The times might be changing here at the Cross home. We have had DirecTV for 14 years. We have enjoyed it. Not too long ago we upgraded to HD and got a DVR to go with the whole thing. Things were great...but expensive. We pay $119 per month for this entertainment.

As my friends know, we travel a lot. We are usually away about 5 months of the year and cannot use our DirecTV while we are gone. It turns out that you can suspend service, but there are couple rules. It has to be for at least a month; you can only do it for a maximum of six months; you can only do it twice a year. Well, that last one has got us wondering. We suspended it in June for 2 1/2 months which covered two month long trips and two weeks in between. We had already suspended it once this year. We are in the two week period in the middle, and we have pretty much figured out we don't need the damn thing. My sons have come to similar conclusions. We have been trying Hulu Plus, thanks to Robert, and I have found plenty of good things to watch. Twilight Zone, Life Below Zero and X-Files are my favorites.

So I called customer service at DirecTV and explained what is going on. They had no remedy. We would probably not have gone through the re-evaluation if we could suspend it at will. Their rules caused us to think it all over again. I think they are going to lose a customer. I get my news from the internet and I will never run out of programs to watch on Hulu and the other providers. Ginny has pretty much come to the same conclusion. Additionally, we don't sit on our butts as much flipping channels. Things might be different if I watched sports, but I don't.

Our decision date is November 30. I will let you know what happens.