Robots ... WHAT FUN!!

 Oh my goodness these spring mornings are gorgeous.  It's so cool (weather wise) that I can get a lot done in the mornings before hanging out with Cooper and watching ... what else ... RODEO.

On this day however, I was waiting for the landscape lighting repair guy.  I hit a few more spots with Roundup to kill the weeds and cleaned out a couple more boxes from the garage.  It seems I've done more work out there than I thought because there was a pile of boxes eight feet high.  I don't want to get rid of them ... I may need them if I move.  

You know the drill ... I moved stuff from here to there and back to here.  I spent an hour trying to move a table out of the way so I could even GET to the stuff.  I reorganized a bit, then spent another hour cutting up boxes for the recycle bin.  

This is the only thing they recycle around here ... cardboard.  Why you ask?  Because it ended up costing them more than it was worth.  That wouldn't be true if they had not shut down the burn facility.  

Lunchtime found me looking at the dirtiest BBQ ever.  Apparently I never cleaned it after that chicken I roasted last year.  Ugh ... I decided to try the air fryer instead.  I will be the first to tell you it did NOT work.  Oh it cooked it alright, but it came out pale as a ghost and kind of rubbery.  It was BAD!

The lettuce wrap thing didn't work so great either.  That first one came off the head easy as pie.  The next three came off in small pieces.  I piled them up to try and keep my hands UN-greasy, but it fell short.  I ate it ... most of it ... but the beef really didn't taste all that good.  It definitely needed the CHAR of a BBQ!

About that time I spotted someone on my porch.  Gee ... they didn't even ring the bell.  It was the lighting guy who didn't remember that he put this system in about ten years ago.  He looked it over, finding even more cut wires and splices that were not waterproof.  What a mess.  

He also suggested a new kind of drip irrigation ... the latest and greatest I guess ... that has no 1/4 tubing that can get cut by weed-eating the hedges.  I really didn't want to go there because of the cost, but he made me a deal I couldn't refuse ... mostly because I can do a lot of the work myself.  

Of course that won't happen for a few weeks.  In the meantime, my next fun project arrived at the door.  There wasn't time to play however, I had a 6:00 meeting at the Lodge.  You would get a big laugh out of this one, but I can't go into it.  I wasn't laughing when I left however ... it seems there's just one human problem after another.  Why can't people just be nice and get along?  

NOW it's time for the fun!!!  When I saw just how cool Barbara Westerfield's floor vacuum was, I wanted one.  Especially since I'm NOT the Queen of Clean.  I hate vacuuming with a passion.  You can tell by the dirt on the floor in this picture.  

Too bad for me, all the directions for this thing come in the APP, which you can't use unless you are hooked up to the internet.  They forgot to tell me that part.  As you know, my internet is my phone.  I spent over an hour trying to get it to hook up, but it refused.  It would get to about 60% and say SORRY CHARLIE!!!

I finally just hit the button ... and it said CLEANING.  Okay then ... I just let it go.  Obviously SOMEONE didn't think it was so great!!  No kidding, it scared him a LOT!  He chased it around, jumping back at every turn.  

Here's how it works ... if you don't have internet.  It goes until it finds a wall, then follows that wall all the way around.  When it thinks it has gotten far enough, it starts a back and forth motion to clean that area.  Then it goes BACK to where it stopped and continues along the wall until another large space has been mapped out.  Then it cleans that.  

The BEST part?  Watch this!!  I was laughing like crazy.  It went in under the couch, kind of got lost for a minute ... then WAIT FOR IT .... came right back out.  IT CLEANS UNDER FURNITURE!!  At least it does if the furniture is high enough, which both my couches are.  

I watched in fascination as it went around obstacle after obstacle for TWO HOURS, listening to barking the entire time.  Cooper finally decided it wasn't going to eat me and stopped about ten minutes before it did.   It announced it needed to recharge.  

It went back to the station and docked, whereupon it uploaded the dirt to a container that it says I don't have to empty for up to 60 days.  That won't happen around here with all the dirt, I'm sure.  It said it was done and shut off.  No kidding ... this thing talks to you and is a kick in the pants.  

Now if I could use the app, I could tell it exactly what area to clean and when to do it.  I'm not sure it's worth getting Starlink at a cost of over a hundred bucks a month, but not having to vacuum?  PRICELESS!!  Well, except for the corners that it can't get into.  

This thing is a kick in the butt!!!!  I can finally enjoy VACUUMING!!!  Robots ... WHAT FUN!!