RETR@migo: April 10, 2017

Happy to report that Hazel is still out there gettin things done. Everyday, she reliably gets up at 10:45am (I sleep in, why can't she?) and goes straight to work. She's older now though, and prone to knockin off early, as we all are. So, lucky for us, help arrived a little while back to pick up the slack. (slack = mostly Trixie hair and some dirt) Apparently, Jacques misbehaved at his first home and things went south. So we took him in on a rehab basis. (keepin em busy, that's key, idle hands and all that) So far, so good. Go Jacques!

Jacques, doin the dirty work.

Hazel

Ya might've read recently that Jenny & I just celebrated our 22nd wedding anniversary. Kind of a big deal. Big enough in fact that we decided to adopt a new member of the family.

Introducing... Hazel!

This beautiful bundle of joy came into our world on April 4th @ 5:15pm. Mom, Dad & sisters are doing great. (Dog is a little freaked out.)

"She" is a Roomba iRobot 860, and wow does she work hard! From the moment we plugged her in, she was ready to get to it. Every day since, she wakes up at 9:00am and does her thing for about an hour before returning to bed with her bin full of dirt and dog hair.

And while the idea behind automation is that she can work without supervision, it's actually kinda mesmerizing to watch her. It's not at all like you or I would vacuum. Rather than systematically working her way across the floor in straight lines, she just kinda wanders. She'll head one way until she bumps into something, and then turn a seemingly random direction and head off again. That said, she does seem to know the difference between walls, which she will run alongside, and furniture legs, which she will navigate around.

Here she is at work...

So all that randomness seems like she'd miss alot of spots, right? Well, she does! On any given day, she prolly only covers about 75% of the downstairs floor. But that's ok because remember, she works every day. So, whatever she misses today, she gets tomorrow. No problem.

So far, she's been great: works for free, without complaint (unless she gets stuck), and manages to keep up with the daily dose of dirt and dog hair. She's a keeper!

If only getting N&D to do their chores were so easy...