Geoff's birthday is December 16th and since mine is the 22nd we usually just take each other out to dinner but since the box was big and detracted from the look of the Christmas tree, I had Geoffrey open a present early ... a Roomba! He had talked about one off and on for ages and had been fussing about how much lint and stuff showed on the new floors so after reading up on the various options I gave him an iRobot Roomba 890 which includes Wi-Fi connectivity, a feature I figured my techie husband would appreciate.Little did I know this would bring a whole new set of adventures!
The following Rommba tales are from a series of emails (very minor editing) to my sisters about these adventures ...
"Anyway, the
Roomba is out there exploring the house right this minute and making odd noises
as it bumps its way round learning the ins and outs of our house. Last I looked
it was in the kitchen. Sorry ... got distracted by the Roomba as I went to
check on it again and the bin full light was on so I had to empty the bin which
meant finding the instructions! We will undoubtedly have that for a while as we
have several new area rugs. Oh my ... we are turning into Millennials ... we have a
Roomba and a Keurig!"
"It is definitely interesting to have
one rummaging around. There are a few things it can get under, in particular a
big storage cabinet in Geoff’s office and I was terrified it would get stuck
under there or something but when I wasn’t looking it snuck under there, I just
caught it’s rear vanishing in the corner of my eye! So now we get rumbledee
bump for a minute or two and then out it comes! I really need to get Geoff to
start it up again so it can clean some more … besides it is weirdly fun to be
sitting here with it bumbling around in the house!"
"Definitely is like having a pet or a toddler in the house
whenever you set Roomba loose! Yesterday Geoffrey had it out and it spent a
considerable amount of time under our bed. It finally exited the bedroom and we
herded it home to its charger but, later that night I woke up and realized my
clock was missing! Further hunting around and clearly the phone extension was
missing also! Took a few minutes sleep befuddled thought but clearly while it
was toddling around under the bed Roomba had grabbed the cords for the clock
and phone and pulled them down under the bed with it … guess maybe they are
clean now? We recovered the missing items a little bit ago and the cords have
now been tucked away so next trip under the bed Roomba will have to do without
them as playthings."
"Oh gawd ... it's at it again! Here I was, sitting here nice and peacefully at my computer,
munching my breakfast, drinking my tea … and I hear this polite little ding in
the distance. At first I don’t realize what it is, Geoff’s computer often makes
odd dings and beeps while he does stuff even when he is not sitting at it.
But then I hear this little light whirring sound! Roomba is loose again!
Geoffrey has forgotten that he set it for 9 am on Mondays as an ONGOING thing,
not just one time. I jump up and scurry around the house trying to remember
everything Roomba has trained me at … slippers and shoes off the floor, close
the bathroom door, block the kitchen doorways, yelling at Geoffrey (who has
ensconced himself in the master bath toilet, to put the hamper across the
opening into the master bath and get his stuff off the floor! Catching my
breath now as it appears that Roomba is playing around under the bed (from
which we have removed the clock and phone cables) and will be busy a while …
also making a note to speak to Geoff about the timing of his weekly Roomba
schedule!"
"Past installments have mentioned the Monday morning
scheduling of Roomba … well, Thursday morning as I tried to sleep in a bit,
Geoff woke me up to say it was almost Roomba time as he had scheduled it for 9
AM on BOTH Monday AND Thursday! I tried to ignore this, curling up under the
covers, but then thoughts of trying to lay there while Roomba crawled around
under the bed took hold and I dragged myself up <sigh> informing Geoffrey
it was his turn to trail along after Roomba watching for further deviant
behavior and gathering my cup of tea I retreated to my computer room. At which
point Geoffrey reported that Roomba had crawled around cleaning under his desk
and then headed out down the hall to the bedroom where after a short tour of
the outer edges it scooted under the bed. Standing there listening to it
bumbling around under there must have been boring and soon he was no longer
paying attention. Apparently this did not suit Roomba as it snuck out from
under the bed and attacked his feet, quickly retreating back under the bed.
Roomba clearly was just waiting for another chance and as soon as his attention
was elsewhere out it scooted, attacking his feet again! Eventually it tired of
the game and headed to the rest of the house, next stop, my computer room. Of
course it has gotten me trained already and I simply positioned my feet and
chair to keep it out from under my desk thus obviating the need to pick
anything up. It soon tired of my room and headed for the living room. Now,
Geoff was supposed to be keeping an eye on it but I soon heard strange noises
from the other room and decided I better go check … Roomba had found the
Christmas tree and its surrounding presents! For the most part it just bumbled
around the edges and the presents themselves managed to fend it off but then it
discovered the flat ones that were just leaning up against the others and by
the time I got there it was trying to eat one of them … a lovely little flat
one with gold paper and a bell on it. I rescued the
present with no damage done, the bell keeping it from disappearing underneath
Roomba, and quickly rearranged the gifts so the flat ones were still leaning up
against others but were layered above Roomba’s reach. Of course this
disconcerted Roomba and it headed back to my office again at which point it
decided its battery was dying and it needed to get back to its dock! Not sure I
can take this twice a week stuff especially first thing in the morning!"
"As you are both aware
from yesterday’s email, we had a small disaster with the washer flooding out
half the kitchen and most of Geoff’s office requiring we call in ServPro to
cleanup and start restoration/repair. So 9 o’clock this morning Geoff and I are
ensconced in my office where, with the door shut, we can hear each other over
the blowing fans and other equipment that has been running in the disaster area
since yesterday afternoon. I though I heard a clunk out there some where but
the way this house is sometimes it can be next door or even across the street
and nothing showed on our (external) cameras and we were busy calling our
insurance agent and Home Depot over the protection plan for the washer. I
figured it was nothing but then I heard another and another. We finally headed
out to the rest of the house and there was Roomba busily cleaning away in the
little hall outside my office. We finally corralled it and got it returned to
its dock … sometimes it is worse than having a child or a pet, yelling at it gets
no response whatsoever! … Geoff has now retreated to a laundromat to finish
washing the load of clothes and the towels we used yesterday and I am waiting
on ServPro which called and will be here in about a half hour. The washer
repair guy is scheduled for Thursday … stuff always seems to happen around
holidays." [For those who did not hear about the Great Washer Disaster, be patient, a post is coming on that. I am trying to be somewhat chronological with this.]
"Sitting here at my computer this morning on a day full of
visitors … the security company for an issue with the system, the estimator for
repairs to the house, and the cabinet installer guy … and at 9 I hear these
little musical tones and then the whirring sounds of Roomba. Geoff who is
ensconced in his temporary computer room in the corner junk room mutters some
rude words and takes off after it. Roomba had promptly veered into Geoff’s
usual office which at the moment is a wasteland of bare concrete slab where the
floor was taken up from the flood and pieces of furniture cluttering the space.
So of course Roomba, enjoying being somewhere forbidden to it for the last
couple of weeks, kept ducking under stuff where he couldn’t catch her. After
several attempts and much muttering of ‘come here you little idiot’ and such
like, he did catch her and returned her to her base."
Well, Roomba has mostly trained us now and what few adventures occur with it are minor but it sure is a learning experience!
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