Bye bye VCR ~ Hello DVR

Today I said goodbye to an old friend...

We watched lots of my favorite shows together over the years... American Idol, Big Brother, Desperate Housewives, Days of Our Lives, Melrose Place, Charles in Charge.  When it worked it was great, but when it didn't it was awful.  I would flip out and cuss when I couldn't find a blank spot in a tape as I was running out of time to record something and when it would mess up and not record something I had really wanted to see.  This was not my first VCR, there were many before it.  I still remember when my family got our very first VHS VCR.  It came with a hard plastic cover and top would spring open for the tape to inserted.  I also remember the very first movie we rented to watch on it, The Jazz Singer.  We made popcorn, got on our comfy jammies and propped ourselves in front of the TV.  We thought it was the best movie and marveled that we could now watch movies at home on the comfort of our sofa without the expense of going to the movie theater.  No longer would we have to nuisance of others talking or sticky movie theater floors. I also remember we briefly worried we made the wrong choice when friends in the neighborhood got Beta, but in the end, it proved to be the right choice. Ahh, so many good times... but the day of the VCR has come and gone, like the 8 track and cassette tape.  In the last several years it was increasingly difficult to find VCR tapes to record on, and recently impossible.  I hadn't even hooked up the VCRs in our new home, they just sat on the shelves waiting to get dusted. 

  

I have longed for a DVR for years.   I get so jealous when people say they are watching things commercial-free or going out on a night something great was on TV. 

Today we got DirecTv!! :) We have a gazillion channels now and the HD is awesome!

Finally.  At long last... we have a DVR! 

Only one problem now...

learning how to work it!  Wow.  This looks complicated!

They put the dish on the roof of our patio. 

You can't even see it unless you go way out in the yard and look up.

Now we can record 2 shows... but we would have to watch one while we record, it I think.  We can also watch stuff in we record in either room, I think.  Humm... guess I need to go read the manual some more!  :)