Vacuuming happiness

Well, the old vacuum cleaner broke down.  It's a bit irritating because in all honesty it wasn't THAT old, and it was pretty expensive.  I think we paid almost $400 when you factor in all the trips to the repair shop in the first three years.  It was a Kenmore and it was the LAST Kenmore vacuum we'll ever buy.  We got it because at the time it was top of the line in the HEPA department.  I'd say we probably bought it in 2002 or '03...  still, in the cost per year analysis, I wasn't thrilled about it.  

So, since it wasn't working that great, I bought the roomba.  Sure in the cost per year analysis it will probably also disappoint, but lets be serious, it motors around the house by itself picking up crumbs and fur.  It can almost do no wrong.  But now we finally had to break down and get another vacuum because, well, the roomba doesn't do stairs and we can't MAKE the old Kenmore do them anymore.  We'd been fiddling with it, and sort of coaxing it along, but now, well, it's just not going to happen.

So I put my foot down and said, you know, if we bought a CHEAP vacuum and it only lasted 2 years, I wouldn't feel stupid about replacing it or repairing it after that amount of time.  But this nonsense of buying the really expensive one and going through that again... well I just couldn't face it.  So H agreed with me (no need to put my foot down at all really) and we shopped around at Lowes, Home Depot and finally best buy.  Well, for $80 we got a Eureka Pet Lovers Bagless Vacuum.  I figure if it lasts 2 years, that's $40/year.  It has all the features we wanted- bagless, a little motorized piece for vacuuming the couch, etc.  So H opens the box and says, I'm going to go vacuum our room.  Now, it wasn't THAT long ago that we used the Kenmore up there.  Yeaaaaaaaaa, so about that.  Wow.  And then, Ew.  And then he came down the stairs... ew.  And even went over the living room for the sake of Roomba, (because we have a dog with really killer hair, so we always ran the Kenmore in there once a week so the Roomba wasn't trying to do it all by itself) and ew again.  He was just a vacuuming fool, and loving it.  

So, if nothing else, our new vacuum paid for itself in happiness alone.  I got to sit down (lay down actually) and watch H vacuum, so that made me happy.  Then H seemed really pleased with how it ran.  I really can't speak for it, because he hasn't let me use it yet.  I worry, that like a pet, it won't bond to me now... and it will have to be HIS vacuum....  Now THAT is vacuuming happiness:  1 vacuum that runs by itself, and 1 vacuum that runs with my husband.