Nice one!
Moral of the story:
Do not f*** around with women who work on construction sites. Even the ones whose job is admin, not tool-swinging. They’re all darn fierce.
Get several. A few years ago, I had to retire a still-good upright vacuum cleaner because filters could no longer be had.
My current one features filters that are designed for wash-and-reuse.
Good advice. Damn things are nearly $40 each (at least, the fine-dust variety, mainly intended for the fine dust of drywall sanding; the coarser kind might be cheaper if they have them) but I’m getting at least two or three anyway.
My regular household vacuum (not the shop-vac, and not the battery-powered Shark which is really just for small lightweight jobs) is a Kenmore. Right. The Sears brand. The store that closed down in Canada years ago. Guess what the chances are of getting replacement bags for those?
Amazingly, after putting in a fresh one a few weeks ago, I still have two bags left. But after that, the thing is useless. There may be “compatible” bags available but the thing has sprung leaks in the hose that have had to be taped over so I think its time in this world is done. It is soon to be deceased, pining for the fjords. I believe it will fit in the garbage bin.
My niece’s university solved that problem by having multiple graduation ceremonies during the graduation weekend.
However, I was not happy about the scheduling as her school is a couple of hours away and her graduation was scheduled for 10:00 AM. I am not a morning person, especially with regards to landmark events.
…until you begin your next career as an Artisanal Staple-Monger.
(I’m picturing you making the rounds of maker faires with your wooden booth, held together with 0.5" staples, selling an assortment of handmade fasteners. And vintage Swinglines, of course.)
Any chance of emptying a vacuum cleaner bag and re-using it? Not optimal, but if it’s that or nothing…
Theoretically possible but impractical and would be very, very messy. The bag has just a very small opening. The vacuum cleaner is now ancient anyway, and while it brings back fond memories – I bought it just after we bought our first new house – the hose is now old and brittle (like me!) and has had to be sealed in several places with a stretchy rubber tape. Not worth keeping.
I can use the shop vac while I search for a new vacuum cleaner. Man, that thing is effective and versatile! I’ve used it for everything from drywall sanding to sucking up pools of water.
Probably good dimensions and bad search work by me.
The hardware store that I failed at was an Ace.
Now I have a fresh rant about my goose chase and unnecessary inappropriate purchases.
Thanks. 
It is apparently a requirement that each and every local and national newscast over Memorial Day weekend MUST state “Memorial Day is the unofficial start of summer” at LEAST once per newscast, preferably more. If EVERYBODY repeatedly says it’s the unofficial start of summer, why not make a fucking national law declaring it to be the official start of summer so we don’t have to hear the “unofficial start to summer” two dozen times every fucking year?
I can add more if that’s not enough.
For a second I read the thread title as “Brian May Glowers”.
A major rant and then a mini rant-
On Sunday the eleventh, I stayed up past my usual bed time. I got a call from my sister. She informed me that Mom had been at the hospital visiting a friend with a broken leg. At some point, Mom collapsed. While she was semi conscious, Mom consented to life saving surgery and a respirator. Mom has made her wishes clear over the years. She has the proper forms giving my sister durable power of attorney and other forms like advance directives and a living will. Had Mom been in her right mind, or had they contacted my sister, both the abdominal surgey resulting in a colostomy bag and the respirator would have been refused. Mom would be dead as there was no way an 81 year old woman can survive a very badly perforated colon and what the surgeon says was ‘the most impacted intestine we have ever seen’.
Mom had a horrible childhood. Her mom, my Bubby, was a saint. However, they were so poor that they lived in a condemned house until Mom was sixteen. She has a major rodent phobia due to the giant rats that would emerge and roam the house every night. Her father, my Zeyde David, was very mentally ill. He was extremely abusive. Among many other traumas from childhood, Mom has a truly severe aversion to laxatives and enemas. Combine that with all the Oxy she was taking for chronic back pain (scoliosis, spinal stenosis and at least five other things) and Mom had a literally life threatening case of constipation.
Naturally, being a stereotypical Jewish mother she never told me about the problem or her refusal to treat it. I first heard about it when my sister and sister in law called me and told me that Mom had undergone emergency surgery. We arranged for me to fly down the next day. I asked how long I would be staying so I could pack and plan properly. It looked like Mom would be dead inside a weak and might never regain consciousness. My sister said I should expect to be in Florida for about four days.
I e-mailed my bosses to tell them I would not be working Monday and that I might have to take some otehr days off. I figured they would want to know why I suddenly needed off, and whether they should count it as an unexcused absence. So, I told them that my Mom in Florida had undergone emergency surgery and was in intensive care. I said that I woild bring my work laptop and equipment and work from the guest room in Mom’s condo if I was able. They replied that I had their sympathy, but I was only permitted to work from my apartment and nowhere else.
They did assure me that while I would not be paid for this time off, I would not be penalized for it and that my job would be there when I returned home.
To everybody’s surprirse, Mom improved and woke up. They removed the repsirator. When she was conscious and lucid enough, we told her that she had a colostomy bag. Her reaction was considerably less dramatic than we expected. She will be moved from the hospital to a rehabilitaton facility tomorrow. She will be there for a few months at least.
My sister has been trying to get Mom to move into an assisted living facility for some time now. I didn’t push. Mom has a very active social life and highly values her independence. Living in one building where you are constantly supervised for the rest of your life is not her idea of a good life. However, at this point I agree that Mom can no longer be trusted to take care of herself. When Mom is done with rehab, her choices are the assisted living facility in Jacksonville near my sister and sister in law or an assisted living facility in Philly near me and a bunch of other family. We have not told Mom this yet. I have no idea how we will tell her. She will not be happy.
I have to write another e-mail to my bosses. I said that we would have a family conference on Friday about how long I was staying. We did. Everything is still up in the air. We don’t know how quickly or fully Mom will recover. While the rehab we picked was much better than our other choices, it could still turn out to be a hellhole where the staff does not care or do anything and we have to take care of Mom ourselves.
Mini Rant
Why didn’t anybody tell me that a new season of LEGO Masters had started?? I only found out while I was flipping through the channels tonight and saw that an episode was halfway through.
I blame Will Arnett. It’s his responsibility.
Damn, man. That’s a lot. Best wishes for an arrangement you all can live with. That’s a sudden, traumatic change to go from Independent to needing long-term care. I hope you are finding some time to decompress with all this stress.
My son built a Lego car kit today and he did pretty well. Was thinking of getting him a rocket ship kit for Autistic Pride Day.
My stupid shit is stupid.
Both me and Sr Weasel have been in a pissy mood the last couple of days. Today he wanted me to hang pictures on my fucking day off. I swear to Og it must have taken three hours.
And we really needed to weed the lawn but did not have time.
Well I totally lost my shit tonight at dinner. He was being pissy and I escalated.
To make it even worse, my son was being chastised for yelling. Then I yelled and stormed off. Great example for the kid.
Bless my husband for not making a big deal of it. Tonight after the kiddo was in bed he said, “Do you need to process any of that or can we just put it behind us?”
Chose the latter.
Which I wasn’t so sensitive lately. I can’t focus.
I completely fucking forgot to go to Zen temple Sunday. Not, like, an hour afterward. I didn’t remember until the following day. That’s how bad my ADHD has been.
Ugh.
I bought a spiffy new Swingline stapler to replace a beat-up mini version. I didn’t know that regular staples don’t work right. It needs special ultra-premium staples. 
The good thing is, I don’t use a lot of staples, so one box of the special ultra-premium staples will probably last for the rest of my life.
They always do this! More advertising, please!
(assorted expletives) Jeep broke down today (apparent drive-train issue, says DH. I know very little about this stuff. I’ve tried to learn, but it just doesn’t stick to my brain).
Could have been worse, granted. At least we were in a relatively civilized area with cell reception, and apparently inside our towing coverage’s radius from the dealership we bought the car from.
A coyote has chosen my yard for its toilet, since we put down gravel. There is a growing pile of scat in one corner of our fenced (!) yard.
Why are coyotes leaping the fence to shit in my yard?
What, if anything, can or should I do about this?
Also, WHEN is it doing this? I never see it, but the evidence is pretty unmistakable.
LOL, they seem to like to do this! I have a particular spot on my gravel driveway that sports the same unmistakable evidence, time after time after time. It’s in a spot I’d never see from the house, and the critter returns to it over and over. I have no solutions for you, but it is interesting that they seem to like crapping on gravel in the same spots. Good luck!