What’s The Frequency?

We spent the afternoon in Rhode Island with my Mom. We swung by Water Street in Worcester to pick up three lean, double corned beef sandwiches from Weintraub’s to bring with us - extra pickles (crispy, fresh and oh so very garlicky) please! It was good to spend time together with Mom. One of our biggest challenges - even with just the three of us - is managing to stay on one topic from start to finish. We are always going off on multiple tangents and then laughing as one of us tries to drag us all back to the original starting point of that particular topic. It becomes exponentially more challenging the more family members we have in attendance!

Mom has been wrestling with the mandatory transition here in the U.S. from analog to digital television. She’s never had cable television; never needed it, never wanted it. She’s always gotten by just fine with a hook up to the condominium’s roof antenna and a set of rabbit ears. Last summer, she dutifully got her government coupons as instructed. She used the coupons to defray the cost of the converter boxes. Then, just before Christmas, she decided to buy a new digital ready television. Chuck and I spent time on previous visits trying to help her get everything set up. Some things we were successful with. Others required the assistance of another family member with a degree in electronics. He spent many hours over three or four days and moved Mom close to completion. But the brand new digital TV can’t receive Channel 10, the local NBC affiliate. However 10 does come in on the little set in her bedroom via the converter box. That technical challenge prompted a genuine Geek Gal from Best Buy to make a house call. Mom reports that she was very nice, but she’ll be making her second visit later this week! To further complicate matters, for the last few weeks Mom hasn’t been able to use either one of her VCRs - even though they were both working fine prior to the digital transition on February 17th. Today, Chuck managed to get both of her VCRs up and running. Yes, once again, Chuck achieved hero status!

This whole digital transition has been a royal pain in the neck for Mom. There was great hue and cry in punditland when the government voted to delay the complete transition until June. I think what has effectively become a rolling transition to digital has turned out to be a good thing. Mom, age 85, is not the only elderly person struggling with all of this. Because the need is so great, in some parts of the country, Meals On Wheels volunteers have been including digital converter box set up and service calls as an adjunct to their food delivery. One of Mom’s friends went through comparable challenges, but ultimately had to throw in the towel and purchase basic cable. We’re hoping that within the week, all of the kinks will finally be ironed out and Mom will once again be able to satisfy the need she has for lots of news, some cooking shows on PBS and a few riveting mysteries. That’s not too much to ask.