Bonding with TV

 Two years ago I wrote this post.   I sort of bemoaned the fact that neither of my daughters were watching TV with me.  

Well since then, I have to say the situation has completely turned around 360 degrees.  

I guess it started shortly after I wrote that blog.  For some reason my younger daughter and I started watching the Mary Tyler Moore show together.  We watched it religiously and watched all 7 seasons.  

From there we watched the spin off "Rhoda".  I missed the first couple seasons with her because as I recall she was on Easter vacation and watched a couple seasons in a week and I wasnt along with her on her holiday.  But when she got back we started watching together.  Rhoda was kind of a B level of Mary Tyler Moore, but still good.  

I guess I was pushing my luck when I suggested we try the Dick Van Dyke show

(also with Mary Tyler Moore) which I had watched a couple seasons of.  We watched one show, but it didnt go over well. I think both the black and white episode and the extra "oldness" (from the 60s) of the show didnt pull her in.  

Anyway (I know that paragraph was kind of worthless blathering)  

The question is, how did we get on this track?  In the post I wrote two years ago she was in fact hostile to me watching with her.  What changed?  What I keep coming to is  either a) she read my post or b) two summers ago we started watching TV all together on vacation  and it continued into the regular year.  It was really nice watching TV together during that August.

So when we started the new school year, i guess my younger daughter and I contiinued to watch some serial together.  I am just lucky she took my suggestion of MTM, because that was a high quality ground breaking serial, but still very entertaining and watchable. Not preaching.  

Our current serial we watch religiously now has 80 episodes.  It is Star Trek.  How we got on this one is simple.  Her favorite serial was/is "the Big Bang Theory"  and she loves Sheldon.  And Sheldon is a fanatic for Star Trek and Mr. Spock. So naturally from Big Bang she had to see what Star Trek was all about.  

We started watching in April 2023 and we have seen 15 shows.  And as far as I can tell, she likes the show very much. It is in color, but it too is from the 60s.  But it is futuristic so it is not set in the 60s environment.  And we love Marvel movies so this is a little bit like a Marvel movie, a little.  Guardians of the Galaxy maybe.  

For me, it is wonderful as I watched a lot of the shows when I was her age.  But  I

dont remember many of them.  It is sad to think that things even from when I was ten were not cemented in my mind.  So now I can see them again like new.  They are very entertaining.  I dont know why the series was cancelled after just three years.  It became a pillar in American culture.  

The more pleasant result of watching TV together is a bonding.  That is strange, because you figure TV together is an individual thing and more of a separation than a bonding element.  But no, something about sitting there quietly watching together is very .... like meditation together.  I think even more than watching a sports game together, even though you might think a sports game would bring you closer. I think it is more superficial.  

Something about watching the intensity of the show together creates mental connections that one isnt always aware of.  And Star Trek is very entertaining. 

We also started a Saturday night Movie together.  We started with Back to the Future volumes. I had never seen the third installment nor remembered the second movie. My daughter really liked those.  Success. We watched the Oceans series.  All were good until we got to 8 which we stopped at the beginning after 10 minutes and didnt watch.  It seemed too formulaic after 11,12,13, just putting women in the roles.  Sorry to say.  

I guess we might do Mission Impossible series, though I am not so big on Tom Cruise, I ll have to bury my biases.   

Suffice to say, it is a very special nice time of bonding and being entertained..... by TV of all things. 

Eh, maybe TV has a bad rap.  Maybe it is/was good for something and wasnt just the "idiot box".    

o2 to get more of my money? Why?

 Continuing from last post I am saddened that the responsibility  from my older daughter didnt last so long. 

What to do?  

As soon as I got better the good will of my daughter was gone.  

This is rather difficult when I am in the process of renewing her telephone number. What to do?  What would you do?  

So here is the short story. 

She did continue to make her bed, but as soon as her tests were done it was like she changed back to the devil.  As if, ok, no tests, no responsibilty.  She got lazy again.  I got to nagging again.  

Then I had a month of not being able to pay the rent on the apartment and kicking it down a month.  This happened because I had to pay for the much higher gas bill.  Look, I am just an ordinary mediocre guy who is lucky to make ends meet at the end of the month.  But if some things happen, maybe something breaks down or there are extra costs like higher gas bill, then ends dont meet.  

So, there was the higher gas bill, MY DAUGHTERS TUTORING CLASSES AND a down payment on her school trip at the end of May.  It was too much. Then her telephone. I got behind a month on that payment.  

Then May.  More gas payment, this time rent, I will still have to pay property taxes this month, the rest of my daughters payment for the school trip AND another phone payment.  And then, listen to this.  The phone company turned off the number because I was late.... by 1 day! So they were going to make me pay a higher fee, double, to get it turned back on.  I had a long discussion with the phone lady saying exactly that, "hey you know, sometimes you just cant make the ends meet at the end of the month and some things dont get paid on time before the next money comes in.  Have you ever had that?"  Well the computer wont change it.  But I knew the phone lady could change it in some manner.  They know how to over ride the computers if necessary.  Maybe. And I went on and said, well yes I know because your company has a reputation of not being very human. Even though we are humans

with human problems and sometimes it doesnt work out, the computer doesnt care.  Pay on time or before or lose it. I tried to say that I did pay, but it was a long weekend, the money was due on Sunday and the banks were still closed on Monday.  Why didnt you pay it earlier? Because I had too many payments.  In the end she DID become a human and said she could put some of the penalty to my next months payment.  Lets see if that happens really.  

Meanwhile, ON THE OTHER SIDE, get this.  My wife yelled at me, that MY DAUGHTER was getting worse again as she did nothing on Friday besides mess around on her phone for five hours in the afternoon.  I wasnt home, i cant say what went on. She did practice her guitar without me pushing her, on a FRIDAY too. That was something.   

This is in my head when I come home from work on Saturday and she is lying on the couch just with the telephone and i have to make sure dinner is going well.  My other daughter got it in the oven.  Then I had to work on the dinner more.  And my bad phone daughter comes over at dinner and says,  "this is a minus,

minus minus meal.  About the same as school lunch food."  This after I planned it, did the shopping and got it prepared in the morning before work and wrote out the instrucitons and even peeled 12 potatos for the meal too which I hardly ever get to.  This time I did even though I was late to work.  And then my bad phone daughter just complains about it and says it tastes hard, chewy, and everything bad. I thought it was better this time. Didnt cook as long, and was a bit juicier than last time and not as tough as last time.  But no such compliments from my daughter.  And its not the first time. Look, I can take criticism, but that is different from being mean. I dont like someone being mean and nasty in their comments.  Respect for the effort is better.  And then criticism.  

All the time this phone business was going through my head.  

I didnt pay it yet.  Maybe I should just say, "you know what?  Enough of this, forget it. I aint paying".  I mean, you get it, i am over my budget and when I pay for her phone, all I get is her watching tik tok for even longer.  And the usual stupid scenes from stupid shows.  "Hey mon, my buds fell out so now I will have to take the long way home."  huh?   

Or do I make a deal with her?   Look two hours a day on your phone for entertainment including chess games and every thing and that is it.  You dont agree, i dont pay.  

Or I can just say and do nothing.   And pay it.  

All of them seem bad to me for one reason or another.     Meanwhile that phone and tik tok STILL drive me crazy mad.  

Any suggestions? 

I had to listen to atmospheric dub techno while writing this one and this is one of the best lables and compilations to listen to for that.  I had this compilation on vinyl but sold them all.  I have a different one on CD I have.