Go with the grain…

Yesterday I was vacuuming and I discovered something that changed my life!! (don’t we all make our big life changing discoveries with something noisy and vibrating in our hands?)
My vacuum cleaner works better when you use it in an east/west direction and not so well in a north/south direction! I experimented all over the living room and I think I have to say that it’s true! Amazing. More likely, the carpet has a ‘grain’ or ‘direction’ in it of which I was previously unaware. This is going to revolutionize the way I approach vacuuming. YEAH!
Of course, the thing I have to admit is that I have lived in this apartment since 2005 and I got my vacuum when I moved in (a Dyson, sigh). So that’s almost 3 years with this carpet and this vacuum. Three years in which I hadn’t figured that out. I’d like to say it’s because I’m functionally retarded or that I’m unable to pick up on clues and postulate hypotheses from them.
The truth is…I just don’t vacuum as often as a responsible adult might. Hell, I don’t even vacuum as often as an irresponsible adult might. The carpet in my place is pretty sad. The stuff that was under the sofas is all nice and fluffy and clean. Everything else has been abused into submission. It really became evident after I vacuumed and could see it.
On the other hand it allows me to play a game where I just keep vacuuming and emptying the canister until the vacuum can no longer pick anything up.
OH! Also! I was so excited to get a clear canister vacuum for those times when there is a centipede in the house and David isn’t around to wrongly save its life and put it outside. I was so expecting to be able to suck them into the vacuum and watch them whirl around and around in their private arthropodic hell. This isn’t the case, sadly. They get sucked up, but I think there are just so many bits and filters and things that you never get to see them again. It might be for the best, I think I read that this is how Vlad Tepes started out.
So there you have it. I spent my Saturday making new and exciting discoveries about my vacuum!

One thought on “Go with the grain…

  1. Ah, but moths will do the spin o’death in the Dyson. We had one come in to attack my wool and John was the great Latino moth hunter and got it with the tube. It spun around in the canister and smacked against the filter. It was ugly. But we tried to convince it to leave the house. It chose to continue it’s forward advance, so we had to do what was necessary to save the wool.

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