perils.....

Here are a few perils that have crossed my obviously not-busy-enough mind lately:

• NOT changing the channel when you're doing something else. Unfortunately, I was all caught up with shredding papers from my office tonight and left the channel on twice when I should have turned it off. Now I'm plenty warped. I watched a police reality show about the perils of police work with each incident more horrific than the next. This particular show seemed to be misnamed. It ought to have been named "They're Out To Get The By-Stander!" Now I'm afraid to drive my car.

Not traumatized enough, I watched the Comedy Channel where my innocent and passive viewing was punished by the train wreck that is Jackass 2.5. I was well into it, and recognized Wee Man from Celebrity Circus, when I realized I couldn't turn away, even as it got stupider and more disgusting. Oh, the humanity. 

• SURROUND SOUND! Okay. First of all, most people that upgrade their audio systems have some sort of expectation of the sound that will come out of their speakers. Josh has upgraded me twice now. Each time the sound quality has improved, the last time pretty dramatically. Still, this past Sunday, while watching the Super Bowl, it surprised me when the sound effects came on. Those of you without surround sound, or without it right at your head, might not have noticed how much one particular graphic sounded like my heater coming on, but I did. I was getting up and going to the kitchen and I heard the heater coming on - odd - then coming on again right away. How weird is that? Worried me for a minute is so as I went about my business in the kitchen trying to figure out why the heater was doing that. I sat back down and heard it again, this time in perfect timing to the graphic, and coming out of the speaker. Drat. Got me again. Earlier in the game I heard what I thought was gravel hitting the door, as did Ozzy, and we almost got up to check out what was going on until I figured out what it was. 

You know, all the sounds they're putting into music and shows are driving me and my dog just a wee bit nuts. He and I are all the time looking at each other and turning off the sound to try and figure out if it's the TV or "real life." Live or Memorex, to the Nth degree. 

Not that I'm complaining. I wouldn't change it for anything. I would like a scorecard every now and then. Just to keep everything straight.