what would laura ingalls do?*

i've written here about our lack of a dishwasher. we only have dial-up internet connection. but we are slowly, painstakingly making progress into the 21st century.

last night we properly installed a new vcr/dvd combo and on wednesday we are, for the first time in our 20 years together, having cable installed.

it is a nothing short of a miracle.

but really, it's all about the fact that i missed gilmore girls two weeks ago, and that is unacceptable. the old, noisy, craptastic vcr didn't tape the episode properly...it made all the characters walk and talk in fast motion. we tried to limp through and get the gist of it, but ended up watching the entire hour-long show in about 10 minutes (it was the one where lorelai and christopher go to yale for parents day). it looked like it could have been really hilarious, but was most likely just a transition episode--an extended set-up for lorelai and christopher's trip to paris.

AND, not only did the vcr goof up it's one and only job (the recording of MY shows) but the reception using c. 1967 rabbit ears has become lackluster. yes, you read that last sentence correctly--there are rabbit ears attached to my vcr. are you interested in seeing how your granddaddy watched tv? well you can come over to our house (for the next 48 hours, that is) and it's like the history channel has come alive in our living room!

the fact that we don't have cable sometimes does come up in casual conversation. people, including my mother, will ask us if we saw "project runway" or "six feet under" or "trading spaces" or that story on cnn and we will say shyly (and in the case of my mother, emphatically) that no, we did not see said episode of those popular, ominpresent television shows, because, WE DO NOT HAVE CABLE.

and then that's when their faces change and they look to see if they can detect anything else different about us--the trio of 6's tattooed on the backs of our skulls or the way our third eye keeps peeping out from under our bangs. but, no, nothing. we look normal in every other attribute. we. just. don't. have. cable.

but soon our shroud of luddism will be shed and we can look on the world with clear, fresh eyes.

coming soon...a garage door opener.

now we're just talking crazy.

*i borrowed the title of this entry from the author of greetings from knit cafe. she reports that there are women that often come to her yarn shop and are frantic over some knitting disaster. and she calmly asks them, "what would laura ingalls do?" because really, what would any of us do if left on the prairie with a knitting/homekeeping/cooking dilemma? in the words of tim gunn, we'd, "make it work."