Let's Go To The Faire!

With the summer starting to wind down, one of the favorite things we like to do is attend the local annual Ren Faires and County Fairs. The Great Lakes Medieval Faire is probably the largest one in NE Ohio and one we have attended faithfully since discovering it in 2003.

Each year we tend to see shows we have seen in prior seasons and one or two new shows.
Last year our favorite show had to have been "Hack and Slash" and this year w/out a doubt it is a pair of musical pirates - "Porter and Stout".
We had never heard of them prior to this year - nor heard them - but if you get a chance, definitely give them a listen. We bought two of their CDs and they were even nice enough to autograph one of them for us :-)


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We live near a very agriculturally oriented county - and their annual county fair is always a delight for us city slickers. We have made it a point to attend for more years than I can recall and it is always a good time.

One of the loudest events I have ever attended in my life was at the county fair a few years ago - a truck and tractor pull. Monster vehicles in single and multiple engine classes all competing to see who can darken the sky the quickest and wake up the most people in the next state.

After attending that contest, I can now really understand the term "ear splitting".

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Speaking of fairs, we recently attended a small fair in a very conservative right leaning town in PA over Labor Day weekend. This is the type of place where the city is named after bishops or saints (or both)
While it was a very friendly place - albeit too religiously oriented for my atheist leanings, one thing that I found ironic is how they treat animals there. This is an area rich in farm country where you can't walk more than 10 feet through a field w/out taking home some souvenirs on your shoes.
In my experience, it just seems that they consider the animals to be simply another tool like a tractor or a shovel.

Being animal lovers, my wife and I just had to cringe when being told of all of the critters one relative was catching in his box traps - which he would then submerge in a nearby stream.
To them - it is no big deal - be the critters a ground hog, skunk or even a wayward cat.

What really raised my blood pressure to the point where we decided enough was enough and that we were going home is when we were introduced to the "Mouse Game" - which is a staple at this annual fair.

This "game" consists of a roulette type wheel that is horizontal that is divided into multiple "pie slices" which a mouse sized hole at the end of each one.
The live mouse is contained in a lid in the middle of the wheel - and then the wheel is spun.
At one point the lid is lifted freeing the now terrified mouse to run around the wheel and into a hole to hide.
Each hole has a number which people place money on - if the mouse goes in your hole - you win a prize.

If the mouse is hesitant - the person running the game beats a slat of wood against the lid making noise to scare the mouse even more - to get it to hide.

After the winner is announced - the game is repeated - ad nauseum.

I left feeling very sorry for the poor mouse and wondering how much the vendor would have charged me to buy his mouse so I could set it free in the nearby woods.

Roomba - one month later (or so)

Well,
it's been a month since I received my Roomba Scheduler from the Woot Off, and to be honest, I was not too impressed with the initial battery life.
Our Roomba is reconditioned which means it may have some slight cosmetic defects, but none I noticed. (and for a device that spends its life bumping into furniture and walls - slight cosmetic defects come with the territory)

What was more of a concern was the very short battery life. Even with the recommended initial charge session of 72 hours, it would only run for approximately 20 minutes before dying where it stood.

I read the forums over at roombareview.com, and tried all of the known working remedies for a battery charge issue, but even after letting it sit for a solid week on the charger, it still would not run longer than 20 minutes.

I finally broke down and called iRobot since the Roomba was still within the 90 day warranty period.
The voice mail prompts were kinda tricky - but after convincing the system that I had indeed tried the usual methods I was put in touch with a live human being.

After explaining to him what the problem was and what all I had tried - he agreed it was probably a bad battery and told me he was sending me a new one - at no charge under warranty.

The battery actually arrived the very next day!

I did the 72 hour initial charge cycle with this battery - and on the 4th day crossed my fingers and pressed "Clean". Not only was it still running at the magical 20 minute mark - but the power indicator was still bright "Green" when normally it would have been flashing "Red" by that point.

After a half hour I left the room but kept monitoring it (listening) and it kept running well over an hour and a half before it decided the area as clean and returned to the base.

In the past, whenever it decided the power level was low enough to warrant a return to the base, it usually ran out of juice 10 seconds or so later - which resulted in it expiring within sight of the base.

We have ran it a half dozen times now since receiving the new battery and it is now working perfectly!

iRobot of course announced a new and improved version of the Roombas soon after I received mine - but I have no regrets, especially considering the price I paid during the Wootoff for it.