Wednesday, April 28, 2010 10:17 a.m.

We here at our home strive to make our lives as commercial-free as possible.  Our modern environment is saturated with advertising, and we try to make our home and lives as safe a haven as possible, including minimizing the amount of advertising to which we are exposed.  Not simply for our children's well being, but also for our own.  Few things arouse a spirit of discontentment for Self-Reliant Man and me more than advertising.

Now I do enjoy listening to music, usually in the car, but over the years our options for doing so have narrowed.  I have been very unsatisfied with broadcast radio, and I am not in the habit, anymore, of shopping for recorded music.  Whereas at one time, about ten or so years ago, I spent a lot of time and attention acquiring music CDs, I am no longer interested in doing so.  I have relied on the radio, and been unhappy with it, so there has been a dearth of recorded music in my life.  Strange, for a family that spends so much time learning how to play string instruments.

In the last year, our local public radio station has stopped broadcasting classical music due to lack of listener support. The major city near us is not exactly a Mecca for the fine arts, I am sorry to say. So, no more classical music, except for a few well worn, tiresome CDs that I play in the car. The local contemporary Christian radio station seems to have a playlist of about 20 songs, and when an especially good one is released, it is played to death. So I can't stomach that anymore. For awhile, I got excited about a new radio station in town that plays music from the 60s, 70s, and 80s. So I would put that on (or Sweet Girl would request it) and that was fine for about a month. Then I found some of the advertising so offensive that I had to stay alert to quickly change stations. Well, this happened twice, maybe, and then I was sick of it and shut it off.

As Chips would say: "Blah!"

But this post does have a happy ending, I promise. While Self-Reliant Man had his car in the body shop for two weeks (due to his encounter with a garbage truck) we were loaned a rental car that had satellite radio. What a blessed discovery this was for me!!! 100% Commercial Free digital music stations of all kinds: pop, country, classical, jazz, Christian, world music and a station for many various sub-categories of musical styles. Plus all kinds of news, weather, and talk stations.

So this week, Self-Reliant Man announced to me that he is going to install a Sirius/XM radio in my car as well as purchase a free-standing portable radio for listening inside the house and in our yard. So I am happy as a lark. I can now hear all the music I haven't heard in years -- including music I remember from when I was age 7 or under, sitting in the back seat of the car when my mother was driving, nostalgic music for me, as well as classical music 24/7. I especially appreciate the display that identifies the name of the piece and the artist. Very nice. So although there are about 120 stations to listen to, we will be picking the Sirius "A la Carte" option whereby you select 50 stations that you particularly want (and there are many that I don't!) and pay $7 a month.

So that is my latest way to de-commercialize our lives; money well spent, I think.