My vacuum is shot....
...... it's held together by Burnie's most liberal application of carefully layered duct tape!
And despite all his best & cheapest efforts to attain a smidgen of operationability...
The thing still falls apart in your hand. The sticky stuff off the old duct tape is like 8 years old at least!
8 YEARS!.....
8 YEARS....... of build-up of this stuff - that's how long the vacuum has been broken.
It has become more than useless. It has become a gall-darn sticky niusance that requires the application of baby oil to remove the gooey muck off your hands after every attempt at house-cleaning.
Forget even expecting to actually pick up some dirt!
I mean... what can be worse than when you (as much as you despise cleaning in the first place) are unable to keep any kind of a grip on the handle, or even make the on/off switch do anything?
Ok.... so..............
I'm into eBay these days... everyone who knows me knows this.
And........
I need a vacuum part.
There's this guy in Abbotsford BC who sells parts to my vacuum system cheaper than I've seen in Ontario,
so.......
I order a kit from him on Feb 28. I pay him immediately via PayPal.
Great.
He sends me an email confirming my order along with a Canada Post tracking number (which guarantees a 3 day-delivery).
He has great customer feedback, & I don't put any blame on him, even today...
IT'S CANADA POST!!!!
I don't want anyone to think I'm going off the deep end here.
I mean... the parcel, with its much needed vacuum parts, appears to be on its way here...
Ummm... well... except for the fact that it....
KEEPS CROSSING & RECROSSING CANADA!!!!
8 TIMES SO FAR !!!!!!!!
FROM RICHMOND BC TO MISSISSAUGA ON... TO RICHMOND BC AGAIN....
.... back & forth, back & forth, back & forth, back & forth, back & forth......
.... 8 TIMES SO FAR AND COUNTING!!!!!!
AND.... it is on its 9TH trip across the country as we speak!
YEAH!!! It's true! I'm not making this up! This thing IS on its 9TH trip across Canada!!!!!
It just keeps traveliing back & forth... back & forth.... back & forth.... back & forth.... back & forth.... back & forth................................................
....for more than a month now, & probably forever........
Hmmmm.... maybe it will still be yo-yoing across the country decades from now.
Luckily, my eBay seller said he would send me another kit. I hope this one takes the less scenic route. :)
I want you to see the screen shot I took of Canada Post's tracker today... even though I believe it's going to get even crazier than you'll see here. Click on the picture to see it enlarged so you can read it.
Much to my surprise...
When I decided to log in here today, who knew there actually would be replies to my posts?!
Heck if I'd known there were going to be responses, I would have looked sooner, and acknowledged them long before now!
Sorry if anyone thought I was ignoring them. I'm not what you would call a regular blogger. I have enough trouble staying up to date reading other people's blogs. (Now that the whole fan damily is writing them!)
Thanks for the input guys!
And I'm very happy to make your acquaintance, Lyndsay #2! I've been a fan of your blog comments for awhile now. ;)
Anyway... I thought I'd better bring you up to date on the name issue.
Turns out the little fella knew his original name all along. I did a test "call" the other day.
I waited until there was no sign of him around, then I went into the bathroom in the centre of the house and called him.
As soon as I shouted "Gerry! Here Gerry!", I heard a thump somewhere in another part of the house, and then the bump bump bump of his big clodhopper paws plodding down the hall & into the bathroom.
(You should see the size of his paws btw... which, as we speak, I have to keep peeling off the keyboard!)
Turns out he answers to Gerry. I hadn't expected him to know his name at only 4 months of age, but he does seem to be a smart little gaffer.q1woi <---- That last bit was Gerry's comment.
It's Gerry with a "G" rather than a "J", as Lyndsay has pointed out to me. That's how it's spelled on his adoption papers.
Gerry is the equivalent of a hyperpactive 4 year-old boy. He only stops moving when he's in a deep sleep. He's into everything - almost simultaneously, as his attention span is even shorter than that of a 4 year-old boy with ADD.
I've had to clean soil off the den floor from the big plant everyday. He gets in there - as you saw from the photos - and throws the dirt into every direction. He's recently discovered the joys of climbing that tall plant, too.
With his way-too-long lanky legs, & huge, snow-hare-like paws, he's a clumsy as a bull in a china shop. He falls down from things regularly, either because he misjudges distances for jumps & lands on the floor, or he skids across desks & other surfaces & shoots off the other end - and lands on the floor.
He & Cleo are showing some minor signs of beginning to accept each other, but there are still lots of scuffles, which, I think sound nastier than they really are.
Yesterday, they discovered a mutual interest - cardboard boxes. They actually had fun playing the "poking-the-paw-through-the-hole" game with each other for awhile, until they remembered that they don't like each other.
Today, there was another momentary lapse of hatred when they learned how much fun it is to peek-a-boo each other though the slats of the laundry basket.
Well... enough boring you with my kitty tales. Things have become ominously quiet. I'd better go check upstairs. :)
There's another name up for consideration now.
Hoover.
We've just witnessed him in action at mealtime. He tries to steal food off our plates, & jumps back up every time you put him down. When I finally gave in & gave him some pieces of pork, he inhaled them in a matter of seconds, as well as second & third helpings - which I had to give him to keep him off my plate!
He also chowed down on tomatoes & broccoli. No normal cat eats tomatoes & broccoli.
Oh! I almost forgot to add:
He also ate a whole Q-Tip that he found somewhere.
So.... what do you think of "Hoover"?
