So I'm stuck in the house, unable to shop for anything except groceries, and watching the Shark infomercial. I don't need a new vacuum, strictly speaking, because there are two in the house, though one is broken.
I think my first vacuum was a Hoover, maybe more than one, and then a number of those little stick vacuums that were popular as wedding and shower gifts. They had limited lifespans.
The oldest one in the house right now is a fairly modern Hoover Wind Tunnel, a behemoth of a vacuum, very heavy but also automatically powered, which can be very hard on your feet when you travel from carpeting to bare floors. Especially if you vacuum in your bare feet, which I always do. Don't know why, just have always done so. The Wind Tunnel came equipped with a signal light on the base: it stays red until all the dirt is removed and then it turns green. Sometimes that can take eight or ten passes before you can move on to the next swath, rather tiring and also boring, but impossible to ignore.
I was glad to retire the Wind Tunnel when I was given a Dyson. It was lighter, seemed more thorough, and best of all was bagless. I was completely satisfied with the Dyson for several years. Then when I was in the hospital for knee surgery, someone decided to clean up a little and bashed the vacuum into some furniture, cracking off the plastic cord rewind holder. I priced the replacement part, but like today's automobiles, you can't replace the small plastic part, but need to buy the entire housing. So I used it as is, wrapping the cord around the unit as best I could. The first chink in its armor, until about a year ago, when one day it made a horrible noise and our attempts at replacing the belt or belts were in vain. So the Dyson remains in the section reserved for repairs some day.
It was back to the old Wind Tunnel. It still worked though seemed hesitant to vacuum up Maybe's cat hair, a challenge to be sure, one that kept the red light glowing for many swipes. It also has the paper bags, a feature I thought I was done with for good. I used it-----until THE SHARK.
The commercial was strangely engrossing; I believe the psychology that goes into the sales pitches makes sure of that. I ordered one.
Even for something that costs "less than $200," buyer's remorse set in, actually not so much for the cost but because here's another thing I don't have room for. The package arrived yesterday, and I thought of returning it unopened, but tonight I opened the package and assembled all the pieces, a lot of plastic, though a very pretty aubergine color. I'll give it a try, I thought. I had "just" vacuumed on Monday, when I had the opportunity of having the house to myself. It's hard to vacuum around someone, and also kind of rude. I expected the floor to be fairly clean; I'm the only one who walks in and out on a regular basis anymore, and I usually take my shoes off in the house. So I pushed the vacuum over the living room floor. It moved easily, weighing only about the nine advertised pounds, and was very quiet, also as advertised, so it didn't seem to have much suction. When I went to empty the cup into the kitchen garbage, the cup was jam-packed overflowing with not just the usual cat hair which had been mostly previously vacuumed up, but just plain dirt, scads of it. The Shark had struck.
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