I love my new Roomba!

My parents had purchased one a few years ago and raved about it, suggesting I get one too.

“So does that mean you want to buy me one?”

…then they would shut up.

When choosing a vacuum cleaner for my new place, I considered the ever-so-popular Dyson. However, I saw that they were very bulky and heavy – one of my friends who has a very petite, skinny wife informed me that his wife can’t even maneuver their Dyson! Even their smallest model seemed a bit too heavy-duty for my needs.

I also had to consider the fact that J suffers from severe allergies, so I need to keep the place spic and span at all times.

A Roomba seemed a logic choice: I could turn it on before leaving for work (or better yet, program it to run at a certain time), and return home to clean floors!

We happily added a Roomba to our wedding registry and one of J’s friends generously supplied the funds.

After the initial 16-hour charge, we Roomba-proofed the apartment (making sure there were no loose wires on the ground, etc), set up a virtual wall, and let it loose on our hardwood floors.

It performed wonderfully.

We felt like proud parents as we watched it do its thing, and even praised it (“Look how smart it is!”) when it found its way back to the charging station at the end of the cleaning cycle.

I quickly discovered that there is a whole community of Roomba lovers out there, with helpful forums such as Roomba Review and Roomba Community. Some of these people are hard-core, with multiple Roombas in their possession (I think the most I saw was seven). They seemed to consider their Roombas as pets, or even members of the family.

And after just a short period of owning a Roomba, I can see why. Tonight, we left the Roomba running as we left for dinner, and I felt like a worrisome parent through the night.

“Do you think the Roomba is doing okay?”

“What if it’s stuck or tangled somewhere?”

“Do you think it found its way back to the charging dock?”

And when we came home, there it was – at its charging dock, with the “Ready” light brightly lit as if to greet us.

This isn’t to say I’ll mollycoddle the Roomba. You see, J’s coworker had a brilliant idea…

“We should gather a bunch of Roombas together in one room, and take away one charging dock. Then we can all sit back with a beer and watch the festivities as they play musical chair.”

Awesome.