Big Screen Televisions

We recently bought a 60" Plasma HD T.V.  Holy mackerel (what makes a mackerel holy anyway?).  This television replaced our 32" standard definition television.  I liken this switch to moving up from driving a Lada to a Ferrari; to wrestling with your 5 year-old then stepping in the ring with Ali at his prime; to writing with a Bic ballpoint and changing to a solid gold Mont Blanc fountain pen.  You get the idea.  The experience is sublime.

The lads from the Geek Squad were over yesterday to install this Leviathan of digital awesomeness.  When they were done, they set up the television for me.  As Geek #1 punched his way through all the set-up screens, I'm thinking, "This is pretty cool."  The he switched to an actual channel that shows what programming is coming up and I'm all. "Wow!"  Then he switched to a sports highlights show that just happened to be showing hockey highlights and, I'm embarrassed to say, I became suddenly incontinent.  You could see much more of the ice than standard def t.v.  You could actually follow the puck without losing sight of it.  You could see the pores the players' faces.  Geek #2 must have seen the sudden rapture on my face, because he started giggling like a little school girl.  We stood there side-by-side, jaws slack watching the action.  This young nerd spends his days installing these things and still, he admitted to me, he gets a bang out of seeing us HD virgins get our first blast of uber-crisp bigness.

That night, my family and I watched our beloved Ottawa Senators deliver a sound thrashing to the much loathed Pittsburgh Penguins.  My wife must have gotten tired of me saying to her "this is amazing, eh?  This is amazing, eh?  This is amazing, eh?"  Clearly, though, guys get far more enjoyment out these things, because all she could muster in return was, "It's fine."  And not like I might say Halle Berry is FINE but just plain ol' unadorned "fine".  Maybe women really are from Venus and men from Mars.

Hockey is my biggest true love, but I'm beginning to think my childhood interest in other sports like football, basketball and, most of all, baseball may be renewed.  Seeing the games on a big screen is even better than being there in person because you can see so much of the field the game is played on, but much closer, like you're on the field with the players. 

This was a great investment.  I look forward to watching all manner of programs - sitting on my couch, mouth agape, a hint of drool spilling over the top of my bottom lip.  This bad boy puts the ID in idiot box.  You'll have to excuse me, I hear House Hunters International coming on...