Consultant and Author, D. K. Christi

6:44 AM PST, February 27, 2009 Arirang: The Bamboo Connection The World Outside the Window Affairs of the Heart - The Rulebook Consultant and Author D. K. Christi

Ah, the relationship between free television, reading and writing has become very clear to me. I bought two conversion boxes and two antennas for my two ancient but excellent televisions. One is a 32 inch flat screen at least. The magic night arrived. The antenna and the box was correctly connected to each television. "No signal" is what I have for one perfect connection. NBC is the only station I am receiving on the other, and it digitally breaks down at the most dramatic point of any program.

Previously, both televisions brought in five stations each. With a little wiggle on the rabbit ears, some were clear as cable. I had FOX, CBS, NBC, ABC and PBS. Sometimes, when the weather was right and the moon and stars were in order, two or three additional channels would come into focus. I do not watch television very much. My mother is visiting this winter. She is 90. She doesn't watch television in the daytime. However, she considers it her night time entertainment to pick one good television program each night. Sunday night is Desperate Housewives. Monday night is The Bachelor (I know, at 90 she still has an eye........). Tuesday is open. Wednesday is Lost. Friday is 20/20. I favor news in the morning; news at 11:00 p.m.; an occasional PBS special and Lost on Wednesday night. If you don't have the drift by now, I'll let you know with irritation that ABC gets most of the attention from my mother and me. We no longer receive ABC.

Since I am rather sophisticated in electronic gadgets, I feel as if a thief came into my house and stole my televisions. What happened to the "conversion" for which I paid and tore apart my wall unit to install? Is this just happening to me? Is it happening across the country? It was bad enough that all my emergency, hurricane televisions on my Jeep all encompassing television, radio, flashlight, mosquitoe repellant, siren and emergency flasher no longer work. I took some comfort in the closed up laundry room during hurricanes and tornadoes by watching the 5" x 7" image of the weather reporter following the weather's destructive path. My mother reminded me of my nephew's statement during a power outage as he turned up the gas flame to boil water for coffee, " Without the microwave, this is like camping." Except where I camp, my Jeep emergency gizmo did work in the days of free tv.

So, Mother is now reading Arirang: The Bamboo Connection, my debut novel about adventure and travel, laced with a light romance and The World Outside the Window anthology that includes my short story, Rose's Question. She read the final manuscript of Ghost Orchid, my next novel of mystery in the Everglades scheduled for fall release and my short story, Ice Storm that will be released soon in the anthology Romance of My Dreams. I've downloaded all eight short stories at Amazon Shorts from Affairs of The Heart: The Rulebook to A Walk on the Beach.

With no escape to news (not much of an escape anyway) or the the Lost island, I have no choice but to push forward with more short stories and novels; after all, Mother needs some entertainment. I even started reading some books and stories by colleagues that I had put away for a "rainy day." It's not raining; I've simply returned to the 1940's and no television. The thought of ordering cable is beyond my comprehension. I barely watched the programs I had for free; why should I pay for more that I don't have the time to watch? Yet, this "DTV Conversion" for free tv has denied me the news and the very programs that provided a safety net and an occasional escape.

At least with free tv, the weather faithfully played on the screen when all the cable connections were down in threatening weather. If you see me at Target this weekend, I'll be there with my antenna and my converter box listening to them insist that they work and that I must have installed them wrong. I'll work very hard at remaining quietly professional as I explain that I am not an idiot; and I know how to install. The problem is that the whole conversion propaganda was an expensive joke: there is no conversion for my previous experience with free tv. I'm faced with no tv or cable. I wish that had been made clear in the first place. Now I know why televisions are lined up along the street on garbage day. Their owners made the same discovery. Free tv is now a myth, an urban legend, a piece of history. However, until I break my resolve and become a cable subscriber, I am reading and writing when I might be watching. At least there's still free radio - or is that next?