Make Room for the Roomba
Copyright 2006 by Suzy Wurtz
Last year, I wrote about our vacuum
cleaner collection. A friend had convinced my husband that a huge orange
“shop-vac” was a great idea for the house. It wasn’t. Neither was the
lightweight carpet sweeper that followed. We went back to using old machines
from our large vacuum assortment. However, another chapter in the saga unfolded
recently. My husband came home with a large package and said, “I got you
another vacuum!"
The same friend who convinced my husband to buy the shop-vac
last year also has a robotic vacuum cleaner called a Roomba, from the iRobot
Company. Because they were expensive, my husband searched the Internet and found
a “reconditioned” Roomba at a more modest price.
“What does reconditioned mean?” I asked.
”Somebody sent it back, and they fixed it. It’s as good as
new,” he promised.
Some women have husbands who shop for used trucks. I have one
who shops for used robots.
“So you bought a robot that had a nervous breakdown, and
we’re getting it straight out of rehab?” I asked sarcastically.
He smiled patiently as he unpacked the 14 inch round machine
and plugged it gently into “home base” for charging. The iRobot folks assured us
that our Roomba could easily jump onto our area rugs from the surrounding
hardwood floors. It could pick up that pet hair while we were at work. The web
site said that Roomba would cover a space multiple times before it “knew” the
area was clean and saunter back to its “home base” automatically for recharging.
“We should call it Rosie,” said my husband. “Like on the
Jetsons.” (For those of you who aren’t Baby Boomers, Rosie the Robot was the
maid in the 1960’s cartoon “The Jetsons,” a show about a family in the 21st
century.)
We charged it overnight, and gave it a maiden voyage on a
recent Saturday morning. It bumped its way around the floor and flashed its
blue light when it found dirt (which was often). My husband and I stood
transfixed in our pajamas as the little machine picked up scraps on the rug.
Its little brushes darted out like tongues against the wall. It went under the
telephone stand to find dust bunnies that had been there for a year.
Our daughter, who is not a morning person, came sleepily
downstairs to discover her parents staring wordlessly at Rosie the Roomba’s
antics. She greeted us with, “You guys look stupid.”
“It’s nice to see you, too,” answered my husband without
taking his eyes off the robot. But she was right. We did look stupid watching
this blinking, beeping machine do pirouettes.
But it was fascinating. And it worked!
Though the initial movement seemed erratic and unplanned, the
robot actually did cover the entire floor more than once. By the time she
needed her nap at the home base, Rosie had successfully vacuumed three rooms
much better than I do. However, our “reconditioned” Rosie the Roomba apparently
missed one of the 12 steps in rehab, the one about not falling down the
steps. We found out this feature didn’t work after our reconditioned Rosie took
an awkward tumble.
Roomba’s next task was upstairs, where she was gently
carried. “It cleaned under the bed!” exclaimed my husband happily an hour
later.
“I clean under the bed…sometimes,” I said defensively. He
liked Rosie a little too much.
Later in the day, our teen appeared with the round robot in
her hands. “Dad told me to vacuum my room while I do my homework,” she said
with a smile. Later, she came out into the hall and exclaimed, “You should see
this! It cleaned under the bed!”
Did I mention that I also clean under the beds…sometimes?
The two cats aren’t big fans of the Roomba, but we humans
are. I love the 21st century and I love our Roomba. As a matter of
fact, it’s downstairs vacuuming while I’m upstairs writing this. My husband
found a web site that has costumes for the Roomba. There are also web cameras
you can attach to it while it roams. It’s fun to have a husband who’s enamored
with new technology.
But if he starts sending it flowers, Rosie the Roomba is
fired.
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