Color Me Stressed

I remembered today just as I was about to dash out the door to get some cheese that I was supposed to have taped the Tour de France for my brother Sean this morning. Knowing from several days of the Tour being on our TV seemingly nonstop that each day's trial was repeated sometime later in the day. I checked the guide and, joy of joys, the repeat was set to start in less than half an hour.

I pulled out a blank tape and changed to the right channel -- and the screen went blank.

The digital cable box no longer had the time or even the channel showing on its display; rather, something that looked like "Error 7" was spelled out in diodes. I pressed every button on the box, to no avail. I couldn't even get the thing to turn off.

And so I decided to pull the plug.

I unplugged and plugged in the box in quick succession. The error message disappeared and the time came back -- but there was no cable feed. I changed the channel again and again, and each channel was a glowing blue screen. I pressed all of the buttons again.

Now, I could turn the box off. Not that it mattered.

At this point, I became so frustrated that I yelled at the dogs and stormed out of the house. I seemed to have broken the digital cable, which not only would mean a quiet house for the week but also would mean I'd probably get in trouble once my parents returned.

I did my grocery shopping (picking up cheese, Spanish rice and Alfredo sauce) and grabbed dinner to-go from Arby's, figuring a nice Roast Chicken Club sandwich might make me feel somewhat comforted.

I came home and searched the internet for information on digital cable box troubleshooting while I ate dinner. Adelphia's web site offered a whole lot of nothing on fixing or setting up a box. Even the sites that did have suggestions didn't seem to apply them to my particular cable box.

Figuring I couldn't make it worse, I unplugged the box again and turned it around, hoping there'd be a setup button on the back. No luck. I plugged it back in, hit the power button, and turned the TV back in.

Suddenly, it was loading the cable guide.

I think I may be bald by the end of this week.