So with a new flat-screen and very large television set in the house the struggle came to be how to install it. Where was obvious: it would be in my parents' bedroom, which sees the minority of television-watching in the house, because the set is too big to fit in the cabinet in the living room. The bedroom fitting required moving out the old television set, and then rearranging the shelves in my parents' bureau. While my father was certain the television would fit inside, he wasn't sure we could actually fit it inside, and if that doesn't quite seem possible consider the family from which the problem comes.
The challenge in coordinating the television set move was doing it with my father, who was eager to use this little cart he has for moving around tool things, and which rolls very well on flat surfaces which my parents' carpeted bedroom does not have. Actually, I would have figured I could move the new TV in alone, since it is bulky but not really heavy, and I could slide it for the most part. Another challenge is the fascination of the cats, who know shockingly little about the High Definition television debate or implementation rules, but do know that this was a very large, strange thing, moving around, which none of them had yet rubbed against.
The television set fit in, though we had to put it in at an angle so that it would fit neatly past the swinging doors and so that I could plug in the cables, more about which anon. From there it was a simple matter of my father trying to find the ``on'' button on the TV set while I pressed the ``on'' button on the remote, and the little game of digital chicken as we wait to see what happens first, the television picking up the correct date and time from ... wherever it is ... that some electronic components find them, or we crack and set the date and time manually. We set it by hand, the old-fashioned way.
Come Monday morning, we may learn if we understood the settings for making the set come on in the morning, essential to its use as an alarm clock, work. I'll hear about it after the fact.
Trivia: The comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 was discovered by Carolyn and Gene Shoemaker and David Levy on 24 March 1993. Source: Rain of Iron and Ice, John S Lewis.
Currently Reading: Great Fortune: The Epic of Rockefeller Center, Daniel Okrent.