For the first time in a decade I have TV reception. I’m not just talking about having cable. Since I moved out of my parent’s house I’ve never actually paid for any type of TV, and I live far enough in the sticks that I couldn’t even pick up the major networks. That kept me pretty out of the loop, but I didn’t mind – if I’d had TV available, I’d have wasted hours in front of it. For me, it was always best to stay unplugged.

Recently, however, my aunt moved in. She’s mentally handicapped and, though she’s high functioning and can do quite a lot by herself, she has a lot of free time during the day, so we wanted her to be able to watch some TV (she’s a HUGE sports fan and loves old movies). The hubs and I literally spent months researching our options. In the end, we went with cable – if we’re going to get ripped off, we might as well get ripped off for internet, phone, and cable.

I won’t lie – the first couple of weeks I got sucked in. Pawn Stars. Storage Wars. American Pickers. Hours of my life flew by (and very few words ended up on paper). Exactly as I had feared, I sacrificed hours of productivity searching for The Voice in HD.

Forward to the present. For $100/month I have 300 channels that I don’t watch. It’s very easy for me to go 48 hours without flipping on the plasma. I do make time to watch some football (and I’ll enjoy hockey, if they can ever reach a contract agreement). I’ll watch a bit of TV at night while hubby’s shopping online for Legos. My cable consumption, however, is nothing compared to my internet usage, so I cringe when I think about how much I spend on it.

I really should cut myself some slack, though. I don’t wear every pair of shoes I’ve ever purchased every day. I don’t use all of my pots and pans every day. Why should I be expected to use cable every day?

In all honesty, though, I can’t call cable a complete waste. I may not watch TV, but my aunt loves it. She has her own room with her own television and her own recliner. For the first time in her life she can hang out in her own space with the Tigers game on the screen while she knits or works on her word puzzles. Just seeing how much she enjoys her new crib is worth the overpriced media. The television shows may not be worth the cost, but my aunt is worth every penny.