I've been living in Arizona now for nearly 5 years, and have enjoyed the freedom of doing with my 2.5 acre 'yard' what I want to do with it. Including planting almost 20 trees, numerous bushes and planting gardens. Neighbors have told me that my yard looks great and then they start asking about the dishes on the South side of the house and even some that don't show from the road.
We are blessed here with a lot of space and cultivate rocks, yes I said cultivate rocks, you just can't dig down more than two feet where the post hole digger gets stopped with some pretty good sized rocks, but that's all in the nature of things.
Once I had most of the dishes up that I wanted (do we EVER have all the dishes we want?) I was taking to a next door neighbor over a fence, and the subject came up about the dishes, he is one of very few than can see into my back yard. He asked what all the dishes were for, and I jokingly said they were so I could "keep in touch with the Mother Ship."
The surprised look that came across his face was priceless, and he lowered his shoulders and head and muttered something about having to 'go mow the yard' Oh, there is NO grass here in Golden Valley.
I only bring this up in this thread because it falls in line with what I love about this hobby. The FREEDOM to hunt, search, seek and find things that are broadcast that others in the neighborhood don't/can't see on their more expensive cable or pizza dishes. AND the ability to say I get it free without stealing anything.
Sure, I had the pizza stuff a few years ago, and yeah, even though I wasn't paying (a lot) for it then, I still only watched a few channels with any regularity, and I find today that my favorite list is about 20 channels long, and I still only watch a few of the hundreds of channels offered, but the point is, once the initial costs were spent, there was nothing more to spend and add services. I enjoy RTV, History, Network TV, and ocasionally search for news feeds and sports, but everything is paid for and although I have bought several receivers in my time here, I don't go overboard. All but one of my dishes were free for the taking, they keep me busy WHEN I HAVE THE TIME to devote to them, but I don't go overboard with any of it. It is there for entertainment, not so I have something to work on in my "spare time."
So, what do I love MOST about this hobby? It's the freedom from the bills that neighbors pay to watch basically the same things I watch on TV. So what if I don't have HBO or Showtime. I have @Sports, STO, PBS and Create in HD, FX East and West, and more RTV than I can shake a stick at, plus all the news I can handle at any one time. I have THIS and ION, and a few other movie channels that I can record and then go back later and fast forward through the commercials. I have WHAT I WANT to watch for a whole lot less than my neighbors pay for their TV watching and not spending a lot of money makes me happy.
And I enjoy helping others (when they will LISTEN).
Photto
