Stumped.

I am writing this in the hopes that someone has an explanation for what just happened.

I woke thinking about the naked walls of the vacation house we are buying. We are on a budget, so for the most part, I’ll be hanging stuff that’s been sitting in our basement and attic. I also have a large piece of blank canvas and an idea for an abstract painting (well, not so much an idea as a plan to shamelessly copy “Orange and Yellow” by Rothko). I remember a massive framed map of the United States that one of the kids picked up, or maybe my sister gave me, I honestly can’t remember. I can use that, I think to myself, curled in bed next to Sam, Charlie dozing between us. 

My phone is in another room, turned off for the night. Our Alexa device lives in the kitchen at the other end of the house. It is 5:20 a.m. and still dark. I get up quietly so as not to disturb my slumbering bedfellows, to dress and start the coffee. When I take my daily probiotic I see the bottle is almost empty, so when I get to my computer, it’s straight to Amazon (I have hijacked Sam’s Prime membership) to seamlessly place my order.

On the screen, under the heading Top Picks for You, is Large Framed Maps of the United States.

What?

Is it possible that Charlie is a mind-reading dogbot? Was I murmuring in my sleep and Siberia Alexa has superpower hearing? If some algorithm or Jeff Bezos himself had been scouring my search history, a framed map of the U.S. would be the dead last thing to pop up. Comfortable shoes for hideous bunions, or the most effective pet stain remover- those, I could understand.

I am rattled. As a test, I think about some retail thing I want -a can opener, because ours is rusted- and muse on it before checking Amazon to see if it shows up. It doesn’t, which means my mind isn’t being read, at least, not consistently.

Thoughts?  I will entertain all possibilities, from space aliens to the workings of the random universe, and of course, buy the can opener.