We got a Blu-ray dvd player for Christmas, noted in one article I read as making the top 10 list of obsolete gifts for the 21st Century. So, we are a little behind the times. Of course, we refused to toss out our old dvd-vcr which can still accommodate legacy videotapes. Remember them?
One of the perks of the Blu-ray is it enables Netflix streaming. My son Eric set it up when he was home for the holidays. We were both instantly incapacitated, strapped to our lazy boys with a streaming IV. Midway through our second movie, there was a loud scraping noise outside. Was someone breaking into the garage, backhoing the front lawn, dragging our mailbox down the street under the tires of an 18 wheeler? We'll never know.
Eric, look out the window and see what's going on.
No, i'd have to get up and move the curtain. You do it.
It's getting louder, but I can't move.
(screeching, grating noises intensify; we brace ourselves for a direct hit on the house)
Wait a minute longer. (waiting, waiting, pause on the remote)
OK- seems to be diminishing.
The pull for watching past tv series is even worse. At least at the end of a movie, you have to search for another one, although your Netflix list appears and other suggestions are also displayed. Gary decided to tackle the 62 episodes of Breaking Bad. Last night I wandered into the family room at 11:30 pm, as he was finishing episode 3. "Don't you have to go to work tomorrow?" I asked, but his eyes were glazed over. He stared trancelike at the countdown clock ticking away on screen. I leaped for the remote as if it were a grenade ready to explode and saved him from getting sucked into episode 4. Whew! with only 2 seconds to spare.
In past years I had a now seemingly quaint ritual called the Quad Challenge, where I would attempt to see 4 movies at the 16-plex on one movie ticket. Part of the fun dissipated when I realized that I didn't need to hide in the ladies room or change hats to disguise myself. Theatre employees really didn't care how many movies I snuck into. The tantalizing appeal of beating the system was gone when the guy who swept up the popcorn asked for the third time, "Well, how did you like this one?" But, the real end to the challenge was the insignificance the contest had become. So you were in the movie theatre from 9 am to 7 pm? I watched streaming movies for 3 days and never got out of my pajamas. Top that.
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