New Beginnings

This past summer has been grueling, and not just because of the weather, although it has seemed like a living, breathing entity bearing down on everyone for several weeks now.   A couple of weeks ago, I told my mother that the only good thing about July is my birthday and that since I became an adult (about thirty minutes ago), even that pales.  She pointed out that we have a family reunion and the Fourth of July in July.  I repeated myself by saying that the ONLY good thing about July is my birthday.   August isn't very good either.  It doesn't even have my birthday going for it.  It's just hot, the grass is dead, and we're still several weeks away from cooler weather and Christmas shopping.   But then all of a sudden, it's September.  September!  MANY years ago, I began to look forward to September as a month of new beginnings – a new school year, new school supplies (I LOVED going shopping for school supplies – still can be found roaming those aisles at Target in August), and a new teacher.  I've been out of school now for several eons, but there is still a BIG new beginning that I can look forward to each September – the new Fall TV Season!!   Now there are some, my fiend Jennifer being a major one, who rant about there now being a fall season and a spring season with several months of repeats in between.  My thought is that there were always first runs from September through November (a sweeps month), then the month of December was reserved for holiday specials (i.e., the Grinch and the ubiquitous day of "Christmas Story" airings on TBS) and repeats, the first part of January usually had repeats too, but then by the time the kids were back in school until May (another sweeps month), you could plan on there being mostly first run episodes.  Last year was unusual, because of the Olympics, and the "spring" season didn't start until March.  But so what?  During the months of December through February, I was scurrying to watch the stuff on my almost full DVR to make room for the upcoming "spring" season.    Of course, now there is a "summer" season, with all of the cable shows like Psych, The Closer, Burn Notice, Eureka, etc.  So again, I don't seem to ever be without first run episodes of my TV shows.  I still have half of last year's episodes of The Middle to watch before the new season starts!   Last year, I could look forward to the return of faves like 24, Heroes, and Lost.  This year they are all gone.  Of course, Heroes really tanked there in the end, don't even know if I'll bother to get the season DVD, and I was hit by the fifth-year curse regarding 24.  See, generally, about the fifth year of a show, I just get sick and tired of it and drop it like it's hot (drop it like it's hot!).  With 24, I made it to season eight, but about 4 or 5 hours into the season, I just didn't care if Jack Bauer saved the world anymore.  Don't get me wrong, I still think Jack Bauer rocks!... just didn't want to watch the show anymore.    Steve had problems believing that I could just drop Jack mid-crisis.  (Frankly, I think he was just miffed that we couldn't have what had become our traditional Tuesday morning discussion/dissection of the previous night's episode.)  I believe it is a gift I inherited from my Grandpa Hollis.  I never met the man, well, technically we met, but I was like four months old at the time, so I don't think he'd be offended that I don't remember him… although there is very adorable photographic evidence of that meeting.  I digress, though…  hmm…chickens..  hmm.. oh, yeah…  Mom tells me that Grandpa Hollis would watch a show or movie on TV and then get up and go to bed about 10-15 minutes before it was over.    The first new thing I have to look forward to is the Fall Preview issues of the TV Guide and Entertainment Weekly.  I'll probably have to call in sick just so I can devote the necessary time to researching all of my choices.  There's The Event – which looks interesting, so I'll start watching it, love it, and it'll be cancelled.  Then there's the new comedy Outsourced – which seems to take place in an Indian customer service phone bank type place.  Of course, after I spend a couple of hours on the phone this weekend with Dish Network's customer service department trying to figure out what is wrong with my receiver (not mom's, just mine), I may not feel the same way.