Bam-Bam (Part 2)

Vrooom.

Click. Click.  "F#cking thing!" I mutter.  Click. Click. Click. "You expensive piece of monkey shit!"


Dyson.  The Cadillac of vacuums, the creme of the crop.  The 11.6 pound, multi-floor, ultra light model DC24 with the famously patented Root Cyclone technology has been tempermental for months and finally refused to spin the rotating floor brush.  Now, I had a loud, whining electric motor while a non-rotating whiskered roller pushed dog hair around like a Swiffer dust mop.  Sure, the expertly engineered, compact Dyson Ball vacuum cleaner steers like a sports car around furniture, but who cares about steering when the vacuum's non-spinning brush plugs up to the point dust bunnies fold over in laughter.

No biggy, I'll just pull the file and...NO WAY!  The warranty expired, you guessed it.... yesterday. Go figure.  A flash of anger races through my head as Bam-Bam begs to take the Dyson out to the barn to meet the hammer. I sit, breathe deeply and calm my nerves and wonder how frequently I'm struck with such luck?

When a person drops nearly $400 for a vacuum cleaner, you'd think that is a one-time purchase that will last a life-time. Knowing enough about mechanics to be borderline dangerous, I begin to troubleshot the vacuum. I decipher it's the switches and begin to pry and twist on the plastic cover. The darn thing won't pop off and, once again, Bam-Bam immediately offers to help remove it via a 6 pound sledgehammer. 

Breath....breath....   C'mon, be smarter than the vacuum.             I got it!

I step away from the Neanderthal ways of Bam-Bam and enter the 21st century and visit YouTube and immediately remove the cover to expose the switches. The switches test fine and I notice a small spring in the linkage had slipped out of position and another spring was completely missing.  While fiddling around with the linkage, foing!  Of course that spring had to fling itself to never be found again!

Now needing 2 small springs and convinced I had plenty of them stashed in forgotten coffee cans of nuts and bolts, I head to the barn and dump multiple cans without success.  Off to the hardware store I go and spend $1.29 on a set of springs.

I return home, cut the little springs to length and put everything together with the Dyson now spinning its brushes and nearly pulling the little dog into experiencing the Hurricane technology.

And then it dawns on me. 

My frugal self realized I could have easily saved the trip and the money at the store if I simply took a few pens apart to steal their springs. But, that's okay. There's something about a small hardware store that brings a sense of comfort and small town goodness.

Sometimes Bam-Bam is good to have around, but with the Dyson, he would have cost me $400 as compared to the $1.29 that YouTube helped troubleshoot.