A Requium For A Tivo

It finally happened, my beloved Tivo crashed and burned last night. It has been officially been proclaimed dead.

Contrary to popular opinion, I am not actually addicted to television. The reality? I'm a writer (amongst my other duties as CEO). Not only do I write literally hundreds of articles every year for HairBoutique.com, I also write for 101 Celebrity Hairstyles Magazine, I have a hair column called HairDoctor that appears in various magazines and I write for MMI Short Cuts. My articles also appears in the various MMI Gallery magazines and seasonal specials and I free lance for other magazines. But I'm already boring myself with all this, so without further commentary, lets just say blah, blah, blah.

I actually have been accused of writing more than just about anything else but breathing. I even write when I'm sleeping. How's that? I wake up with great ideas for articles in the middle of the night and pop on my tape recorder. Yes, I write when I'm eating, talk into my tape recorder while I'm showering, driving, blow drying my hair and other assorted tasks.

Yeah, I'm a write-a-holic. Considering all the possible addictions I could have developed, writing and work are the least of the baddies. OK, I know that I need balance in my life but I love what I do and as long as I'm not boring the world with my writing - which they don't have to read if they don't want to - I'm a happy camper - or should I say mad typer?

But I digress. Back to the death of my beloved Tilda The Tivo. I confess, I name everything from my trashcans (Bertha, Bonnie, Boris) to my cars (2 running, 3 not).

Every night when I would get home from the HairBoutique.com office I would park myself on my little loveseat in front of Tilda and would proceed to work on my notebook aka Nelson The Notebook. There I would sit, hunched over working on the latest articles while I listened to Ellen, The Hills, CSI Miami, New York or Las Vegas and would scribble a few notes on the assorted shows in between article compositions & when I could take quick glances throughout the shows. Ahhh, Ellen was wearing her hair shorter, looks like LC had new extensions and on and on.

My ongoing relationship with Tilda has lasted over five years. She has been a treasured part of my life until last night when she went into an eternal reboot mode. I begged her not to die with unseen episodes of CSI Miami, Medium, Ellen and the latest muppets movie. Argh. There was no reprieve. Nothing I did would bring her back. I unplugged her, I sang to her, I promised to be more responsible about cleaning off all the old shows. Nada. She was sleeping with the other Tivos who have left this world.

Today I had to break down and call to get a new version of the Tivo from Direct TV. Seems that they have their own Tivoish machine. But I am going to miss Tilda. Not to mention all the Ellens that were lost with her death.

Yes, I can watch a lot of the TV shows on my computer but its just not the same. Know what I mean?

Even more troubling, while it was always easy to bury my dead goldfish in the backyard (resting there currently is Wendell and Wilma) but what do you do with a newly deceased Tivo? Good question. Is there a Dealing With A Dead Tivo For Dummies Book?

Ah...such are the complications of life in the high tech lane.

A fond farewell to Tilda my Tivo. She was a very good and devoted friend who never got bitchy, ate my leftovers out of the fridge, or gave me attitude. May Tilda rest in Tivo Heaven.