A Quilter's Second-Best Friend

... Portable Digital TV

No, I'm not watching Bonnie on my laptop.  Or viewing Netflix on my tablet.  I'm watching weather warnings on a portable digital TV that picks up local signals through the air.  Very helpful when cable goes out in a storm, as happened one evening last week when tornados were touching down in the next county to our east.

Tornado in Wilson County

We don't have smart phones or smart tablets; we're totally tied to the cord.  So if cable goes out we are helpless to know what is going on.

I purchased my first one during the 2010 flood when the local Comcast broadcast studio was under water and out of commission.  I was stuck in a hotel (I couldn't get into my subdivision -- or so I thought) for 2 days with no way of knowing what the local situation was.   Target to the rescue!

The downside to these is they are useless if you are out of range of the local signal.  I'm sure one day we'll have to go to smart devices, but for now it's been a salvation.  And, yes, I know there is an antenna device that you can add to your TV to receive local signals without cable, but they weren't available to me in 2010.

Yep, watching while sewing -- the power never went off.  But, if it had, the TV has a battery!  Wish my sewing machine did!  Guess I need to get a hand crank machine .....

Which reminds me, I also have a hand-crank emergency radio with a USB port for charging cell phones.  This usually stays in my car because it is also a weather radio.  Like I said, someday we're going smart, but for now we're making do.  And we'll always have these devices for backup.