Such an idiot

Completely by accident, I saved myself a lot of embarrassment (and a small fortune) tonight.

My 50-inch projection TV had been out of commission since Thursday night's power outage. After numerous attempts to unplug and replug the surge protector, I had concluded that a lighting strike had damaged my prized TV while somehow leaving the DVR, sound system, clock and weather station fully functional.

When I finally reached a repairman this afternoon and explained my situation, he suggested I bring it in. You might surmise that 50-inch projection TVs aren't exactly portable.

Determined not to miss another episode of "Pirate Master," (the Nigerian Nightmare gone in week 2, are you kidding?!) I readied the Jeep to haul the TV and began disconnecting cables when I discovered the TV was plugged into the surround sound box. I turned on the power and my TV at least reacted when I tried to turn it on.

Another call to Darryl's and I had my TV back, without even lugging it across town or forking over hundreds of dollars. So it's like a MasterCard commercial in reverse:

Missing "National Bingo Night" again -- no biggie
Missing the inaugural Iowa Corn Indy 250 -- oh well
Narrowly avoiding the temptation to purchase the extended warranty on the next major appliance I buy -- priceless.