I kick ass

Okay, I did this over a week ago, but I'm still proud of myself, so that must mean it's post-worthy. I've had a vacuum since undergrad. It has never worked properly (as far as I can remember), but I have refused to buy a new one or throw it out. Which means I have lugged this non-functional vacuum to 4 apartments and over 1000 miles. It has been a constant monument to my laziness/ mechanical ineptness. Until the weekend of April 8-9. Then I decided that, by golly, I would conquer the vacuum so I could finally get the ingrained cat hair out of my area rug.

Part of the problem with the vacuum is that I no longer have the instruction manual. In fact, I can never remember having had the instruction manual. So on to dirtdevil.com I went. I pulled out the vacuum and entered its ID. No luck. I searched for its type. No luck, since you can't search for manuals by model name (ridiculous). So I looked for a newer version of my model, got its number, and started sequentially searching for an instruction manual that might work for my vacuum. Never fear, dear readers: I found the manual.

Next came the tricky part: deciphering the instruction manual. Luckily, this one wasn't too bad. I figured out the hose wasn't properly connected to the vacuum. I fixed that and gave the vacuum a whirl. It seemed to be sucking well, which was a step, but it wasn't doing so well with the cleaning. So on to the next part: the brush.

I lived with 2 other women my last year of undergrad and, well, we really should have raked the living room floor before ever trying to vacuum it, since we shed *that* much (particularly the one roommate with waist-length hair). Needless to say, there was copious hair tangled on the brush. I got some of the hair off through the bottom, then decided it was time to open up the vacuum and take out the brush.

Opening the vacuum required another consultation of the manual. I found I needed a Philips head screwdriver. I can never remember which type of screwdriver is which, so I tried both kinds of tips and saw what worked. I got 2 screws off easily, but the others needed something else: my screwdriver was too wide. Since my screwdriver is the kind where you choose which tip to use, I took the tip and taped it to the end of a skinny ball point pen. After another few minutes (and a good bit of tape), I got the other screws out. And, voila, the hood was off.

The brush was indeed filthy, so I cleaned it out, but I also found something else: a black strip of rubber. Consulting the manual, I found that this strip should really be a loop (or "belt"). Since it was evening and I had plans, there was no more time to fix the vacuum: it would have to wait until the next day, when I could go to Target and look for a new belt.

Luckily, the trip to Target was a success, and I returned home to fix the belt. This task was surprisingly tricky since the belt really wasn't that stretchy, and it had to fit a few inches further than it wanted to. After a fight, I tamed the belt and replaced the hood. I'm still not sure how I got the hood to fit back on properly, but I did, and it was time for the test drive.

I moved the vacuum to the rug, turned it on, and gave it a try. And what do you know? It worked. Good as new. I wouldn't go so far as to say the vacuum is now a monument to how much I kick ass, but it's definitely fair to say it's a monument to my stubborness (and proof that I can occasionally get stuff to work). When I see it in the closet, it no longer mocks me: it makes me smile. And that's good enough for me.