Cause the gov'ment says so

I have been so sick of hearing this government mandated switch over to digital or else you don't get to watch TV thing. What has it been? A year? Two? That they have been touting this BS over all the TV channels and radio stations.
Perhaps I am a bit paranoid, but it seems to me, at first it was just a ploy to make every one pay for all entertainment. Right now, my TV and computer are the only things that really entertain me. We've paid for cable for as long as I can remember...well, wait, in the early 60's we didn't pay. So they told everybody and their brothers that if you don't have cable already, you need to purchase this stupid little box to convert some damned signal going into your TV so it is digital and you can watch TV. I think it is a great way for them to start watching us.
They put it off and put it off, and now they are saying okay, we are serious this time, June 12th (or 19th or whatever date they have set) is it, you must be prepared to switch to digital...or else...and then afterward every once in a while you must scan something to add new channels, and then you get to watch more...
I figured we were out of the loop here at my house, because we have been paying for cable forever and they kept saying if you have cable you are ready...Even showing people in T-shirts saying I AM READY. (No I never wanted one of those T-shirts either) I got a letter from Comcast the other day (Comcast is our entertainment director/cable company) I normally don't open much in the mail from them, cause it's usually some threatening letter saying pay up or else you don't get to watch TV. By chance I opened this one. It said. You need to get some digital adapters for EACH TV in your house or else you only get to watch channels 2 - 32. Yeah. Like any of those channels are worth watching. Yuck...local crap, paid advertising hour long shows, Chinese TV, Mexican TV (three channels of it) One blue screen channel. (just in case you are fond of the color blue and want to watch it all day and night) I do have the 4AM local news on every morning so I can laugh at all the people who commute two hours to work and back when the traffic on the 880 is at a stand still...they actually call it the parking lot! Of course I need to see just how much fog is in my near future so I know whether to wear my light jacket or not as light jacket. I could jut look out the door and know first hand, but where's the fun in that?
So...in order to get the channels I actually watch: TRU TV, Court TV, HGTV, the channel with all the families with all the kids and the one about how to dress yourself on it, I have to have a digital adapter. To the tune of $1.98 per box...and that's per TV! We own five TV's!!! Oh but it is okay, the first two are free. MD decided that she wanted a regular cable box, so when I go through all the free premium channels, she can watch movies out in her little room. She's paying the extra $7 for that.
Alrighty then. I called and ordered everything we needed. They sent it post haste. I think we ordered on Wednesday, the boxes were here today! I have NEVER in my life seen such a quick turnaround! (See the government wants in our frontrooms something bad.) Only...they sent four cable boxes! Not three adapters and one cable box! Geez! So I made a few phone calls and when I didn't get the answers I wanted started asking for supervisors and managers. They checked around found that our local Comcast office had what we needed and sent us up there to trade. We didn't know they had sent four cable boxes. We thought they had sent four adapters (instead of the three and one cablebox) We went up with one and there was a huge line out the door. People waiting to trade boxes, pick up new boxes, pay bills, bitch and complain and all manner of whatevers they do at the cable office. CA-RAP! MD stood in line until it got close to our turn and then I went in to sign papers answer questions, etc. That is when we found out that our entire order was wrong. The guy laughed and said he had never seen such a screw up. He let us come home with the adapters and a promise to return the other two cable boxes on Monday morning.
Went out to my truck and the freaking battery was dead as a door nail. I am thinking I will need a new battery here. Everything else is working fine...I hope. Anyway. a really nice gentleman by the name of Guerrmo came over to us and asked if we needed help in his broken English. I said yes please. He moved his car over to our truck and created magic on my battery and wa-la we came home. We are now waiting for our hook up to be complete, so that the government can start watching us. Cause I know that is what they are doing!
Okay...they said...it should only be around fifteen minutes to make the connections complete and it has been two hours! I have to make another on of those phone calls! Damn!