Suck It Up

So the vacuum cleaner gave up the ghost. It's an old beast -- we've had it for a long time, I remember it as fifteen years, but I could be wrong, since I also had it in my head that we bought it at Monkey Wards. That's not so, since it's a Kenmore (probably made by Panasonic) and sold exclusively at Sears.

It's a good machine, heavy, draws twelve amps, and pretty good at cleaning the carpets. The only place I can find bags for it locally is Stark's, a shop that sells and repairs vacuum cleaners.

After years of dog and cat hair, small toys and roller-wrapping string, the purple monster is battered. The plug fell apart a year ago, and I spliced another one on. Last time I used it, I was almost done when it began to spit sparks, crackle like something out of Frankenstein's lab, and died, emitting a small cloud of smoke and ozone.

Lot of things have happened in the vacuum cleaner world since we got a new one. Don't have to have bags any more. There are roller balls that look like the old toilet tank floats instead of wheels. Things that don't lose suction, whatever that means.

Probably we'll truck on over to Sears and get a new one before the dust bunnies start lining up in the kitchen when it's time to feed the dogs ...