By Wendy J. Miller
"Please put me down on the floor."
The other day when I got home, NEATO was AWOL -- the docking station was empty. I searched for him in the living room, the kitchen, the bathroom, the bedroom and the studio.
He wasn't visible anywhere -- I was mystified. And he's supposed to return to the docking station when his battery gets low. I admit I was in a bit of a panic - what could have happened? I promptly went into CSI mode, flashlight in hand...
Crawling on my hands and knees, I peered into every nook and cranny; in the process noting that NEATO was doing really great work! Even though his jobs sucks, he was getting around and under all furniture and keeping my floors dust-free.
The final stop was the entertainment unit in the studio. Aha! There he was lurking in the shadows under the unit! NEATO had latched onto a power bar cord and had no intention of letting go. Either that or the power cord was enamored with my robot buddy - he's pretty darn cute, after all... Desperate to free him, I enlisted my former dust collector -- the SWIFFER, and was able to hook the underside of NEATO and I pulled him carefully toward me.
He is pretty heavy and was really hooked up tightly with his new power bar friend, but at last I was able to get to him. His battery had depleted to the point where he couldn't have made it back to the docking station. I picked him up and as I carried him down the hall, his message to me was not "thanks" or "I really appreciate your help" -- his read out said "Please put me down on the floor"! I replied aloud, "Sure, you've got no juice and when I put you down how will you manage"? NEATO responded, "My battery needs to be charged". No kidding!
I placed NEATO at his docking station and once again emptied his dust bin -- but this time I washed it out and cleaned his filter with soap and hot water. In the morning, after everything was dry, I replaced the bin and filter; NEATO's message: "Replace my dirt bin". Hey.... who's the boss here?
To be continued...
