Killing Our TV: RIP Dish Network

Nothing personal, Dish Network. We liked a lot of your shows, and we’ll miss Big Love, and Denis Leary and crew, also Rachel Maddow. The Super Bowl was awesome, too. Of course, your UI sucks, but that’s not why we pulled the plug.

At first, the notion of killing our TV came from our new austerity campaign. We have declared a family emergency. We don’t know how long our puny funds will have to last us, so we are tweaking down our family expenses. We will bike instead of drive, pack a lunch instead of eating out, iron our shirts instead of sending them out. As repulsive and hypocritical as they may be, the Chevron ads make sense.

No, in the end, Dish Network, it’s not the 128 bucks a month that causes us to say adios. It’s the distraction. It’s the time, and more important, the attention that we give to you instead of to our kids. The years that we have with them are fleeting. Katie will be preparing for college in 2 years, and the boys will both be in high school. They most likely will be spending their free time with friends more than with us. Now’s the time, and we have been squandering too much of it staring into your flashing face.

And, yes, we are going to keep our Internet connection but we’re pulling the wi-fi. Also, we decided to keep Netflix on our list, largely due to Pam’s possibly unhealthy fixation on The Unit.

Sure, it’s possible we won’t have much to say to each other, or, worse, we could be at each other’s throats. But just maybe we’ll grow closer, get to feel more of the texture of these terrific kids who live with us for such a short time. So goodbye, see you again is six years.