“Aye, There’s the Rub!”

It must be about 7 or 8 years ago when my wife surprised me with one of the best Christmas gifts ever-Satellite TV. At that time, before Fox Sportsworld  became the Fox Soccer Channel, it was the only place where a rugby fanatic based in North America could get their rugby fix.  The first few years were great, but over time, I noticed that fewer and fewer rugby matches were being shown on Fox-to the point where “The Rugby Club” was only on once a week, at two in the morning. The final insult was when it cut all pretense and became Fox Soccer Channel. To say that I was upset would be an understatement. It was the television equivalent of being happily married for years and then finding out your partner is gay or lesbian-not inherently bad, but it is not what you signed up for. It certainly had me in a foul mood…

Luckily, Direct TV offered Setanta Sports, where the North American rugby fan could get a healthy dose of the oval ball, along with soccer, hurling, Aussie Rules and Gaelic football. This was all good, and over the years I had nothing but good experiences with Direct TV’s customer service.

Last year, I heard about a French language channel called TV 5 Monde. Direct TV did not offer it, but Dish Network does offer it. I had wanted to have a French language station to keep my ear still tuned for listening to French. When you have worked hard to obtain a certain level of profeciency in a foreign language, you like to do things to keep up with it. In language, the old saying about “use it, or lose it”, is very true.

My wife surprised me with saying we were going to switch from Direct TV to Dish Network. The Dish Network tech just came out and spent a long time freezing his ass off on my roof on a very cold Minnesota morning (2 degrees Farenheit, or -16 Celsius), only to tell me that because of my neighbors very large tree next door, it could not get strong signal to get the international stations, and in fact, would only get worse when spring came and the leaves would come in on this tree. For whatever reason, the way that the Direct TV satelite came in, it was at an angle where the trees did not bother the signal. Looks like we are going back to Direct TV-I see no reason to keep a satellite system that is not going to give me what I wanted.

Moral to the story: Just as if you have a spouse who treats you well, don’t leave him/her for somebody who might appear more seductive. If you have a satellite system that is working for you, don’t leave them for another system with a “sexier” French Channel. You will only be disappointed.