Another Roomba passed

The Roomba Discovery stripped its gears today, and there's no coming back from that. It'll still run around and picks up a little bit, but not much; the vacuum can't do nearly enough without the brushes working. So mostly it just moves dirt around now, and I had to sweep manually, with a broom. How old-fashioned!

iRobot still has an upgrade plan worth 30% off, so I put in an order for a replacement Roomba. It's the next generation, the Roomba 530, which includes a number of improvements in engineering. Longer battery life, better edge and corner cleaning, resistance to tangling in cords, and a longer run time. That also means my existing accessories (notably, batteries and chargers) are obsolete. I'll probably sell them on eBay. But given that each generation of Roomba is lasting me as long as it is, I guess I can't complain too much. Especially with that nice upgrade discount.

Still, enough with all the bad luck with technology the last few days. It's like my GM thinks my player is bored and keeps coming up with egregious, unwanted plot complications. Enough already!