Robot Surgery & Myrtle Beach postcard

A few weeks back I reported on Upstairs Hal's tumble down the stairs. Thanks for all your warm wishes regarding his recovery! Meanwhile Downstairs Hal's right wheel refused to move after I initially fixed it, and DH (I know for you sewing bloggers, DH refers to Dear (darling? dearest? devoted?) Husband but here it's Downstairs Hal) refused to break free of a tight clockwise circle because of this. After contacting the iRobot support team, I bought a new cleaning module for Upstairs Hal and a new right wheel for Downstairs Hal. I think the total for these two items was in the $70 range. The parts arrived before vacay, and yesterday I performed surgery on both Hals.

Here's the interior guts of Upstairs Hal, while in the process of installing his new Cleaning Module which is green (unlike the old one which is red)



Here's Downstairs Hal without his right wheel:


These surgeries were super duper easy--just unscrewing a few screws, popping the old parts out and putting the new parts in. You do need two sizes of Phillips screwdrivers--your standard average size and a much smaller one.

I also replaced the sidebar brush on each because why not...

Then I annotated my Hals with Sharpie marker so I know what surgeries have been performed and the date (and with that I have officially turned into my father). Of course on the one with the Cleaning Module replacement, I wrote that the "bin" has been replaced. Er, it's not the bin...I have a tendency to do that sometimes (write one thing while fully meaning another).



So what was the success rate:
Downstairs Hal (right wheel replacement): running as smoothly as ever. Surgery was a complete success!!

Upstairs Hal (cleaning module replacement): The good news is he no longer clunks. Bad news is he is still kind of lurching along, and now has a new affectation: he won't go straight across a floor, but rather arcs across in a large sweeping convex curve, like maybe he needs his right wheel replaced too. I think I might just try the new wheel in UH to see if that corrects this problem. So I would say the surgery was a 75% success.

The postcard I wrote to myself arrived today. Does anyone else write postcards to themselves while on vacay?





I had already forgotten the butterflies, so this was a great reminder!!

Len confirmed it is my SI joint that is inflamed and strained. I'm supposed to ice it for two weeks. It sent me scurrying to the internet to read about SI joint pain relief. Note to self: never ever ever read medical message boards again EVER.

Good night!