Robot resurrection

 Maren is not afraid of much lately.  She is not afraid of snakes, other reptiles, monsters (including really gruesome ones in a book Jeff has), strangers,  or many other things that toddlers  are sometimes afraid of.  But there are a few things she has been terrified by. The first was static on the TV.  The second is men in the locker room who don't look at her or interact with her ( Jeff was taking her to swimming lessons). And the third is our robot vacuum.

 A couple of years ago my brother got us a Neato brand  refurbished robot vacuum.  In our old house we mainly used it to vacuum the basement, which basically we would never have done otherwise. In our new house we have a tried to  incorporate regular cleaning of the main floor, but we have had some hiccups.  First  it got stuck very near where it started,  so instead of being finished and back at its base when we got home, it  had just barely started. So we set it to go while we were home, and Maren pretty well freaked out.

 So we decided we would never do that again, I blocked off the area where it got stuck, and set it to go when we were going to be away for many hours and it would have plenty of time to finish the job. But it got stuck in a different place, and when Jeff and Maren  got home  it was stuck and making a horrible sound and Maren  freaked out again.

 Then all of a sudden it just died. We did all of the things that were suggested in the manual, we called customer service and did everything they suggested, and it simply would not turn on. We figured that it was toast,  and that Maren had lucked out  because she would never have to see it again.

 Then today, out of the blue, it turned on again.  We have no explanation, but are happy that it seems to have resurrected itself. We decided to run it while Maren  is sleeping,  so we can discover where it gets stuck  and prevent future freak out sessions. So far so good.