When we moved I knew I wanted to try to do without cable or satellite. I’m tired of exorbitant prices and nothing to watch. Five years ago we shifted to the lowest cable package ($35/mo) which got 15 or so channels. That’s been fine except for sports. We still haven’t totally resolved that problem (for Bill only, I couldn’t care less).

But then we moved. So, for two months we did without tv at all. What I could watch on the computer I did, sometimes. Usually, we read.

A few weeks ago, we bought a ROKU and a used digital tuner for our ancient (by today’s standards) 35″ analog tv. I am an Amazon Prime member for shipping and other reasons, at approximately $7/month, so I set it up to access Amazon content as well as other free channels. So far we’ve watched 10 movies, started several seasons of tv shows we couldn’t get with the limited cable, and have at least 100 on our watchlist. Most of these are those that are out on CD, but many are great documentaries and nature flicks. Great stuff.

We also had some rabbit ears, so we can get the networks over the air (OTA) with the same lines and fuzziness we remember from childhood. And in a storm, connection is iffy on those channels that are outside Lexington (like KET).

When life slows down, we will try out the free trial for Hulu Plus and see if that offers more than Amazon Prime. But for the moment, we’re good.

Well, the new Apple mini iPad and Microsoft Surface have joined the fray with Amazon’s updated Kindles and Google’s Nexus and Barnes and Noble’s Nook. I think I am ready for a tablet, but had hoped that some (or at least one) of the new additions would meet all of my desires. Once again, I am disappointed.

I want to be able to Skype, download books, create documents, email, take pictures/movies, and surf. Apparently that’s too much to ask. Either the cameras are junk (so say reviewers of MS Surface, they only exist on the front or back and not both, or are proprietary. What a pain.

Cynic that I am, my belief is that they hold off on creating a tablet that does everything a consumer wants in order to sell a new one, which interestingly loses one thing we want when they add another. And we are powerless, except to do what I’ve done and do without until I have something that meets my needs.

I’ve got over 1,000 new pets! Our dog, Ming, is paying zero attention to these new “friends” mostly because she really doesn’t realize they’re even here. These new pets are red wiggler worms.

Using two rubbermaid totes, torn up black-and-white newspaper (no slick colored ads), a little finished compost from my bin (or plain old dirt) and food scraps. Dampen well but not soggy, and add the new pets and watch them eat and reproduce and poop out wonderful castings and compost for my indoor plants this winter and my garden in the spring.

Looking forward to having some worm compost tea to fertilize with, and healthy, happy plants as well as even less reason to put out the herbie! It goes out less than once a month at this point. Wonder how little trash we can really generate?

How about you?

I attended the Mid-South SCBWI Conference recently, and focused on my Thom Pig picture book. I actually intended to focus on the YA novel but was so caught up in culling through boxes for items we actually needed I printed out the shortest thing I could find, which would be a PB of course.

Two agents and one editor expressed interest in seeing it. Now I know this is a cute story and will eventually find a publishing home, but this was wonderful. Since I’ve returned home I’ve been revising per comments received at the conference from peer and editorial review, and have submitted it to the two agents with reference to the editor who also requested it.

Fingers crossed and on my knees!

Moving has proven to be a huge frustration. Fortunately, we have no deadline until we sell the house we’ve lived in for 30 years, and are bringing box after box after box after box over to the new, smaller and one level home. And I didn’t mean that repetition to be amusing. It never seems to end. No matter how many boxes we seem to bring, there seems to be more to pack up. I don’t get it. We’ve been at this now for 3 months.

We take boxes and huge bags to Goodwill and Habitat, sort items into like piles and find niches for them, cull a second time as we find not only duplicates, but sometimes ten or twelve of the same item. Just how much dental floss does one need?

Suffice to say I am ready to throw it all away!