TIVO Catastrophe 2007

September is the best month of the year. Not just because September marks my birthday and the beginning of autumn, but because the new television season starts. I love TV. I get excited during the day about shows I know are coming that night. I re-watch my favorite episodes. I have weekly conversations with people to see what they thought about each episode. I just get "involved".

Thursday night was the night of television I had been looking forward to, even preparing for, since May. My two favorite shows were premiering: Grey's Anatomy and The Office. We had made plans - Jill was coming over and we were all going to order food and be excited and watch. I had stayed up until 2 am the night before finishing season three of Grey's on DVD so it would all be fresh in my mind.

Things did not go as planned.

I got home from work around 7:15 and Lindsay informed me that the "TIVO is wigging out". Uh oh. She continued to mess with it as I gently reminded her that this was a very important night and we only had 30 minutes before it started. She eventually determined that it would be fine, I trusted her judgement, and we left to pickup our food. We got back to the house at 8:15 and decided to start The Office first. We all settled in with our food as Lindsay hit the TIVO button...it froze again. This time we couldn't restart it because then it would stop recording and we were taking small comfort in the fact that both lights were illuminated indicating that two shows were recording.

So for the next 45 minutes all three of us stared at a frozen TIVO menu on a 61 inch TV. And for 45 minutes I got more and more angry. Lindsay said she was afraid I was going to hit her. Of course I wouldn't hit her. Doesn't she know that heavy sighing and the silent treatment are my weapons of choice?

At 9:00 the red lights went out and the TIVO restarted itself. We thought this was a good sign since it had waited until after the shows were over. We were able to pull up The Office and found that it had only recorded up to the point where we tried to start watching. 15 minutes. We got 15 minutes each of two hour-long shows.

Something had to be done. I suggested inviting ourselves over to Carlee's in Layton and Lindsay suggested inviting ourselves over to Danny & Stephanie's in Sugarhouse. There was no way I was going to miss these shows and if that meant inviting myself (and two other people) somewhere and intruding, I was going to do it. We went with the closer option and I sent Danny a text. Steph called me right back and said they were just on their way home to start watching and that we could join them if we wanted. I think she might have been a little surprised when I said we'd be right over. I wasn't messin' around.

It ended up being a fun night and we got to see both of our shows. But why is it that after a month of working perfectly, the TIVO had to break on the night we actually needed it? Why couldn't it have broken on one of the nights we were recording The Pick Up Artist or even The Soup?

As it turns out, it is irrepairable and they are sending a new one. It won't get here until Thursday or Friday so we may need to go old school and set the timer on the VCR this week.

I know I said a DVR/TIVO would change your life but sometimes it will let you down.