October 18, 2012

White Dog and the rest of the White Dog Army supervisory committee have named today, "Take It Apart Thursday." This, in honor of the morning's activity of disassembling things, trying to fix them (with varying success), and then putting them back together. Steve was very fortunate to have six little bosses as he tackled the repair list; and the WDA came full of helpful ideas and suggestions.

Tightening the child gate that blocks off the basement entry/laundry area did not require taking apart...only repositioning. The gate is in a tight area but the WDA managed to squeeze right next to Steve as he worked in the actual gate opening space. Once the device was secure, it took several minutes of White Ones checking both sides before Steve could herd everyone back into the kitchen side and on to the next task.

The leaded glass shade on our Dragonfly Lamp is beautiful but the lamp's construction is such that jiggling or rotation of the shade causes the finial at the top to loosen and the entire structure becomes unstable. The lamp sits on the elevated chest where White Dog likes to take her meals and under it is the secret passage to her chair hideout so the lamp gets bobbled a lot. You cannot just tighten down the finial, but must cradle the lamp on its side to protect the shade yet keep it in line while you use a pliers under the base to hold the nut while turning the piecework on the top of the shade. For this Steve set up a jig of sorts on the floor and laid out the project. Then Quinn knocked the foam blocking and Puff wanted to lie next to it, and Oso began nesting in the towel underneath and White Dog wanted to sit on Steve's lap. Ultimately, I held the lamp upright in position in midair and Steve worked above and below to successfully batten everything down. The WDA took credit for the great idea of the two of us working together.

Do you know how some people just seem to have a curse when it comes to somethings and their only recourse is to avoid them? Like some folks can't keep house plants alive; others are always breaking fancy dishes? Well, Michael is the kiss of death on vacuum cleaners. Steve and I had the same unit for almost 30 years and it was reliable and did the job. Since Michael came to the Pack two years ago, we have gone through FOUR! He loves to vacuum and it is one of his household tasks...one in which he takes great pride removing the tons of White Floof that accumulates in our home.

Yesterday, the vacuum suddenly stopped and I heard muffled sounds of distress. For many minutes my question remained unanswered and then finally he appeared at the office door, crestfallen. "The vacuum has stopped spinning. I can't figure out what I did wrong or how to fix it." OK, fine. I have a conference call in six minutes. Just leave it...it was not my finest or most compassionate moment of "aunting."

This morning it was part of Take It Apart Thursday. Steve, with his crew sat on the VERY floofy floor and laid the vacuum cleaner over revealing its underside. Everypup surged forward as Steve removed screws, the cover plate, unhooked the belt and took out the brush roller. It was covered with fur wrapped from one end to the other. The WDA all sniffed trying to determine who was to blame as Steve pulled off the fur. "That should do it!" he said confidently and reassembled the Sucker. When he plugged it in and turned it on there was still no spinning. So the surgical team opened Bissell up again and pushed and prodded and twisted and turned.

Steve had to go into school a little early so the operation was left to be continued over the weekend. The team put Bissell back together so no parts were lost and I pondered what the carpet will look like in another three days if we remain vacuum-less.