”You know,” said my pet goat, “I’m sure if I watched ‘Grey’s Anatomy,’ I’d like it, but I just don’t have the time.”

Extremely long pause.

“You should make the time,” said the farmer.

Rob and I TiVo both “Family Guy” and “Grey’s Anatomy.” We watch “Family Guy” regularly, but we had about sixteen months’ worth of “Grey’s Anatomy” stacked up. Now that we’ve started working our way through the almost thirty episodes, it’s like Christmas. Christmas 2005, to be exact.

Unlike my pet goat, I don’t like “Grey’s Anatomy” very much so I don’t know why we taped it in the first place, but I know why I watch it now: the commercials. “So that’s what life was like back then,” I will say to myself as I fast forward through advertisements for products and television programs that have since vanished from the face of the earth. Life was simpler in the good old days when “American Inventor” was on the air. There were things I didn’t have to deal with that I now have to deal with. Thousands of people who have been shot to death since were alive then. Thousands of tons less carbon dioxide was in the atmosphere.

“Every day brings its own surprises,” said a crazy old woman once on “ER.” This may be true, but I could do with fewer surprises. They cause wrinkles on my forehead.

One surprise a week would be more than enough.