Over the weekend, I went to Louisiana to celebrate my mom’s 89th birthday with her. I stopped in Lafayette to pick up flowers and some supplies for the party.
On my way down Ambassador Caffery Parkway, I noticed they were re-striping the road, and traffic was backed up at least three miles. I told myself not to take the same route back to the interstate.
After getting what I needed, I could’ve used my phone to find a route through Lafayette so I’d miss that traffic jam. Truth is, I didn’t know how to tell Google Maps to snake through Lafayette. So I reverted to the tried-and-true paper map.
There’s a Louisiana, Texas and Houston paper map in my vehicle at all times. There are routes I can only find when I spread out the paper map on the hood and examine all the side roads.
Sure enough, I found I could take Congress Avenue through Lafayette and pick up I-10 on the east side of town. That route took me past beautiful homes, stately oak trees and a few parks where kids were playing soccer and riding skateboards.
For once, I was glad I didn’t have technology at my finger tips to help me figure out a solution to a problem.
We’ve become so dependent on Google for things we used to use our brains for. I’m guilty of taking the quick and lazy way out and using Google instead of figuring it out for myself.
Occasionally I’ll use Google for recipes, but the best resources are the paper cookbooks on my shelf, especially books I’ve gotten from local church organizations.
No Louisiana kitchen is complete without the original River Roads Recipe cookbook – the best recipe in the world for home-baked brownies is on page 190. One of my earliest memories of my mom’s kitchen is the red-checked Better Homes and Garden cookbook she used for decades.
Besides Google, there’s two major services that take most of the thinking out of our lives – Alexa and Siri. They’re voice controlled, online digital assistants.
Amazon sponsors Alexa, and Siri is for Apple customers. Using your smart phone, Alexa can turn on your coffee maker, play music and answer difficult questions.
You can ask Siri the weather in London, recommendations for the best restaurants and the height of Mount Kilimanjaro. You’ll have your correct electronic answer in seconds.
My answers would be rainy, the restaurant that’s closest to my house and “tall, really tall.” My answers aren’t as precise as Siri’s but they’re accurate.
Alexa can help you check things off your to-do list. True, but using a pen or pencil and running a line through the checklist on a piece of paper gives me immense satisfaction. I don’t think I’d get that with a virtual check mark and an electronic list.
Alexa and Siri can change the channel on your TV, but I still remember when children were the only remote control in the house.
My dad would be relaxing on the couch and tell one of us to go change the channel. That was an aggravating job unless you were the kid who got stuck holding the rabbit ears antennae because the reception was better with that human connection.
Alexa will burp and make monkey sounds. I’ll take listening to kids make those noises any day of the week. Plus the kids give you the added bonus of making adorable faces while performing those tasks.
One thing they both have in common is they never tire of your questions. They’ll never roll their electronic eyes at you nor will they say “I already told you that.” Their patience is infinite.
I was proud of myself for finding my way through Lafayette. I’m also happy when somebody asks me a trivia question, and I know the answer without resorting to an online service.
Finding a quick answer on my phone isn’t nearly as satisfying as finding the answer inside myself.
This column was originally published in The Fort Bend Herald.