Two of the drive-throughs that YA and I frequent (especially in the summer) are Taco Bell and Dairy Queen. About eight months ago Taco Bell installed a chat bot to ask people if they are checking in using their Taco Bell app. I do have the app (it occasionally rewards me with a free burrito or fiesta potatoes) so the chat bot has actually been a good reminder to me to have the phone handy so I can give them the check-in code. At that point the system switches over to a live person to take your order.
About four months back, Dairy Queen went to a fully automated ordering system at their drive-through. I bristled at the idea but not enough to boycott my Dilly bars. Since YA and I are creatures of habit at Dairy Queen, it’s pretty simple and we haven’t had any ordering disasters.
Then two weeks ago I was by myself, getting my Dilly bar, and the automated voice had a southern drawl. I kid you not. It threw me for a loop and I spent the next hour or so trying to think back; had I completely missed that before? Then the following week when we were there, it was a male voice with a midwestern accent. I breathed a sigh of relief – I wasn’t going crazy. Then yesterday, it was a woman’s voice, but not the southern woman.
Of course, this leaves me with a bunch of questions. How many automated voice options are there? Who chooses which voice for the day (the manager, the person who opens, corporate office)? Or does the computer randomly pick voices during the course of the day? If a particular voice gets complaints, can they change it at the store level? Are the voices patterned after particular people or just AI-generated? What happens if you don’t want to order from a chat bot? Can you simply repeat “representative” until the computer gives up?
Any chat bots/automated systems driving you crazy? Or that you’ve made peace with?
About 90 miles outside of Columbus is The Wilds, a wildlife conservation center developed on reclaimed land that had been mined for coal for four decades. Starting in the late 70s, the Ohio Zoological Commission began developing a plan for using that land for a special wildlife conservation area. They began in 1984 with 9,154 acres and the first animals, the Przewalski Horse, an endangered wild species, were introduced. Two years later, The Wilds opened to the public. Today there are close to 500 animals, representing 19 species, that roam the acres of The Wilds.
YA and I learned about The Wilds through the same tv show that introduced us to the Columbus Zoo (Secrets of the Zoo) and we knew that if we visited Columbus, we had to include it in our plans.
The only way to see the animals is on a safari tour; we took the medium-tour so there were 14 of us in the back of a Ford pick-up (there were seats). The tour was a bit over 3 hours and it was amazing. We were fairly up close and personal with Persian Onagers, Pere David Deer, Grevy’s Zebras, the famous Przewalski Horses (called P Horses) and two kinds of Oryx – Fringe Eared and Scimitar-Horned.
One of the youngest Bactrian Camels had been hand-raised after his mother rejected him. Named Latte, he was more than willing to come right up to the truck to get scritches under his chin. The Sichuan Takin was not as big or golden as the takin we have at the MN Zoo but The Wilds does have the largest breeding takin herd in North America.
Latte
We fed giraffes from the truck – two of the herd really like this and one in particular, Tuffy, lets folks give him little pets on his necks. (I bought a tee-shirt w/ Tuffy on it.) At that same stop, the two female ostriches approached and one of them clearly didn’t like the look of me. Before I realized how far into the truck she could reach, she gave me a nip on the hand. For the rest of the stop, she repeatedly tried to get me. Nobody else on the truck, just me.
Sadie
In a shaded copse we found five banteng, a species of wild cow. They have 1 male and 4 females. Apparently they are working on a program to determine if they can breed the current herd – the male banteng is quite elderly and if the females are still fertile, they will bring in a new male to help with reproduction. When I asked what would happen to Elvis, the male, our tour guide said that he would relocate to a pasture where a few other elderly animals reside – a cushy banteng retirement home, as it were. For some reason I thought this was really funny.
Elvis
The highlight of the tour was when we were taken down to the winter barn area – some of the animals over-winter there since the Ohio climate isn’t that great for African animals. There, in one of the rhino barns was Bernard. He is living a cushy rhino retirement and one of the things he enjoys is getting pets and scritches. Our group was happy to oblige. Bernard is a Southern White Rhino so he is sporting some serious horn. We didn’t pet that part! This was a thrilling experience. I know I’ve said in the past that I’ve never had a Bucket List, but I’m thinking about doing one now so that I can write “petting a rhino” on it and then checking it off.
Bernard
What a fabulous day – after the safari ride, we had veggie burgers at the little café and then did some damage at the gift shop. I am seriously recommending this to anybody who gets anywhere near Columbus. Just an amazing way to spend a day. The Wilds has a few ways that you can stay on the property overnight (yurts, little lodge and a new set of rooms attached to the giraffe barn. YA and I talked about maybe going back one day and doing that.
Ever had the chance to pet a wild animal? Would you stay overnight in a giraffe barn?
My local library might as well be my second home; I’m there on average twice a week. I was hoping they’d have some adjunct program this summer to the Library Passport but alas, they’re just running it the same as last summer.
Two weeks ago, they broke out the chalk for one of the Reading Hour programs and the pavement all around the entrance was decorated with colorful artwork. The photo above that says “Pippa was here” is my favorite. Yesterday I noticed that it’s still there, albeit a little faded after two weeks. I love the idea that some kid planted a metaphorical discovery stake at the library. Or maybe creating their version of a Hollywood Walk of Fame star?
Whatever the reason, I adore that my library is used and treasured!
OK, fantasy day. I’ve giving you each a box of chalk. What artwork will YOU leave in front of the library? Will you use all the colors, or do you have favorites?
One of the highlights of our Columbus weekend was a day at The Columbus Zoo. We got there right at opening and got a nice discount for being Minnesota Zoo members. We did not really have much of a plan for the day – just wanted to see everything.
Not in any particular order…
Saw the tiger feeding and met a staff member who had been part of the Secrets of the Zoo show!
Watched a training session with two gorgeous cheetahs.
Walked through Adventure Cove (glass tube with water on all sides so you can see the various sealife swim above you and below you.
Watched the lion feeding. I had the BEST spot of anyone… I kid you not.
YA walked through the Lorikeet Aviary
Lots of kangaroos in the Kangaroo WalkAbout
Extraordinarily expensive pizza lunch
Spent a LONG LONG time at Stingray Bay. YA is besotted with petting stingrays and little sharks.
Petted some goats at The Barn
Gorgeous polar bears
Visited the manatees and got to see “Stubby”, who can’t be released to a boatstrike injury but has acted as a mom to many young rescue manatees over the years. Even found a cool manatee t-shirt!
I’ve talked about Jack Hanna running the Zoo for many years, basically turning it around and creating the fabulous experience that it is today. Up near the Africa area, there is a great bench/sculpture of Jack and his wife, Suzi. I couldn’t resist the photo op!
We were at the zoo for almost 8 hours and I can truthfully say that I slept like a rock that night!
Yesterday was the anniversary of the day we lost Edith, our LIttle Jail Bird. Here is another of her posts – one of my favorites!
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Jim’s comment “The squirrels around here seem to be unusually pesky” got me thinking about how much I hate squirrels. South Minneapolis squirrels seem to be especially hateable. People who say squirrels are “cute” either are crazy or they haven’t seen the squirrels in my neighborhood.
When I grew vegetables in my yard, it was an endless source of frustration to see tomatoes get almost to the point of perfect ripeness and then find it lying on the driveway with a squirrel bite taken out of it. The thought of eating a tomato that had been handled by one of those rodents deterred me from ever cutting off the bitten part; my compost pile was the only thing that benefitted from the squirrel leavings (and, actually, the compost pile didn’t benefit, either – see below).
I now only grow herbs and fruits and flowers in my yard. Squirrels like to dig in the planter boxes on the front porch or any freshly turned dirt and also do things like eat tulips off stems before they open their blooms. But at least they aren’t eating my food.
One time a squirrel got into my house. I’m not sure how…but you haven’t seen pure craziness until you’ve seen a squirrel dashing around your house at full speed.
We’ve all heard about how squirrels rob bird feeders of the bird food. If you have an open compost pile, to which you add food scraps, in your yard in south Mpls, you are basically operating a free restaurant for squirrels.
But the real reason I hate squirrels? They hate me. Here’s proof. Those of you who also live in the city of Mpls know that the big gray garbage bins the city provides us for our trash are pretty tough. But they’re not tough enough for south Mpls squirrels. Our diabolical neighborhood squirrels chewed a squirrel-sized hole in the lid of my trash bin. They would then go inside the bin and enjoy snacks
(this was before I composted most of my food scraps). Then, I out I came, blissfully unaware of any danger, with a bag of trash to put in the bin. I threw open the lid – and SHAZZZAAAMMM out flew anywhere from one to three squirrels in my face. They ran away, laughing hysterically at my scream, and plotting when they can do that again.
I learned to kick the trash bin several times and then stand back before I lifted the lid. After the squirrels escaped, I gave it another kick, then waited to make sure they were all gone before I carefully lifted the lid and tossed in the bag. But sometimes in my usual spacey way, I would forget to kick – and once again the squirrels would enjoy their dominance over me.
Any “cute” object or animal driving you crazythis week?
YA and I switched from margarine to butter a long time ago. It was a hit to our budget at the time so I’ve spent years keeping an eye out for butter on sale. I have absolutely no brand loyalty to any kind of butter, unless you count the seriously fancy hand churned butter that I get a Kowolskis every couple of years.
I’ve also been lucky enough to have two friends who have worked at dairies. My friend Tim worked at one of the big names for years and he would regularly be able to grab a pound or two of butter from their “free shop”. Right about the time he retired, my friend Rita moved to the same company and now part of my solstice gift every year is a gift bag of butter. Such wonderful friends.
Because of how I acquire some of my butter, I don’t always know what I have in the fridge. Last week, I opened up a box of butter and was surprised when eight little wrapped bars fell out. Instead of four ½ cup bars, there were eight ¼ cup bars. As a baker who goes through quite a bit of butter, I laughed out loud. I didn’t know anybody packaged butter like this. I do occasionally need a half a stick of butter but it’s pretty rare and when I do, I just cut a whole bar in half. Not a reach.
But I suppose there may actually be a need for these half bars since somebody somewhere when to the trouble to manufacture and package these things???
Butter or margarine? Any brand loyalty? Would you appreciate half bars?
Backstory to today’s story. Quite a few years ago, one of my back teeth broke (no pain.) And I mean lots of pieces broke. My dentist sent me to a specialist to extract it (no pain). Then after a few weeks, I got a bridge. Fast forward about six years and I was having some discomfort (ok, yeah, pain) and it turns out that the very back tooth of the bridge needed a root canal. Sigh. Off to the endodontist for this. That morning she said she was a bit concerned due a small crack in the tooth but she thought she could make it work. Easy peasy (no pain). This was two years back.
Fast forward again to about 3 months ago when I noticed a bit of discomfort during brushing (no pain, just discomfort). I paid a lot of attention to this because I figured it was the bridge/root canal acting up after two years. The discomfort really didn’t change so I decided to let it ride until my usual dentist appointment yesterday.
I explained it to the hygienist (Kenzie) and when she poked at the area, there was a little jolt (yes, of pain) and she backed off. When the dentist came in to do her check, Kenzie said “I saw a little something stuck there”. I wasn’t sure what in heavens name could be stuck there – I am an every-night brusher/flosser, including under the bridge. I was prepared this time for the discomfort when the dentist poked about (a smidge of pain). She mentioned a tooth fragment while she was poking and that gave me immediate thoughts of one of those bridge teeth disintegrating and all those implant commercials I’ve seen recently flooded my brain. Turns out that the fragment is NOT from any of my current teeth. It is almost certainly a fragment left over from the initial tooth that was extracted eight years ago. The dentist showed me a couple of past x-rays and pointed out what she thought may have been the fragment slowly migrating to the surface.
WOW. Seems like science fiction to me and I probably said “wow” more than once. And, of course, I was instantly so relieved. I couldn’t leave the little fragment just sitting there on the dental tray so I convinced Kenzie to find a little sleeve to put it in. I’m pretty sure I won’t keep it for more than a couple of weeks, but really – WOW.
I’ve never had a souvenir from the dentist before – unless you count floss and toothpaste. Truly I’m pretty sure I ever want another but for now, this will do.
What’s one of your most unlikely souvenirs?Bonus points if you know where the phrase “little offenders” comes from.
We got to Columbus about 9:30 a.m. on a Friday morning and after picking up the rental car, we got to the hotel well before check-in time… in fact we were there before check-out time. We knew this was a possibility so we left my phone number with the front desk and headed out.
Started with lunch at The Rusty Bucket. Veggie burgers, fries and fried pickles. Best fried pickles ever. It was a gorgeous day and we sat near the big open windows so there was a great breeze. Then we headed over for a hike to Indian Falls. We walked quite a bit down of pathway before we realized that the little gurgling “rapids” we had passed earlier were the actual falls. Guess living so close to Minnehaha Falls, I had bigger expectations. But it was pretty and we got to pet a few dogs along the way.
I know I mentioned Anthony Thomas Candies earlier; we found an Anthony Thomas Candy Shoppe outlet between the falls and our motel. Anthony Thomas is a fourth-generation company that started as a Dairy Co-op in 1932 and following a couple of expansions, in 1952 they began making what is now their signature candy – the buckeye – peanut butter filling surrounded by milk chocolate. They make 14 million buckeyes a year and are recognized by Ohio State University for the licensing of the candies. We found a little box of what they call their “oops” – seconds. Neither YA nor I could figure out what was wrong with them. They were delicious – and cheaper!
Quick stop at a grocery store for a few bottles of pop/water for the fridge in our room and then headed back to the motel for our check-in. Showers, lunch leftovers for dinner and we found Banana Ball on ESPN. In a complete reversal of our usual roles, I am a BB fan, YA is not. However she humored me.
Set our alarms to make sure we got up early enough for our adventure on Saturday. Not bad for a travel day, no?
Do you have a candy that you would eat, even if it were an “oops”?
Saturday night was the first downpour we’ve had in a while. So it didn’t surprise me when my tomatoes, which are really tall for the first week of July, were sagging over, taking their tomato cages with them. I don’t usually have to shore up tomatoes this early in the season, but …. gotta do what you gotta do. As I was pushing my stakes in, I found two ripe cherry tomatoes. Two. On the 5th of July. I have never ever had ripe tomatoes this early.
I usually pull out the cookbooks looking for tomato recipes in late July, early August. But I have the perfect recipe for these two darlings.
First of the Season Cherry Tomato Delight Ingredients
Two perfect cherry tomatoes
Salt (optional)
Instructions
After harvesting the two cherry tomatoes, rinse thoroughly
Pat tomatoes dry
Open mouth
Pop the first tomato in
Chew
Repeat
Serves just one
What summer produce are you looking forward to the most?
Last week when I stopped at the library to pick up a couple of things, there was signage at the entrance that at 2 p.m., there was a schedule fire drill. I asked one of the librarians what was involved and she said “the drill rings, everybody goes outside and stands around until the bell rings to indicate they can come back in.” She said that they are usually very low-key.
But it made me think about what would happen if it were a real drill and the library was on fire. It reminded me of the ending scene of Legal Eagles, a wildly improbable film from the mid 80s. The bad guy sets a fire in a swanky art gallery in New York (where they just happen to be having a memorial service for one of the owners). As the funeral goers are rushing to get out, there is a quick shot of some folks trying to take some of the art with them:
So, here’s the drill. You’re in the library when the bells go off, somebody yells “smoke, smoke”. You have just enough time to save five books. What books will they be? I’ll get us started.
Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
The Martian by Andy Weir
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Us by Heather McGee.
Trail Baboon 