Love of sports prompts a little black box
- col-lee-elliot-aging-graciously
- June 19, 2024
- 506
As I have noted in the past, I love sports. Thus, since moving here, I have become a loyal fan of the Guardians and the Cavaliers. Much to my despair, at the beginning of this season I discovered that my streamer no longer carried their games. A day on the phone finally found the right group and I switched the televisions to accommodate my desires.
This, in itself, for me, was not an easy task. With plain old cable, I pushed the on button and the TV presented the streamer immediately. Now, I have to poke it at the end of a long line up, wait three or four minutes for it to identify me, and choose from a large number of possibilities, which are usually not what I want to watch.
I also had to purchase a small box to attach to the auxiliary TVs in order to pull them into the system. I will have to say, the sales people with whom I spoke were far more polite and helpful than the others I have tried. However, I was told they would send the order to the local store and I should just go and pick up the little box. They would even come out and install it. Simple enough, you say.
On a Sunday afternoon, I went to the local store to pick up the little box. There were two clerks who were serving one person each, and four people registered on the computer ahead of me.
Two hours and 15 minutes later, the two clerks were still serving the same customers and four more had come in, making it nine of us waiting in line. I was amazed that, number one, it took two hours to take care of one person’s business, and number two, that I actually sat there that long before getting up and leaving.
Not to be undone, I returned the next morning, where I waited another full hour to get my little black box. There were four clerks working this time. I asked the person who waited on me why it took so long with one customer, and the answer was, “Oh, we do it all here.” Believe me, I would like to suggest more clerks or less “all.”
Still, thanks to the little black box, I was able to watch our local swimming hero, Hunter Armstrong, win first place out of 72 swimmers in nine heats, and then go on to overcome slipping on the block in the next competition, and making up the time to place second. Such a fine young man deserves to go as far as possible. I surely hope to be watching him at the Olympics in Paris...as long as the black box holds up its end of the bargain.