Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Gettin' Me a New TV...

$3000 was the number that it took to purchase my first house. It was the down payment for the house, who's full price was $30,000 and that's the same price I paid in 1993 for my 61" HUGE, big screen TV. I swear that Charles Barkley stood at his full height in my family room, dunking 2 pointers for our Phoenix Suns, which is why I bought the pink elephant. That was the year that our beloved Suns went to the finals, only to lose to da Bulls in game 5 of the series.

That was 16 years since the Huge TV made it's entrance to the Fisher household and since then, as is the case with a lot of the Fishers as well, it's aged. The aging process doesn't go well for a projection TV. It loses it's brilliance and retains that OLD look. Time marches on and it was time today to say goodbye to my old friend. A few days ago, I placed an ad on Craig's list for my 61 incher, for a measly hundred bucks, but alas, no takers. I really didn't want the money, but I thought my old treasure still had some value. Wrong again. Today I made up a sign and taped it to the front of my TV and it read:

FREE and it WORKS!

Next, I had to get it outside into my driveway. The sucker has to weigh about 2 -3 hundred LBS. It was no easy task. Fortunately it was on wheels, but when I pushed it into the doorway to the garage, it got stuck there. Half way in and half way out. It wouldn't budge. What a predicament? Not only was the TV stuck in the doorway, but I had to go through the front door to get to the far side of the TV to try different methods to unstick it. I may have put on about a half a mile running up and back, too and fro... In my garage I have a floor jack that will lift a 5000 LB car, but I couldn't figure a way to get it under that TV. I found a tire iron and used my 7th grade science class for reference on how to use a lever. Thank you Mr. Garcia. Still, no luck. After about 30 minutes of this dilemma, I realized that I was eventually going to figure out a way to accomplish my goal and sure wished the bright idea would come to me soon. Suddenly, with no notice, I saw a light bulb light over my head and I caught view of a small hand truck that has been in the same spot in my garage for 16 years. I think it came from marriage number 2 when my second wife's first husband passed away, may he rest in peace. It's always been useless and so was she, too small for most jobs and too flimsy for others.

With my lever, I pried up the TV just enough to get the hand truck under it's end lip. Then I went into the house to attack it from that side. Pushing as hard as I could, I manipulated it onto the wheels and just rolled it out past the threshold! Whew... Why is life so difficult? Is it just me or do others have these problems too? I haven't looked outside in awhile, I hope it's gone by morning. It's taking up 1/3 of my driveway.

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