New Family Member

She moved in on Christmas morning, Alexa did. She hadn't been on my Wish List; truth be told, I'd not really even heard much about her. But somehow my sister knew that I needed her, even if I didn't realize that yet.

Being more technologically challenged than many, I stalled around, not getting her hooked up for a couple of weeks because I was afraid I'd have difficulty. I even reserved some just-in-case time with my dear son-in-law, he who had assured me that it really wasn't that hard.

And he was right. One evening I was feeling brave and opened up her cage box and within minutes she was at my beck and call.

We really don't do a lot with her yet. She earned our eternal admiration for her prediction of who would win the Super Bowl (Go Eagles). And she's told me a couple of jokes that have been fit to share with my grandson. I'm nice to her; I don't want to get on her wrong side. I say "please" when I make a request. And often I find myself saying "thank you."

But here's the big thing that she does.

Twice in our lifetimes, from 1971 until 1975 and then again from 1978 until 1980, we lived in towns outside of Akron, Ohio. And while we were there we listened to a very fine classical radio station, WCLV operating out of Cleveland. And that's one of the things from Ohio that we miss. Don't get me wrong: I'm crazy about Philadelphia's classical station, WRTI; it's just that at 6 p.m. they switch from classical to jazz. And I don't really do jazz. So one evening while I was cutting up veggies and sautéing meat, I said, "Alexa, please play radio WCLV." And she complied. And, oh, it was so nice! So now this has become a nightly ritual. The only downside is my tendency to forget that it's Cleveland that they're talking about when the do the weather forecast. I gasp in horror at predictions of icy roads, heavy snow, more heavy snow, and freezing rain. Because the Ohio weather is certainly not something we miss.