Cox Crow

We have a new maid. His name is Jerry. He’s an iRobot Roomba 4105. Right now he’s cleaning the family room.

We’ve noted several idiosyncrasies. He prefers rooms without much furniture, or other floor-level decoration. He has trouble over metallic vent covers. He trapped himself on our dining room rug: it is mostly dark, except for a 2″ band of a light color; I think he thought he was about to fall over the stairs. He gets stuck under rocking chairs. And he doesn’t leave a nice, even pattern on the carpet. (That drives me nuts.) But he cleans well.

I’m not sure yet whether the preparation necessary for his cleaning takes more work than doing it myself, but I am sure that I would use a different pattern, and I wouldn’t take an hour a room.

When we were married, we received a Pfaltzgraff service for eight in the Yorktowne pattern. Over the years, we’ve lost pieces to various calamities, mostly children, so this Christmas I decided to replace the missing pieces. Instead of buying individual pieces, I bought another service for eight.

I’m glad I did; the new pieces don’t match the old wares. There have been some meaningful design changes since Susquehanna Pfaltzgraff sold the company to Lifetime Brands in 2005: the color is different; the style is different; the design appears printed rather than baked into the glaze; the maker’s mark is printed instead of stamped; the sugar bowl doesn’t have a spot for a spoon; the lid falls off; and the method of manufacture possibly differs, as can be seen from the absence of visible coils. The texture is similar, which is good, but I prefer the older wares.

Pfaltzgraff was the oldest pottery in the United States. Apparently the Pennsylvania ceramics factories were closed and sold at auction later that year. The new pieces are made somewhere in China.

In this photograph, the pre-2005 sugar bowl is on the left.

Ever have one of those days where you feel like your job is making you dumber by the minute? I am.

I have this recurrent daydream where I’m independently wealthy and volunteer my time to work on the transportation systems at DisneyWorld. And not just driving the monorail either, but drawing lines on the swamp.

Oh well.