GIVE IT UP

I don’t have cable or satellite, so while I still own a TV, it’s only used for the PS2.

When I was eight years old, our family T.V. blew it’s last vacuum-tube(remember those?). My parents decided to do away with a family T.V. altogether.This arrangement lasted for 4 years.Up till age 8 I was a hard-core Saturday morning cartoon junkie.By age 12 I was reading poetry anthologies by e.e. cummings,Robert Frost and going to imprpromptu experimental theatre sessions and practicing Transcendental Meditation (that last one sounds made-up but my Dad,a devout Catholic,actually took my younger sister and I to classes.)I didn’t gravitate back to network television ’til MTV briefly in 1984 and finally Star Trek NG and DS9 in the 90’s. T.V. is an addiction like anything else you immerse yourself in too deeply.

This is different than TV. I gave up smoking cigarettes in 1976, cold turkey. I never was a pack a day smoker, but a social one; while playing cards or cocktailing. I thought, why spend the money, why start if I haven’t had one all day. I started smoking in 1955 as a teenager.

I too, ride my bike or walk to places in our retirement park. I would rather ride my bike more than anything! AND we have a convertible and you would think I would look for any excuse to drive it ’round town. But know, I have to have a ‘reason’ to take her out.

You are exactly right Jo. We live in a retirement community and it has

lots of crooked streets, etc.. I always see something new in my daily

travel. The birds are soooo special and the butterflies! I have never

seen so many butterflies, but then, we planted penta and they come

in droves. Sammy just loves watching all these little creatures of God.

We think to ourselves “…. wow we LIVE her.”

I just thought of something. When I got divorced, I gave my husband the big screen television that his dad had given us for Christmas. It was as big as the fireplace and had blocked my french doors to the screen porch because it stood out so far from the wall. I hated that thing and was glad to give it up! Now I have a small television on an old oak table and it is hardly noticable, and my fireplace is the focal point again. My sons complain that the tv is so small they can’t see the scores of sporting events, I tell them, “Then turn it off and read a book.”

Thanks for the cheers, Jo!

It’s been a hot and humid summer in South Florida, but I’ve stuck with the bike riding. Every now and then if I’m dog-sitting, people let me have their car while they are gone. It helps me go walk the dog/dogs during my lunch break, or I wouldn’t make it during my break. After a few days, I start feeling bad about not biking. I sit behind a desk from nine to four-thirty every day, so getting the exercise and fresh air is important to me.

I, too, love the experiences I have while biking: the smells (love to smell the earth after a rain shower), the duck and their ducklings by the lakes etc. Every day I say good morning to the guy selling newspapers on the street corner, who helps guide me across the street. I bike by my neighbor’s houses and see if they’ve painted, done some new landscaping etc. I meet people on bikes or walking and stop to say hello to friendly dogs on my way.

Besides saving money on car payments, insurance and gas, I also save on shopping. You’re less likely to go nuts in the grocery store when you have to haul things home on the bike – you end up just getting what you need and nothing else. I look at ads for stores that come with the newspaper, and know the stores are too far away for biking or from my bus route, and I just throw out the ad and forget about it – I’m not tempted, as I would be if I had a car, to go shop for things I don’t need anyway.

And if I do need things, I have friends who’ll take me. (20 lbs of cat litter is not fun to balance on the back of a bike!).

Ever since this topic was posted, I’ve been trying to think of something that I gave up and I couldn’t really think of anything. Thought maybe I was some self-satisfying, selfish individual who got anything she wanted. But then I read Helen’s post, and remembered, hey, I gave up cigarettes,too. I started smoking in College, had two roommates who smoked, and it was kinda self-defense! But I was up to two packs a day when I had a very boring job with not much to do (this was back when you were allowed to smoke anywhere!) My ex-husband and I went on a trip to visit his brother and sister-in-law in Arkansas. I didn’t like smoking in the car, and we weren’t allowed to smoke in the brother’s household, so I just didn’t smoke for the time we were there, or on the trip back. When we got home, I pulled out a cigarette and lit up. My ex said “you haven’t smoked for over a week now, do you really want to do that?” I looked at the cigarette, then handed it to him. (He smoked the same brand.) That’s the last cigarette I ever smoked, and I’m so glad, especially at the price of cigarettes now. I couldn’t imagine being unemployed as I am now and going out and paying $30 for a carton of cigarettes!!! Thank you, Lord, for letting me quit way back then!!! (1977).

M&M’s Mom, good for you. Do you still have the urge to smoke once in a while?

If we are out somewhere and someone lights up outside, the waft of the smoke still smells sooooo good but I won’t have one!

I haven’t given it up completely, but I’ve cut way back on using the microwave oven. And nothing plastic ever goes in it. I’ve felt for years that microwave ovens are one of the leading causes of impatience in our society. We can nuke a bowl of soup in a minute of two – why should everything else we want to do take any longer?? And the more I hear about the health hazards of microwaves, the less I use mine.

I own a tv, but get no reception, so only use it to watch an occasional movie (I’ve had Forest Gump from Netflix sitting around for at least 6 months, and the movie before that for eight months!). I very briefly had Dish satellite for about 9 months, and unfortunately, it was then that 9-11 happened. I did record several hours of the NASA station, and would pop it in and watch it while reading. My neighbor’s trees got too tall and interrupted the signal and the people at Dish told me to go cut the trees down! I just told them to cut it off. The next morning I thought about turning it on two times, then remembered it wasn’t there anymore. It was mostly background noise, anyway.

I gave up a well paid job as Head of Faculty in a large state comprehensive school for a (then) part time job, much less well-paid, in a tiny independent school. Best thing I ever did. I still earn less than I did 7 years ago, am now full time, and actually work harder and longer hours, but it’s soooooo much nicer. Would you believe the Head actually says “Thank you” quite often, and if she makes a mistake she not only admits it, she apologises!!!