Dec. 16: Vacuum

 My son is getting a vacuum cleaner for Christmas this year. He even picked out the make and model. Thank God it's an inexpensive one. He doesn't want Star Wars stuff or a PlayStation or whatever the new toy trend is. All he wants is a vacuum. So Merry Christmas, son. I look forward to a noisier environment.

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If I had a dollar for every picture of my son with a vacuum cleaner, I'd be able to buy a very expensive vacuum cleaner. I have learned that whenever I take my son to a new environment, he will immediately search for a vacuum cleaner. Whenever we go to a place he's been before, he will tell me what colour the vacuum cleaner is there and then he will go find it.

My mom can testify to this. If she's going to FaceTime me, she knows she has to be sitting next to the room where the vacuum cleaner is. That's because as soon as my son sees her face, he will immediately start yelling this:

VACUUM WHITE!

My mom has a white Miele vacuum. My son adores it. It might be his favourite vacuum in the whole world. He can spell Miele. He can also spell Bissell and Shopvac and Hoover and other vacuum cleaner brands.

Today we were at the high school covering a basketball game. On the way out, we wandered past the custodial closet and my kid saw a big green industrial vacuum cleaner in there. God bless the lady custodian who let him use it for a while.  

 

I have no set rule when it comes to my son and vacuums. Sometimes I let him play and sometimes I pull him along. Much of it depends on how busy I am but the main factor is the attitude of the vacuum's owner.

The people at the Char-Lan Rec Centre are delightful to my son. Once the game is over, they will often let him vacuum out the main hall or even one of the change rooms. The Char-Lan centre has two grey vacuums. Whenever we go to the Char-Lan Rec Centre, he says this:

VACUUM GREY!

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Tonight, at Glengarry District, he fell in love with the big green industrial vacuum.I am sure that when we visit there next, he will say this:

VACUUM GREEN!

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I let my son vacuum out the custodial closet for a good 10 minutes. While he did that, I wandered around the area and looked at the displays showing all the students who's graduated from there in the past. I went to the 1991 display because that's the year I graduated. I didn't see anyone I knew.

Sometimes I wonder why it's necessary to keep all of those alumni pictures up. I mean, how many times do high school students stop in the course of their day, look at one of those displays, and say: "Gee, Hans Brickface graduated from here in 1992. I wonder what he's doing now. Probably making cheese."

My son did not try to vacuum the pictures off the wall. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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