The hairball that ate my vacuum...

I couldn't bring myself to take a picture of it. The downfall of having a girl with long hair, I suppose. I never considered that hair could take the vacuum down!

I have a Swivel Sweeper, and I do "maintenance" on it regularly. Maintenance means cutting all the long blondish-brown hairs off the brushes in order to get it to keep sweeping. This has to be done about 1-2 times a month for best sweeper performance. (but on a side note, I've had my Swivel Sweeper for 1 1/2 years and it's not died or required replacement parts yet, so maintenance is a good thing!)

Today, I was doing the "major maintenance" vacuuming...that means pulling out all the tools, getting under the couch (and pulling it out is NOT easy, since it's a double-reclining La-Z-Boy). I had the upholstery tool out to vacuum the couch...and I had to stop after every section of every cushion to pick off the hair. Tons of it. Everywhere. As I was running the nozzle under the couch, I heard a clunk...then a whizzzzzz...then the unmistakable whistle of the hose being jammed up (I know this sound, I sucked up a sock once - BY ACCIDENT!). Time to stop, disconnect the hose, and hope for the best. When I disconnected the hose from the body, tons of dust fell out...I grabbed for something...and it was and endless hairball....long, blondish-brown hair....TONS of it....(oh, and a few small toy pieces got tangled in there too! Lucky for Scotty that there WAS a hairball!)

But the vacuum is purring like a kitten (a bald one)....I think I'm going to have to vacuum the couch monthly now, too.