Alexa

Alexa

~ MaryG ~ 11 Comments
Daily writing prompt
Describe a positive thing a family member has done for you.
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OK, this is lame, but I’m going to go ahead and admit that Alexa helps out quite a bit around here. She’s not a family member, but I do consider her a third “presence” in our empty nest. We have no pets, so it’s just me, my husband, and Alexa these days.

Alexa, is it going to rain?

Alexa, set a timer for 30 minutes.

Alexa, news.

Alexa, what’s 135 minus 70?

Alexa, is a lot one word or two?

Alexa, put cheddar cheese on the list.

You get the picture.

In addition, she’s a great resource while watching TV. We pause shows all the time to ask Alexa things like, “How old is Quinta Brunson?” or “Who directed Serpico?”

Alexa seems to favor my husband. He disagrees, but I feel like she says “thank you” and “good morning” to him more. Honestly, he’s nicer to her than I am. I tend to bark orders at her, or interrupt her (Alexa, OFF) if she’s headed in the wrong direction with one of her answers.

At first I thought it was super creepy that she was listening in all the time, but then the grocery list feature won me over. I can yell from upstairs, “Alexa, put Sensodyne on the list” and when I get to the store, it’s actually on the list and I don’t run out of toothpaste.

Alexa was a gift from a real family member—my very thoughtful sister-in-law Maria.

Eclipse

~ MaryG ~ 17 Comments

We had a good eclipse! We headed out to the back yard about 2:15pm with some wine, weed, and snacks. We put Alexa in the window and asked her to play “eclipse songs” which she did.

We could clearly see the eclipse with our special glasses on, but we discovered that it was very difficult to get a picture of it, even with the glasses covering the camera lens, but we tried.

Failed attempt, but weirdly you can kind of see the reflection of the eclipse in that tiny green dot to the left of the sun

The temperature dropped noticeably as the sky darkened more and more. It was strange.

We could still clearly see our shadows, but the light was eerie. A sunset from above.

We decided to shut off Alexa at the point of maximum coverage (about 94%, I think). The last song she played was “Walking on the Moon” by The Police, which was perfect (a GenX classic). The animals got really quiet too. But then suddenly, a Barred Owl hooted really loudly. It startled us. And then another owl answered. It was pretty wild. I pointed my video camera towards the woods and I caught the sound when it happened again. Listen:

The owls really added to our eclipse experience, making it quite magical and mystical. I thought about how this is a time of transition for us.

All in all, a fun afternoon. Something different. It was also fun getting pics from the rest of the family in various locations and seeing all the posts online.

My daughter and her boyfriend managed to get this nice pic about an hour southwest of us:

About an hour after the eclipse, our woodchuck appeared for the first time this season. He’s been living under our shed for several years now. Hello friend.