Call it house-sitting.

There are six bedrooms, three bathrooms, one with a working shower, and then there’s the Talking Kitchen.  There is a chatty refrigerator, a brilliant stove, and a beeping, whirring dishwasher,

Needless to say, this is temporary.

MEMO: Tell Jek to find dumb appliances. 

Jek, originally Jack, now Jek or Jekyll, is my personal assistant.  When will he be Jekyll, when Hyde, when Jack?  He was “made redundant” 20 years ago – and he’s still mad.

You see, he’s just like you and me – we’re all redundant!

Secretaries used to run the world. Jek had absolute power over his boss. Jek decided which phone calls to forward, which to hang up on, and which to put on hold. Some people were put on hold… permanently!

In my experience, you could be doing research in the Middle East, then a war could break out, your apartment could be bombed, your passport revoked, you could be imprisoned in a cave, and when you finally found a phone, Jek would put you on hold!  

 I’ve read the science fiction about evil AI, and I’ve read the charming essays in The New York Times about good AI.  The ChatGBT can affirm you by saying, “You’re doing great.”  It can write email and poetry, too.  But, more important, it can track down dumb appliances and get them delivered.

It coud not pick up my library books, so Jek still has a job.

“But I can’t go to the library now,” says Jek.

And so I ride my bike five miles to the library and pick up my books as well as Jek’s.