Cats + Roomba vs. Emmett
The time was approximately 0615 or thereabouts. My cats, Preia and Branwen, were off elsewhere in my sizeable apartment. I was happily asleep, since my alarm was set for 0900.
Then there was this whirring noise. And an inordinate amount of thumping. I woke up slowly, odd visions running through my head, trying to connect the noises with something.
Roomba! Bloody hell, I hadn't run it for a month. Why was it running now?
Now, you must understand that I actually bought the Roomba only partly to use as a vacuum cleaner, but primarily as a toy with which to terrorise my cats.
Understand my dismay when I stumbled out, half blind, into my living room to discover the Roomba trying to extricate itself from a morass of lumber and power cords from a half-finished project. Branwen, a cat normally given to extreme fits of abject terror, was sitting about three feet away, cleaning herself and seeming to ignore the Roomba.
I think Bran's the one who turned it on; Preia looked cheerful, but I've come to reckognise the subtle nuances of her expressions. She'd been woken up by it, too. But she's used to being woken up by odd things, and interprets such surprises as both fun and a sign of love (I direct your attention to my note above about terrorising my cats). Preia probably thought I was responsible, in fact - she was looking all squinty-eyed.
For the next trick: ever try to remember how to operate complicated electronic gadgets when you're barely half-awake? After clearing the debris, I fumbled with the Roomba for a moment, trying to remember how to get it to drive back onto its base. It started going in a circle briefly, and so I picked it up, couldn't figure out what to do next, and put it back down. Branwen ran off at this point in the hitherto-mentioned abject terror.
Finally, recognition kicked in. I saw the word "power" and punched it. After spending another bleary moment trying to push the Roomba back onto its base, I shook my head in irritation and picked it up again. I remember lecturing Preia about the incident. I mean, Branwen was hiding somewhere at this point, and I couldn't sleep without lecturing someone about practical jokes, now could I?
Let's hope I don't end up having to build a nesting cave to keep the buttons safely away from cat paws.
Then there was this whirring noise. And an inordinate amount of thumping. I woke up slowly, odd visions running through my head, trying to connect the noises with something.
Roomba! Bloody hell, I hadn't run it for a month. Why was it running now?
Now, you must understand that I actually bought the Roomba only partly to use as a vacuum cleaner, but primarily as a toy with which to terrorise my cats.
Understand my dismay when I stumbled out, half blind, into my living room to discover the Roomba trying to extricate itself from a morass of lumber and power cords from a half-finished project. Branwen, a cat normally given to extreme fits of abject terror, was sitting about three feet away, cleaning herself and seeming to ignore the Roomba.
I think Bran's the one who turned it on; Preia looked cheerful, but I've come to reckognise the subtle nuances of her expressions. She'd been woken up by it, too. But she's used to being woken up by odd things, and interprets such surprises as both fun and a sign of love (I direct your attention to my note above about terrorising my cats). Preia probably thought I was responsible, in fact - she was looking all squinty-eyed.
For the next trick: ever try to remember how to operate complicated electronic gadgets when you're barely half-awake? After clearing the debris, I fumbled with the Roomba for a moment, trying to remember how to get it to drive back onto its base. It started going in a circle briefly, and so I picked it up, couldn't figure out what to do next, and put it back down. Branwen ran off at this point in the hitherto-mentioned abject terror.
Finally, recognition kicked in. I saw the word "power" and punched it. After spending another bleary moment trying to push the Roomba back onto its base, I shook my head in irritation and picked it up again. I remember lecturing Preia about the incident. I mean, Branwen was hiding somewhere at this point, and I couldn't sleep without lecturing someone about practical jokes, now could I?
Let's hope I don't end up having to build a nesting cave to keep the buttons safely away from cat paws.