shenandoah delight

in may 2005, we decided to move away from the hustle and bustle of washington dc and back to something more tranquil and relaxing. our little 5-acre plot on the western slope of the shenandoah mountains is all that we could have wanted. life is good in the hills.

like most blogs, mine will mostly be a way to share random thoughts, perspectives, peeves, and prognostications with friends, family, and anyone else who decides to drop by. i hope you enjoy it as much as i do. . . ~ron

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Location: clear brook, northern va, United States

i was born a navy brat and joined the navy myself in 1979. after spending 20 years as a naval cryptologist, i retired in 1999. now i am a computer security engineer for a mid-size government contractor in reston, va. i am very lucky to be married to the love of my life - cherie'( a.k.a. lolita), and we have 7 terrific kids! plus 7 terrific grandkids!

i attended garner senior high school in garner, nc (just outside raleigh) and the university of maryland (bs in 2000 and ms in 2004).

now that the kids are all grown and out of the house, i fill my time trying to keep tabs on them, which ain't always easy. they tend to be very busy and socially active. life could probably be better, but honestly, i don't know how . . . except living closer to all the kids would be nice :-)

Thursday, March 02, 2006

death of a sportsfan

i've loved sports my entire life. however, unlike a lot of my friends who also love sports, i have never really been hooked on watching them on tv. don't get me wrong, i used to love watching games on the tube, but i wasn't addicted. perhaps that is one reason that i found it so easy to let them go.

sure, i still love to catch a baseball/basketball/football game on a saturday/sunday afternoon, but i long ago gave up on ever again seeing a game on tv that actually mattered to me. a tarheel game, the dallas cowboys, or the washington nationals would be fun to watch. instead i get to see games that no one cares about. if i want to see a game that actually means something - i have to pay for it. and that's just not going to happen.

cable companies and satellite providers now offer sports "packages", which will allow you to see just about any game you want - for a price. here are the figures for the sportsaholic who gets his/her feed from directv.

nfl package = $229
nba package = $109
mlb package = $159
college basketball = $159 (doesn't include ncaa tournament)
ncaa tournament = $59
college football = $159 (doesn't include bowl games)
bowl games = $59
nhl = $109
mls = $109
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total for all sports = $1092
monthly directv ($60 x 12) = $720
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total cost to watch sports = $1812 per year

if you want to watch boxing, add in about $50 per fight night, and "professional" wrestling (how can something that's entirely fake be called professional???) will cost you another $50/night. it's easy to see how true "sports fans" could spend $1800/year (above the $720 for the cable/directv connection) in subscription fees. that's $150/month, or a new set of really good golf clubs every year.

i'm sure plenty of folks pay to watch sports on tv - how else could teams afford to pay mediocre players over $1,000,000/year and really good players $25,000,000/year (or has someone beats a-rod's record contract?) - but i won't be one of them. instead, i'll be in the driveway working on my 3-pointer . . . i always liked playing more than watching anyway.