Cleaning up

80 degrees today.

(happy sigh.)

I beat it out of work as soon as I could and came home for some time in the great outdoors (I ended up cleaning my car and the garage …), while Kates sat on the porch to do some reading.

… Later, I plugged in our vacuum to clean all the dirt and mud I’d tracked inside. I got a few swipes of the floor and then -- the vacuum died.

It was about time, I thought. I’d gotten the thing in college, and my roommate and I used and abused the thing in our slummy apartment. It had survived four more moves since then, sucking up the dirt and grime in several more apartments and just as much crud from all the restoration projects in our home …

The final blow was a couple months ago when I fell down a flight of stairs with it. I’m probably lucky to be standing, but the vacuum wasn’t so lucky -- I broke off part of the base and the thing no longer stands on its own.

… So when I lost power with the old vacuum tonight, I told Kates it was time.

Off we went on a search for a new vacuum, and we came home with a Hoover Empower. Sleek design. It weighs just 15.5 lbs. It has a multitude of attachments. It’s oh so easy to handle. And it’s grey and green.

… To celebrate the new vacuum (and the weather), we stopped at DQ on the way home for our first Moo-Lates of the year. Moments later we were at home, opening the box and pulling out the vacuum.

Bliss. Vacuuming never felt so fun. Man, the thing has some pull on it too! It’s like walking a zealous dog -- if you don’t hold on, you’ll lose it.

So I went downstairs to finish cleaning the mess I was working on when our old vacuum died. I plugged in the new vacuum.

No power.

Hmm. Interesting. I knew exactly what the problem was.

I went to the circuit breaker box, spotted the tripped switch and flipped it back. Then I went back to the vacuum, tried it again -- it worked. Back up the stairs to where Kates was reading.

“Hey, funny story. You’re going to love this one …”

It’s OK. We needed the new vacuum.