My favorite thing...

I love TV. I love my Tivo. I love to watch TV with my Tivo. It's a healthy relationship. Together we avoid the bad times (commercials) and maximize the good times (season passes of my favorite shows). But lately there have been a few bad times creeping into my television viewing experience. And I'm not talking about a drunken Paula Abdul or how "Global Amnesty" can put together a legal brief, get a federal judge to issue a restraining order, locate a federal marshall and drive over to CTU in eleven minutes...

My Tivo seems to be sick. It intermittently will forget how to change channels. I'll schedule something like, oh say, The Shield and my Tivo will stay on Fox after recording American Idol. I'm stuck with the lame House (pun intended) instead of Vic Mackie. How am I supposed to get my bald man testosterone flowing?

I don't know what to do. Do I watch over my Tivo like a sick child? Do I put my upgraded to 300 hour Series One box out to pasture and get a new Series 2 box (or two or three)? Do I admit my powerlessness and join a twelve step program for Tivo addicts?

My Tivo is like my blog. Rambling, non-contiguous and eccentric. I meander from all four incarnations of This Old House to Crossfire to the Daily Show to Rob Schneider wishlists to SNL to McLaughlin Group to the Surreal Life. Along the way are classic movies like A Little Romance and some modern movies I didn't catch in the theater like Finding Nemo.

My love for my Tivo runs deep. How do I say goodbye to a good friend who has stood by my side through Ally McBeal and Boston Legal? The thought of shutting it down saddens me.

Much like a favorite t-shirt or car my Tivo defines me as much as I define it. Who will I become with a new Series 2 box with it's fancy features like remote programming or show transfers between Tivos and computers? Will I binge on Tivo'd shows until I resemble a bloated Elvis shooting bullets into my TV set? Will I ever be able to pick up a good book and just relax without the spectre of abandoning my bulging Now Playing list?

This is too much too soon to answer these questions. I'm not ready for this kind of decision making. I can't, I won't.

Maybe they'll do an episode of Intervention about me!

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Currently I'm listening to I'm A Drifter (Version 1) from the album "Unearthed Volume Two. Trouble In Mind" by Johnny Cash