Watching 60 Minutes

I know that it is possible to download US TV shows over the internet and watch them anywhere in the world. Our technology set up won't allow this and we're scared to upgrade (touch) anything.

Our French TV is nine years old. Our computers are 5-6 years old. Burglars, beware, there is nothing here for you, no flat panels, no iPADS, no wifi printers.

We're scared to upgrade because any little change could blow up the fragile system. As it is, we get internet, TV, and phone via phone lines (VOIP and regular) from France Telecom. With this set up, we can't even use some of the phone jacks, they must be "terminated" with a special plug. We don't have a phone (or a TV) in the master bedroom. It's not possible.

We don't get wifi in the back of the apartment because the stone walls (murs porteurs) stop it.

French television programming leaves a lot to be desired. We watch the news in English and then in French. Once in awhile, we get a good movie or I watch Cuisine TV (usually dubbed from English). We watch tennis when there's a major tournament.

We read a lot. In the summer, it is light until 11 PM, so we stay out later.

In the US, we have the normal technology. Nothing fancy but it all works. Phones where we need them, several TV's (even though we only use one). We can record our favorite programs for months at a time, as long as the hard disk in our DVR has space. So, we record some of our favorite things. 60 Minutes is one of them. We've been watching the last 5 months of programs. We watch them in reverse chronological order -- the newest ones first. We just got to the program that they interrupted to tell the world that "public enemy #1" was dead. I found out on the internet the next morning, but I can't imagine how much fun it would have been to see it live on TV.

Perhaps we'll re-visit our technology needs.