Zap

Two nights before Thanksgiving I was awakened from a dead sleep in the middle of the night by a blaze of light. All of the Alexa-connected lamps in the house had suddenly turned themselves on at 100% intensity, undimmed.

Frightened out of my wits, I got up and tried to instruct Alexa to turn them all off, but she was having none of it, objecting in her voice at full volume, which is loud. I went around manually turning lights off and went back to bed. In the morning all was working the right way again, except for two Alexa-enabled plugs. They couldn't be reactivated to work.

The outlets are fine, so we just plugged the lamps into the outlets, to be turned on and off by hand now, the old fashioned way. The voice activated Alexa plug devices are zapped, though. Apparently there was a middle of the night power surge that killed the two plug devices.

I baked a homemade apple pie for Thanksgiving and the crust burned pretty badly. It's only me and Jim for Thanksgiving this year, so no worries about bringing a blackened pie to dinner. No one will see.

And I can tell you the insides are so good. I tasted before Thanksgiving to be sure. I put orange zest and cranberries in with the apples. And a few green chiles for some zap to the pie. Zing.

The rabbit plaguing my gardens is still at large. The Havahart trap has not worked, it's too small I think. He gets into it but is big enough that his rump keeps the door from snapping shut and he can then get back out. At least I think that might be the case.

I want this rabbit out of the neighborhood and would be happy to see him offed electronically or otherwise in the process, but will instead invest in a second larger Havahart humane trap. It's Thanksgiving, after all. I can't be zapping rabbits.

Despite power surges, rabbits at large and burned pastry, I am very thankful for all my blessings this year.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your families and any rabbits you harbor.