In search of television

I remember reading a stat from a book about 15 years ago that concerned televisions. Acoording to this book 99.9% of American households have a TV set. For the past 12 years or so I have not owned a television set. I still like to watch TV on oocasion. Mostly, it does not matter to me. But, during the NBA playoffs, I find myself pulling strings, making phone calls and getting creative in order to avoid having to watch the game at a bar. I'll drink a beer on occasion but bars just are not my scene - too many drunks.

Lucky for me, I have a few interesing ways to gain access to the wonderful world of television. I have a friend who has a 1970's Airstream in mint condition. He has an eight inch TV hooked up to a satellite inside this mobile antique. I've watched a few games in this rig. My friend Rob lives in a house with several hundred cable stations. I watched game 1 of the finals there. Rob's rooting for the Pistons. Whereas I'm going for the Spurs.

I ended up watching game 2 in Bill's bedroom in the bighouse. I thought I'd be alone. When I went inside, I ran into Dev. He'd brought a guy and a girl back with him from the wine festival. They were co-workers from the same winery and had been working the booth next to Devin. They were both pretty toasted when I met them.

"I'm gonna go watch the Spurs/Pistons' game." They want me to join them in the hot tub but the game has already started.

The girl ends up being a basketball fan of sorts and follows me up to the bedroom. Within minutes, Devin and the other guy are in there. All three are drinking wine. The guy ends up passed out just into the 3rd quarter. That's a relief, I think to myself, too obnoxious. Meanwhile the game's winding down with the Spurs dominating both ends of the court. Dev's making his move and I'm thinking: I need to get out of here. Bill arrives to find us all up there. He's totally cool about it (I'd left a message on his cell phone). He was planning on sleeping in the downstairs bedroom any way. He sits in a chair and we have some friendly banter. The passed out guy remains passed out. The girl gets bent out of shape from something Bill says. I cringe as the wine's impairment wreaks havic with her common sense. Here we are in Bill's bedroom, she's getting all rude over some invisible (to me at least) transgression. All Bill did was, get up and leave. He never said a word back. I was impressed.

We just had this long weekend consisting of a house rental and then an Easter Seals fundraiser. Then, to cap it off Sunday Night, we invade his room. Oh well what can you do about it? I just tried to go with the flow and I guess that's what Billy did. So much for avoiding drunks, a billion commercials can't be wrong.