Just When I'd Almost Kicked the Habit......

I'd almost kicked the TV habit.  But not quite.

Yesterday I found myself idling in my backyard, sitting in my car, staring at the cable box.

Previously, I'd made this antenna.  Sure, you're supposed to use copper wire, but I had coat hangers.  I lacked a split end connector however.  I don't know technical part terms.  I mean the type of connector where two flat covered wires extend out and have prongs to fit under those two center screws, and the opposite end has a female or male connection to the cable that connects to the TV then.

Copper wire is nice if you can afford it.   Or re-steal it from the backyard of a busted meth head. Nice fluid metal.  I'd like to be more like copper, let things flow through me and be gone, instead of harboring them.  You can white trash test conductivity of whatever you use by putting one end of whatcha got into boiling water while holding the other end.  See how fast you burn your fingers.


Atop my roof, from previous renter addictions, sit both an old old rusted out swaying moss covered antenna and a dish antenna.

I opened the cable box and tried to figure out what might be what.  I could see where the dish antenna wires hooked in.  I could see another cable came in, while three went out.  'That,' I thought, 'must be comcast connections."   So I figured inside the house would be three outlets with former comcast cables, one for the Dish antenna and the 5th would be for that roof top antenna.

I checked the rooftop antenna out with binoculars and could see that the cables attached to both the UHF and VHF parts of the antenna, were deteriorated to quite an extent.  They then disappeared into the attic.

Inside, I tried all the cable outlets.  I knew that two were former comcast.  Others were tucked into the wall.  I pulled out the only one left to try.  I had an old 15 foot cable, with female connections on both ends.  I found a splitter, and after screwing one end to the TV back, I screwed the other into one of the two male prongs on the splitter and the single prong on the other side, into the cable I'd dug from the wall.  The end female connector from the cable in the wall disintegrated from age, in my hand.  I had to jury rig something then.

For now, I crimped a female connector I cut off the end of another cable to the end of the cable piece from out of the wall, since its end crumbled from age in my hand when I pulled it out.  The cable to the TV and cable from the antenna are for now connected with an old signal splitter I had in a drawer.  I'll get the right parts eventually.

For now, this is how the cable runs, from TV to the wall where the outlet for the antenna cable enters the house.  I had only a 15 foot length of cable, so it is stretched tight.

Eagerly, I turned on the TV, switched it to antenna and placed it on scan for channels.  I had channels.  In the end, I came up with something like 20.  Several are repeats, so I think I counted 12 different ones.  I have KEZI, from Eugene, though, and KPTV, from Portland.  I get OPB and OPB plus and OPB FM.  I get a channel called "Retro" which plays old movies, and a few others, including one shopping channel and one Spanish channel.  I like to watch Spanish channels because I'm trying to learn Spanish and that helps.

Just when I'd almost broken my habit, I'm back at it, full fury and unapologetic.

To think, that rusty, green molded swaying creaky antenna up there, that I decorate with lights for Christmas, now is catching TV signals out of thin air and shuttling them dutifully down that old cable into my TV.  Thank you Antenna!  My signal snatcher!

It's busy space up there, in the wave world I can't see, but I believe in it!  I am true blue wave energy believer!  They're dancing through my space anyhow.  May as well grab at what I can grab.

I also took 15 cats, 14 of them rescued kittens, from Lebanon to Salem to be fixed this morning, for KATA.  It's not much, but at least once in awhile, I do something.  Boredom is taking its toll on me lately.  And extreme isolation.   It's not good to have no job, even if my job was self-appointed.  It gave me a mission in life, something to do, a reason to get up and live!  Now what, you know?  NOW WHAT?