The continuing saga of my TV/VCR

[iamangelachase]

You may recall that last week my TV stopped working properly and in the process nibbled on my mother's tape. Since I couldn't figure out what was going on, I stopped using it and waited until my dad could look at it. This happened a few days ago, and while he didn't do much more than I would have done, we determined that the TV would work if a tape was inside. Strange. Otherwise, it kept doing the weird thing where it would turn on for five seconds, make an unhappy noise, then turn itself off. I decided to sacrifice my balance ball workout tape to the cause in case anything went wrong, and so far nothing has; I was able to watch TV last night without much issue. The only thing was that the tape automatically played once it was inserted, and when the TV was shut off, it would eject the tape. I thought maybe it had to do with it being a commercial tape, i.e., you can't record on it, so I covered over the part that makes it not-recordable--does it have an actual name?--and that seemed to solve the auto-play/auto-eject issue. The TV's old--dad thinks it was a high school grad gift, but I don't honestly remember, because I thought I was already in college when I got it--and an off-brand, so in some way I should be glad it hasn't had major problems until now. But I like my TV. At least I can still use it for the time being.

What's funny: My grandfather has been telling me he'd give me a duplicate DVD player since the summer, if not before. I remember summer because he'd wanted to give it to me while my room was all torn up and I said, now's not a good time. So he finally gave it to me for Christmas, and I had to tell him, I can't even use it because my TV's not working. He just laughed. O. Henry would probably have enjoyed that twist.