Dear PVR, I miss you.

I admit it, I LOVE my PVR; on more than one occasion I have wondered how parents ever managed to watch their shows before the advent of the PVR.  That said, when we got our PVR for Christmas three years ago I was not impressed.  It seemed like such an unnecessary extravagance.

Was I ever wrong, as a parent, our PVR is not extravagant, its essential.  It allows us to watch our shows when we want to and has the added convenience of allowing us to fast forward through the commercials, which as far as I'm concerned, rot your brain.  The PVR also allows us to tape whatever show the boy is obsessed with at any particular moment and turn it on with the click of a button.

On Wednesday morning, our PVR remote got thrown on the floor one too many times and stopped working.  I initially thought that batteries were dead, but when brand new batteries yielded no response from the PVR I knew we were in trouble.  Based on previous experience, I already knew that PVR remotes aren't available in retail stores (despite the fact that you can buy the PVR in stores).

In an attempt to remedy the situation, I promptly called my service provider SHAW to find out how to get our hands on a new remote as soon as possible.  After ten minutes of elevator music and 20 minutes of exasperated conversation I was no where near closer to having a new PVR remote.

I had two options:

1. I could pack up my kids and drive to a SHAW retail store to exchange my remote control.  Unfortunately there are only three locations in the lower mainland, and the closest one is still a 45 minute drive away.
2. I could pay $15 and have the remote shipped to my home.  Unfortunately, despite the fee and the fact that the remote would be shipped via Purolater, the customer service agent informed me it would be a three day wait.

Perhaps its just me, but as far as I'm concerned, these options are inadequate.  An hour and a half of driving with my kids just to wait in a lineup and exchange a remote is ridiculous, however a three day wait for a courier delivery, particularly when I can get a package from Toronto in a day, is even more absurd.

I opted to wait for the delivery with the hopes that the 'three day wait' was just a worst case scenario. Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be the case as it is now Saturday night and we still have to sit on the floor and press buttons to access the PVR.  Although we can watch our recorded programs via the buttons on the PVR, we cannot stop, pause, fast forward or rewind our programs.

This has been a tough reminder that before our PVR, not only did we have to run to the bathroom and fill up our water glassses during commercials, we also had to watch our shows at the listed times.  In truth its been such a hassle to use the PVR that we've barely watched any TV (which isn't necessarily a bad thing), but in all honesty I can't wait until our new remote arrives and we can resume our regular TV watching habits.

By the time my remote arrives on Monday (I hope) we will have been without for five days, am I being petty thinking that is by no means an acceptable option?