Rediscovering Public Television

We don't have cable T.V. We don't have satellite either. What we have is an antenna in the attic and free-to-air decoding. This is all fancy talk for G takes care of the T.V. stuff, we don't pay for it, it's still legal and we only get a handful of channels -- some from Canada, some from the U.S.

Because only a handful of channels come in reliably our viewing choices are rather limited. This was a choice because when we did have satellite TV we found ourselves spending far too much time in the family room. When it progressed to the point that we started eating meals in front of the television we knew that something had to change and so we converted to antenna and a much more limited viewing selection instead.

So for the most part I watch the same shows week in and week out and don't seek out a lot of different stuff. I know what I like, I know when it's on and the rest of the time we watch movies from G's insanely extensive movie collection. But as you might know, I have been making changes in my life and so one night, when G was in bed and I was bored I started flipping through the guide and setting the T.V. up to record shows on TVO which is a public television channel that we never watch.

And what a treasure trove it's proven to be. We're enjoying Canada's Worst Handyman and Canada's Worst Driver, though they are admittedly silly and not terribly informative -- why we'd ever want to know how to properly make a wooden toilet seat is beyond me. We've also watched Fake or Fortune which was quite interesting and This Old House which featured a segment on how recycled glass was made into the most beautiful countertops.

These little gems were hidden, scheduled in strange time slots or just unobserved because I was too busy watching shows about grisly murders and teenaged vampires and witches. I'm pretty sure we also get the CBC channel. I'll be scoping out that one next to see what pearls they have hidden. It's not that I want to watch more T.V. -- rather I want the T.V. that I do watch to do more than just entertain; well at least some of the time anyhow ;)