Still later

After an hour recharge, the green light came on again. I set it loose for ten minutes and egad, the bin is full again.

Later

The Roomba ended its maiden voyage somewhere to the right of my bed, standing still with its power light solid red. I remember reading somewhere in the manual that this means "bin full," so I opened it up and discovered, yes, a full bin. Also, an ATM receipt stuck between the brush and the basket.

I returned it to its charging station, and then after a few minutes pressed its Clean button. It backed up, made a few passes around the bookcase, and then returned to its charging station for more energy. Well, okay.

The mess in the bin was so dense and grey that I asked my wife's mother whether she wanted to see, and to my delight, she assented. I have thusfar been describing the Roomba to her as a "carpet sweeper," lest here suspicion of gadgets close her mind.

A new vacuum

I got to the part of settling my room where the next step was vacuuming. I went to the closet and discovered that the vacuum was broken, and apparently has been broken for quite some time. The carpet sweeping attachment shows no signs of life. The hose was clogged. Apparently our cleaning person has been hard on the vacuum.

Although I have deep problems with clutter, I do like my clutter clean. For me there are three choices for carpet cleaning: Dyson, Roomba, and Hoky. I have personal experience only with the Hoky.

The Roomba seems to me to be a Hoky that is well matched to my attention span and perfectionism. The negative reviews I found from searching the net centered around its tendency to die before the year is up, not with its ability to clean. Rather, the reports are that it finds dirt in "clean" carpets. That's what I like. I can cope with its life expectancy issues.

Brookstone had the Roomba Scheduler in stock and offers a sixty day return policy. The device is now an hour into its preliminary charge, which will be either three hours or sixteen hours depending on unknown factors. The sixteen hour charge, according to the documentation, will prolong the battery life. Bravo.

But hark, the light is green. Perhaps it is ready to go.