What a day.

What a day full of capital P Pride, I am telling you.

Just Ponderin’ has reached such an important milestone and I am just hootin’ and hollerin’ over here.

Honestly, my neighbors are going to call me any minute now to tell me to quiet down and realize that there are other human beings trying to not be bothered by the sounds of me and all the hoots and hollers. 

Here is what happened.

I used the AI search in google for the first time.

No, I know.

I have been avoiding it, thinking that it would just open the door to the AI worm that has been just itching to get into my computer and create a psychological profile that combines a recent string of window treatment searches with philosophical stoicism, gardening, and my current fascination with some man on the internet who goes by P.E. Guy (he’s in Private Equity and his children include Tarantino, Montauk, and EBITA).

I don’t even want to think of what an AI bot could do with that info. I’d have a gladiator-clad woven blind sales-stoic trying to get me to say yes to a bamboo cordless number (trimmed in a floral linen) that he could discount enough for me to afford a private jet… or maybe membership in a few private golf clubs on Martha’s Vineyard (and I don’t even golf).

So, you can see my problem.

But, issues with explaining the gladiator to JoHn aside, I finally succumbed to the peer pressure from on high and used the friendly-sounding AI helper. I figured I’d start with something simple, so I googled The Inn. And you are not going to believe what came back. It was… uncanny!

I plugged in my info and out popped:

“The Old Southport Inn (Private Estate): The original Southport Inn property eventually ceased its public hotel and “shore dinner” operations around 1944. It has since been meticulously preserved as a private coastal residence. The current owners have historically maintained the estate’s heritage, adding luxury cottage referred to locally as “The Village at The Old Southport Inn”. [1, 2]

As I read along I thought, “Awwww. It found out that it was a hotel and there were shore dinners…”

Then I sighed at, “It has since been meticulously preserved as a private coastal residence.” And I thought ‘Why thank you AI bot. It was a lot of work and I am so touched at how you clearly feel it has been a job well done.”

I was starting to appreciate why people really feel a kinship with their AI bots. This was starting to feel personal.

And then the whole, “…current owners have historically maintained the estate’s heritage…”. Well, I mean, aside from the fact that ‘historically maintained’ is a bit of clumsy writing (I’d have gone with ‘maintained the estate’s historical heritage’). But that might be a bit picky-oony.

And when I got to the part about ‘… adding the luxury cottages referred to locally as…’ well, that was when my brain farted.

I looked back at my search words.

I thought, “Huh. Maybe my AI bot (he’d become ‘my’ AI bot at that point (and also a ‘he’)) is mistaking The Inn with some historical hotel in Southport Connecticut. 

I thought that this would explain the use of the word ‘estate’. Because Connecticut.

And, when I couldn’t figure out where the whole idea of luxury cottages came from, I noticed there were citations – like sources – at the tail end of Ferdinand’s response to my query (I’d named my AI bot at that point, and Ferdinand Magellan seemed fitting).

Anyway, Ferdinand offered his citation and I checked them out and guess what?!

They are me!

Well, I like to be inclusive so… They are us!

Like right here, Just Ponderin’.

I am not kidding. The first citation is a Just Ponderin’ post published in The Boothbay Register back in December of 2017 that talks about our first Christmas at our slightly haunted home.

I do not know how Ferdinand turned that one into the result he generated, but there was a disclaimer that AI bots may make mistakes, so there was that. Quite frankly, I was also thinking, that “…the current owners have… adding luxury cottage referred to locally as…” was also a mistake. Seemed to me this whole brouhaha about AI taking over the world was just a noisy, excited, public fuss over something that is usually minor or unimportant (also known as a brouhaha).

Then I looked at the second citation.

It links to a Just Ponderin’ post called ‘On a New and Exciting Addition to The Inn‘, from the summer of 2016.

I reread it.

It is a post on the addition of a series of bird feeders that we’d put along one of our stone walls.

I’d dubbed it “The Village at the Old Southport Inn”.

The village.

Of bird feeders.

That is what Ferdinand was referring to when he claimed, ” The current owners have historically maintained the estate’s heritage, adding luxury cottages referred to locally as “The Village at The Old Southport Inn.”

Seriously, apparently all the locals are talking about it (or at least referring to it).

You can stay at The Village if you go through the whole Honey I Shrunk the Kids treatment… and require only a bed of cracked corn and sunflower seeds… and also are okay with shimming down a 4X4 cedar post, on your way to the woods, for any – ahem – toilet related activities.

There is a very nice heated birdbath nearby for washing and/or soaking.

So there you go, that’s it.

No it isn’t.

Ferdinand also highlighted ‘Modern Celebrations’, when he said “Because of its sprawling lawns, deep heritage, and waterfront backdrops, the property occasionally serves as an exclusive private venue for luxury coastal Maine weddings.”

That citation was a link to Mac’s and Jack’s wedding video.

It was the last straw.

I fired Ferdinand.

But the issue remains.

I let the AI bot in.

The next knock on my front door may indeed be a gladiator selling florally trimmed window blinds.

And I’m hoping he looks like a young Russell Crowe.

Thanks for readin’ ❤️

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