The society we live in today is changing daily, imperceptibly, in so many slow increments that we do not even notice them as they occur….We just notice the aggregate amount of change in like 5 years from now, when we can get the advantage of some perspective…That is the way life is, it is constant change but usually in slow increments, like the falling pages of a calendar marking off another year of your life….You don’t notice things while they are happening so much as you notice them in retrospect AFTER they have happened….

Who would have guessed 5 years ago, back in 2010, we would be consumed in 2015 with a drought in California, major hopeful negotiations in attempting to increase our trade relations with China, constant upheavals in the middle east, cars that are capable of driving themselves that are off the drawing boards and into production, the ever increasing dangers and threat of global warming and, a lot closer to home, this endless squabble between the media outlets on TV that bring the majority of Americans their news and entertainment?….Pick your poison…

Just to keep it real, I will deal today with just one problem, something near and dear to almost every American’s hearts, our TV’s….Network tv is a dinosaur, cable is said to be on the way out, Netflix and Hulu and all these alternate service providers are fighting for your money, now the Dish people, along with Direct TV a major satellite provider, has announced a new cheaper rate for HBO if you subscribe to their Sling service, whatever that is…This is all way over my head…In fact it gives me a headache!

What the sattelite providers DON’T tell you is that if you own your own home and are relatively stable as far as staying in one place, they are fine…But if you are an apartment dweller who moves every few years, for whatever reason, the satellite companies are major headaches, charging you exorbitant relocation or cancellation fees…Cable TV, with it’s month to month service, is far more flexible and useful to people who live in apartments….

It is like somebody let the electronic genie out of the box, and there is no stuffing it back inside…The tv thing really throws me personally, because my generation was raised on the now ancient concept of 4 networks, no remotes, black and white tv only, and no tv at all after a certain hour…My how things have changed!

Try explaining that to your kids today!…Now we have a proliferation of tv providers, and the biggest division is still between the satellie and the cable providers, as far as I can figure it out, but they are all liars and it’s not easy to make a rational economic choice, because there are like too many options available today.

There are literally hundreds of channels accessible out there now, depending on your income level and what you want to see, the more money you have of course the more sophisticated the entertainment options are available to you to access…The rise of virtual tv has already knocked the socks off of people renting DVD’s from stores like Blockbusters, these once ever so popular brick and mortar stores you could find on almost every corner or in shopping mall are all closed down now, gone with the wind…

Almost every movie is now available on “virtual demand,” the newest movies costing the most, and this easy “just touch a button” on your remote control availability to access these virtual movies will probably be the death knell of the old fashioned movie theaters, which have all been partioned off into multiplexes for many years now anyway…I notice Red Box still peddles DVD’s from vending machines, and many people, especially parents with small children, still patronize them…

But do you know ANYBODY that still uses a VCR? They are long gone, and DVD players are hanging in there for the moment, but with DVR players becoming the newest and easiest way to program your viewing time….You can record on your DVR, days ahead of time, sporting events or Masterpiece Theater broadcasts while you are at work, for example, and then watch them from the comfort of your chair or couch when you get home, with the added advantage of being able to skip through all those boring commercials by fast forwarding through them.

This saves time, and in our ever more driven and increasingly fragmented society, time is indeed money…Time is the one currency that will never falter, it is inexorable and inevitable….We get so caught up with dealing with the daily hassles of work world, the commute times, the mechanics of child care, the division of labor within our houses themselves, we all need to take some time off and just kick back and relax at home….That old saying “Where does the time go?” has never rung truer in our faster and faster paced world of today….

Let’s say you hate TV, and some people do….If you are an outdoorsy person, you can always go camping, hiking, fishing, water skiing, rock climbing, white water river rafting, hang gliding, para sailing, bicycling, there have never been so many options available…But again, all these outdoors sports cost money, and they take an even greater toll in the amount of time and energy you have left over from your daily exertions in work world…

I am sure that in 5 years from now, we will all look back at 2015 and regard it as a quaint, distant memory of how things used to be…That is how time works, like the erosion of the Grand Canyon, imperceptible at the time but suddenly obviously visible after many years….What can we do about it? Nothing! Just try to relax, go with the flow, and try to make each day as pleasant and meaningful as you can with your loved ones….

And always remember, “Never ask for whom the bell tolls….it tolls for thee….”