Really? A robotic vaccum!

 

The iRobot Roomba is readily available in Canada: Costco, Canadian Tire, Best Buy, Bed Bath and Beyond and the list goes on. A friend's parents have the top-of-the-line model and a home with a floor which is mostly open. There are not a lot of places to trap a Roomba. They love it. I maps out the floor plan and saves the info in memory, it tracks straight and then, like a lawn mower, it rotates around and makes its second pass beside the first with just the right amount of overlap. When it is done, it parks itself and is automatically recharged and emptied of dust.

Our kids and their partners, knowing how well the iRobot Roomba is working our for our friend, bought us one for Christmas. (I knew there was a reason I hated Christmas gifts.)

First, it is not the top-of-the-line model. You turn it on and it wanders about the floor somewhat randomly. At times it seems to shows flashes of brilliance but generally this is an intelligence challenged robot. It will run until its battery get low and then it will head back to its recharging station. That is kinda neat, I must admit. The unit is not emptied automatically but that is no big deal. It is easy to empty.

Still, I would not give our iRobot a pat on its robotic head and tell it that it did a great job. I will admit our home is the problem. One of our beds is too low to the floor, the iRobot gets jammed under the bed. One of our dining room cabinets has a maze of wooden legs and the iRobot manages to get lost in a 2X4 spot and cannot find its way out. When we use it to vaccum the kitchen floor, we must first remove all the chairs and stools from the room. I could pass a manual vaccum over the floor in the time spent moving furniture.

Robotic vaccum cleaners are kinda cool but they need to be fitted into an environment designed with their needs in mind.

Am I happy with ours. Surprise, surprise, we are delighted with it. It was a gift; a gift from our family. Its whirring hum as it skoots about cleaning the floor says, "Love."

Ski poles double as rapiers

 

Young and too tired to ski, the two kids on the left found their ski poles made excellent rapiers in-spite of the baskets. Rapiers, a type of sword, are thin, light and sharp-pointed. When one thinks about it, rapiers do seem similar in appearance to ski poles. It's too bad Errol Flynn didn't make a ski movie. He could have shown these kids a cool move or two.

Beating challenges with help from my friends

It is not uncommon to see young people, and older folk as well, beating their own personal challenges with the kind assistance of the trained staff at Boler Mountain. 

Folk who, for a number of reasons, are unable to ski unassisted, are often sighted on the slopes.

This young person has been strapped into a specially designed seat with two pair of skis.

With the assistance of the gentleman holding the two ropes who is following behind, the young person is able to gain the control necessary to ski down the slope.

Accessibility has also been considered when it comes to the new lodge. The ski club received a $45,000 grant to fund the installation of an elevator to provide access to the second floor by those with personal challenges.

A picture moment interrupts jogging

My  youngest nephew likes to stay active, even in the winter. When he heads out to jog, he always takes his camera. This beautiful, snow covered, wide/wild leek, Allium tricoccum, I hope I have identified this correctly, stopped him in his tracks. He shared the image on his Facebook page.

Art brings smiles even during COVID

 

The art gallery in London once had an excellent art shop run by a group of volunteers. The women in the group, it seemed to be composed of mostly women, were smart both at finding art for their shop and at running a successful and very profitable business. But the ladies and the gallery had a falling out and the in art shop in now only memory.

Our home, like many in London, has a lot of art purchased from those ladies. During the COVID-19 pandemic, that art has brought a lot of folk a lot of happiness. With lock-downs and lock-ins, with closed schools and off-limit restaurants, life can seem a wee bit on the bleak side. Art seems to lighten the atmosphere in the home and that lightening has never been more important than now. Today one spends an inordinate amount of time within those walls.

This closely cropped image of a glass on glass plate creation is a favourite of our granddaughters and my wife and me. It brings a little, much needed, whimsy into our home.

Trade between cities

 In history class I remember learning how cities have talents. Or at least the folks living in the various cities have talents. One city might be famous for its tile and pottery creations, like Nabeul, Tunisia. Another city might be well known for its glass, like Murano, Italy. Or it might be the creative innovation of its residents and the multitude of imaginative stuff pouring out of the place which put it on the map, like Palo Alto, California.

When I picked up my first Klutz Press book, I was not surprised to see that it came from Palo Alto. The Klutz credo was: "Create wonderful things, be good, have fun." Klutz books encourage kids to not just read but to do. The book on knots includes the necessary rope. The book on making paper airplanes comes with  40 sheets of flight-tested, ready-to-fold paper, printed on both sides in a variety of colourful patterns.

And possibly my favourite Klutz Press book is The Book of Classic Board Games. I believe it may be out of print but if you can find one, even used, buy it. Kids of all ages love it. Somewhere in there one will find a game one likes:

• Backgammon
• Checkers
• Go
• Nine Men's Morris
• Cats and Dogs (aka Blue & Gray)
• Solitaire
• Roundabouts (aka Surakarta)
• Brax
• Mancala (aka Kalah)
• Hasami Shogi
• Hoppers (like 2-player Halma)
• Dalmatian Pirates and Volga Bulgars (aka Fox & Geese)
• Hex
• 3-D Tic Tac Toe (aka Qubic)
• Fandango (aka Fanorona)

This skier almost skied out of my shot

 

This is my last post from the race day at Boler Mountain in London. I could not resist posting this image. I rather like the oddly weighted composition. I must confess, this skier approached so fast and I was so slow to react that this skier almost skied right out of my shot.