Fifty-Seven Channels and Nothing On

 I went to a seminary for one year in Iowa. Yeah, I know. I had a hard time imagining as a priest, too, which is why I never finished that path.

They had cable TV back then, something I had never heard of growing up in Chicago, but now that I think of it, it makes sense. Cable brought all the television networks to rural America.

 

When I moved to Wisconsin, I got cable TV which was really cool at the time. I could get both Chicago and Milwaukee stations.

 

It was a simple system. Two coax cables coming out of the wall to an A/B switch box that connected through one coax cable to the television. If the television didn't have a coax connector, you connected it to the antenna somehow. The A switch was one set of channels, the B switch was a different set.

 

The company was Racine Telecable. Racine actually had its own local channel. Over the years, Telecable was sold to different companies. The A/B switch went the way of the horse and carriage. In came the cable box with what Bruce Springsteen wrote had 57 channels and nothing on.

Cable’s selling point at the time was better reception, which was pretty much true except for days when the satellites they used to get their signals weren’t working well. 

The cable box brought HBO and Showtime. Eventually everything went digital. The A/B switch was obsolete and antenna screw connections all became coaxial connectors. People who have “cut the cord” and use antennas have the coaxial connection.

Converter boxes, modems, wireless routers and a myriad of “smart” home devices are all now used to watch television, turn on the lights, and lock the doors.

I’m not decrying anything here, because all these devices are pretty much treated the same throwaway way by all the companies. When my Racine Telecable A/B switch broke, I took it to the store. They gave me a new one. When my remote broke, they gave me a new one. When I followed the suit of all cable uses and got a cable box, and that broke, they took it, and gave me a new one.

It’s been that way in the industry for as long as I’ve been using their products. It’s been that way with every company, be it Telecable, Time/Warner, AT&T, and now, here in Illinois, Comcast and Xfinity.

I should have known better. Instead of them spending hours on the phone trying to figure out why the modem and my devices weren’t connecting to the Internet, I should have just told them, “My modem ain’t working.” I should have taken it to the store right away. Hell of a business model. Let the customer bring in the old device, give them a new one. Probably explains the prices they charge, too.

So I took the old modem to the store. They gave me a new one. I installed it myself. It works. I still have 57 channels and nothing on, but it is fast. Springsteen has grown older. So has television.

Some facts and who deserves credit

 On December 1, 2020 the number of people in the world diagnosed with Covid was 63,396,852. In the United States the number was 13547,090, 21.3 percent of the world’s total.

Today, December 12, the world the number of people with covid increased to by 8,034,033 to 71,430,885 and the the number of U.S. persons with it increased by 2,419,496 to 15,966,496,.

The United States is now 22.3 percent of the world's total. Since December 1, the country is 30.1 percent of the world's increases.

By December 1, 1,471,152 people had died of Covid

By December 1, 268,129 U.S citizens had died of Covid

As of today: 1,600,995 people have died globally, an increase of 8.6 percent

As of today, the number of dead U.S. citizens reached 296,997, an increase of 10.7 percent

United States is responsible for 22.2 percent of the people dying of covid since December 1. 

 Clearly, something is not working. Thanks Trump.

***

Fortunately, the world is getting some vaccines that look promising. England has already started vaccinating senior citizens. Oddly enough, the first man to get the Pfizer vaccine was named William Shakespeare. He received the shot in a hospital just 20 miles from Stratford on Avon. 

In our country, the FDA approved the Pfizer vaccine for emergency use. I suspect that other vaccines will meet similar approval as they become available. 

The vaccine is good news, but the key to its effectiveness globally and in the country is getting enough people to get innoculated. It will take time and effort to distribute the vaccine. It will also take a massive public relations campaign to convince people to take it.

Clearly something might be working. Thanks, all you scientists, researchers and thousands of people who volunteered for studies around the world who are responsible for this vaccine and all the others that are being developed.

Maybe a Lesson Learned While Not Exercising

I was laid up for a few days with sciatica problems. I had a bout with it a few years ago and my family practice doctor at the time gave me some sheets with pictures of back exercises. I did them and the pain shooting down my right side went away. He said that I should keep doing them. So I did.

I’ve been walking daily for a few years now, too. Wake up, do my back exercises, take my daily meds and vitamins, walk. Sometimes I jog a little during the time out there. Maybe I shouldn’t have started doing that.

About mid November I noticed a slight twinge on my left side while walking. About a week later I could barely move. It hurt. A lot. I couldn’t stand up straight. I limped. I honestly think it was the worst pain I’ve ever had. I dutifully did my back exercises, but even that wasn’t much help.

I went to an immediate care clinic. The nurse practitioner agreed with my self diagnosis of sciatica and prescribed some steroids and muscle relaxant. It was a slow recovery, but eventually I started walking, fifteen minutes at first, adding a little each day. 

I’m back up to my usual walk of a little over an hour. I have about a three mile regular loop that I follow through town. 

Part of that loop is the local train station where I stop and briefly chat with John, the station master. Other than the occasional dog and the person picking up poop after them, John is the only person I see on my walk. 

A few days after my visit to the clinic, one of the friends with whom I golf once a week called to say he had tested positive for COVID-19. He got it from his step son. All the members of our foursome wore masks and maintained distance. We were outdoors obviously. Still, we all stayed the fuck home as the CDC guidelines suggest. 

My wife, step-son and I all stayed the fuck home. We sat in a car line for three hours and got tested. We all tested. We tested negative. My other golf buddies tested negative, too. 

Not that I was going anywhere with the sciatica, but having to stay home slowed my walking regime even after the steroids kicked in and the pain subsided.

It was a couple of weeks before I started walking again. During that time, my wife stopped to tell John that I wasn’t dead. He said he had been worried, but didn’t know who to contact to check. He was glad to know.

When I finally got to the point of making it to the depot it was about three weeks. I didn’t notice John’s red Ford pickup. That was Monday. He wasn’t there on Tuesday or the rest of the week. It was my turn to worry.

Given the health times, I hoped he didn’t catch COVID. Given the economic times, I hoped that Metra hadn’t laid him off because ridership had fallen so much and the government hasn’t been forthcoming in stimulating transit systems. I didn’t know who I could contact to check on John, but I did check news stories to see if Metra had any layoffs.

This is not to say woe is me. Yes the sciatica pain was the worst I’ve ever had. That’s me. I’ve been lucky. Not too many health problems in general. It’s not like I would know the pain of giving birth unless I followed the advice attributed to Groucho Marx and grab my lips and pull them over my head. 

My point is related to me and John and the time we didn’t see each other. We don’t know much about our lives other than what we gather from our daily two-three minute conversations every day. John tells me when he’s taking the day off. I’ve told him when I’m going golfing with my buddies.

I think it’s our way of simply saying, “Don’t worry. I don’t have Covid. And I ain’t dead.” 

I’d like to think that more people can start caring about others and checking on their neighbors both during these trying times and beyond in whatever the new normal will be like. We don't have to agree on issues, politics, vaccines, masks, religion, or anything. We just have to care that the other person is okay.

NOTE: A reader asked if John is okay. Thanks for pointing out that I missed saying that. Yes, John is okay. He took a vacation week of doing the "Honey Do" list.