What happened...?
As I mentioned previously I’ve been rather under the weather for the past week or two and I’ve been too ill to post any logs to this journal until today. I had made B.E.N. SWEAR to NEVER again mention "the incident" which led to my illness, but I’m jotting this down here because I’m still confused about the chain of events and trying to piece together what all that happened.
This downturn of events which led to my illness began back when I discovered Kitty and B.E.N. in the garden a few weeks ago, literally stuck on one another. It seems that B.E.N. had made some sort of swillish android dessert called Oil Toffee, and somehow B.E.N. managed (not surprisingly) to get the sticky toffee all over himself and later Kitty (one doesn’t have to be a mathematician to know by now that B.E.N. + kitchen + stove = potential disaster...which is why I've learned to ask B.E.N. to bring me things like sandwiches which require no cooking).
Oil toffee (at least the way B.E.N. makes it) has the consistency and properties of rapid-hardening epoxy glue (note to self: retain a sample and analyze it for possible commercial applications). After having a good laugh at the sight of Kitty and B.E.N. stuck in a particularly awkward tableaux amongst my imported Atamascian lilies, I made Jim go out and separate B.E.N. and Kitty and clean them off. B.E.N. somehow managed to pull his eyes out during the fiasco (a rather disturing mental image!) when he got his face stuck in the pan of oil toffee. Kitty was hissing, covered in congealed oil, and extremely unhappy (though I’m sure having me find her in such a graceless position made it even worse), and B.E.N.’s repeatedly calling her “Mommy!”did not help matters. Ah...if only I’d have my camera with me that day!
After Jim cleaned B.E.N. off and brought him back down to the basement, I spent a few days trying to get the robot’s eyes functioning again but the ancient circuitry of a B.E.N. 450 model is rather tricky and I was worried I might do some permanent damage to B.E.N.’s optics. I finally ended up bundling the eyeless B.E.N. into the carriage and driving him in to Benbow town to get a robotics specialist to take a look at his disconnected eyes. Although B.E.N. has traveled to Benbow numerous times, he insisted that I keep a running dialogue of the sights along the way (how many different ways can one find to describe the gray, rocky road into Benbow?). I was finally forced to flip B.E.N. off when he repeatedly began to shout "HO DELILAH!" which made my mare Delilah keep trying to break into a run and the last thing I needed was another run-in with the Benbow Constabulary involving Delilah and the now-blind B.E.N.!
More on this later...I think that I need some more tea right now.
This downturn of events which led to my illness began back when I discovered Kitty and B.E.N. in the garden a few weeks ago, literally stuck on one another. It seems that B.E.N. had made some sort of swillish android dessert called Oil Toffee, and somehow B.E.N. managed (not surprisingly) to get the sticky toffee all over himself and later Kitty (one doesn’t have to be a mathematician to know by now that B.E.N. + kitchen + stove = potential disaster...which is why I've learned to ask B.E.N. to bring me things like sandwiches which require no cooking).
Oil toffee (at least the way B.E.N. makes it) has the consistency and properties of rapid-hardening epoxy glue (note to self: retain a sample and analyze it for possible commercial applications). After having a good laugh at the sight of Kitty and B.E.N. stuck in a particularly awkward tableaux amongst my imported Atamascian lilies, I made Jim go out and separate B.E.N. and Kitty and clean them off. B.E.N. somehow managed to pull his eyes out during the fiasco (a rather disturing mental image!) when he got his face stuck in the pan of oil toffee. Kitty was hissing, covered in congealed oil, and extremely unhappy (though I’m sure having me find her in such a graceless position made it even worse), and B.E.N.’s repeatedly calling her “Mommy!”did not help matters. Ah...if only I’d have my camera with me that day!
After Jim cleaned B.E.N. off and brought him back down to the basement, I spent a few days trying to get the robot’s eyes functioning again but the ancient circuitry of a B.E.N. 450 model is rather tricky and I was worried I might do some permanent damage to B.E.N.’s optics. I finally ended up bundling the eyeless B.E.N. into the carriage and driving him in to Benbow town to get a robotics specialist to take a look at his disconnected eyes. Although B.E.N. has traveled to Benbow numerous times, he insisted that I keep a running dialogue of the sights along the way (how many different ways can one find to describe the gray, rocky road into Benbow?). I was finally forced to flip B.E.N. off when he repeatedly began to shout "HO DELILAH!" which made my mare Delilah keep trying to break into a run and the last thing I needed was another run-in with the Benbow Constabulary involving Delilah and the now-blind B.E.N.!
More on this later...I think that I need some more tea right now.