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Butch Furse
Car and foot traffic has picked over the past few years since housing has been developed across the street from us. New houses have been built and a couple of empty lots have been sold.
The basis for this additional development all came about when the golf course underwent a redesign of the nine-hole course and had some street-side space left ideal for housing. As the residential development progressed foot traffic gradually increased as more walkers and onlookers in cars watched the area grow.
A few weeks ago we noticed a change in the area that aroused our curiosity. Several regular daily walkers were stopping in the street as if to admire the new landscape and the construction changes that had come about. Many cars also seemed to slow for closer views of the freshly green lawns, blooming flowers, and shrubs surrounding those new neighborhood homes. All this left us a little puzzled.
Finally we approached a walker and questioned why all the curiosity. She turned back toward the area she was looking and pointed to this gray machine scooting along a yard. It was a robotic lawnmower!
We both laughed and agree to the conclusion it doesn’t take much to entertain us oldsters. We now have “doubled” our entertainment because another robotic lawnmower has gone to work in that new neighborhood.
In our household the Betterhalf had put us in the “robotic future a year ago when she brought home her “Little Guy” as she calls it . . . a robotic vacuum. It has been unattended vacuuming the bedrooms and much of the household with its specialty of getting those low spots under the beds, tables, etc. The Little Guy” now has become a part of our family.
We wanted to find out more about this robotic lawnmower business. We visited with one of the mower owners. Basically it works on the same principle as our Little Guy with its automatic self- charging by going to its own charging station; mows day or nights; and can mow unattended in preset boundaries, etc.
We don’t foresee any robotic mower in our immediate future. We are fortunate the Betterhalf likes to mow and have me do the trimming. But, there is one tantalizing advantage: “With a robotic there seems to be no more arguments over the mowing chores in a household
RL Furse is publisher emeritus of the News-Register
