After suiting up Arno, and hearing all the tall stories about his motorcycle trip (:D) I decided to at least make the trusty old bike ready for use. Gave it a good washdown, checked tire pressure and fluids, and tried to start. All I got was a sad whine from the starter motor. Not unexpected, as the battery wasn’t used much, and it had been sitting there for quite some time.

I hooked it up to the charger, which after about an hour decided that it was dead. I decided it was lying, pressed the charger’s reset, and tried again…  a few times. After some time, it went from the now-usual charging-to-dead state to battery full. Hmmm. Guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

I have actually spotted Rhi using the LR. I also caught him peeing on the floor. *sigh*. I wouldn’t have such an issue with it, if I wasn’t sure he was capable of using the damn thing to start with.

So far I’m very happy with the Litter Robot. Gijs took to it immediately, but Rhi was reluctant at first. However,  evidence so far (or lack thereof elsewhere) would indicate that he uses it as well.  Litter waste seems minimal, as it’s just the clumps that get disposed off. The only downside so far is that the unit is relatively noisy. It’s not a problem for me, as it sits in the washing room, but I think having this in your living room might be too much for some people. It’s nowhere near as loud as, say, a vacuum cleaner, but you do hear the gears whine when it does it’s thing. Of course, that only happens after a cat actually uses it.

A while back, when I was looking for automated litter-box systems, I stumbled across a device called the Litter Robot. Most other devices I’ve seen featured either a very complex (and thus vulnerable to failures due to clogging) raking system, and/or a special kind of litter or waste disposal system that required proprietary consumables. Not this device. Concept wise, it is simplicity itself, as is explained here (yes, I know, the voice-over is bloody annoying). All it requires for consumables is any clump forming litter, and regular smallish garbage bags. I was intrigued by the design, and the raving reviews, but the not-so-modest cost, in addition to international shipping made be decide not to go for it.

Recently, I discovered that there is now a European distributor for the Litter Robot, located in Germany. They even offer the same 60 day money back guarantee the US company offers, which means you lose the shipping fees, but you get the unit price refunded. As I still thought this was an interesting concept, I decided to go for it. One day after ordering, I received notification that my unit had shipped, and that they expected delivery in 5-10 days. I did not expect the unit to be delivered the very next day. Thanks go to my neighbours for accepting a washing machine sized package for me :D.

So far, the unit works as designed. Gijs used it without issues, but Rhi seems more reluctant. I’m not sure if that’s the device itself, or that it’s because I used to have 2 litter-boxes, and the Litter Robot sits in the place of what I assume to be Gijs’ box (although Rhi seems far more particular about which box he uses than Gijs). Current strategy is to offer him the choice of a clean Robot or a dirty box.

-

In my second diving lesson, we went over the equipment, actually assembling them ourselves to see how it all goes together. The practise session was repeating the earlier lessons, but had an additional part for me, that was done the 1st lesson, which I missed: emptying a flooded mask. When your diving mask floods, there’s a trick to remove water from it. I knew about this trick, but for some reason I dreaded trying it. I’m guessing it’s because I very much dislike having water in my eyes. In the end it was dead simple, even though I did suffer from sore eyes for a few minutes.