There has been much talk about the digital TV conversion that was supposed to happen today--how TVs without digital receivers or converter boxes would have nothing but nothing on.

It seems like eons ago that the commercials for this revolutionary event started--and it seems like only yesterday. Time flies . . .

But I was very disappointed when the day finally came, only to have the date officially pushed back in order to let the millions of people who have ignored the millions of commercials about the impending doom of NO TV have time to get the equipment needed to keep getting their fix uninterrupted.

I had envisioned a sort of nirvana for those people out of the conversion loop--unlike myself, having the luxury of thoughtless dronedom thanks to my obliging cable company taking care of whatever they did to ensure my continued reception of their wares. I had actually hoped that my service provider would forget to flip the switch.

Can you imagine anything as wonderous as a few days, a week, a month even, without TV? What would happen if it just went away? Withdrawal at first, I'm sure. Minor panic in the street. A rash of over-staying one's welcome at one's more proactive neighbors' houses, perhaps.

But then . . . oh, then . . . imagine the games people would play. Candy Land, Monopoly, Twister, rummy, poker, dare I say even Nature Dome. People young and old, huddled around the coffee table in front of the cold, lifeless TV . . . playing, laughing , strategizing, spending time with each other, bonding, talking to each other in the original wireless fashion--face to face . . .

It came so close to happening for so many millions of people . . . and then, with the stroke of an ostensibly well-meaning pen, hope faded, eyes dulled, minds shut down, family members disengaged and life marched on into the night . . .