Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Suck it up

I have two vacuum cleaners in my house. One for upstairs and one down. They're old, from second hand stores. They were real cheap and worked great when I got them, many years ago. One is a Eureka, probably 70s vintage, the other is a Filter Queen, undoubtedly older than I am. Both are canister types.

They were still working but with decreasing efficiency for a couple years. Didn't bother me too much. I'm just not that fastidious of a housekeeper but I finally realized something must be done.

They both continued to have really good sucking function, as tested by sticking my hand over the intake hole. The carpet sweeper attachments, with the little whirling brushes also seemed to still be working but I hypothesized that the rubber belts that power the brushes from the little electric motors in them were old, cracked and probably too stretched out to work efficiently.

I went to my neighborhood appliance repair store, they do vacuum cleaners, sewing machines and shit like that and got a couple of new belts. Cost me $4 each. They're probably worth about a quarter but what the Hell. Took about 30 seconds to replace. Man, they both pick up that cat hair like nobodies business.

They can bury me with those two vacuums, a few sturdy, copper bottomed cooking pots, my good kitchen knives, pruning shears and the old clothes I've been wearing now for thirty years, inside my old VW Bug. Like a Viking funeral. I'll need all that shit in the after life.

Do yourself a favor. Replace the belts in your carpet sweepers. You'll be happy as a pig in shit, like your old friend Dave.

I'm pathetic. It takes so little to make me happy.

Monday, June 06, 2011

Conservative Drift

Democrats see Obama as a centrist. On defense issues, they even see him as fairly right wing. Republicans see Obama as very far to the left.

Republicans do not believe that they need to move very far into the center to beat Obama. They saw McCain as too centrist in 2008. They see Romney as too centrist for 2012. None the less, Romney is beginning to look like the best compromise Republican candidate for the general election next year.

If the Republicans go with Romney in 2012 and he is beaten by Obama, there will be no compromise Republican Presidential candidate in 2016. The Republican Presidential candidate in 2016 will be an anti intellectual, fundamentalist Christian, anti abortion, anti immigrant, anti Muslim, strongly nationalistic militarist, free market capitalist who demands both decreased taxes and a balanced budget.

Who knows. That might win the Presidency for them.