Some Mondays, finding the topic challenges me more than on
others. Today, I’m taking inspiration from yesterday’s church service during which
our minister answered questions on the fly that were submitted by congregants in advance.
But who could I get to submit questions to me?
I have probably mentioned in other posts how I use AI to
figure out problems from fabric measurements for quilting to technical issues
on my computer, from how to apply for a Canadian certificate of citizenship to
how to get to Prague from Vienna by train. As long as I am careful to fact-check and watch for hallucinations, I find my AI to be very useful in daily life.
So today I asked the AI program—I use Copilot—to
pose several questions for me based on what it had learned about me from our
interactions. I got eight surprisingly good questions. I’m not going to tackle
all eight of them because I’m writing a post, not a magazine article, but let’s
see where I get.
Question One: What small domestic ritual has quietly
become essential to your sense of order and comfort?
Answer: I thought this one would give me trouble. I don’t
think of myself as particularly domestic, despite having been home-based for
decades. And I don’t feel like I have rituals; I’m more of a do-what-presents-itself
kind of person. But a moment’s thought brought clarity. Every morning I make a
cup of coffee with a touch of sugar-free salted caramel syrup and a splash of
half and half in it. While it’s brewing, I unload the dishwasher and then go
outside to get the newspaper.
I slip into my recliner, coffee and paper in hand, and read
as I sip. I like to read the actual local paper even though I have an online
NYT subscription and I’m on plenty of news lists. It’s kind of expensive, about
$1.50 a day, but the coffee’s cheaper than Starbucks, so I figure it works out.
Today I had to leave for an appointment before my coffee/paper routine. When I
returned at noon, I brought in the paper, unloaded the dishwasher, and made my
daily cuppa, then sat down and enjoyed it. My day just wouldn’t have been the
same if I’d skipped this.
Question 2: What has gardening taught you about patience,
timing, or control?
Answer: This has to be a trick question because I am a
totally useless gardener! I didn’t even think I’d ever asked a question that
would lead Copilot to think I gardened. But wait, I did ask about rototillers
not too long ago to use in the garden that borders our front patio. Michael and
I built that patio decades ago. Originally planted with rose bushes and lots of
other good stuff, it has become, over the years, mostly weeds. On a good day,
it is green and the roses still bloom.
I recently found a big can of Texas wildflower seeds that
I impulsively bought two years ago. That gave me the bright idea to till the
garden bed, rake out the weeds, and sprinkle the seeds in to see what would
happen. Maybe we’d get a flower garden! Copilot did instruct me on the correct
conditions for using a rototiller; one of them is mostly-dry soil. Sadly, we’ve
had buckets of rain in the last few weeks, so nothing has happened. The biggest
lesson gardening has taught me is that I’m incompetent as a gardener. Since I
don’t have enough money to hire one, I’m always going to be flower deprived. I
am thankful for my apparently invincible roses and my lovely crape myrtle
trees.
Question 3: What recent moment of awe—artistic, natural, or
unexpected—shifted your perspective, even briefly?
Answer: Birdsong. I went out to get the paper one day
last week and I noticed, in the morning stillness, that I heard a lot of birds
singing. Cornell University has a wonderful free app that I can’t recommend enough
called Merlin. Merlin listens to birds calling around you and identifies them.
As a bird is recognized, an image pops up so you can see what it looks like. As
different birds call, it switches between them so you can follow the
conversation so to speak.
The other day when I first noticed the birdsong, I turned
on Merlin and just stood in my driveway for a few minutes. These are the birds
it identified: Carolina Wren, Northern Cardinal, Yellow-throated Warbler,
White-winged Dove, Carolina Chickadee, Yellow-rumped Warbler, American Robin,
American Goldfinch, Egyptian Goose, and American Crow. I stood transfixed for a
moment, serenaded by ten different kinds of birds, all tucked out of sight in the
green leaves of trees, while I watched their photos flick across the screen of
my phone. Awesome!
Question 4: When did you last surprise yourself in the
kitchen, and what did that moment reveal about you?
Answer: I was going to skip this one because I don’t think
I surprise myself much in the kitchen these days. I am a competent cook and an
excellent baker, though I much prefer baking to cooking. Copilot probably posed
the question because I have used it to solve cooking problems, like the day I
needed marinated artichoke hearts, but had purchased plain artichoke hearts by
mistake. Copilot told me what I needed to add to my recipe to make up for the
missing marinade.
I did have an insight the other day. I made coleslaw for
dinner, which always includes making my father’s coleslaw dressing. I don’t
have a recipe for it; I just know what to use. And I don’t measure beyond dollops
and spoonfuls, I just know how much. When it’s made, I do a taste test and
adjust as needed. I can make it in my sleep. Likewise, I can make my version of
fried rice without a recipe and, surprisingly, a Basque cheesecake.
The insight is this: I have become one of those cooks,
like my mother and grandmothers, who can make things because they just know
how, not because they followed a recipe. I can pour salt into my palm and, if I
check, by golly it will be the teaspoon or half teaspoon I intended. I can whomp
up some chili without a starter mix or a cookbook. Likewise something Chinese,
although it will not be a “named” Chinese dish. I guess I’ve finally earned my KP
stripes!
That’s it for my Monday Q&A. Answering these
questions turned out to be more revealing than I expected. Thanks,
Copilot, for the assist.
Ciao
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