I swear I am not materialistic.  Really.   After losing practically everything I own that didn’t fit in the trunk of a Chrysler Concorde, I think I can speak with some moral authority on that subject.  Truth be told, aside from a brief pang now and then over the books (ouch, there it goes, the pang) and my grandmother’s hope chest, I miss almost none of it.  I miss the sense of personal space, of tangible history, but that is a deep subject for another post.

This is not a deep post, unless you want to see it a brief exploration of my shallower nature.

I am rather ashamed to say that I am capable of developing fond feelings for certain electronic devices.  And having read many blog entries testifying to the passionate feelings of women for their TIVOs, I was a teensy bit relieved to find I was not alone in this capacity.  I didn’t have a TIVO before Katrina.  And now, all I can say is “Oh, my god, why didn’t I meet you sooner?”  For the first time in, well, in probably my entire adult life, I am able to watch an entire television show from beginning to end, on my own time.  Okay, this probably isn’t necessarily the greatest thing to happen to my character, but in the years pre-TIVO I was usually gone at the first or second commercial break.  I simply cannot sit still through a commercial.  I won’t watch them, and I can think of a thousand things I could do during a commercial break that invariably take far more than the elapsed three minute interlude.

Now that I can fast-forward through them, stop, start and rewind?  Now that I can program an entire season of episodes without changing a single tape, or taking eighty thousand steps to do it?  AND automatically not record the reruns?  Even better – that I can save all this up for an afternoon when I am sick or otherwise mindlessly confined to the house? I am in brain-cell-sucking heaven.  So, when Jodi asks whats on our TIVO Season Passes?  Can’t resist.  Just can’t.

For Harry:

Backyardigans (Yep, Jodi, I TIVO for my kid, too)

For Kris:

American Yankee Workshop

The Woodwrights Shop

Jericho

For Me:

Law and Order: Criminal Intent

CSI – NY (because the accents make me homesick)

Without a Trace

For Both of Us:

Heroes

The Dresden Files

Cold Case

Criminal Minds

House

Eureka

Monk

Psych

We also add season passes for my favorite Brit Mysteries (Wire in the Blood, Waking the Dead, etc.) when they roll around on BBC America. 

I would love to admit something far more educational is on my regular viewing list, but, in all honesty, I have gotten to the point where I have abandoned any pretense that my TV viewing is more than an occasional indulgence of mindless escapism.  Contrary to the sheer numbers of the above, I actually watch very little TV.  Usually only when I am a captive audience on the stationary bike every night – in fact, I wanted to move the bike upstairs, but my husband protested because then we would NEVER watch TV together.

He says it like it’s a bad thing.

And I am guilty to admit, that it just might be.