Wednesday, August 27, 2008

There Will Be Blood. And Sweat. And Tears.

My VCR crapped the bed the other night.

Why yes, I DO have a VCR! I use it to tape programs that come on after my bedtime. At ten. SHUT UP.


I had been thinking that when my trusty VCR finally croaked, it would be time to upgrade to a DVR. But the DVR prices have not yet dropped enough to fit into my measly budget, so last night I went to Crapmart and bought a DVD/VCR combo. All I really needed was the VCR, but they don't SELL plain ol' VCRs anymore, and my DVD player wasn't that hot anyway, so I went ahead and plunked down my sixty bucks. And then my heart stopped, because I am cheeeeeap.





It makes a really good platform for the kittens' "cat attack" toy, doncha think?


So! Now all I have to do is hook the mutha up. *cough*.

I SUCK when it comes to all things electronical. (YES, IT IS A WORD. Because I said so, that's why.) Let's just say that I'm technologically impaired.

I got the manual out of the box, and reviewed the connection diagram, and it looks do-able. Then I reviewed the "timer recording" instructions, and they, too, look do-able. Which means I am going to mess this up in ways heretofore unimagined, because that's how I roll. When I got my first DVD player, several years ago, my neighbor Bill took pity on me and came over and set it up and even went to Radio Shack to get the RF modulator (whhaaaat?) that I had no idea that I needed and set THAT up and let's just say I am very, very sorry that Bill moved away.

But! There is a three-day weekend coming up. I know what I'll be doing!

Crying. And swearing.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

If I can make a suggestion? Take a pic or make a drawing of the way the old one was hooked up before you take it off. Sometimes it helps because there really isn't all that much variety in how they hook up. With older TVs, too, you'll have a limited number of video outs from which to choose.

Have you decided what to do when the big digital switchover happens? We wound up buying a new (bigger, fancier) TV recently because our eyesight is getting worse and we're getting tired of watching baseball in a static snowstorm on a teeny screen. Oh. My. God. I didn't think I'd care one way or another (not that wrapped up in hi-tech) but damn, it's pretty cool.

rockygrace said...

Oh yeah, I've already got the old layout diagrammed. Just in case.

As far as the switchover, I have to use a cable converter box because my TV is so old (1992. Heh.), so I should be all set.

But then again, my eyesight is getting worse as well. TOTALLY justifies a new TV purchase!

Poetry Echoes said...

I can top that, I think. I, too, still have the ol' VCR to tape my shows because it still works and it's cheaper and why throw away something that isn't broken? But we got one of those digital box converters so we could watch digital TV on our old analog TV (no DTVs in this house!) and now I can't figure out why the VCR doesn't work. It doesn't seem compatible with a digital box, maybe? And we only got the digital box so we could block inappropriate shows from the kiddos. New shows are starting soon. And I can't tape them!

rockygrace said...

Ohhh, noooo, Kerri!

Now I've got something else to worry about! :)