A couple of months ago I related how I’d been dinged for $30.65 for two road tolls, leaving and returning to Boston, because of Hertz’s use of the extortionate PlatePass system.

To ensure this didn’t happen again, I ordered an E-ZPass transponder of my very own from the E-ZPass New York State Service Center, and it arrived in time for my trip back to New England in late August:

I stuck the transponder on the dash of my rented VW Jetta when I picked the car up on Boston’s Logan Airport on August 27, and I left it there until I returned the car on September 1. Today I received an email notification that my E-ZPass statement was available for download, and here’s what it looks like:

My flight landed at Logan at 9:45 a.m. on Sunday morning; 50 minutes later I went through the Ted Williams Tunnel, heading west, and was billed $1.75 at the TWW plaza; 5 minutes after that I was billed 70 cents when I exited the I-90 at the Allston – West exit (plaza 631).

The following Friday, I did exactly the reverse trip: I was guided by Waze through Cambridge and onto the Turnpike, entering at Allston – East plaza (131), costing 70 cents, and exiting at the Ted Williams Tunnel’s east exit (TWE) where I was billed $1.75.

I covered the same distance on both trips; the Sunday trip, with light traffic, took 5 minutes from entry to exit; the Friday trip, with Labour Day weekend traffic clogging the tunnel, tool 13 minutes (still pretty zippy, considering).

In total I paid $4.90 in tolls, for which I was billed $4.90 in tolls, not an inflated PlatePass amount.

My E-ZPass is in my travel “go bag” now, and I’ll use it every time I travel down to Boston from here on.

There was a missed opportunity here to align the order number with the year of the fun fact.

Also: I ordered soft pretzel sticks with “spicy queso” and instead received tartar sauce.

I came downstairs this Sunday morning to find Oliver watching The Fog of War on his laptop.

“Screen time” means many things.

Oliver: I have to write a letter to Justin Trudeau to thank him. I have to send letters to the people I can’t interview.

Me: Who says you can’t interview the Prime Minister?

Every year, we forget that the Cardigan Farmers’ Market exists until almost the very last moment. Then, in September or October, we remember suddenly and dash east before it’s too late.

Today was the day for this year. We enjoyed grilled cheese sandwiches and salad, cappuccino and hot chocolate from Polehouse Café from a sunny picnic table in behind.

Next year perhaps we’ll get better at remembering earlier in the season.

I mistakenly told my Google Home to make a telephone call this morning–”Hey Google, call Richard’s Fish & Chips.”

This was a mistake, because the Google Home can’t make telephone calls.

Except that it can.

Apparently the Google Home now has a new superpower, which is making free telephone calls in the U.S. and Canada.

So when I said “Hey Google, call Richard’s Fish & Chips,” Google figured out which Richard’s I wanted (it knows where I am, because I told it where my Google Home is located when I first set it up), and placed a call for me.

It also works for “Hey Google, Call Catherine.” And it knew to call her cell phone.

It can’t yet send text messages, it can’t yet receive calls, and its response when you try to call a number it doesn’t recognize is the stock “I don’t know how to help with that” rather than “I don’t have a number for them” or something more specific.

But, it’s still pretty keen. I’m not sure why I’d ever use an actual telephone to call out from the office ever again.

A reminder that the Google Home is now available in Canada: you can purchase one from Best Buy, Walmart, Staples or The Source, or direct from Google.

And remember: once you have yours, be sure to say “Hey Google, ask Farmer’s Almanac about today.”

The Creative Independent ran an interview with Pika☆ this week in Japanese and then, the next day, in English.

In English, there was a question about collaboration:

When you’re collaborating with someone, and they’re not real, are you able to figure that out by the act of collaboration?

There are definitely moments I can feel that, but it could come from my end as well. It gets kind of interesting when we both sense it.

In the Japanese version, passed through Google Translate, this was:

Is there a time when you are playing and you know that the other party is putting in parentheses?

There is a moment to feel, but it is also in myself. Burns but it is quite fun when each other notices it (lol)

Without being able to comment on the translation, I think “the other party is putting in parentheses” is so much better a way of expressing this nothing; it’s so much better than “they’re not real.”

A combination of Ethan the Dog needing to be inspired to run around, combined with latent fitness guilt after watching the Apple keynote, when its circle-filling enthusiasts, promoted me to walk 1,000 steps in the back yard tonight.

The Google Fit app on my phone dutifully traced my progress.

Sara Fraser at CBC Prince Edward Island asked me and Oliver for a photo of us recording a podcast.

So we recorded a podcast.

And we took some photos.