The End of an Era

If you've ever spent any time in our house, you've probably been in our basement and seen our "TV".  TV isn't really the proper description.  It was a home theater projector, surround sound and a screen.  It was pretty awesome, for us.  When we bought the monstrosity, it was to solve a problem.  What was he problem you might ask?  We had a giant wall and an odd shaped room.  We argued, measured, researched and finally purchased the entire thing.  We installed (when I say we, I mean Ned and about 4 other guys) the system about 2 weeks after we moved into our home.  This thing has provided hours of movie pleasure, but as they say, 'all good things must come to and end'.  The end came a while ago when the bulb was apparently going out.  We tolerated the bad color for quite a while and then as I was researching a new bulb, I learned that these bulbs are made with mercury and if they explode in the machine it could potentially ruin the machine.  Not good.  I turned it off and left it off.  The family room downstairs became deserted. Sad.

With football season upon us, Ned decided he'd couldn't handle life without the projector, so he purchased a new bulb.  After the bulb arrived he set out to change it.  After one exhausting night full of difficult fixes, lots of wire and a broken couch, we discovered that it wasn't the bulb after all. It was the projector it's self.  This was indeed a sad revelation.  After a bit of debate over a new projector, Ned decided that he could would bring the TV from Boise home.  Sounded good to me.  As we were taking the screen off the wall Ned looked at me with a sort of sad look on his face and said, "This is the end of an era."

* That picture was taken in 2005 (just like it says on the bottom of it).  That is the screen and that little dog is our Lucy...before she wasn't ours anymore, but that is a story for another time.  And, I will be posting my days of gratitude later maybe even tomorrow.  I'm so very behind, but since this is my blog, I can do as I wish.