HD Envy

Dad got a ginormous HD TV last year. I will support this choice in light of some macular degeneration and resulting less than perfect eyesight. It is huge. It's like 500 inches or something. The first few times I watched with him, I was slightly overwhelmed at the vastness of Jay Leno... or the enormity of delicious looking food items that shouldn't be advertised when one is so hungry. But quickly one becomes accustomed to the size and it's not so unusual to see a 2-foot across newscaster head. I don't intend to "tattle" here, but while dad was gone to Oregon this week, the HUGE TV may have made its way downstairs to Tim's Dungeon, which is also the location of the only HD cable receiver box in the house. What does this mean? For the first time, I, within the walls of my (former) own home, enjoyed the GLORIOUSNESS that is HD TV. Now, I sometimes take a gander when I'm walking through Costco, but you don't get the full effect. I'm not really convinced that we all need Super Amazing Home Theatre Entertaining Central Huge Couch And Recliner Rooms. But, well, would it be bad to really absolutely NOT be able to go on living without my own 500 inch flat screen HD TV? I have been looking forward to The Discovery Channel's Planet Earth mini series for as long as they've been advertising it (like 9 months or something). So Tim, Samy, and I watched the previews and clips on Comcast HD OnDemand. It was stunning. Breathtaking. I could hardly wait for the REAL thing to start. Well, lucky me, I did catch that first episode-- at home on my what-I-thought-was-an-ok-TV-before-the-HD-experience. It was dull. It was lifeless. The elephants were only like 2 inches tall. They were grey. Not HIGH DEFINITION GREY. I was so severely disappointed. It was Wonderful World of Disney vs. 3-D IMAX 40-Story Screen with Real Elephants Running Through The Living Room. So last night, the three of us reconvened to watch a few episodes on HD before Dad got home and Tim had to return the TV to its rightful location. We re-watched the episode we had already seen, and it was (oh, this is so cliché) like watching it for the first time. Before I could stop myself, this phrase left my lips: "it makes me feel like I watched it on an Etch-a-Sketch the first time!" So now I am home, watching a "little" Conan on my seemingly hamsters-on-a-wheel powered 4 inch screen TV. I feel so blah. And Low Definition.