So here’s my blender view (through the camera) 
When I press F12 all that comes up is a grey BG with no little robot. I have a sun lamp pointed right at it.
??
seems as simple as like you have your camera/lights in a different layer… You must select both layers and then F12
But , warning, I am new to Blender too
Thousand little quirks, including switched off renderability. Check Outliner window for grayed out small Camera icon?
Ensure you have not disabled renderability of your objects in the outliner window
Check your render layers are correct
Disable ‘Sequencer’ tickbox in the Render / Post Processing panel
In the Object / Duplication panel ensure it is set to None
Ensure you have not disabled renderability of your objects in the outliner window
Check your render layers are correct
I’m looking at the Outliner Window, and I’m not sure where the ‘renderability’ option is. Any idea what it would be under?
Disable ‘Sequencer’ tickbox in the Render / Post Processing panel
I did that, but still nothing.
In the Object / Duplication panel ensure it is set to None
It is indeed set to ‘none’.
“Outliner window for grayed out small Camera icon”
That was it! Thank you. Now I know 
So…I just updated my blender to the most recent release, and I’m having a weird issue that I can’t go into edit mode, and I seem to only be able to navigate around the camera. My screen always looks like this:
Sorry again for the dumb questions…I’m excited to learn this though. I’ve never been so impressed by the artists on this forum. AMAZING.
You can’t go to edit mode because you have camera selected (nothing to edit there). Select some object via outliner, and press “.” on the numpad to navigate to it.
Welcome … and enjoy … and don’t feel rained on. Fact is, this is a quintessential “‘a sip from a firehose’ experience.” You feel, at first, like the whole thing’s coming straight at you like an iron skillet headed directly at your face. 
“Okay, just expect that, for a little while.” (Your name actually isn’t “Wile E. Coyote,” after all. Trust me on that one… Please. Really. Yeah, really. It’s not. Really.) Once you get just a little bit farther along on the learning-curve, your enthusiasm will very quickly join ours.
Thanks for the tip Stan, and sundial-thanks. That is exactly what I needed to hear! I’m ready to start!