Frostiness ~

Not to beat a frozen horse here, but my, winter has arrived with Determination this year, and ahead of schedule. Of course we here in The Burg have somewhat weenier standards for this; it did, after all, get into the low 50's here today. But another fairly brutal blast of cold air will descend tomorrow, and when they're this strong we get swept under the cold carpet along with everyone else. As the airmass settles in our Moderating Influence, Mr Ocean, makes himself felt, and we are cheered.

Speaking of carpets, today I unleashed Roombas I and II in the same room and watched them scurrying about, occasionally running into each other and ocasionally following one another around. It's all random behavior and I'm afraid it's almost twice as mesmerizing as watching one of them. M occasionally observes that if I'm standing their watching our robot(s), they're not really saving me any time. There's a point there, I suppose. I need some grandkids around to watch them with me.

The older one (Roomba, not grandkid) has lately begun exhibiting some aberrant behavior, coming to a stop and then doing a series of spins and thrusts as though it is trying to escape from an invisible box just a few inches larger than it is. Removing and replacing the battery -- always a good shot-in-the-dark with electronic brainiacs -- proved unavailing. Interestingly, the iRobot website has a number of short videos of Roombas Behaving Badly and if you find one that mimics what yours is doing, they suggest the cause and fix. I found one clip of the same little OCD Mambo and tried cleaning the sensors they suggested. It seems to have helped, but we'll see on his Next Assignment.

I would never suggest something as potentially suicidal as surprising one's bride or sweetheart with a Roomba for Christmas. It might be miscontrued. But M has seen how they do on the vacuuming (which in our economy is my job) and has a Scooba, the floor wet-scrubbing model (which generally is her job), on her C'mas list. [She's going to get it -- as she knows, since she bought one at the Linens-n-Things close-out. But she can't use it yet.] They are handy devices, fer sure.

I'm unwinding tonight from a Great Snit I entered about 24 hours ago upon discovery that the rump dissident group's public bulletin board, which they advertize as open to all non-golf members, has spiked a couple submissions favoring the Board on which I serve because, transparently, they don't agree with the postings. Since I had repeatedly represented to others that they were more honourable than to do something like that, I fired off a paint-peeling missive to the guy I believe is running it (they won't say or post who is) at about 0100 and didn't really cool down until later today. Their audacity and duplicity continues to amaze and disappoint, however. Hopefully my grenade lobbed over the transom is causing them to squirm at least a little.

Anyway, all that psychic energy, combined with my famous soup-n-salad diet for the past couple days, has caused the last of my Cruise Pork-Up to finally metabolize away, leaving me back at about 161. A few more and I'll be good to go for Turkey Day. Gobble gobble! It's probable that by a week from tonite, it'll all be back.

The Coachmen minus Leader Peter met here tonight to brush ourselves up for the Saturday eve concert, which was featured in three different spots in today's Gazette, two with pictures. The library venue says pre-sales are good and since it seats only about 240, we could sell out.

On that happy note, I shall retire. Happy Friday ~