Saturday, January 11, 2020

Curmudgeonly HM Throws Off Her Shawl, Chucks Her Cane Across The Lair, And Shakes Her Fist At Progress

Rain has dared to sluice down over the Mansion off and on for the past two days. OFF when I'm upstairs washing dishes or haranguing Farmer H, ON when I've just plopped my ample rumpus in front of New Delly with lunch or supper, for some quality time with my innernets.

Of course I have a backup plan for such emergencies. My lair, and shelves in Outer Basementwood, are rife with DVDs. AND, my dear sweet Genius (not to be confused with that celebrity chef guy who looks like an alien feline, Ron Ben-Israel, and his now-canceled show that he pronounced as "Swit Jinyus"), gave me a wonderful Christmas gift. It was a DVD collection of all seasons of Shameless, except the current and last Season 10. I've been hooked on this show for...well...10 years!


I'm sure that ordering this gift for me felt very wrong for Genius. Like he had taken a job mounting wheels on Conestoga Wagons, rather than programming a driverless car. But he knows I love Shameless, and he knows I watch my programs old-style. Either when they're on, later on DVR, or on DVD. I don't have a service where I can stream them for binge-watching. My internet speed will not support that anyway.

So...when New Delly's screen locked up with the spinning circle thingy, I figured, "Now would be a good time to go get my Shameless out of the DVD player, and watch an episode with supper." Because, you see, I have no desire to balance my supper on my just-as-ample gut, while reclined in my OPC (Old People Chair) in the other room. I'm accustomed to having meals at my left elbow, beside New Delly's keyboard, while I sit upright in my broken-armed rolly chair.

Imagine my chagrin when I made the effort to bring Shameless to my lair, and discovered that it didn't work! Only took me about 30 seconds to deduce the problem:


New Delly is not colorblind. New Delly is a disc-ist! Refuses to play Blu-ray! Of course Genius thought he was getting me the very best DVDs for my collection. How quickly he forgot that we made this mistake once before, choosing a movie we all liked, but which I was unable to watch the extras on New Delly as desired.

Still, it's the thought that counts. I will definitely watch my Shamelesses on the big screen from my OPC (Old People Chair). I just won't do it during meal times.

Don't you worry about stone-age Mrs. HM. She ate her supper by the light of a Seinfeld DVD. The Bubble Boy episode.

5 comments:

Sioux Roslawski said...

Wasn't that the episode where Kramer burned down Susan's family's cabin? Or am I mixing it up with another one?

River said...

I have a laptop, so I just push it back a bit and have my dinner plate in front. Sometimes I will even turn it off and push it all the way back so I can put my book there instead. I never eat dinner in my TV chair, too many spills can happen, plus Lola is usually on the chair with me. I bought two chairs, one for me and one for her, but she insists on sitting with me in mine, even if I change chairs.
I made the mistake of buying a couple of Blu-Ray movies from a cash converters shop last year, forgetting that regular dvd players don't play BluRay, luckily they took them back and let me choose the equivalent cost in regular dvds. In case you don't know of them, Cash Converters here is like pawn shops, and I know several good ones where the used dvds are cheap and in good condition. I also know of one where the dvds are sometimes good, sometimes not, but the cases are always filthy and sometimes sticky. I don't go to that one anymore.

Hillbilly Mom said...

Sioux,
Yes, at the end. In the next episode, George and Susan have dinner with her parents, and have to break that news. Then later, the CHEEVER LETTERS are found in a metal box in the cabin's ashes, and Susan's dad reveals that he had a passionate affair with John Cheever.

***
River,
My lair desk is two countertops mounted in the corner, so I don't have a space in front of my keyboard, because I sit at the V. It doesn't surprise me that Lola prefers YOU to her own chair.

Farmer H says DVDs sell for NOTHING. He says he's lucky to get 50 cents for them, even in the pristine shape that my unwanted ones are in. He says he's more likely to sell a whole box of them for a couple dollars. Not really worth dealing with. HOWEVER, when I was teaching, some kids said that's all they watched at home, DVD movies. They didn't have cable or satellite, and now it's hard to get reception with the old antennas. They'd get them at flea markets or pawn shops.

River said...

Yep. I paid $1 or $2 for most of mine and they were in excellent condition, because people buy them, watch them once and then sell them to the pawn shops. They're not collectors like me who likes to watch favourite movies over and over.

Hillbilly Mom said...

River,
I like to watch mine over and over, too! And quote the dialogue along with the actors. Not with people around, though. That would just be annoying.