Robot Woes

While I'm still very distracted from my nature adventures I want to tell you the story of my vacuum cleaner misadventure. Let's get into it.

It started out wonderful. I bought a brand new robot vacuum cleaner to replace my old Roomba that wasn't quite as spry as it used to be. I told you about it here in this post. It was the Neato Botvac D4. And it ran wonderfully for the first 3 months.

Then one day it began acting kind of confused and was moving a little slowly. The main problem though was that it kept getting stuck and giving an error whenever it tried to return to its recharging base.

I have to admit that I panicked a little. I thought I had spent $500 on a lemon and it would never work right again. I needed that robot vacuum cleaner! I'm much too busy to vacuum the house every day myself. And it had been doing such a great job of cleaning up the dog hair! But not now. A house full of dog hair is a horrible thing.

After I calmed down a bit I followed the links to the chat with Neato Support. The guy was actually very helpful. He asked me to try a few tests, which I did, to see if the machine could fix itself. Which it didn't. At the end of the chat, there didn't seem to be a solution. I was not very happy.

But then the support person followed up on my case through email the next day. He asked me if the machine had improved. I said no. And after a little back and forth he set me up with the information to send my vacuum cleaner in for the company to look at.

I took my machine to FedEx where I paid them about $20 to package the machine securely for me. I could have done it myself for free, but I figured they'd do it better. And they knew exactly what to do. And so my precious investment was sent off for servicing.

After about a week I got a large package delivered to me by FedEx. It was my vacuum cleaner! The great thing was that I didn't have to pay a dime for them to fix it for me. I wasn't sure about that part when I began the process.

I got it all unboxed and took the time to charge it back up, and then I started it up on a good test run to make sure it was okay. It wasn't! The robot acted confused and then errored when it tried to return to the charging base. After a closer examination I saw that they had replaced the filter, and maybe the brush, but they had done absolutely no repair on it. Again, I was not happy. It was time to try the chat support again.

After quite a lot of time and frustration talking to this new person who seemed kind of skeptical about my situation, I finally got it through to them that this machine really needed to be repaired. I learned during the chat that they could monitor the machine over the internet. I'm not so sure how much I like that. But it was time to send the machine back to the company for them to service it one more time. Would they actually fix it this time?

This time I just packed it back into the box it came in. No extra charges for me. I made the trip back to Sioux City to the FedEx Store and sent it off again. Again, they knew exactly what to do. The woman there even knew right away when I walked in that I had a robot vacuum in the box. Impressive.

And so, after another week I got my machine back again. I wasn't exactly encouraged about a successful repair this time because of my previous experience, but I was still hopeful. So, what do you think happened when I was able to do the test run?

Success! It was working! My vacuum cleaner was repaired this time, and it was back to its old great working self. My dog still thinks this second robot is a jerk, but it works just fine now. My dog doesn't like this one because she was kinda best pals with the old one. She loved playing with it while it cleaned. She thinks this one stole its job.

In the end, (and after this long post), I'm happy with the support I received from the company. It took a little too long to figure out that the machine should get fixed, but they did fix it and they did it for free. Free is all I could ask for.

And that's my story. Maybe you don't want to read another one like this, but I think my next post is going to be about the new computer I just built. I'm going to whine a bit about that one too. I hope you can stand it.

I'll talk to you later.

What Might This Mystery Object Be?

I know. I know. It's another one of these one picture posts. But this one picture is kind of interesting by itself, and necessary for the post. That's because I'm not exactly sure of what we're looking at here. Maybe a more rural person might know. My experience is in more urban outdoor stuff.

I found this object far away from me where the buffalo (bison) roam at Broken Kettle Grasslands. It looked like a giant shield from where I was standing. I took lots of pictures of it, but the camera's focus seemed to slide off of it. I think that's because it has that camouflage look to it. It looks to be maybe a tent or a trailer or maybe a shed. Maybe it's some kind of observation space to watch the bison. I don't know.

On an unrelated note, my fall depression seems to be ending now that fall is coming closer to a close. Hopefully, I can bring myself to begin posting more often again. I do have a few things to post now. Right now the only things slowing me down are some unexpected problems I've been having with some of my things around here, such as extra work and general mechanical problems with some of my property.

Anyway, what do you think? Do you know what the object in my picture might be? Or maybe you have a good wild guess. Even a humorous guess is welcome, and maybe even more welcome than something else. So go ahead and let me know what you think because it'll be really fun. I'll talk to you later.

A Walk Around Town

My pictures today are dark and funny looking. I did this on purpose. The darkness is because it was very early in the morning. Some of the strangeness though was because I used an odd filter on my phone called Toy.

Years ago there was a blog I used to visit where the person's pictures had an odd effect where everything looked like toylike models, even though the scenes were from real life. I always thought that was really cool. I hoped this filter could do something like this, but I'm not sure it works like that.

Anyway, I thought I'd show you what it looks like in a small country town around here. I'm not sure what impression of the town you might get from these pictures, but let me know what you really think.

You can't see my house in any of these pictures because while I am technically in town, my property is kind of apart from the rest of the town. I'm on kind of a farm at the edge of town. My dad even used to keep cows here.

I still mostly only have the knowledge of a city slicker, so no farm animals for me. But you never know. I could still go the Oliver Wendell Douglas route and go full on Green Acres. After all, it's the place to be.

I'm showing a little of the town because most of the nature around here is on my own property. I promised walks through the town, but I'm not finding a lot of nature in that part of my walks, except for the bugs. Sometimes I have to run home to get away from flying insects.

Many small towns only have dirt roads. That is not the case here. All of the roads here are paved. That means we're so sophisticated. We don't have a store in town, but we have a small gas station where you can buy a few things, but not much. And there is a bar where people come from miles around to visit. Otherwise, there isn't much.

These pictures are maybe the closest I'll get to just sharing a picture of myself. Though I have a cartoon version of me that I've been itching to share somewhere. Actually, there is an obvious picture of me on one of my websites that nobody ever seems to notice. Uh oh, I've said too much, so I'll talk to you later.

A Monster Of A Tale

It's been a little while since my last post. So, what happened? Well, I went on a little pokemon hunt and ran into a few little problems. First I wasn't paying attention to where I was going and walked off the side of a cliff. Broke my leg on that one. Then I accidentally walked into a raging river and got washed two states away. After some walking I accidentally crossed into Canada and got arrested by the border patrol. Finally, after straightening that out, on my way back here I was driving down the street playing this stupid game and I drove right into the back of a police car. All of this cost me half my fortune and took me two weeks to finally get back home.

So now I'm finally back. My broken leg heeled fast and I'm raring to go. Now I'd just like to forget about that moronic little adventure. Geocaching is much more fun than that game anyway.

But remembering what I was saying at the end of my last post. How could I top walking with bison? maybe an elephant? No. How about swimming with a whale? Unfortunately swimming just isn't for me. I had to think of something incredible. So I decided to look for an animal that hasn't been around for millions of years. This Stegosaurus is just the perfect thing.

Let me tell you, this giant dinosaur was much more dangerous than a few bison. I got just as close to this beast, but I really had to stealthily sneak up on it. I couldn't believe my luck when I saw it just standing there in this grass. Who wouldn't want the first genuine pictures of a real dinosaur in millions of years?

I parked my truck far enough away that this monster wouldn't notice. Then I crept up on him, but I did it fast, and I was able to get close enough to reach out and touch him. I have to say that these creatures must be kind of blind because he never really seemed to realize at all that I was there. He didn't react to me at all. He never moved a muscle.

I thought about trying to ride him, but the thought of those plates sticking into my backside wasn't very appealing. So needless to say I decided to just take my pictures then leave this poor lonely creature in peace.

Later I met some guy not too far away that told me this stupid lie that this wasn't a real dinosaur at all, it was only a statue. I told him I knew he was lying just to keep it to himself, but he stuck to his story no matter how much I objected. What a jerk!

So that's my story. I think my next post will come a little sooner than this one took. I'm not sure if I can top getting pictures of a dinosaur, but we'll have to see just what happens. Hey, anything can happen here. I'll talk to you later.

Bridges Are Cool. I'm On A Bridge Now.

One of the things I really love is walking through a forest and coming upon a hidden foot bridge. Seeing that structure for the first time gives me a joy I have trouble explaining. And walking across the wooden planks is just so wonderful.

I usually get to the middle of a bridge and then I look over the side. I look out across the forest from there and then I look down at what the bridge is crossing over. We'll save those things for another post. For now it's the bridge. It's such a wonderful bridge.

If you come in from this direction you find the bridge peeping out from between the leaves after you round a short corner. It's at that point that I want to run to the bridge to get the experience of walking across it now. But I walk slowly so I can savor the anticipation. Hey, I love bridges.

I always stop at the beginning of a bridge and take at least one picture. That picture never quite seems to capture the feeling that I have when I'm standing at this point. I also wish I could show the surrounding forest at the same time. These wide pictures help a little, but it's still not even close to the actual experience.

It was kind of dark here in the forest, and the phone camera captured exactly the right light. Maybe you have to click on a few of these pictures to see them better if you're interested. The section of forest with this bridge is very thick with foliage. The bridge is kind of lost until you get right upon it.

I wasn't going to add this last picture, but I thought, why not. I used to try to limit my pictures to a certain amount, but not always anymore. I don't have to say lots of stuff for each picture even though I usually do. But after looking at this one, I think it's one of the better pictures.

And I got to cross the bridge twice. I usually do, but not always. Maybe this post helped you appreciate bridges a little more, and maybe it made you begin to hate them a little bit. I like them more every time I find a new one. I'll say it one last time. Bridges are cool. I love bridges.

I'll talk to you later.

What Is This Thing?

So you're wondering what it is exactly that I'm showing you. Oh sure, you see lots of grass and some trees in the background. But there is something in the picture above that you may or may not have noticed. Look at that thing in the center of the picture sticking up above the trees.

No, that's not another tree. Of course I know that you can't see it well from here. So what's even the point of this first picture? I included it to give you some perspective of how far that thing is, and to give you a look at the surroundings. I also thought the picture looked a little nicer than the others. And it gives me a little more time to run my mouth.

Here's a little closer look at the thing. You get a much better look now. But you still don't have a clue as to what it might be, do you. Maybe one of you knows. I don't. But I can speculate. So just what is my guess?

Well, I noticed several turkey vultures flying back there beyond the structure. maybe it was something that was built especially for them. Maybe it was made for the turkey vultures to land on. I have no other idea what it could be for. I could be completely wrong.

Here is the best look you're going to get. The question is, if I don't know what it is then why am I showing it to you? Simple. Because it's a mystery. I love a good mystery. Maybe you do too. That's good enough for me. What do you think?

If it's interesting to you then you might want to come back after there are a few comments. Maybe somebody will solve this little mystery for us. Maybe not. That's part of the mystery. We'll never know if we'll find the solution or not. Maybe it'll be fun guessing though. I'll talk to you later.

Just A Little Adventure

I decided to do a little geocaching. You can see by the picture above from my phone that there are plenty of geocaches to hunt for around here. Every one of those little orange circles is a treasure to find. I leave the treasures in their containers, but you can trade with other little treasures. The fun is finding them.

I had one major problem with this while I was out though. I switched the app I use for geocaching and I found that one problem. Where I was looking for these caches there was no internet reception so all of those little orange circles disappeared.

I didn't know that in situations like this I needed to save my potential targets in the phone first. So instead of finding anything I decided to take a few pictures instead. Part of the fun with geocaching is that most of it is done in nature areas. You can even sometimes find hidden nature parks by using a geocaching app.

The first picture I took was the first fun thing I saw. This bird box seemed to be sitting there just waiting for me to get these pictures. Oh sure it may not seem like something special, but just think of how it would look with a bird peeping out of that hole.

I'm going to disappoint you a little and tell you that there is no bird, but that's not the larger point for me. The real reason I took the pictures is just because I wanted to. I missed seeing these boxes. The potential for the bird is always there, and the more boxes I see the more chance I'll see a bird. That's fun for any real nature geek.

And here's a different shot from the exact same position. How's that for variety? This is closer to the true distance of the box. I didn't even get out of my truck for the pictures. The box was sitting at the side of the road. Maybe that's a little bit of a disappointing revelation for you. Sometimes boring things can be found to be even more boring when they are fully explained.

So let's see what my next adventure will be. Will it be something as mundane as this bird box or will I see something remarkably unimaginable? Both have happened often in the past when I've gone out for my Everyday Adventures. It's always a fun surprise when we all find out. I'll talk to you later.

Dorothy Pecaut Nature Center

It took me awhile to do this post because I lost my camera. It was somewhere in my house, but I couldn't figure out exactly where I put it. I finally saw the strap poking out from under my living room computer table. I guess that's what happens when you leave your things just lying around.

I guess I would have found it earlier if it hadn't been raining for the past several days. I would have dug it out so I could go back out to one of the nature parks. And I don't know why I was so careless with my camera this time because I usually take much better care of it. But let's get on with what this post is really about.

The dog statue in the picture above is what greets you as you walk in the front door of Dorothy Pecaut Nature Center. I like that dog. It's in the same spot that it was when I visited this place on vacation several years ago before I lived here.

A while back I would have taken you on a careful guided tour of the nature center. Today not so much. If you want the tour you can check out the link I gave you in the last paragraph. It's a nice link. You might enjoy it. Maybe you'll want to visit your nearest nature center after you follow it.

The nature center isn't the biggest in the world, but it shows some of the critters and natural features you might find in the area. I haven't seen any real caves around here, but I kind of like this little cave in the nature center.

I took this picture above from the front of the nature center. I thought it might give you a good idea of what it looks like there. I guess I should have thought to take a picture of the big windows in back where you can look out at the forest trails.

I've never felt comfortable writing about inanimate objects. That's why in the past I used to show pictures of mostly animals. I still do if I can, but I don't get as many picture opportunities of them here. Maybe I'm just not looking in the right places. I'll have to keep looking.

I've been experimenting with my picture at the top of the blog. See, it's different. Oh, so you've never noticed it before? I look at the sidebar of yours. Maybe now you might be wondering what the T stands for in my name. Maybe not, but I bet you assumed it was The. Nope, it stands for Tiberius. My full name is Rattilla Tiberius Adventurer. So now you know.

And with that new knowledge an old important fact that you greatly needed has been pushed out of your brain. Don't worry, you'll never remember what it was. Now that we have all that out of the way, I'll talk to you later.

Bruguier Cabin

Today I have pictures of the oldest structure in Sioux City, Iowa, Bruguier Cabin. The sign says it was the home of Theophile Bruguier, but after reading some of the information about it I'm not quite sure that he actually lived in this exact cabin. It at least was a cabin on his land though.

I'm not going to give you the whole history lesson on this famous man or the cabin because you may not want it here, but if you want to find out more you can visit these two links: Bruguier's Cabin and Théophile Bruguier

What I'm going to talk about is my story of taking these pictures, and maybe a few other things. First you may notice that my first picture has some problems. The Sun was shining right into my view so I was lucky to get it even that good. I had to fix it a little bit as well.

The sign says it's the home of Sioux City's first white settler. I'm assuming the reason it specifically says that is because the area is home to a significant Native American population and they were here for a little while before Theophile Bruguier.

When I took this above picture I thought I did a pretty good job. But you can see that the house is kind of off center. I don't know exactly why, but it bothers me a little bit. I'm not the best photographer but I still try to get the best pictures I can, even though some are almost intentionally bad at times.

I took pictures of this place last year sometime, but I completely forgot to post them for some reason. I still have them somewhere on my computer but it would be like finding a needle in a haystack. I have lots of pictures saved. I save all of my pictures I take for this blog, even the terrible ones.

Speaking of pictures, I've been putting some of my best on Twitter from time to time. Some are posted here on the blog and some are not. You can see my Twitter feed with the pictures in my sidebar if you'd like. The feed is scrollable with your mouse wheel. A few of the pictures have gotten kind of popular.

I plan on going back to the nature parks on my next few adventures. I'm going to have to start a little earlier than I did this time. I hope it all turns out well. I may not see very many animals at first, but maybe they'll come out more on future trips.

I just recently tried to get some pictures of the huge herds of deer I see in the fields beside the highway. I had no luck at all. The deer were there but I wasn't able to slow down enough to get any non-blurry pictures, and there's not really anywhere I can stop. It's too dangerous to keep trying. Oh well.

I guess there wasn't much of a story I could tell about my experience with this house. Houses don't do very many exciting things. They just sit there and let you look at them.Looking is good, but it can only last so long. So after I got a good look I went on my way. And that's the end of this story. I'll talk to you later.

A Truck I Found In The Country

I found this truck as I was driving around in the country. As soon as I saw it I thought it would make a great picture. The whole area the truck was in looked like a yard full of junk that my dad would have been proud of.

I have no idea what to do with all the junk way out here, so all my dad's junk is still lying around out there. I've gotten rid of some of the more valuable pieces, but much of the old junkyard is still intact. None of it is attractive to look at like this old truck, so I let the jungle grow around it.

The truck is in amazing condition for what it is. You won't see many like it anymore, except the really fixed up ones that some people have. I guess it could be worth a little bit to the right person. To me it is worth this one picture that turned out so good. I'll talk to you later.

My Post About Church Buildings

Something I've wanted to do for years is to get pictures of different churches and share them here with everyone. I wanted to do it because I admire the architecture of many of them. I have always thought many churches were among the most beautiful buildings. Not all churches were created equal though.

I want to tell you that I dislike sharing any religious or political views here, but since my subject is churches I'll share just a tiny bit. I wasn't raised as a religious person, but I do like the idea of religion. I believe everyone needs something to believe in to give them some peace of mind. Religion of whatever kind you choose can be an excellent and organized way to do that for a person.

I don't believe religion is the only way. There is philosophy. Having a philosophy of life can give you a similar feeling to religion. Sometimes all it takes is a strong passion for a thing you do. A love of nature can help some. For some people it can even be a passion for their job or whatever other work or hobby they might have.

Any of those things and many others can work for a person. The only thing to avoid is to try not to become obsessed with something in an unhealthy way. I have the thing that gives me peace of mind, but I won't discuss it here because everyone should search for their own thing. And that's all I'm going to say about it. I hope that was enough but not too much.

Now I'll talk a little about the churches in my pictures. The churches here are all located in South Dakota. I'll do future posts from other places, but that's where I decided to start6. Hopefully the pictures get better as I go on. I'm honestly not impressed with any of these pictures.

The first picture shows a big church located way out in the country. I don't think there are any towns really very close to it. It's much more impressive than my bad picture shows. I obviously need to clean my camera lens. I really liked this church building.

The second picture doesn't quite show you the church building itself. It is there in the background though. I kind of liked that little bell tower. The church itself is a modern building, the kind that doesn't much impress me. I found this one in one of the bigger small towns around here.

The picture above shows the smallest church I found. It's located in a little strip mall on the side of the road. It shows that a church can be made from just about anything. I guess this one demonstrates that it doesn't necessarily matter about the building.

I found this one above in one of the smallest towns I visited. It's hard to see the whole building because of the trees in the front, but this is the kind of building I expected to see when I headed out. The light brown figure out front is a wood carving of an angel. I guess I should have gotten a closeup of it.

The churches in my last three pictures are located in a college town to the west of me. Actually I guess they're all to the west since I'm in Iowa and these churches are in South Dakota. This one above is what I think of when I think about a church in a small city or maybe large town.

Let me pause right here for a second. I just realized I'm being intentionally vague about the locations of these churches. I have no idea why I'm doing that. These last three churches are in Vermillion, South Dakota. That smallest one and the one above it are in Elk Point, South Dakota. Some of the others are in places I'm not sure of the town.

 These last two pictures are of the same church. I couldn't find a place where I could get a good picture of it. This church was big, almost as big as some of the churches I used to see in Detroit. I wish I could let you see this one better. I like it because it looks kind of like a castle.

I'm going to have future posts with church pictures. Hopefully the pictures will get better as I go. There are some really nice looking churches in Sioux City. There's also a religious site there that has to be seen to be believed. It's one of the most impressive places I've ever seen. I hope I'm able to visit that place soon.

I'm still going to keep visiting my little nature park. These other things will be somewhere in between posts about that. I had kind of given up on my church pictures after I moved, but then I got to thinking that getting my pictures around here was even better than taking pictures of Detroit churches. More variety.

So that's my long post for this time. I think my next one will be a short one. I know not everyone appreciates these long posts sometimes, but sometimes they have to come out. And I'll just leave it at that. I'll talk to you later.

Did I Tell You That I Love Bridges?

Today I have a simple footbridge for you. Sure it's not as exciting as the buffalo I showed you last time. But there's something special about bridges, at least for me. What's special about them is that I really like bridges. Does there need to be anything else?

This is not the most spectacular footbridge you'll ever see. That's okay because I like every bridge I see. This bridge just goes above a little dip in the land with a little creek running through it. It's also the beginning of a little nature trail that I have yet to explore.

When I took these pictures I only went across the bridge and then a few feet farther up the trail. I'll be going back sometime in the future to see where and how far this trail goes. Maybe I'll even see a few wild animals on my journey along the trail. I hope so.

Whenever I walk across a bridge I stop about halfway and take several pictures of the place this bridge crosses. There's always something interesting to see from there whether it's beautiful or ugly. I guess I consider it all beautiful because it's part of the world, even from a bridge that goes across a busy freeway.

But I like bridges like the one in my pictures the most. This one looks out across nature in all its glory. It's surrounded by trees and water. These to me are the most peaceful and beautiful things of all. I've told you many times before of the wonderful feeling that a forest gives me, so I'll leave it at that.

I've told you all this stuff about bridges before, all the times I've posted other pictures of bridges. I'll probably do it all over again on the next bridge I find. I can't help myself. I can't resist walking across a bridge when I find it. I even love it when I find other bloggers' pictures of bridges.

I also like boardwalk areas I find. They're like long bridges. I've been in a few places where boardwalks stretch on for a very long way over most interesting swampy areas. Sometimes the mosquitoes can be unbearable in those places, but the boardwalks keep me going back.

Bridges just seem to transport me to a whole other world. All outside things seem to vanish. I don't think there are as many nature bridges and boardwalks around me here as there were when I was in Michigan, but that's okay because I haven't seen all of the bridges here yet. I can't wait to find them. I'll talk to you later.

Calliope Village

It's been a little while since my last post. I was sick so I decided to take a little time off from everything to recuperate. I also figured we all needed a little break from my bird feeder posts so I decided to visit a little place called Calliope Village. I've been meaning to get some pictures of this place for awhile, so here they are. There are lots of them.

Calliope Village is an old time village from 1860. It's not too far from where I live. It's now an outdoor museum. I did a post about Winnetoon, a very similar place, back in December. The guy who owns the old village in Winnetoon was even nice enough to stop by that post and leave a comment.

I don't really have much to say about Calliope village. I don't really know much. I'll have to ask somebody sometime, but I'm not sure who. I noticed it one time on a trip into that small town. It's a bigger town than mine. They have a grocery store, but only one restaurant. Mine has neither.

Notice all of the orbs of light in the picture above and some of the rest. Ooh, spooky ghost orbs! I'm not sure why they appeared in so many of these pictures. It was obviously the sunlight, but they were in some but not others pointing in the same direction. Maybe I'll have to clean my camera lens.

Or who knows? Maybe they could be ghosts from the past if you want to think of them that way. If you want to read something amusing (at least I think so), do a search for orbs here on my blog. I did a whole series of posts about them a few years ago. I had a fun little trick at the end of the series.

I'm still getting back into posting from my layoff, and in times like this I always have trouble writing, so I'm just going to end things here. I hope these many pictures have been kind of interesting. I thought they were. I'll talk to you later.