Sinatra is crooning softly in the background. It is early. I complained about that yesterday. There is no point belaboring the subject. It just is. The boy and his dog are asleep in the bedroom adjacent to my office. The wife sleeps restlessly down the hall.
Yesterday the boy was at work. The wife was visiting a friend. I was ensconced in my office, or maybe putting some boxes in the attic, or perhaps on the patio smoking a short cigar in the weak winter sun. I don’t know where I was, but at some point my daughter stopped by and left some cookies on the counter. They were just there — a paper plate of snickerdoodles. I don’t know how I missed her. It is a good thing it wasn’t a cat burglar. Does anyone under the age of fifty use the term “cat burglar”? It brings to mind Cary Grant and Princess Grace, not armed thugs breaking in at night to grab your wallet and TV.
I bought a couple of “smart” plugs. Now I can turn on a lamp or the Christmas tree just by telling my Amazon Echo to do it. Because who doesn’t want to control their house by voice? More importantly, I did it because I can. I dig technology and I look forward to automating more stuff. It would be awesome to say “make coffee” and a steaming mug is waiting downstairs. Suck it George Jetson. So what if evil Amazon is listening in to every aspect of my life as long as Big Brother turns on my lights, locks my doors, plays my music requests, and makes me coffee? We are under permanent surveillance anyway, I might as well make the technology work for me.
I went to the store last night to buy the stuff for Thanksgiving dinner. The place was pretty well cleaned out. I managed to get everything except crackers for the cheese ball. That is OK, I don’t like cheese ball anyway. That may not be true. I am 55 years old and have never tried a cheese ball of any variety. Never. Don’t know why. Now it is a matter of hard-headed pride. I know it is stupid. I have eaten all manner of foodstuffs, but for some stubborn perverse reason I refuse to even try a rolled-up collection of soft cheese. I like cheese. But I won’t eat a cheese ball. I won’t start this Thanksgiving either.
I think I need more coffee. When does that automated coffee brewer arrive? “Hey Alexa, order me a smart coffee maker...” .
2 comments:
I've been using x10 switches for years, but the latest I bought to work with LED lighting have started to turn on and off whenever they feel like it. It's disconcerting to have the hallway light come on in the middle of the night.
Might be time to upgrade the router, older ones can't handle all the connections. Just had to change out mine and have a new line run into the house. It seems the old line coming in had been cut and rewired by the contractor that worked on the deck. I currently have 9 connections and it is only two of us and were are on fiber.
James Old Guy
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