We get 8,760 hours in a year. In good years, 3 of those (180 minutes) can be spent watching a Steelers playoff game. In a really good year, you can watch the Steelers WIN a playoff game in those 3 hours. It’s one reason, maybe the only reason, to occasionally not despise January.
Yesterday, during those precious 3 hours, all Comcast services went out in the Greensburg area (for us, no TV and Internet), along with TV-only outages in some other Westmoreland County areas, from a few minutes left in the 3rd quarter to a few minutes left in the 4th quarter. So, we basically lost a WHOLE QUARTER. 30+ minutes. Of a playoff game. While the Steelers were kicking butt.
I couldn’t even get through to Comcast to scream at them — busy for 10-15 minutes. (Good thing we don’t have Comcast phone, or I couldn’t have even done that.) When I did get through, I heard a hastily recorded message about network problems and an apology for “any inconvenience.”
Yeah, inconvenient. That does it justice.
In the 3+ years we’ve lived here, we’ve never had an outage of this sort. Nope. It had to happen during A PLAYOFF GAME.
Of course, we already had the radio on listening to Tunch and Bill. Thank God for that (I love you guys).
For a brief few seconds, I thought, “I wonder if it’s worth it to pay for cable and satellite, so if one goes out during a playoff game, you won’t miss anything?”
Yep, the thought crossed my mind. (“I bet that’s what rich people do.”)
It’s scary to love a team that much.
Radio football is football reduced to its lowest common
denominator. Shorn of the game’s aesthetic pleasures,
or the comfort of a crowd that feels the same way as you,
or the sense of security that you get when you
see that your defenders and goalkeeper are more or less
where they should be, all that is left is naked fear.
~ Nick Hornby, Fever Pitch, 1992
Writing by Ear 
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