’t get home until almost 8:45, which meant I managed to watch most of the show. I followed the rest from the bedroom while Bridget got ready for bed.<\/p>\n
\tWe managed to survive the crisis, and Maria got a new cable box before Thursday, the next day we had shows we needed to record.<\/p>\n
\tAt first, the new box only gave us half the channels we pay for, but one call to the cable company solved that problem.<\/p>\n
\tThat made me feel so good because I thought my family had suffered enough for one week. I said a prayer of thanks when I got to watch the uncut version of the second Austin Powers movie on my couch that night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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