Thursday, March 10, 2005

Vacuum Cleaner Fun

I never knew how much fun a vacuum could be. My mother-in-law gave (er, loaned) us her heavy-duty, state-of-the-art vacuum cleaner. Much to my husband's delight, she even included attachments.(Oh joy) and so began my husband's role as head vacuum cleaner dude. We probably have the most dust-free carpeting on the block. This is not so surprising given the fact that my husband is a gadget man. What is surprising however, is that 10 months later, he has not tired of the thrill of vacuuming.

In fact, my husband's obsession has now rubbed off onto our 4-year old son, Chase.

Here's how it happened.

One day, I left home and Sam was left to care for a sleeping one-year old and an inquisitive 4-year old. What do the two males decide to do for fun? They decide to watch the training video for the vacuum cleaner (and all of it's neat attachments).

Do people actually watch these videos, you ask? I have often asked myself the same question assuming that in fact people did not have the time to watch instruction manual videos. Well, I was wrong.

In an apparent moment of male bonding, the 4-year old and his Daddy watched an engrossing video about how to vacuum, how to use the attachments and most importantly, how to take the vacuum apart. By the time I returned home, my son came running up to me asking me to watch him take apart the vacuum cleaner. "Does your father know what you are doing?" is my usual response to these types of activities. "Yeah, he saw me do it already!" Chase responded excitedly. Before I could protest, Chase had pushed a couple of buttons, pulled a lever and taken pieces off the vacuum cleaner. Shocked, I said "What have you done? Do you know how to put that back together?". I did not yet know about the father-son video viewing adventure.

I yelled, "Sam, come quick. Chase destroyed the vacuum cleaner!" "It's alright, Sam reassured me. "He's also learned how to put it back together". "How many times did you watch the silly thing?" I asked. "Just once." "Just once? You people watched the video one time and now Chase can take the thing apart and put it back together?"

(NOTE TO SELF: NEVER LET CHASE PLAY GRAND THEFT AUTO)

With glee, Chase begins to vacuum the floor with Sam looking on like a jealous lover asking when is it his turn. Eventually they compromise and Sam takes care of cord management and vacuum direction while Chase actually pushes the ridiculously heavy appliance.

What a sight!

Good thing vacuuming is not my first love. I am thrilled to have the most well-vacuumed house on the block.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your husband and my husband sound like they have a lot in common... great story!

I think we have met a while back at a NOLA meeting... a friend and colleague of mine would like to talk with you. Her name is Latha Poonamallee and if you could email her at latha.poonamallee@case.edu I would be really grateful.

Anonymous said...

Whoever said women were more mysterious than men?