Many times I have mentioned that Donna Sue makes my coffee before we go to bed. All I have to do in the morning is “hit” the button on Mr. Coffee and a few minutes later, there is coffee ready to drink.

I’m not thinking about replacing Donna Sue with Alexa (I’m not stupid!), but for all of you who might be confused, Alexa is the latest “doo-dad” associated with those who are hip to the amazing opportunities of modern wizardry.

I don’t know where Alexa actually lives, but it seems that she can hear you from anywhere and you can ask her to do almost anything. Just say her name, ask her to do something, and it will be done. Personally, I have not begun to rely on Alexa for turning on all my lights or driving me to work. I’m sort of old-fashioned.

I can remember those days before there were remotes for anything. When changing the channel on the television, we couldn’t ask Alexa. Someone had to get up out of the chair or off the couch and walk over to the television and turn a knob. Of course, changing channels wasn’t all that big a deal when there were only two!

I did read the other day…yes, reading is still a possibility…that when speaking to Alexa for whatever command you might be giving, that command is also heard by lots of other people. In other words, Alexa is kin to Big Brother. There is no telling who is hearing or seeing what all of us are doing when we engage our computers or cell phones.

It seems that if we simply “think” something these days, the next day we’ll have evidence that someone, somewhere was listening to our thoughts. I’ll give you an example or two.

When I was thinking about buying a new television, I performed due diligence by looking on the websites of Best Buy, Walmart, and other purveyors of televisions. The cheapskate that I am was simply checking prices.

The very next day after checking out a few sites, I began to see all sorts of “pop-up” advertisements on all of the websites I read. For instance, if I wanted to read about the Georgia Bulldogs, an advertisement for the same television I had looked at the day before would pop up. As dense as I am, I first thought coincidence.

Then it permeated my thick skull that someone knew what I was looking for on my computer and decided that I needed to see all the brands of 32-inch televisions.

Recently, Donna Sue and I traveled to Birmingham for a doctor’s appointment and, while there, we would join a friend for dinner. He suggested a restaurant and I looked it up and reviewed their menu. His favorite dish was the braised beef ribs and I opened that particular menu item. It looked delicious.

Imagine my surprise the next morning when all sorts of scrumptious and delicious pictures of braised beef ribs began to appear on my computer as I sought to read the news. Hello, Alexa, are you listening?

By the way, the restaurant was great and his braised beef ribs were delicious. There was another item, though, that caught my fancy and proved that you can take the boy out of the country, but you cannot take the country out of the boy. I ate the “fried pork loin” and mashed potatoes!

Now, I’m going to be looking at pictures of braised beef ribs for a while, but that’s okay. It’s better than 32-inch televisions. Alexa, how about a picture of a thirteen-layer chocolate cake?