Trina Machacek
It is in my nature, when I want you to know that I have been doing something for a very long time, to say something like, “a million years ago.”
Knowing that about me let me begin. About a million years ago I started my DISH Network journey. Searching my brain, such as it is these days, I recall paying the outlandish amount of maybe $40 a month. To just watch TV!
Unheard of; paying for television. But! Yes, a 26,000 mile in the sky signal beamed to my “but.” We had been using a huge, 14-foot-across satellite dish and getting some interesting things for free along with using our UHF antenna for network channels.
Both of those things gave us the world in our living room. Then? The big dish suppliers discovered a way to charge for The Love Boat and da plane, da plane of Tattoo on Fantasy Island. Uh, not the couples fighting weekly on the fantasy island of today on one of my 250 channels I subscribe to.
And not THOSE channels. My stars! I have always paid that bill by check. I know myself well enough to know that I will never have automatic billing and bills paid from the checking account. Hey, I can’t even remember to take my clothes out of my dryer until I run out of underwear! So, I know I should never have a debit card or have bills paid automatically out of my nest egg at my bank. Such as my little eggs lay.
I pay for like three months at a time and have been sending the same amount on a check for more than maybe five years. It would pay for four months. Then, it would pay for three months with some extra.
Last year I had need of a service guy come out and put in new boxes because mine were so old. They needed a crank to start them in the mornings. HAHA not really, but they were old! The nice man, from Las Vegas, 400 miles away, changed the boxes and told me I should really have the “dish insurance” in case I ever needed service again.
Well since I had to pay $50 for him to get here and another $100 to upgrade and this and that, the $5 per month sounded like a deal. I am so stupid! I mean it was new equipment! Moving on Machacek! Oh, there was more. The new equipment needed a new equipment fee. For just a few months, I was told. Blah. Blah. Blah.
I just wanted my law-and-order shows. I admit, I like TV. It comes with Sirius Radio, and I like music from the 60s and 70s and country. TV is my entertainment. I don’t think it is unfair of me to ask for a reasonable rate if I have to pay for TV.
So yesterday I sat down with my checkbook and list-o bills to pay. I checked my email and there was my monthly notice from my TV provider. I knew I was working toward the end of my fourth month and would need to send some moolah to keep Fox News and Dr. Phil telling me of the outside world.
Was I shocked to see that my monthly bill is not my happy $40 a month. Nor was it my achievable $75, $93, or even $115 a month. Oh no. It has somehow taken a huge jump up to a rousing $150-plus a month! Do you realize that is $5 a day.
Hey for five bucks a day I could — well let me see. For five bucks a day I could. I am at a loss. Have coffee. Nope. Have a beer. Nope. Get a gallon of gas. Barely, but I would have to drive to get it! Get a burger. Nope.
Well dang me. This led me to check a few more bills that have crawled out of sight of where my budget would be comfortable. Of course, electricity lights the way. (See what I did there? Lights the way).
I am used to this bill being a bit more in the summer due to me having my own well and I, well, I use my well, well during the hot blazing summer to keep my yard wet and green. But it is November, and the cold of winter has not crept in — yet.
However, the electric bill forgot to come down after summer. If anything, it rose a bit in the past months. It’s not like I realize inflation is not a real thing. I know inflation.
Every time I put on last year’s jeans, aka long pants after wearing shorts all summer, inflation is what I blame!
Trina Machacek lives in Diamond Valley north of Eureka. Email itybytrina@yahoo.com.