Play Ball!

Our vacuum started smelling. With 4 dogs and 4 kids in the house it's not all that surprising. Nevertheless, it's discouraging to say the least when the house smells worse than wet dog after I've just spent the last 20 minutes sweeping up the remains of the family. (Okay, that didn't sound good.) Heaven forbid the place actually be clean and odor free at the same time.

We've learned that sweeping a 20 year old carpet that is trod upon by a family of 6 and their pets will, indeed, make your vacuum smell. It's the bits of carpet that come up every time you sweep. They get lodged in the great sucking machine somewhere, never to be found. And then every time you turn on the vacuum the smell eminates like a bad air freshner. But that was in the old dwelling. This house, carpet included, is only 2 years old.

I try to ignore things like this. Yeh, it's frustrating but what choice do I have? I keep thinking that it'll go away if I pretend it doesn't exist. That smell? What smell? Are you sure you smell something? Maybe you stepped in something before you came in. I'll go check the baby's diaper.

My hubbs, on the other hand, refused to ignore this smell because this was my brand new Dyson. We're talking just-got-it kind of brand new. So he started with the obvious. He dumped out the canister containing the family's dirt and checked the hoses for something dead. Nothing. He then proceeded to completely dismantle it. I was right there, making sure he didn't do something to my new toy that shouldn't be done, so I got roped in. As he was calling Dyson customer service to see how to clean the filters, I was in charge of cleaning every square centimeter of every part. After the filters dried overnight on the windowsill, he reassembled it just the way it came. (He's usually pretty good that way, but one can't take chances.) The smell is gone! What a hero. I was frustrated, however, that it smelled in the first place. A new vac and a new carpet should not smell that quickly. If that's what I had to look forward to with my new toy, I was very disillusioned.

But here's where it gets interesting. As the filters were drying the kids came home from school and were all "what are those things?" And as we were explaining why we had to take the vacuum apart, we got the real story.

We'd left the kids alone one night to go out on the town. By this I mean we met an out of town friend for a quick dinner as he was passing through. (My parents live just across the road, and my sister is just up the road. We totally trust the daughter to babysit, and she knows what to do in an emergency. But we don't do this very often, either.) As they were alone and unattended in the house, they got into a rousing game of Diaper Ball. (When the baby is changed, you roll the diaper into a ball, close it off with the velcro tabs, and gently toss it at someone. Whoever gets tagged is in charge of throwing it away. Hey, after 12 years of changing diapers every single day you've gotta make things interesting.) Only, with kids, things get out of hand quickly. They failed to follow the rules. It quickly became an enthusiastic game of Dodge Ball, and diapers just aren't designed to take that kind of abuse. As you can guess, it exploded. My daughter wanted to keep her babysitting privileges (and hide the evidence) so she swept up the urine filled gel balls with the new Dyson.

Yep, that'd account for the smell.