Our “Shorty” is in Love

Shorty is responsible for our lawn in the Waldviertel. The Waldviertel is a sparsely populated, wooded region in northern Austria on the border with the Czech Republic. Shorty spends his hibernation in the garage, but every year in May he is taken out and then romps around diligently on the meadow. Until a few years ago I mowed the lawn myself. I’ve always enjoyed doing it, but lately it has been quite difficult for me to maintain the lawn in our sloping garden. But then I was no longer able to work in the garden due to illness. The solution to the problem was to buy a robotic lawnmower and I have to admit that I like to watch it at work. We decided to call it “Shorty”. Above all, I admire its built-in secret algorithm that controls how the three connected lawns are kept evenly short according to different programs. “Short” was the keyword that was the inspiration behind the name of “Shorty”.

I still haven’t figured out the inscrutable choice of routes with which Shorty worked our meadows. So it’s no wonder that I began to attribute a certain intelligence to our Shorty in view of its successful work. It also seemed to me that as soon as someone entered the garden, after a short time he headed for that person. Almost like a pet that expects a few pats. It is clear to me that Shorty is just a robot, but we humans tend to assume that the tasks assigned to them have a certain degree of independence when the tasks assigned to them are sufficiently complex.Just think of Rabbi Löw’s Golem or the nameless monster of Dr. Frankenstein.

Our Shorty instead looks completely harmless to me. Yes, he even shows lovable features, as the neighbor also bought a robotic lawnmower. Shorty was noticeably different from the other mower with the name “Resi”. Our gardens merge seamlessly with one another and, where there are no bushes, they form a “meeting zone” of about 10 meters. According to my observations, the two mowing objects meet there, drawn together as if it were pure coincidence. Moreover I have the impression that this happens extremely often, especially at the beginning of the season, as if the two of them celebrate their reunion as well. In short: Our Shorty fell in love with Resi.

The buried insurmountable boundary wires stand in the way of all too intimate encounters. At least as long as human observers are around. But what happens when nobody is there, especially on mild summer nights, of which there have been more and more in the Waldviertel in recent years? Maybe romantic encounters have happened more often this way. It would be to be expected of both our Shorty as well as for the she-neighbor Resi.