Like a lamb, Neato extended test drive

Friday night I dressed up my unhealthy Digiorno frozen pizza with some healthy kale from the garden.  Somehow it makes me feel slightly better about stuffing my face with an otherwise totally unhealthy food.

Friday night I tried to take a bite out of my weekend work by doing all of the weeding.  Since it hadn’t been done in two weeks it was a rather lengthy session.

Saturday morning I picked up the girls early so they could hang out with me for the day.  Ali was working and was worried about the dogs recent unreliable bathroom habits.

I spent a large portion of Saturday giving the grounds a complete manicure, mowing everything inside the fence line and weed whacking.  In total I bet I spent around 5 hours out there.  My thought was I better do it then since Isaac was predicted to drop between 5 and 10 inches of rain in our area which would turn my property into an insta-swamp.

I also put a big dent into the various other things I wanted to get done including getting my tech in order for this week’s fantasy football draft, working on various race timing items, and a few other things.

Both Nicki and Sadie seemed to be feeling better.  Nicki definitely had more spring in her step and was playing with Sadie quite a bit in the yard, even running around a bit, slowly.  It was good to see her acting more normal.

I did some hurricane prep on Saturday  including moving a few things out of harms way.  I decided to go fill up the tank on my Tacoma and fill one extra 5 gallon container with potential generator gas.  By that time the hurricane panic was fully in place as the only gas left was the ridiculously priced premium grade.

I still hadn’t cleared out the items on the pool deck.  Ali actually offered to stop out Sunday morning with the dogs to help me move stuff which was nice of her.

By the time Sunday morning rolled around the effects of Isaac were starting to be felt with gusty winds and wind swept light rains.  Ali was out a little before 10.  With her help it didn’t take long at all to get stuff put away/moved around.  I also moved the stuff at the neighbors house (they live in Michigan) so it would be protected from the storm.

After we were done Ali went through the house a bit to grab a few more things.  There are still a lot of things at the house that are awaiting Ali’s decision if she wants it or not.  The process has been a slow one.  Ali and I talked about how awful it will be come the holidays, trying to split Christmas ornaments. Talk about depressing…

As far as I am concerned, I’d just as soon give it all to her.  I can’t imagine any scenario where I will be doing any official celebration of Christmas this year.

So as Sunday progressed the forecast path for Isaac continued to track further and further west.  The weather outside never really crossed over the “mildly unpleasant” threshold.  Yea it was windy and rained all day but we have plenty of days like that as is.

I slept through the night, not once being awakened by roaring wind or pounding rain.  When I walked outside to the truck this morning I was amazed just how little the property was affected.  Hell it wasn’t even raining and I didn’t have any standing water.

A lot of places jumped the gun with the storm.  All local schools are closed as are a couple pieces of local county government.  It looks pretty silly at this point.

It’s an odd thing that happens with storm false alarms.  There is this huge build up and panic amongst the people, so much so that when the storm doesn’t pack the punch that was predicted there is a perverse sense of disappointment that is just under the surface.  I remember the same scenario taking place up north when winter storms are predicted but do not come to fruition.

I think deep down people kind of like being part of a “disaster” as long as it isn’t too personally disastrous.

So I have had a couple weeks with my Neato so I have a broader scope of experience to rate it.  The Neato is still quite “neat” in my book although there are a few things that are less than perfect.

As I mentioned before, scheduling the Neato is very easy. However after having the Neato miss a scheduled cleaning session I discovered the robot somehow had it’s internal clock reset.  After setting the time again it was back to work.

The Neato is not quite as adept as the Roomba is when it comes to backing out of tight spots.  More than once I had to rescue the Neato from the legs of my bar stools.  It would get under the stools and then be unable to get back out, getting wedged in between the legs.  It also was getting wedged under the back of the sofa.  I also had the Neato stop inexplicably in the middle of the bedroom, indicating it’s path was blocked, a quick push of the start button set it back on it’s way.

The Neato comes with a strip of magnetic material which is used to create a virtual wall to keep the Neato out of whatever area you choose.  Unfortunately I used my entire strip to cover the sofa.  I may need a little more to rope off the bar stools.

So despite these small warts, overall I still really like my Neato.  It’s increased suction has really reduced the amount of crud the Roombas are left to pick up.  The systematic way it maps a room and avoids most obstacles (except bar stools) is really quite amazing.  The design of the the robot also seems to virtually eliminate all of the pain in the ass cleaning maintenance that is necessary with a Roomba.  I have now let it do 4 or 5 full house cleanings and have not had one issue with stuff getting wrapped around the brush.  So far all I had to do is empty the dust bin and tap the filter out.

This week looks to be a busy one.