Santa Claus was especially good to us this year, bringing all sorts of generous, useful gifts.
So it was with great enthusiasm that on December 26th I headed to the grocery store to score a family-size box of crispy rice cereal.
As utilitarian as Santa is, my sainted wife ended up scoring, among other thoughtful gifts, a robot floor cleaner. Yep, because she wanted one. And hence the rice cereal.
You see, we have permanent custody of Smokey the Cat, a Korat breed kitty, that is chock full of wonderful assets not normally found in cats. One of those special assets is supposed to be a Korat’s lack of shedding or shedding a lot.
 |
| Smokey the Cat ready for action |
Several times a day we police the floors in pursuit of clumps of what appear to be other critters; in fact, those are merely fur sheddings from Smokey. Mike Lindel may be interested in manufacturing pillows from these bales of errant fur that aren’t supposed to exist.
To assist with this regular task my sainted wife pled with Santa for one of those miracle-like sweepers. Before she made out her Good Girl List she conferred with a neighbor, I’ll call “Tess,” because her name is Tess.
Tess extolled the virtues of this one particular brand of floor robot inasmuch as she has one, as well as two dogs and a cat. In other words, she likely cultivates more pet hair than we do, exponentially.
Her praises for this 22nd Century tool spoke volumes. Armed with that inside information we forwarded my sainted wife’s list to the North Pole for consideration.
Neatly boxed and wrapped, this floor robot arrived on Christmas Day in great shape apparently ready for action.
While I was at the grocery store, my sainted wife followed the detailed instructions and began the orientation process, and the scene was not unlike changing uranium rods in a nuclear reactor.
She was still mumbling and reading upon my return, attempting to make sense of the additional wireless remote control.
Meanwhile, Smokey was busy napping on his cat tree, readying himself for dinner, then another nap before bedtime.
I opened the box of cereal and generously sprinkled them about the dining room, living room, and kitchen. This was going to be the proverbial acid test.
After the “green” charging light appeared we knew it was time for the adventures to begin.
A quick push of the all-important “middle button” sent this technological marvel into action. A quiet whirr of the outboard whiskers made it appear as though it was gathering debris from a close proximity with aplomb.
Watching this motorized creature wend its way to and fro on the hardwood floor became entertaining if not mesmerizing.
Soon it reached the “planted” debris, using its whiskers to gather, then push, the cereal toward its plastic mouth. This process was so fascinating that we actually began wagering on if and when it would reach our bait cereal.
It didn’t take long for Smokey to hear the whirr and waken to examine the goings-on. Creeping closer and closer he wisely watched rather than stalk this new household tool.
Being the inaugural sweeping we all soon tired from the repetitive excitement. The robot was sent back to its black cradle that serves as its charger. There, it went into a charging mode, eventually switching to a sleep mode. The excitement was over, if only temporarily.
Tomorrow we will attempt to use the wet mop feature, again betting on speed and cleaning abilities.
Smokey ate some hard, crunchy food before going back to his well-deserved nap. And all was well until the next sweeping episode.
Thank you, Tess and Santa.
