The Old Room Configuration |
This television was my
retirement gift from my wife when I left the military. It was one of the coolest moments in my life
when I walked into a Circuit
City (it was a while ago)
and proudly told the sales dude – “Show me your biggest TV.” I bought that television and have been really
happy with it but it is a huge, boxy space eater that my wife has not always appreciated
–ascetically speaking.
My son and wife got together
to buy me an even bigger flat screen television for Christmas that is going to be
mounted on the wall above the fireplace.
Yesterday saw the first step in that transition with the cable company
coming to move the cable connection across the room.
The guy showed up on time
but I immediately sensed issues when he told me the best thing to do would be
to get an electrician to trace the wires and then have someone come in to do
the installation. I got the impression he
was behind in his schedule and was hoping to escape my house early. His apparent bad luck ran true when he ran
into me. I tersely explained over Buddy’s
paroxysm of rage at being caged and unable to sniff or at least taste this
intruder that I had clearly explained the requirement when I set up the
appointment.
I showed him where the new
TV would be and suggested he drill down through to the garage and wire into the
panel from there. He said he didn’t
think he had the correct tools and asked to see what kind of drill bits I had
(my confidence continued its nose dive).
He got through the floor and then came back up from the garage with one
of my wife’s plant holders with a cute little angel on top. He said I should extend this through the hole
and tap so he would know where to drill up from the garage. We did this and
when he tried to get the wire through he failed miserably. I was getting frustrated and his office was
calling him every five minutes to find out why he was so far behind.
Sensing that he was about to
give up I told him to give me the plant holder and wait in the garage. I went upstairs and jammed the thing down as
hard as I could which poked through the garage roof. His garage ceiling hole
was off by about six inches but at least we now knew that. He then spent about five minutes trying to
wrap the wife around the plant holder stem which fell off every time he tried
to push it through the hole. I suggested
duct tape (which solves all problems) and with that I was able to get the wire
up into the family room.
He finished his work and
when I pointed out the TV was still on the other side of the room he looked
like I crushed his spirit. I told him to
show me how to make the connections and I would do it myself. It turned out to be pretty easy and I was
semi-amazed when I turned everything back on that it all worked.
I went upstairs to get ready
for work and found Panamanians scattering from my room. Apparently they had all been hanging out in
there with my wife while the installation was going on.
I returned home after work
to an eerily quiet house. My wife and
her posse had left to do some shopping (shocking!). They were delayed a little bit by a dog from
way down the street who came to visit Buddy.
This other dog belonged to one of the party guests from the weekend and
when he escaped from his house made a bee line for our house. I’m guessing he smelled Buddy on his owner
and wanted to check out this other dog.
My wife said it was almost comical because Buddy was standing on his
back legs on one side of the door while the other dog did other same on the
other – looking at each other through the window. Buddy was barking as if the world was about
to end which made the Panamanians all nervous. The neighbor showed up looking
for her dog and the crisis was averted.
I used the quiet time to
finish re-arranging the family room.
Buddy helped by vomiting twice, probably still coming down from his
adrenalin surge. It was kind of jarring
to see the room changed so drastically; like I said – I spend a lot of time in
that room. The next step will be the installation
of the new TV next week – color me psyched!
I won’t talk about the
college football championship game last night out of respect for many of my
friends who are big Notre Dame fans. It
was certainly men against boys.
The Critical Tool Used for Cable Installation |
Also Useful for Dragging Wire Up |
The New Temporary Configuration - Awaiting New TV |
Looks really good, Dad! Excited for movies there in the future!
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