TELEVISION THEN AND NOW

My Television As Seen From My Recliner

When I was a child, I had four television channels to choose from, ABC, NBC, CBS and the Public Broadcast System. Color TV was new and we were delighted to see new shows and the actors in color. The actors spoke clearly and properly, the content was understandable, and the picture was bright enough to see the show no matter the time of day. We thought we had it all, including enough choices. Even with limited choices, as I see it now, we could easily become couch potatoes. Yet, I remember having time to read, especially in later years when my children were growing up.

The years flew by and I am now retired. Part of my entertainment has been to watch TV more often. I have a multitude of channels to watch and it appears to grow every day. I now use closed caption on my screen, not for a hearing impairment but there are times when I can’t understand a word or two and I can move my eyes down (or up) and read the words as well. Sometimes I’ve noticed that closed caption doesn’t get it either by omitting or putting in a word that doesn’t make sense. I realize that the f word is used a lot in this era but on some Netflix shows I hear the f word so much that I have to stop watching the show. What kind of intelligence is there in a person who uses six f words in a sentence (I counted)? Yes, I’m a grandmother, but come on. And I know there are many other shows to choose from and I do.

There are times every day when we must close a curtain to be able to see what’s happening on the screen and still it can be so dark that very little is visible. I’m sure I’m not the first person to notice this. It’s not just aging eyes.

Violence on our TV shows have been common for some time now. Yes, one gets used to it. Before I retired, I told one of my middle school students that the character that scared me when I was a child was the witch on the Wizard of Oz. They chuckled because they are so accustomed to seeing all kind of horrors. That can’t be good for any of us, including me.

One of my biggest problems these days is to use my time more wisely. I love to read but I don’t get a chance to do that much because of TV. Yes, that is my fault. I can be a recliner potato. Ideally, I would like to be able to cut down on the tv watching, at least more than I’m doing now, and find some other things to do. Maybe find new recipes, sewing, writing, etc. But then I also know that I will procrastinate to a certain degree. But I won’t know how successful I will be until I try, right?

Does God Care About Our Pets?

Sophie at Cracker Creek in NE Oregon

My husband Greg told me that he had heard years ago that it didn’t do any good to pray for, or about dogs. I doubted that statement, because I believed that God cared about every concern that we’ve expressed to Him.

Over the last twenty-five years we’ve had a large dog. Two purebred German shepherds, one malamute and German shepherd mix and another German shepherd mix. I had been enamored with German shepherds, Greg on the other hand wanted a golden retriever but he settled for the German shepherds too.

Presently we had the malamute mix and a small Pomeranian mix, both well-behaved. Our retirement life was good with our two delightful dogs, making us a family of four.

Without warning, our malamute mix died of either a heart attack or blood clot. Believe me, we all felt the loss.

We decided we wanted our family of four back and searched the ads and shelters for another dog to rehome. Puppies came with high price tags. If you found one for a thousand dollars, that was a good deal. A puppy for us may not have been the very best idea anyway.

At the two shelters we visited we found lots of cats and pit bulls (which are fine for others), or dogs with a high energy warning label. Also, with the pandemic in full force it seemed that dogs to adopt were somewhat limited.

Finally, we found a sixty-pound male that wasn’t listed as a high energy dog only that he’d lived outside for two years. We adopted him, brought him home and all hell broke loose, to put it lightly. For a dog that lived outside he instantly went for that favorite chair, couch, or our bed to lay in and we wanted a dog that didn’t live on the furniture. While not fighting to get on the furniture, he was busy disturbing what he could every minute with his unbelievable nervous energy. Outside, he constantly looked for a way out of the fence. Did I mention that I couldn’t leave him to go to the bathroom?

Now, this was no fault of the shelter, they tried to explain what a new dog would go through, and we thought we understood but we had made an error in choosing this dog. I took him back and on the way home I cried rare tears that we couldn’t help this dog. Perhaps as seniors we’d never be able to have a large dog again. As a matter of fact, we’d pretty much resigned ourselves of finding another dog that would suit us. We both expressed that we didn’t think that we’d find a match unless we heard of a dog that needed rehoming from a friend, yet that type of request seemed rare these days.

The next day, we got a call from my son. Since our dog died would we like to have their five-year-old Golden Retriever? He had three dogs and rabbits, and not enough space for a large dog to run.  What? The kind of dog that Greg always wanted and a good gentle dog to boot? It didn’t take long for us to decide to welcome Sophie Rose to our household.

So, does God care about our dogs? Well, they certainly seem to be one of His greatest gifts to man. Ask any dog owner if that could be true, and you’ll get a nodding head in return. I think God cared about what we were going through and the fact that I expressed my sadness to Him. After all the Bible does say to pray about everything. So, yes I believe that God cares about your pets.

Sophie Running at the Mining Ghost Town of Bourne in NE Oregon