REMISSION

Of course after making a big deal about how I always get the title of the blog first, I didn't get the title of this blog first.   But I almost wrote it this morning, which was when this happened.   And maybe it won't come off sounding like such a big deal. . . but it was a Big Deal.  Trust me on this.


So I was awakened several times last night with the sound of the gale force winds outside my door.   Wind whipping off my old buddy,  Gulf of Mexico, was having a hay day with the palm trees outside my window.   Even though it was not a hurricane, when I peeked out the blinds to see what was going on, it looked like every TV film clip you've ever seen of hurricane footage. . . palms waving and bending in the wind.   Very cool.   Because I knew it wasn't a hurricane.


When I awoke for good this morning, the wind was still howling.  And it seemed like I should be looking out at gray, overcast skies accompanying the wind.  If this was Virginia, there would be rain too no doubt.  But there was nothing but clear skies and bright sunshine!  Very strange.   So I turned on the IPhone and clicked my weather app, which showed me that it was 50 degrees outside, going up to 58.  But it showed me nothing about this wind.  Was it going to last all day?  Would I be driving in it?   How hard would it be blowing?


Here's where it got amazing. . . for me.    I was momentarily completely stumped by how to find out what my driving conditions would be.  I HONESTLY couldn't think of how I could find this information.     And in longer than I care to admit,  I finally realized that there was this big black box sitting on the dresser with a remote control.  And that if I turned it on,  I could probably find out what I wanted to know pretty quickly.  I had FORGOTTEN the television!


There was a time, not so long ago, when the TV in that motel room would have been turned on the minute I got in the door.   Heck, I used to divide the 8 hour trip to see my mom into two 4 hour segments that involved a night in a motel and 12 hours of HGTV since I could not get that channel at home.    I used to wrench my retired self out of bed at 6:55 every morning so that I would not miss one second of Good Morning America.   Oh man I would have liked to sleep later.    My days out of the house would be determined by when Oprah came on.  And once Oprah was on, the set pretty much stayed on for the rest of the evening until I went to bed.   I was a TV addict!


In the first 4 years that I went to Chautauqua for a week or two at a time, one of the things I liked about it was that I never saw television.  I was so busy with other things that I never thought about it.  But it didn't take long after returning home for the old habits to start.  And sitting in front of the TV was only the beginning of the problem.   My living room was dangerously close to the kitchen.  So TV watching became finding snacks during the commercials.  Or pouring that glass of wine. .  and didn't that taste good?. . .maybe just another tiny glass!   No wonder I couldn't lose weight in spite of my workouts.


This past summer was my first time at Chautauqua for the whole season.  My landlady asked me if I wanted a TV and I told her no.   I was used to being TV-free in Chautauqua.  So 9 1/2 weeks later I returned to Virgina to live in Jean's house.   I'm asked if I want a TV in my room.  "Of course not."   I was out of the habit.    And I have stayed out of the habit.   I tolerate the silence of no TV really well now.  I don't need something to fill the quiet of living alone.  And if I do,  I have my wonderful Pandora stations on my IPhone.   When I am around TV now, in someone else's house, I first notice how LOUD it is.   And how mundane everything I see is.   I still love CBS Sunday Morning, but it's getting so that you can stream most shows on your computer. . . without commercials!


So I don't know what's going on the in the world most of the time.  But for some reason I don't feel I'm missing anything.   I'm just out of the habit.  And this morning I realized that I had been in the hotel room for 48 hours and had forgotten that I had a TV!   I did turn it on to see the driving weather report.  But then I had to turn it right back off because it was so offensively loud.  It was intruding into my personal space!


As we speak the wiring is being put into the Crappy Little House.   And there will be TV hook ups in the living room and (believe it or not) the master bath room.  Because when I first started planning this house I could not believe anything more wonderful than sitting in my new bathtub and watching HGTV.  Actually that still sounds pretty nice.  But it's entirely possible that the TV will never be installed.   Don't know.   Not sure I'm cured.   Maybe just in remission?  (There's that elusive title!!!)