Our robot vacuum continues to struggle. It will betake itself to a spot that looks unremarkable and declare that it is stuck. ERROR SIX, it will bleat until someone takes pity on it. It will sit on its charging plate and complain that it needs to be charged -- won't someone please charge it? Sometimes it keeps complaining even after I clean the contacts. We have an end table with a low shelf that is exactly the wrong height for the vacuum -- it keeps wedging itself between the shelf and the carpet and yowling piteously. (It doesn't actually yowl. Here I go again, anthropomorphizing my electronics.)
It also tries to escape at regular intervals. You might not think that a robot vacuum could run away from home, but it dawned on me last night that I hadn't seen it recently. We have an old-fashioned secretary that belonged to my husband's grandmother or great-aunt, and the vacuum loves to hide out underneath it. Sometimes it gets lost under the loveseat, or the futon. It seems to like to keep me on my toes [she said anthropomorphizingly].
It is set to vacuum every night at 8:45, and I am usually in bed before it finishes. This means that if it runs into trouble near the end of its run, it is dependent on the big kids for rescue. They might respond to its pleas if it's stuck in the living room, but they're unlikely to venture any further.
Sometimes it calls out in the middle of the night: charging! I neeeeeeed charging!! It is loud enough that I sometimes get up out of bed to make it stop. But it has not been calling for me, and it has not been vacuuming, and I do not see it under the futon, all of which makes me wonder if perhaps it has headed out in search of greener pastures.
I imagine it wandering the neighborhood, its robot voice calling "FREEDOM! GLORIOUS FREEDOM!"
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