So Excited!

After 3 weeks of living here, we finally have a PHONE! I'm so happy! And we have internet and cable. Okay, so it's very basic phone but it's a phone. Such a small thing but such a huge relief and sense of freedom. The internet is the most basic one they have and it's slower than we were used to at the old house but hey, no more "sitting out on the stoop, looking like something from Compton", as Josiah puts it, pirating some wireless called, "booty" (I kid you not). lol

And the cable is just the first 15 channels, but that includes PBS and the network channels. That's fine with me. I barely watch television anyway. Even at the old house, way back when, before "the man" left, and we had a whole boatload of channels, I hardly ever watched anything. But the kids need it, so that's why I got it. When I was a kid (I guess it started when I was about 12), my parents instituted a "no tv" rule because Rusha and I were SUCH JUNKIES. Oh it was bad. So during the school week, we were not allowed to watch any tv unless it was for school. I remember getting to watch the mini series "Roots" because it was for one of my classes. Then on the weekends, we were allowed a total of 2 hours....the whole weekend. I guess I just got used to it and to this day, don't even think about turning the tv on very often. In fact, if it's on just for "background noise" as a lot of people I know do (and relatives when I was growing up), I can feel distracted especially if I'm trying to converse with someone and their eyes are on the tv when they're "listening" or talking.

I remember when I was a kid, growing up in Baltimore, and we only had 3 channels plus 1 UHF channel. Channels 2, 11 and 13 and then channel 45. That's where I used to watch Captain Chesapeake. I was a member of his club, don't ya know? Me and Rusha got our picture taken with him, too, looking like big dorks. lol For my birthday, I got 12 Black Molly fish from being in the club but my parakeet ate 'em. Picked 'em off, one at a time. I remember we had 2 parakeets at my grandparent's house, "Tweety" (I named that one, so original) and "Dirty Bird" (Papa named that one....fitting, I think). Also, I remember watching Oprah but she wasn't a big shot. She was on a show on channel 13 with Richard Sher called, "People are Talking". I even remember her send-off show when she was leaving to go to Chicago. Then there was Miss Sally on Romper Room, looking into her hand mirror ("I see Bobby and Suzy and Johnny...") and Professor Kool (who was really just Stu Kerr from the news). There was this witch on that show that still makes me shudder when I think about her. Ah, and Captain Kangaroo...... So many memories. And I feel soooo old.......and HOMESICK.....especially this time of year. I love Autumn up north. It's just not the same down here. Although the weather has been nice and crisp.