3962 Another new toy

Friday, July 18, 2014

My floors always look filthy, because I hate vacuuming.  Mainly because when I bought vacuums for this house (one upstairs, one down) the only bagless vacuums I could find at a reasonable price with good reviews were uprights. That's all they had in stores --- uprights.  No canisters anywhere.   I'd never owned an upright before, and I quickly learned I passionately hate them.

You can't get under stuff.

You can't see what it's about to suck up.

Using the attachments is awkward.  I've toppled the upright a few times.

You can't reach the ceiling/wall seam to get cobwebs.

The damn things are HEAVY and difficult to maneuver.  They maneuver like a rotary push mower on a deep lawn (remember those?).

Because I'm so short, the angle is steep and the entire weight of them hangs off my arm.  This is my biggest complaint.

I hate them.  A nice little canister sits in the middle of the room bothering nobody but the cat, while you clean all around it.  I flat out don't understand why anyone likes uprights.

So, I went online shopping, and I found the BISSELL Zing Bagless Canister Vacuum Cleaner at Lowes.  I have all bare floors and short nap oriental rugs, so I don't need a beater bar, just good strong suction.  This little thing weighs only a few pounds, I can carry it up while I'm doing the stairs, and the suction is enough to cause panic if you touch the wrong thing.  So far I LOVE it!  It has absolutely nothing I don't need and everything I do need.

Best of all, it's only $49.99.  (Actually, it was on sale when I bought it, so it was less than $40, I think.)

No, I'm not getting paid for this praise.  In fact, I'm hoping Lowes won't mind my use of their photo.
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3701 The Nugget at 23 months

Sunday, March 10, 2013

I often think it's a pity that Noah and his party didn't miss the boat.

-- Mark Twain --

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Suck it up!  I don't brag about my Nugget very often!

At school

The Nugget is growing up and becoming even more interesting.  She notices everything, and one of her favorite sentences, many times a day, is, "What's that?"  Well, actually, it comes out, "Whada?"

She's very strong, and her Daddy plays with her very roughly, which is a bit of a problem.  She bowls over other children greeting them, and she considers hitting to be a great game.  On the other hand, she's very much a girl.  She's a good mommy to her dolls, and that seems to have come naturally.  She and her mommy went clothes shopping, and Daughter allowed her to choose one outfit herself.  She chose a dress with a foofy pink ballerina tutu skirt, and insisted in sleeping in it that night.  She loves Elmo, and when she comes over to my house, she walks up to the laptop, points, and says, "Eh mo!"  And we have to watch Elmo videos.

She had been afraid of her mommy's huge upright vacuum cleaner. (Frankly, so am I.)  I bought her a plastic vacuum cleaner with lights and a vroom noise that wasn't too scary, and a few weeks ago she graduated to my little battery-powered Eureka!electric broom, that looks and sounds like a midget vacuum cleaner.  When Daughter saw her happily vacuuming my kitchen, she got her monster out and parked it in their living room.

I guess last week the Nugget worked up enough courage to touch it. She's so proud of her new friend that when anyone comes in the house they are introduced to the "Bah boom", and shown how brave she is.   A few times a day she takes a dolly or a stuffed animal, holds their hand or paw out to touch the monster - see?  It's ok.  "Bah boom. Bah boom."   Nothing to be afraid of.

She talks a lot, and she mostly has the right number of syllables, and consonants in the right places, but they are rarely the  correct consonants, so only Mommy, Daddy, and Gramma (she calls me Mamma, Daughter is Mommy) can understand her.  "Juice" is "douche", which can be a bit awkward when she requests it in a diner.  It sounds like she's giving the waitress an impolite order.  "Bottle" is "bobby".  "Jasper" is "Bapper".  "Cheese" is "sheesh".  On the other hand, "up", "apple", "pee-pee", "potty", "baby", "eat", "NO!" and a lot of other words are quite clear.

Almost Heaven

I am anxious for sentences, and for her to start expressing thoughts.  I'd love to know what she thinks.
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3517 Filthy floors

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Stories are simple sequences of events, plots are about causes,
motivation ..., what stories mean. ...life is all stories, and fiction is all plots.....
-- Peter Ho Davies --

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Well, I am only a little stiff today. A little bit of pain down the left hip and thigh. I put the brace on anyway, just to make sure. So far, so good.

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My floors are gross. I haven't swept or vacuumed in ages, and there are crushed leaves, dirt, and cat hair everywhere. I passionately hate vacuuming. The weight. The dragging and controlling of the cord. I purposely rejected carpeting in the new house so it would be easier to keep the floors and stairs clean, but, uh, I hate sweeping, too. The bits escaping, the dust flying, the trying to corral it all. The moving of things in the way.

I bought two vacuum cleaners for this house so I wouldn't have to carry any up and down stairs. But the flipping things are heavy to use. I prefer canisters, because the weight stays on the floor and the head is light, but good canisters are next to impossible to find these days. So I got bagless uprights. I hate them. Being short, I hold the handle lower than most people, which puts the entire weight of the mechanism on my arm, and then moving it out and back strains my lower back. Hate, hate, hate!

So I got the Roombas, one for each floor. But there are a lot of table and chair legs the Roomba can't get between, and the floor is cluttered with cat and toddler toys that I have to pick up first, plus the cat's food tray, and curtains that touch the floor, and shoes under the bed with shoelaces that the Roombas like to eat, and, and, and, and it's a LOT of work for not such a great job (Roomba's exhaust tends to blow dirt, especially cat hair, sideways onto tracks it's already cleaned). I haven't turned them loose in months.

Sigh.

I hate it all.

I looked at the floors today and thought, "I've GOT to do something, now!"

So, I bought (online) a rechargeable vacuum stick. It's lightweight, no cord. We used to call them electric brooms. It's a Eureka, so it should be adequate. With its ten inch wide head it should be easy to maneuver around stuff. No bag.

I don't know how long it will take to get here, but nothing will be done with the floors until it arrives.

Temporary reprieve.
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