And, in First World Problems

Wednesday of this week we finally replaced our old TiVo HD.

We're long-standing TiVo users in our home. I know people who have had it for longer, but I can say we've had it for nearly a decade now. For the past couple of years our TiVo HD had been behaving badly: freezing and rebooting in the middle of watching a show, freezing in the middle of a recording, things like that. So, after checking our admittedly-stretched budget, we decided we should probably see what we could do about replacing it. I mean, freezing and rebooting multiple times a day is not normal. I called TiVo a bit over two weeks ago, we got a replacement box sent out at some charge to us (but not as badly as buying a new one), transferred service over, and that's that, right?

Well... no. For one thing, there's no easy way to transfer shows from one TiVo to another. As in, if they aren't both of the current generation you can't really do it. For another, they didn't have the easiest way of transferring over the Season Pass list. For yet another thing was actually setting up the new box and making sure everything works. For a fourth, the TiVo would work better hooked up to the router via Ethernet cable than via our old Wireless G network connection...

I've sporadically agitated for several years that we move our cable modem and network setup down to the living room from its old location on our second floor. My wife objected previously that she worried about the signal strength going down in our room or that we had no space downstairs, but this time she said, "So long as you do it."

So I did, and that was that, right?

Well... no. I did bring everything downstairs, found that I would need slightly more space than I could justify at the TV cart, brought over our small coffee table as an interim measure, then found I'd need one more coaxial cable, and went rummaging. All the while my little lion was being remarkably patient, moreso for it being her. I think she was tired of the TiVo regularly interrupting her regular show. As the kids have been putting their feet up on it every now and again I figured it was OK to let it semi-retire. I started setting everything back up, got a bit distracted by my daughter at a point when things were wobbly, and the heaviest hard drive we have slid off the table and landed on one of its rounded points on my left foot.

Ow. Ow ow ow ow ow! ow ow. My little lion was nowhere near the table at the time, but given the weight I'm just glad it landed on my foot instead of hers.

There was more trouble trying to get the Season Passes moved over, and the old box actually did give up the ghost when I tried plugging it in one last time, and and and... heck, I still haven't hooked up the extra external storage as I'm not sure if it exacerbated the problems with the old TiVo. I probably should try it while the new TiVo is still under warrantee.

Still, now we have a splufty new TiVo merrily recording shows, our network's flashing lights no longer wake up our son, and my family is much happier about that.

I think I need to go to the doctor's office come Monday as my foot still hurts.