Hundreds of Channels, Nothing to Watch

Early yesterday morning I was awake, flipping channels, and stumbled on an AFL Premiership match between Collingwood and Sydney. I love Australian rules football - no sissy pads and no timeouts, just prime athletes moving quickly and gracefully downfield; the most common on-field talk you hear is "Play on!" It's fast moving and demanding. I've long been surprised that it hasn't garnered much support here, so I'm thrilled when I find a telecast.

Insomnia always has been part of my life, and that tendency has become more and more pronounced with RCC and my medications. So one would think cable (or in our case DishTV) must have a lot to offer in the wee hours, right? I suppose it does - if you like sports, or movies, or infomercials. I do like sports but there's a limit to my endurance. I do like movies but I'm rather finicky about what I watch. Infomercials are a plague and pestilence, in my opinion.

I was lucky in 2000 - recovery from my nephrectomy coincided with the Olympics in Australia, so I got to entertain myself with a great deal of live broadcasts. Given the time difference and the "prime time" broadcast mentality I saw lots of the "offbeat" sports (3-day eventing, archery, sculling). Maybe it's just me, but I've enjoyed seeing those "offbeat" sports since the days of ABC's Wide World of Sports, which introduced many of us to sports" from around the globe" we'd never heard of.

I generally keep myself occupied with knitting or reading when I'm awake so as not to disturb Saint H. I don't often venture into the land of pre-dawn channel surfing but I'm always stunned by how little there is to watch. And if I feel that way on my occasional forays, how on earth does someone working third shift feel?