Time

I just counted up and I've read 21 books since the first of the year (23 weeks if I counted right). That's a pretty good clip for making my 52 books this year. It's been pretty easy really. I usually read at lunch and then before bed. I have been staying up later trying to steal back some of my time. It's a real "robbing Peter to pay Paul" arrangement because God and Bryon know I need my beauty sleep.

This is also the 13th day I've gone without watching television.

The Bad Tomadoes (aka Hillbilly Hurricane) last month totally killed our local channels DirecTV dish so I missed the season finale of Lost, Fringe and the Mentalist. I caught the first two online and watched them on my computer but CBS has the most useless website in the universe and they only had random clips of the Mentalist episodes. Totally useless.

Almost everything I watch is on the local channels. I hardly ever even watch the satellite. Bryon loves to watch Ultimate Fighting on SpikeTV and his hunting shows on OLN. Grace watches Noggin.

I'd be willing to cancel the whole thing but I don't think that's going to happen.

I was pretty mad at first when the satellite crapped out but then Thursday May 21 when I turned on the television, I realized there was absolutely NOTHING I really even wanted to watch. I watched the 5 and 6 pm news and then turned it off. I haven't turned it back on since except to listen to music on the Coffee House XM channel. I figure that doesn't really count because I turn the TV part off anyway.

I missed it at first but now I'm totally done with it. I could even wait and rent the next seasons of my television shows if I can keep it up. It would save us $75 a month to cancel DirecTV.

We've been listening to some old albums, working outside, reading, surfing the internet and playing Wii a lot more. It's amazing how much more you can get done when your life isn't dependent on 30 minute sitcoms, hour long dramas and commercial breaks.

Grace hasn't missed it at all even though I haven't been MAKING her not watch tv. She's been watching her Scooby Doo movies some but this morning when I turned on her cartoons (Franklin on Noggin) to watch while I got ready for work; she turned it back off...herself.

Bryon's been watching some stuff he tapes on the DVR but really, it's been pretty nice. I've even learned in the past 13 days to enjoy the quiet.

We'll see how long it lasts but I'm thinking I could make it all summer.

My friend Jeff at work likes to give himself little challenges like resisting sweets just to see if he can muster up the willpower to do it. At first I thought that was pretty lame, but really I think he's got the right idea. Little challenges lead to bigger rewards.

No WAY am I giving up sweets though. Honestly, no one wants to know the me off sweets.

I think I'll stick with the television for now.