Comcast and Time Warner Cable Flirting; Bob Costas, Maybe Not!

Yikes! It's Valentine's Day and the news is infiltrated with those who are flirting and those who (probably) are not. Some are even wanting to move beyond flirting into take-overs, if you know what I mean?

Unfortunately, I can identify with poor Mr. Costas. Even those who are just barely following the Olympics on TV know by now that he is suffering from a double case of Pink Eye aka conjunctivitis that has knocked him off the air. The Olympics only come around every four years, and for most sportscasters this is likely a periodic highlight. But for Bob C., who is widely believed to be the heir apparent to the great sportscaster and long-time King of the Olympic sportscasting the late Jim McKay, having to take sick days now must make him feel, well, really sick. But if you saw his final attempt to be on TV despite his Pink Eye you know it was dangerously close to moving from the sports to horror genre. Yikes.

I can identify with Bob C. because I too was once an adult victim of Pink Eye at an important time, although it wasn't telecast. To this day I don't know where I picked up the highly contagious disorder. I do know that it was miserable and I was indignant because I thought it was only something contracted by kids. Wrong! Plus, I was about to embark on our annual family vacation a time almost on par with the Olympics for my family and me! Like Bob C., I was going to marshal on. My wife and kids were young and in the pool and it was my duty to be there and throw them up into the air; an essential vacation, but non-Olympic family sport.

I discerned that any bacteria would be snuffed out by the chlorine in the pool water. So against the better judgment of my wife I fulfilled my duties. I even kind of enjoyed it, even though I couldn't really see it very well. Then, as predicted by my wife, I had to literally layout for the next few days of our vacation. So probably like Bob C. my condition got worse and I ended up laying in a dark hotel room only wondering what was going on in the pool or on the slopes/ice in his case. So I wasn't and Bob C. probably isn't flirting with anything or anyone, except perhaps with a snow-covered mountain of anger. Get well soon Bob.

Now, Bob Costas is often on TV and Comcast flirting with taking over Time Warner Cable is also about TV. That's correct. This is the only link I have to the second half of my post, sad. But right now this is a less personal issue for me than Pink Eye because we have OTA TV aka Over the Air TV. That's correct; we have rabbit ears on top of our TV. But they're fancy, amplified rabbit ears. An amplifier is necessary because someone somewhere decided we needed digital TV and it is more difficult for us to pull-in than the old signal. And, of course we had to get a digital converter box. So we are receiving what is now known as "Free TV," although we certainly pay for it by undergoing the barrage of commercials and having to help pay for them too every time we by a TV advertised product.

But for now we think this is a good trade off because we don't watch a lot of TV, it provides a lot of what we would like to see and, finally, we don't have a monthly bill. However I fear some day OTA might not be available for "free." Already it's not available for people who live in isolated areas who don't have giant, roof-top antenna etc.(actually I don't think it ever was). But I want end here on a positive note, a public service if you will. Because some lonesome, isolated, poor people would have no TV reception at all if not for cable or dish, the government has stepped up to address this important matter with Basic Service.

Years ago I stumbled across, I think, a little known fact. At that time at least, if your neighbors had cable access and you couldn't receive a TV signal without cable in your area, the government required the cable company to offer you a special deal: Basic Service. So even now perhaps, if you're in this situation you might be able to get cable with about 10 channels or so at a cut rate. At one time it was only $9.99 a month, but then it went up to $19.99. If I had more time, I would research this and let you know the current status of this government mandated service. But given my restraints, if you know what I mean, I can only suggest that since it seems all cost have gone up, this one may have also; and one would have to do a lot of web searching or phoning to see if it is available at your house.

I was afraid my blog might be a little superficial and not all that helpful. But now I feel like I may have just helped the other poor among us, a little. GTG flirt with my OTA TV, bye.