The Sucker Comes to a Fiery End

Back in the "pre Covid" days we used to take the dog to the groomers for her regular haircut and beauty treatment. Those days are now long past. A few weeks ago Maggie ordered a set of dog clippers on line and set about learning how to cut hair (both hers and the dogs).

This afternoon she decided that the dog really needed a trim. She propped the unwilling little beat atop the washing machine and set about attacking her tight black curls with the clippers. After about an hour of furious clipping the laundry floor was covered with black hair and the poor dog was modelling her new "Madam Pompadour" haircut.

Maggie announced that the dog was finished and then set about vacuuming up all the hair clippings. For a little while the house resounded with the normal sounds of vacuuming, and then all hell broke loose. The air was rent with ear splitting cries, just like a demented banshee. At the same time Maggie started yelling for help.

At first I thought she must have sucked the little dog right up the hose and into the vacuum cleaner.

"It's on fire", she yelled. No, not the dog, the vacuum cleaner. By the time I ran to the laundry the room was full of acrid black smoke, billowing from the cleaner. It was quickly switched off and cast into the yard. All the windows were opened to clear the smoke. Once out into the open the cleaner continued to billow out smoke for some time. Now that was quite an unexpected turn of events, although in a strange way it did give colour and excitement to an otherwise drab day.

The vacuum is still sitting outside, but we both know that it has sucked its last gasp. Its next resting place will be the garbage bin. I suppose we can't complain since we only paid about $70 for it around 10 years ago. That works out to about $7 a year. Not too bad.

Later in the day we had another picnic by the inlet and then drove to investigate a future bike ride to Venus Bay. It was a nice ending to an exciting day.Read more