A few years ago, Kevin and April bought an iRobot Roomba, a “vacuum cleaning robot.” After a while, they found 
themselves using it less and less and less. The configuration of their home made it difficult to use, so they offered it to me. Oh, yes, I wanted to try out the Roomba. And I love the Roomba. Most of the time. And I didn’t get rid of the regular vacuum cleaner; Roombas just do floors.
I really do like it. Many weeks, I use it daily, in one room or another in the house. And I am always startled, and sometimes horrified, to see how much stuff it picks up. Well, thrilled and horrified.
But sometimes it is a little creepy. Here’s what happened a few weeks ago in my living room (and I do admit to re-creating what happened for photography purposes, because photos show you better what I think happened).
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- The Roomba comes with little devices that emit beams. You can put them at the doorways, and they will keep the Roomba from leaving the room. Or, you can just make the door opening too small for them to exit.
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- At the other door, instead of using that beam thing, I hastily propped a large white board across the doorway, to keep the Roomba in the living room, working hard.
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- Then I punched the button to set it vacuuming, and left the house to run errands.
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- This is what I *think* happened. As the Roomba moved across the bottom of the board, cleaning that room edge, it must have pushed the bottom edge so far that it became top-heavy, and toppled over. I think the board probably landed on top of the Roomba, who kept on moving around, cleaning.
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- Eventually, it motored out from under the board, and kept moving around the room. The Roomba makes several sweeps over the floors when it cleans, so eventually it came back, and, finding the flat board no barrier at all, moved over it, escaping from the living room.
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- When I returned home and checked the living room, no Roomba. When I saw the toppled white board, I went looking elsewhere, ultimately finding the Roomba in the bathroom, having exhausted its battery, desperately trying to get into that narrow space between the toilet and cabinet to clean there. Poor thing.
I am more careful now, about the doorway barriers.
A couple of nights ago, I had a hard time sleeping, waking up often and staying awake. Finally, at 4:00 am, I gave up and got up. I had sewed all day Tuesday, in the room where Peter’s bed is, and they were coming on Thursday afternoon, so I had planned to put the Roomba in there to clean up anything I had missed.
Why not now? I thought. If I closed the door, the sound would be low and shouldn’t bother the sleeping David. I went in and put a chair and trash bins on the bed, to clear the floor. I brought in the Roomba, started it, and left, closing the door. I went into the next room and sat down at my computer. In just a minute or so, I heard a big THUNK. Oh! What now?!?
At the door, I could hear the whirr of the Roomba, merrily going about its business. Here’s what I found.
Looks like the ironing board wasn’t propped up against the wall securely. The Roomba knocked it right down. If I hadn’t heard it and gone to check, the Roomba would have kept on moving and whirring and vacuuming, right there, trapped in that small space. It can go over cords and thresholds, but not those bid ol’ ironing board legs!. I moved it and re-propped the ironing board, securely. Then left it to finish up the room.
O Lord, our Sovereign,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.
When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars that you have established…
Psalm 8: 1, 3 (NRSV)
I love these verses. In God, we find the ultimate creativity.
My great-grandmothers had to take their rugs outside and beat them to remove the dust and dirt. My grandmothers used a carpet sweeper, a mechanical thing, to clean. My mother vacuumed our floors with an electric machine. I can put a little round robot down, punch “Clean,” and off it will go, doing a better job than I do with my vacuum (as long as I do my part in the process). The technology was always there. We just had to wait for people and their minds to catch up. And, really, the incredible little robot vacuum cleaner pales when compared with the moon, the planets, the stars, the endless, amazing, unknown universe. Wow.
iWish I had one! It’s so cute. Such a personality. What did you name it?
http://www.ba-bamail.com/View.aspx?MemberId=835852&emailid=12288
Have you seen this? Hubble telescope, thousands of galaxies, trillions of stars. Wow!
You know, I’m not often in the habit of naming my inanimate objects. *You* can think of an appropriate name and let me know. I can’t even settle on its gender.
Have always wondered about these vacuums & now you have satisfied my curiosity. Sounds as if it is handy but might mean more work for you. Vacuuming has never been a favorite chore for me so I might let Roomba do it’s thing (if I had one) and be satisfied whatever the results. Hope all is well with you and yours. Would love to hear from you. Suzy