RiP

Everything I own is old and is starting to show their age. My television, more than 12 years old, has been on the fritz for the last two weeks and now, I think it's gone. It served me well, has been through a lot (spent a summer in a storage unit without A/C, shipped across the country, numerous episodes of "The Girls Next Door", not to mention various incarnations of Trek). So it's sad and I'm going to miss having the ability to watch television when I want to, but eh. With the advent of Hulu, I don't see it being a huge deal.

My computer is from 2001 and also is starting to creak its way towards... well, I'm keeping my fingers crossed and my eyes on a mini notebook computer. My Corolla is 11 years old this year, and it's still plodding along (though yes, I did buy a new car last month, I still own the Corolla and plan to continue driving it in the near term).

My stereo is coming on 15 years of service; it has a dual tape deck, a single CD player and a digital tuner -- at the time it was state of the art. I still use it on and off, but the CD player has started to skip, and generally, I'm not into music as much as I used to be so I don't spend a lot of time thinking about replacement.

Other old things I own -- my VCR is circa 1999 and my DVD player is probably one of the newer items I own. It's probably from 2003 or 2004. I still use the VCR -- or did until this recent incident with the television. I actually use the VCR more than the DVD player, oddly enough. I guess I won't be using the DVD player anymore either.

I recently replaced my circa 1997 cell phone with a new version after I realized it was nothing short of madness to carry a cell phone that couldn't sustain a charge for more than 10 minutes. My circa 2000 digital camera was replaced last year after it fizzled on a trip to Europe.

Anyway, all my stuff is old and I've been fine with it all, but now I'm staring into a future nightmare -- where everything goes kaput all at once. I'm dreading that. For now, I'm thinking about not getting a new television and making do with hulu. Just with "impending doom" staring me down, I'm thinking a new computer is probably a wiser investment and more practical than a television anyway. We'll see how it goes. This is my first day without a television so I reserve the right to change my mind.