vacuum cleaner Archives - Ramblin' with Roger

What did I do on my birthday, March 7th? I spent the better part of the morning sucking up water. I’ve mentioned that when it rains or when the snow melts, we’ll have a pool of water at the juncture of our walkway and our sidewalk, caused by the REPAIRS the city of Albany, NY, made to the sidewalk a decade or more ago. I dubbed it Lake 54 in honor of the NYC club Studio 54.

My wife suggested sweeping the puddle, but I said that there was way too much water. I remembered that we have a wet/dry vac in the basement, which I hadn’t used in a very long time. On the 6th of March, I decided, since I was having people over the next day, to try to drain this excess pond.

So I schlepped the machine up from the basement – no small task, because that thing is heavy – and got it outside. I found an extension cord that worked, and the machine started sucking up the excess water from the walk. When the machine cut off because it was full, I started removing the water with a three-cup plastic container. Eventually, when the water level was low enough, I could tip the device over into the big snow bank in the yard.

Hospitality

This exercise reminded me of something that is quite obvious: water is heavy. Twelve gallons of water are definitely heavy. I did that exercise a couple of times on the 6th.

One other thing: the machine is LOUD. The crossing guard at the nearby school, a few dozen meters away, glared in my direction. Hey, I want our sidewalk to be dry for the schoolkids, too.

When I looked out on the 7th, it looked just as bad. So I did it two more times on my birthday, but I decided to dump the excess water in the nearest sewer. That meant walking the device, which rather reminds me of R2D2, two houses away.

I got rid of all that water because my friends were coming over for my hearts game, bringing food and beverages. We told lots of stories, some of which involved Scotland and/or getting older, and had a wonderful time.

I’d lost every one of the four or five games I played except the last, and it’s only because of a quirky house rule that allows someone who gets exactly to 100 to go back to zero. I had 81 points and got 19.

But as people were leaving, the same pond returned. It was particularly troubling to me because one of my friends broke her ankle and was wearing a boot, which needed to stay DRY.

Still, my work apparently had its beneficial benefit The next morning, Lake 54 was almost totally dry and remained dry even as other people’s walks were puddling. So I feel like the nearly 50 gallons I removed from my sidewalk were ultimately beneficial.

Because Midnight, the black cat, is so food-obsessive, I’ve mused on how to slow him down. If I’m going downstairs, whether to feed him or not, he’ll barrel down the stairs. It’s why I hold on to the railing, lest he knock me over.

And when I’m actually in the process of feeding him, he, more than Stormy the gray cat, seems to be constantly underfoot, no matter in which direction I walk.

I tried an experiment involving the vacuum cleaner. Both Midnight and Stormy are afraid of it. When Midnight starts chewing on the window shades or clawing the furniture or climbing onto the dining room table, I wheel it toward him, and he generally retreats. And usually, I don’t even have to turn it on. Stormy hisses at it; it is not afraid.

I placed the vacuum in the kitchen so that they couldn’t enter the room without passing the appliance, and turned it on. Perhaps I could prepare their meal without distraction. But no such luck.

Apparently, Midnight’s need for sustenance is greater than his fear of the machinery, for he galloped past the red menace. He only gallops when hungry, and he’s been in the basement, attic, or other room, and it’s near or past mealtime.

The intruder

Often, Midnight and Stormy are at odds. But they recognized another enemy. Something clearly was on the front porch. , though I didn’t know what. Midnight was peering around the window treatment, Stormy was scratching at the window.

A couple of summers ago, my wife bought new chairs for our front porch. The first year, they were still like new. But lately, we noticed some hair on one of them recently. Sure enough, I saw a gray cat, a lighter shade than Stormy, resting on the chair on the porch. It left when Stormy repeatedly banged her head against the window, driving the intruder away. They acted in harmony when an external threat was on the horizon.

The black cat next door, who sometimes hangs out on our porch, they are not fans of either. But the gray cat SITTING on our furniture was just too much for them to bear.

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