11/21/2009 What’s Wrong With This Picture?

Actually, there was nothing wrong with the picture, it was the SOUND that was annoying as all get out. Thoroughly confused aren’t you? I thought so, so I’ll explain.

It started this morning. This grating, scratchy sound coming from the TV in the bedroom.

I turned the set off. I turned it back on. Grating, scratchy sound still there. Loud enough that I couldn’t hear the voices on the show I was watching. It happened all of a sudden. It was fine one minute and horrible the next. Oh great, I HAVE TO HAVE a TV in the bedroom. I have a terrible time going to sleep without the TV on. The drone of the voices lull me to sleep. I HAVE TO HAVE my TV. I shut it off for awhile and put it out of my mind.

A while later I tried it again hoping that the TV repair fairies had come in when I wasn’t looking and banished the grating, scratchy sound from the set. No such luck. I called Bob in to have him hear it. He turned the set off. He turned it back on. Grating, scratchy sound still there. This is NOT good!

Granted, its an older TV but it was working fine and I’m not ready for it to die yet.

A few minutes later I hear from the living room….”Hey Snookie, I saw on the computer that some stores are starting their Black Friday sales today, wanna go look at TV’s? My heart soared! Wow, he knows I can’t go to sleep without the TV on. He’s concerned about my well being and my happiness. What a sweetheart he is, this guy I’m married to, what a guy! Then….. I heard, “We can take the TV from the living room and put it in the bedroom and get a new flat screen for out here.” What? WHAT??? That sweetheart part you just read….scratch that. Now let me explain something here. Bob and I rarely watch TV together. Rarely. Practically never. Once in a blue moon. Maybe the third Tuesday of the month and only then if its raining. Got the picture? We just don’t like the same TV programs and that’s ok. I don’t recall our wedding vows saying anything about spending time together in front of the boob tube with me agreeing to watch pro wrestling and bad westerns, nor did he agree to endure endless reruns of MASH and decorating on a dime type shows. Hence, his and her TV’s.

So he measures the space we have for a TV by width and height and since we’re going flat screen the depth just didn’t come into play.

First stop, Best Buy. (Hey, I had the camera with me, what can I say?)

Their special was a 32 inch Dynex brand TV for $299.00. Hmmm, Dynex. Ya know, somehow when we’re putting this much money out we want to go with a brand name like…..Zenith, RCA, Sony, Toshiba, Sanyo,,,,one we know! Come to find out that is Best Buy’s in store brand but it was still one we weren’t familiar with. On to Walmart to see what they had. They had 26 inch Vizio (???) on sale for $297.00 but they were out of stock anyway. Now Best Buy also had a 26 inch screen and it was a Toshiba for $50.00 more but we KNOW Toshiba, our computers are Toshiba and we’re very happy with them. So that’s what we got for the LIVING ROOM.

The instruction booklet tome was written for Rhodes Scholars, members of Mensa and nine year old electronic whiz kids. Trust me, I heard more than once,,,,,”What happened to the days when you brought a TV home, took it out of box, plugged it in and sat back with a beer to watch a ball game all within a half hour?”

As the grumbling got louder I called our friend Lyell, he has the same TV. He came over and answered a question or two for us we were good to go. The remote isn’t programmed yet but that’s another day’s headache.

So Bob set up the OLD TV …..

in the bedroom. Got the satellite wires hooked up, plugged it in, turned it on and the picture was great! The sound however was grating and scratchy!!!!! Bob looked at me, I looked at him, we looked at the TV and back at each other. I then, ever so slowly, pushed the re-set button on the satellite dish receiver. It went through the motions and the picture came back just as good as ever and the sound,…….was clear as bell.

The End. (this is best for all concerned)