Older and Better with Shelly

I have to admit the first time I saw Alexa she didn't look like she could become my best friend. In fact I couldn't figure out what she was at all. I was at my kids’ house and saw my son and my granddaughter talking to this thing on the counter in the kitchen. I thought they had both lost their minds. When she talked back to them I thought I lost my mind. I thought this was the stupidest thing that has ever been invented. Why do you need somebody to help you play your music? Has the world gotten so lazy that you can't put a CD on your CD player or turn the radio on? I forgot all about Alexa until my son, the main gadget guru in the family, got us an Amazon Echo Dot for Hanukkah, a few years ago. I thought what in the heck am I going to do with that round circle thing that when you plug-it in it lights up. I remember years ago when my brother and I got my mother a microwave and she refused to use it. She used it as a bread box for years unt...

Another Thanksgiving. Almost every Thanksgiving that we host has an issue of an unfortunate incident. One year, when the kids were little, and we were in a small apartment, we had a long table in the living room and dining room combo. One of the kids, I forget which one, decided to throw up on the carpet where the table would go. The smell was horrible and intense. Guests would be arriving in a few hours. Now I have to say apartment carpeting isn't the best to begin with. Forty years ago we didn't happen to own a shampooer. Need I say more? We scrubbed and put everything known to man on that carpet to get rid of that awful smell. We finally settled on a throw rug and proceeded to set-up the table over it. Onto the next Thanksgiving crisis. How about the kitchen sink being clogged the day of holiday? The water was so high it was about to start spilling over onto the floor in the kitchen.  Did you ever try to get a plumber out on Thanksgiving before...

You are never too old to learn! Just found out our bedroom fan was going in the wrong direction! As a fan of all things cool in the summer I am sad for all the hot nights (no sex pun intended) that I have had with the air conditioner on full steam! Twenty five years of ignorance. That's a lot to bear! And hot steamy nights! (no sex puns! Did I say that?) When  I was a kid growing up we had box fans or window fans and I think they just went on and off. If you were wealthy you may have gotten a fan that had a high and low speed. I can't keep up with all these newfangled inventions!  If you were really rich you had an attic fan! I don't think our house   even had an attic. If it did I'm sure I would've gone up there... to hide! I would escape to our ugly unfinished basement. I did not know anyone who had a finished basement! It was cool and mom had some old rusty thing I sat in. Passed hours there avoiding prying eyes. The only thing missing from my pri...