Week 4 - My PBS Dilemma

Whenever someone gasps at my saying I don't get cable, I always have the same reply. I know myself too well. Having dozens of channels would NOT be a good thing for me. It would undoubtedly lead to hours of unproductive time, with me sitting in my chair flipping between cooking, travel and gardening shows. This past week has just validated why the no cable lifestyle is my only option. Here's the problem....

When I did the channel scan on my new TV, it came up with not 1 but 3 PBS stations, all in lovely HD. In addition to the normal PBS I've been used to getting, there's now PBS World (lots of politics, nature, science, etc.) and Create (cooking, travel, crafts...what's not to love?) While this hasn't impacted my weeknight television viewing much at all, it's definitely had an impact on the weekend. I now have so many options for viewing that I'm getting nothing done! I spent my entire Saturday sitting on my butt watching PBS. No kidding. I flipped happily on the hour between the 3 options and always found something that piqued my interest. As the sun was going down, I realized I'd just lost the entire day and had accomplished nothing. And this with only 3 stations. Imagine if I had cable?

Besides the PBS dilemma, I have to say my back room is the nicest place to be on a cold winter day when the sun is beaming in. I had worried that the new sliding door with all that glass would make the room colder but it's been exactly the opposite. The door was not cheap and so has well insulated glass. Add that to the solar benefits and PBS or not, I'm hard pressed to come up with something more enticing in the dead of winter than sitting in my chair soaking up the sun. Give me a good book and a cup of tea and I'm happy as can be.

And look at my geraniums! I always bring them in over the winter but they used to be relegated to various much less sunny locations. This year they're front and center in the family room window. Not only are they happy and blooming up a storm, but they're providing me with a spot of color and the hope that spring is on its way. Just a couple more months.....

P.S. I grew the ones on the bottom from seed. They're a variety called Orange Ice and are gorgeous. They did next to nothing outside this summer but have really come into their own this winter. And that's with the same spent soil and no fertilizer. Imagine what they'll do when I repot them and put them out this spring! This success has inspired me to buy more gernanium seed to start this winter - Geranium Inspire Appleblossom.