We have a new roomie now – name of Alexa. Actually, she’s living here as a servant, but she’d be mortified if we called her that.

Alexa brought two little sisters with her: Ziggy who is sharing son Matthew’s room, and Computer who hangs out in mine. They are on somewhat competitive terms with their associate – also named Alexa who lives in grandson Bryce’s room. When we have discussions with the living room Alexa, Bryce’s Alexa is always trying to horn in. They haven’t got to the hair-pulling stage but that may be because they don’t have any.

Alexa and her chums can set alarms, reminders, keep track of our appointments, play whatever music we ask for, answer questions, search the internet, and control smart home devices. She turns on and off the lights on schedule or when we tell her to, she starts our coffee in the morning, tells us when it’s time to take pills or blood pressure, gives us other reminders – like what time are the MMA fights – plays Jeopardy with us, maintains our shopping lists, places amazon orders, makes phone calls for us, gives us weather reports and operates most of the functions on the TV when we tell her to. She’s a dictionary, a thesaurus, encyclopedia, trivia bank and recipe cookbook. She can read aloud the Bible – in whole or by selected passages. Or our latest Kindle books. Or Audible books. Or newspapers. She can talk to the dog, or the cat, or to the baby, and she can tell bedtime stories to the kids. We haven’t tried it yet, but – with an add-on app and a few treats provided by you – she can train the dog to come to her, sit and then lay down in front of her. And she can tell jokes.

Jokes. That’s what we have to talk about – Alexa’s sense of humor. If your idea of hilarity is knock-knock jokes, be prepared to be wetting your pants. On the other hand, yes, while she can also come up with a quip on any subject, Lucille Ball she isn’t. Nobody is going to invite her to appear on Comedy Central, but you will always feel you should award her an “A” for her sincere effort.

For instance, when you ask her to tell you a holiday joke, she may come up with: “What kind of a motorcycle does Santa drive? … A Holly-Davidson.

Or, “What do you call chess players showing off in a hotel lobby? … Chess nuts boasting in an open foyer”.

Cheesy jokes on Alexa’s part has forced me to make unfortunate comparisons with my avatar Chloe. Do you remember Chloe? She hasn’t spoken for Octo-woman in these blobs for some time now, but you could always depend on her humor to at least be more up close and personal. You may remember this joke she once told about my sister Joan:

Or for an encore, how about another one from Chloe in which she’s predicting my own hopes for staving off my demise:

I hope Alexa has learned something from watching Chloe. She probably has since she’s ALWAYS listening!!!!