Better than TV
By PAT WICK
© Another Day in the Country
This fall we removed some old leaky windows in the dining room of our little Ramona house and added a sliding glass door. As we stood at the counter at the lumberyard discussing how big of a door to get, we theorized, "A six foot door doesn't quite cover the gaping hole left by removing the windows — why not get an EIGHT foot door?" Well, we got it and Tooltime Tim managed to put it in place with the help of a couple pairs of extra hefty manly arms — that window was huge and it was heavy.
Once the window was in place, we had to adjust to having a whole wall full of glass on the east side of the house. It felt a little exposed! However, Sunday, as we sat at the table after lunch, I realized that it wasn't just a window we'd replaced, we now have ourselves a wide screen TV. This entertainment is reality TV at its finest and we invented it here in Ramona long before it became a hit on television.
I just so happened to be sitting with my back to the window, looked across the table at my family and smiled. They were watching the activity in our neighbor's yard with studied intensity.
"Who is that over there?" Mom wanted to know. "It's our neighbors," Jess explained as the two watched the field across the street. "Oh, look," said Mom, "that little boy is chasing the cat instead of the ball!" She and my sister laughed as Nathan's dad attempted to teach his little boy the intricacies of baseball while little boys had their own agenda. "Now the cat's up in the tree and they probably think it can't get down," added my sister, as our neighbors stared skyward. These two were being mightily entertained by our wide screen TV.
Since I wasn't watching the window, my mind strolled down memory lane. I never liked my kids to watch a lot of television, so we encouraged other pursuits. My daughter Jana raised a wide variety of furry creatures. Probably the most entertaining were the hamsters. She'd put all of her Play School Town toys in a circle, making a safe enclosed area and then turn her hamsters loose inside. Instead of watching TV, she was providing her own entertainment, imagining what the hamsters were saying to each other and reporting on their activity.
When she grew up, she didn't outgrow her love of little furry creatures. In her first apartment, she kept two white mice in the closet who were securely contained in their own little world — a lot like Ramona. It was a small world with a grocery store in one corner of town and a bathroom in the other. There was a work-out room with a spinning wheel and a playground with all kinds of tunnels and places to hide. Jana said that watching those mice run around in their world was more relaxing than television. Her cat enjoyed it, too. Given the chance, the cat would sit in the closet by the hour in front of the mouse cage — just like people do in front of the TV. The cat didn't move, just its eyes going back and forth — enjoying the show. Unlike humans in front of the blue screen, the cat was not lulled to sleep.
"Where's the cat?" Richard would ask. "In the closet watching television," Jana would joke. "He's been in there for hours," Richard said, "Do you think that's good for him?"
Jolting back to the present, my family was still watching the window.
"Change channels, you guys," I said, "This is getting boring." "There's nothing else to watch," laughed my sister, "Eric's not out burning his trash!"
Well, it's another day in the country and in Ramona we're easily amused. We're sitting in front of our wide screen panoramic view on the world, sipping tea.
"Look at those woodpeckers in that walnut tree. They're sure busy. Anyone know their names?" There's a pause in the programming. "Did you notice that the cat is back on the ground?" someone adds. A truck turns the corner, coming into our view as he pulls off the county road onto 5th Street. "Hmm, I wonder who THAT is!"
