Digital Aversion

We all have our pet peeves...for example, mine include bringing a ziploc bag of veggies to a sporting event or airport, talking during a movie, balancing one's checkbook or doing other mundane activities during a movie, asking questions during a movie...really just doing anything during a movie other staring intently, eyes wide open, at the screen in front of you....unless of course the movie is Mamma Mia...which I've recently named the worst movie I've seen this year.  

Despite all of those annoyances...for the last year, the biggest thorn in my side has been the endless parade of commercials warning about the need for a digital conversion box.  With the move to digital broadcast signals, I realize there is a need for those without cable to get such a box.  In fact, I realize it every day...multiple times a day...constantly...as rarely does an hour go by without a public service announcement warning of it.  Between the constant advertisements, scrolling warnings, and announcements, you'd think there was some sort of Digital Hurricane on its way to destroy our lands, flood our crops, steal our pets, plunder and prune the hedges of many small villages (contest: who can identify that reference first?).  Needless to say, I've been anxiously awaiting February when the conversion would finally happen and we could rid the world of these announcements...in fact...I've been counting the time down with each ad I've seen.  

So...You can imagine my dismay when I learned last week that they will be delaying the conversion until this summer to give people more time to get ready.  I think the government, as it so often does, is overlooking true human nature.  If an entire year of being barraged with reminders has not forced you to go get a converter box, then I assure you that six more months won't matter.  As a perpetual procrastinator myself....I know how this works, and the only thing that would get me to go get a converter box would be to wake up one morning and have my TV not work.  

 

So, in the end, can we please just do the conversion already and move on with our lives.  I don't know why this issue became to object of my disdain, but it did.  And, like any good pet peeve, it may be completely irrational, but it's still driving me crazy.