The Kim and I
I usually type ButtonDowns after a snort or two, late at night. I’m only halfway through my first cup of coffee, and this bit was begging to be shared.
This is a text exchange initiated by Kim:
KIM: Hi, this is Kim from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina. Great job completing your Annual Wellness Visit! You still need to complete your routine physical exam. I can connect you with your Primary Care Provider Elizabeth M. Peverall, M.D. to get that scheduled. When’s good for a call? Text X if you don’t need reminders about this.
ME: Stephen Kimmel is now my PCP, not Peverall.
KIM: Our concierge team can assist you with updating your PCP on file. If you want to do that reply ‘PCP’ and I can help schedule that call.
ME: PCP
KIM: We can help you find a new physician, what time works for a call.
ME: As I just told you, I have a new physician. You must be a very stupid robot, “Kim”.
KIM: Thank you, you have been successfully unsubscribed from this campaign. If you wish to Resubscribe, please reply “START”.
I keep hearing about AI, which I don’t understand the need for. If Kim is an example of AI, we’re in deep doo-doo, especially the elderly (meaning those older than me who may not have spent as much time using computers as I have).
On the home front, I had a naturalist walk through the back property with me yesterday. His main gig is organizing controlled burns, mostly to reduce the incidences of wildfires. It’s wild back there, and gorgeous this spring. the phlox are booming - the first I’ve seen them do this. The money plants (which may be invasive, but lovely) are all over, and the thistles (great bird feeders) are tall and almost ready to bloom. Ex used to call feeder-using birds “welfare birds”. My intent is to let grow anything that feeds birds, rather than go the bird-feeder-gotta-buy-seeds route. I had a couple hummingbirds visit the flowers on my porch last week - yay!
There are some invasives back there - English ivy and Oriental bittersweet, among others. They are the reason I wanted a consultation about a burn. It’d have to be choreographed with the town fire chief, and probably done in 4 or 5 sessions. And on our way back to the driveway, we found an Eastern box turtle…which makes me wonder what’d happen to him if I burned his home? At the bottom of the property, we saw bear scat and a flattened circle of tall rye, where Zac said a bear had slept the night before. I know bears roam in town here, but I’ve not seen one yet, though my neighbors have.
As I said in my last ButtonDown, I did distribute old letters to my family members who made it to the reunion last weekend. I still have a box to go through, and a messy kitchen table to clear. And when the sun lowers in the West, a bit of weeding around my sunflower seedlings. So, off I go, knowing that as soon as I hit ‘Send’, I’ll think of something else I meant to tell you.
Oh, for those of you who think the title of this ButtonDown is odd, “The King and I” was a 1951 Broadway musical with Yul Brynner and Gertrude Lawrence, based on a true story of a nanny working for the king of Siam (renamed Thailand in 1939). It became a movie 5 years later, with Brynner and Deborah Kerr. I had to look up some of that, but already knew enough that I’d probably be able to help my trivia team, the Potato Liberation Front. Answers to trivia questions about Broadway musicals before 1970 is my superpower).
Off to battle the invasives! Too bad bears don’t eat Oriental bittersweet…
Cheers,
Lucy