Cable TV withdrawal

Two consecutive typhoons finally brought our twenty-five year old avocado tree down. It had been due for its annual pruning, but nobody had had the time to oversee it, so it blossomed beautifully like it does every summer, and when we finally realized typhoon season had rolled in, there were still hundreds of small growing avocados waiting to be picked. So we decided to wait a little longer—which was both a bad and good idea.

Typhoons Frank and Helen blew strongly against the thick branches, causing the avocado tree to gradually lean towards a wall… that stood between our property’s boundary and an electric post from which all lines were connected to our house—electrical, cable, and phone. Thank God we have wireless Internet.

Fortunately, despite the avocado tree’s leaning on the wires, we only lost the cable connection. The phone still works and we still have electricity. Now, we don’t use the landline much anymore, but having it means we can at least hound Meralco, PLDT and Skycable for free while waiting for them to come help us put the now dangling wires back where they won’t be needing some sort of limbo rock maneuvering for people who want to reach the front door.

We’ve lost our cable connection before, but never this long. Not having it has practically affected our usual lifestyle of wake up–cook–eat in front of the TV–go to work–come home–cook–eat in front of the TV as a family. My brother, who takes after my mother in that he uses the TV to unwind, now goes straight to bed. My mother, who’s back for a couple of days from a project that requires her to live in Bohol until December, is getting more sleep on her bed, whereas before she’d doze off on her second bed: The sofa.

My own routine has been changed. I use the television as my alarm clock. From somewhere under my pillows and bed cover, I’d fumble for the remote control and switch the television on to whichever channel I was watching the previous night. This would prompt me to get up and check out whatever is on. The TV then stays on while I prepare my coffee and brunch, and is only switched off after I’m all dressed up and ready to leave for work. These days, I’ve been using the Internet for this purpose. I’ve been logging serious Facebook and YouTube time again. Have I said thank God we have wireless Internet?

I’ve found that I’ve been getting a lot of work done, though. I’ve always known I watch way too much TV, but I’d never really realized how much I’m losing out on the other things I could do with my two or three hours of leisure time in a day, like read or finish my thesis, until now.

We’ve finally had the avocado tree cut—please pray it grows back—and the cable guy is coming tomorrow to reconnect the cut line. I’m half and half about the whole thing. Having a television makes me feel like I’m in the know and connected, but I’m afraid of getting sucked back into my old couch potato lifestyle again.

A millionaire mindset

I attended an attracting wealth training seminar conducted by John Calub over the weekend. It was interesting. Many of the things he said I’d already read or heard about from books like Rhonda Byrne’s The Secret and Michael Losier’s Law of Attraction. However, he adapted the concepts to the Filipino way of thinking, which was great. One thing that struck me was his view on telenovelas and why they’re keeping us poor.

More about this on Thursday.

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