Here’s a story that I bet a lot of readers can relate to:

In 2003, my wife and I moved back to Maine. We started fixing up an old farm house. In the process, I decided to wire each room for cable and phone. In fact, in some of the rooms I put a phone jack and cable connection on each of the four walls to make it easier when my wife wanted to rearrange the furniture.

When I was complete, there were 16 cable outlets throughout the house. I determined that good TV reception was obtained from each. We placed a television set in each of the five bedrooms, even the spare ones, in case guests wanted to watch TV while getting ready for bed.

Fast forward to 2012.

Our cable provider decided to upgrade service. It now provides only digital service. All my television sets now require what the provider calls “your TV’s new best friend” — a digital adapter. Well, the digital adapter is sensitive and will not receive a signal if there are too many splitters in the wiring.

So, my provider’s upgrade consisted of my going from 16 working TV outlets throughout my house to three. No longer do I have a television set for my guests in the spare bedrooms, or any bedroom, except for the master bedroom, for that matter.

I just took two of the older sets to the transfer station for disposal.

Isn’t it great when someone else decides what it is that you need?

Jim Murphy, Bethel