I’m not usually big on joining new fads, but I succumbed on this one.
I’m talking about a floor-sweeping robot: those little disks that motor around your house, vacuuming and sweeping the floor when I don’t want to. Which is pretty much all the time.
So I got the little guy and found a safe place for him in our library. On his first outing, our grandsons were here. Talk about cheap entertainment. They lay on top our bed for an hour just watching him go back and forth vacuuming the floor.
I think the youngest may have offered him a cookie.
His controls are connected via app to my phone and so I was asked to name him. “How about R2D2?” I asked the boys.
“Um, what were those letters again?” the oldest said. They knew nothing of Star Wars movies. Talk about instant aging. Me, not him.
The first time around, the little robot was R2D2. Then he started having issues. One day I got a text while I was out and about: R2D2 couldn’t start his route because his dustbin was gone.
What? Fortunately my daughter was at the house so I asked her to check the dustbin. It was in place and she sent him on his way.
Then he wasn’t able to trek over the same edge of the rug that he’d managed the week before. All seven days of it. This time, it was a mountain too high. He sent another notification.
He was able to map out the rooms of our house, which I could then label. The idea was that I could send him just to the kitchen or the bedroom. Yeah, well, he lost the map. Then he found it. But now, as far as I can tell, that map is in Bogota.
He got caught in a bathroom, swiveling from the toilet to the door, circling endlessly. I picked him up and put him in the hallway so he could return to his dock. He kept circling. I am not sure but he may have discovered perpetual motion.
So I deleted the robot on my app and started anew, giving him a new name. Robot Boy.
Suddenly Robot Boy found the map of the house. Apparently after journeying to Bogota.
And then it was gone again.
I could schedule a time each day for him to begin his cleaning chores. For two weeks, he would do a run at 9 am and another at 12.
I assumed I had accidentally bumped the two-times-a-day switch so I did a little checking on his website. The company apologized but they don’t yet offer two-times-a-day scheduling.
Except on Robot Boy.
I didn’t report Robot Boy. Would you want him scolded by his own company? I can live with twice-a-day cleanings.
He does try hard. Even when he’s caught under a chair, he doesn’t give up. Only a dead battery will keep him from his appointed duties.
He doesn’t scratch, knock off lamps, or climb up curtains and he’s very loyal.
But I think his next name will be Confused.
