Oh, Shift!!!

Things are getting crazier and crazier each day in the shop. Today, Brother learned a new skill. Now, he is able to shift gears when he drives! That means that he can go very fast when he needs to get somewhere and slow when he needs to have power. Soon (I hope!) I will be shifting gears, too. However, Brother did not have much time to show off his new skills. For some reason, something funny happened to him and he wasn't really working. I don't really understand, but something was going wrong with his communications and code. Luckily, the team has a great support network of mentors and friends who were willing to help when the girls reached out. I would like to thank the team's mentor, Mr. Soley, for staying on the phone with the girls and helping them to fix Brother. I would also like to thank my friends from Panteras who helped the girls troubleshoot over Twitter, email, and Google Hangouts. The girls on my team have taught me about Gracious Professionalism a lot, and this team really demonstrated it today. I was worried about Brother, but I knew that everyone was working so hard to help him out. Finally, Brother's technical issues were all resolved! I was so relieved and excited to see that he was back to normal.

The work on the field elements is going well! Today, the low goal and hanging bar were completed. I can't wait to practice with them (once I have a hanger and a shooter, that is).

Speaking of my shooter, it is getting better and better each day. At this point, there are about four different versions of the revolving surgical tubing slapping mechanisms that I have been telling you about. Some are skinny and wrapped around metal; others are fat and wrapped around pool noodles. Some have surgical tubing loops; others have surgical tubing strands. After spinning them with a drill, it became clearer which designs work better. The small one's zip tie attachments were too fragile - they were cracking after one test. Ones that used loops rather than strands were more efficient. More fine-tuning needs to be done on the design before it is final, but progress is being made. Some girls began to install the pieces that the mechanism will need to attach to the frame.

Each step of the way, my builders are careful to test my skills against the field elements to make sure that everything lines up. Today, they checked my height clearance against the low bar. While I am certainly short enough right now, they wanted to see how tall my attachments can be. All is well so far!

The girls have to go back to school tomorrow, so it looks like I will have a bunch of extra time to myself during the day. Maybe the old robots, Brother, and I can have a little party!

XOXO
​Robot