A decision to not consume

A couple weeks ago, Scott and I went to Best Buy to check out something he was thinking of buying (BOSE speakers if I recall). I was wandering around, overwhelmed by the amount and variety of technology from which I could choose, when I saw it. It being a TIVO machine, which after a rebate (offer expires Sunday 11/27) would only set me back $50. Granted, this doesn't include the TIVO subscription cost, but the machine would be a mere $50.

My mind was going at warp speed trying to figure out how I would be able to have a working TIVO in my house since it requires a phone line and I am one of those people who ditched my landline to go mobile only. To solve this issue, I would need to purchase a $75 wireless card to plug into the back of the TIVO machine so it could communicate with my wireless router. But the best idea was to have Mom buy it for me for my Christmas present.

One of my mother's biggest complaints about both my father and I is that we have no sense of delayed gratification. If we want something, we just buy it. This then precludes my mother from buying that desired item as a gift for either of us. Not this time, however. I called and left a message for my Mom. I called my sister as well for secondary confirmation of my message.

When my Mom called back, not to my surprise, she had no idea what a TIVO was. There was no way I was going to be able to explain to her the difference between a TIVO and a VCR, therefore I told her to go down to Best Buy and talk to one of the salespeople. She did and this past Friday, she called and told me that I should just go ahead and purchase the TIVO down here since it didn't make sense for her to buy it in Seattle and then have me haul it back down to San Francisco. Score!!!

But as the weekend wore on and the rebate deadline approached, I took a hard look at my desire to have a TIVO. In reality, I know all of the cool features and the convenience of watching television without commercials. But I have pretty much eliminated television from my life. The genesis of my desire to have a TIVO was that I had missed setting the VCR to tape Gilmore Girls for three straight weeks. Yes, I have officially outed myself in the public domain as being a devotee of the WB's Gilmore Girls.

All I really needed was the ability to write a note to myself in my planner to set the VCR, not a machine to take care of all that for me. So that's how it is here at the end of November 2005. I remain sans TIVO.