Dodged the tornado bullet

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Dodged the tornado bullet
5
Sat, 05-31-2008 - 3:34pm
Friday evening was another great TV weather event here in the Midwest. Local stations were on full-time with reports of where funnel clouds had been spotted, what roads were flooded. We had only a storm with 5 minutes of "gulley washer" rain, then it went on by. But - 30 miles south of us had hail the size of golf balls. Lots of trees down in some areas, a few power outages. DH was just itching to try out his new powerful gas generator. No luck - we just kept watching a movie on our new LCD TV. It was Mr & Mrs Smith with Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. You can just see the chemistry between them and the whole idea of the movie is a silly, but escapist entertainment. The new TV makes even our old movies look so good I may never venture out to a crowded, overpriced movie house. Do you remember when going to the movies was a dress up affair? Now if I put on earrings and a necklace I feel like I'm over done - LOL.
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-25-2003
Sat, 05-31-2008 - 4:45pm

Jacquie, I can't remember the last time I wore a necklace,

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Sat, 05-31-2008 - 5:57pm

Glad they cover up for church! The way some young women (I refuse to call them ladies) look, I am disgusted.

re: LCD TVs. We've been looking for the last 2 years. There are 2 major electronics stores in our area, so we would check the models out when they had sales. We would get the model #s, then research them online. It's amazing how many we crossed off our list. DH wanted a 42", I thought 37" would be just fine - my usual cheap self. When we went to the store last weekend to purchase one brand (LG), I spotted another (Toshiba) with a super picture and we spent the extra $200 to get it. We figure this is a one-time purchase - by the time some new technology comes along, we'll be too feeble to care. We've been saving for this and added our rebate check.

Getting High Definition (HD) was not a big deal early on until more of the networks started broadcasting in HD. We still subscribe to the lower tier of cable service, so don't get their HD reception EVEN IF THE PROGRAM IS DOWNLOADED FROM NETWORK. That stinks. If cable keeps up it's shenanigans, we may look into a dish service. The dishes are small enough to suit me now. When they first came out they would have filled 1/2 of our backyard.

Being a 35MM photographer in another life, I must say the depth of field on HD picture is really amazing - objects have a very real quality about them. The people in the foreground look as if they could step right out of the screen into our living room. Tonight we will begin watching the 3 early Indiana Jones movies so we can refresh our fading memories of whos who and whats what.

DH is an electronic whiz, so bought a DVD recorder/player that hooks to the cable box and uploads a lot of cable signals to HD quality. We did buy the converter with the $40 rebate) so that we can still get HD from the ancient antenna on our roof.

Learning all the new features is a challenge, especially the dang controller that has so many buttons. As I'm the geek who reads the manuals, I just refer to it every time we need to change a setting. Eventually we'll have it all figured out.

One odd thing is that the sound is of such a pitch, that DH's hearing aid picks it up really well at low setting that I can hardly hear! DH keeps asking me if I'm going deaf - LOL.

Avatar for daggs170
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-25-2003
Sun, 06-01-2008 - 11:12am

We watch so little t.v., yet have them in quite a few rooms in both houses.

Photobucket
iVillage Member
Registered: 11-15-2005
Sun, 06-01-2008 - 9:20pm
Hi Jacquie--glad to hear you dodged the storms worst and that your TV didn't get zapped either. I mention that because years ago we purchased our very first color TV (i did say years ago LOL). My DH is an electronics person too and he was installing it and hooking up the antennae when he got a call to get on a plane ASAP for a work emergency. He decided to take a chance and left the TV unprotected from a surge until he could finish up when he returned from his trip. While he was gone we had a terrible thunderstorm and the lightening came through and zapped the TV! It never really worked very well after that--I guess i wouldn't either! LOL I hope you have many years of enjoyment from your TV.
I don't wear much jewelry--just my watch, wedding ring set and a blue topaz ring that my DH gave me for Christmas a few years ago.
Have a great Monday!
Carol
Community Leader
Registered: 07-25-2000
Sun, 06-01-2008 - 11:00pm

Jacquie, I am glad that you did not get any of the really bad storms. We had tornado watches (or was it warnings? I can never remember which is which!) up all day yesterday, but none materialized. We had a couple of quick downpours that only amounted to a total of a half inch in my rain guages. But there were areas nearby that had heavy rains of almost 2 inches, hail, and high winds.


I can remember when going shopping was a dress-up affair, too. LOL! Not anymore. I am allergic to nickel in jewelry, so don't wear much of it. Don't dress up much, either.