Rats - the TV works

I HAVE A man cave upstairs. On Sundays I like to take long golf naps (even if Tiger is winning) and flip between football games. We have our TVs hooked up to an antenna to get local channels and use Sling for cable.

Lately the antenna, which is supposed to pick up digital channels, hasn't been working. Sheryl has knee and back issues right now and is not willing to climb on the roof to figure it out for me. It will mysteriously stop receiving and we have no idea why.

For some reason it started working again Saturday night, which was great because the Iowa-Wisconsin game was on Fox and I hate both teams, and it was a great game, and I bet Kinnick was quiet after that one.

Sometimes it works ... sometimes it don't.

I made a plan last night to torture myself and watch the Lions play the Patriots. I've been a Lions fan for nearly 40 years, and why I'm not totally grey is beyond me, but the Lions are the Lions. In the immortal words of The Clash, "It's always tease tease tease - You're happy when I'm on my knees." Yup, that's what being a Lions fan is all about.

So I go up there and the antenna is not working. There is no reason why. It worked great in the afternoon, and then .... nothing. No Lions game. Geesh. Maybe I'd avoid the anguish of watching them after all.

I unscrewed some wires and put them back in and miraculously the antenna picked up our local NBC station. It kept going off and on, off and on, until about midway through the first quarter. Then it worked fine for the rest of the game.

Incredibly, Tom Brady looked human and the Lions played their butts off and won. Never mind New England usually sucks in September and half the team is hurt. A win is a win, baby. It was nice to see.

The antenna is like a guitar string - it breaks just because it can, and does. Hopefully it works next weekend when the Ryder Cup is on and there's more football two watch.