Another Addiction

So I was tidying my bedroom while listening to NPR (story on Origami, subject of a future essay) when I found a doodad that belonged in another room and started to walk out to rehome it, but didn't want to miss the next bit of the story and found myself inordinately teed off that I couldn't just pause the radio and resume where I'd left off a couple minutes later. There's no DVR for the radio (maybe there is and I just don't know about it. If there is, I want one, now!) My sons tell me that I can listen to the radio on my computer, or probably, my iPhone. I suppose that would work if I was always in the room where my computer is and if I could always find my iPhone. Another issue. The radio pretty much stays put, at least.

I fear I've become addicted to the DVR! I can pause it when I have to go to the bathroom, answer the phone or doorbell, cook something that doesn't require a microwave, AND I can rewind when I've missed a crucial bit of dialogue or action or when, as increasingly happens, I drift off to sleep.

Movies are another thing: I need to get out of the house sometimes and I like the theater experience, big room, big screen, comfy chairs, surround sound, popcorn. But no DVR. For $11.50 a pop, I need a DVR. Not to mention closed captioning, which I do understand is available in some theaters although I haven't actually found one.

I also want a DVR for my dreams, when I wake up in the middle and want to remember what just happened and want it to continue but it won't.

I want a DVR for my thoughts (used to be called a notebook, but I can't be going around writing EVERYTHING down or I'd be more inundated in paper than I already am, and yes, I know that you can take notes on iPhones, but the same problems apply. See above.) I want a Pause button, pure and simple, with a Rewind feature.

I suppose the DVR is the closest thing I get to a universal Do-over. It's a sort of forgiveness. The past is replayable: Try it again, you'll get it right this time. Maybe they'll develop some sort of hi-tech DVR implant in my lifetime. Stranger things have happened. See iPhone!