Yup, still alive

I'm not going to talk about Sparks camp (last weekend, Fairy Tales & Monsters theme, big success, very tiring, forgot stuff at the camp & had to go back to get it).

I'm not going to talk about the bird whose nest is in my cedar bush (and thus who eyes me suspiciously every time I walk to my front door).

I'm not going to talk about boxing (had the option of moving to level 5 but opted to stay in level 4, signed up for the summer session).

Instead, I'm going to tell you about my Air Miles card.

A few weeks ago, I noticed it was missing. I didn't think too much of it - I just figured it fell out of my card-carrying wallet and into my purse.

After a couple of weeks, I actually cleaned out my purse. No luck. I vaguely thought "I should call and get a new one", and then I ... didn't.

Today I dropped something down the side of my comfy living room chair. I reached down to get it, and my first thought was "hey, there's a card down here!" My second thought was "Ew!!!"

I dug around and discovered three cards that had fallen out of my card wallet (including my Rogers card that I haven't used since the year 2000).

When I'd retrieved all the cards, I went and got the vacuum and started vacuuming.

Despite the fact that I vacuumed last night, I saw a few other places that needed vacuuming and went to work and ... somehow I managed to vacuum up a Subway bag.

Naturally, it got stuck in the vacuum hose.

I detached the metal end of the hose and looked through it. It wasn't stuck there.

I detached both ends of the flexible part of the hose. Now, I couldn't just look through this part of the hose because both ends have a hard plastic angled piece.

Not only could I not see through the hose, I also couldn't use a broom to dislodge the bag because the hard plastic pieces were angled just enough to prevent it.

I needed something that was heavy and small. I found a battery and tried that.

It got stuck in the plastic bag.

Great. Obviously, I needed something both heavy and and flexible.

I went down to the furnace room in the basement and found a chain hanging on the wall. It's one of those things that was here when I moved in, and I just never got rid of it. I threaded the chain into the vacuum hose (which made the hose heavy) and ... it got stuck.

Luckily, gravity is my friend. I jiggled the hose until I could feel the chain move down to the bottom. By that point, I could see the bag, so I used a pliers to pull it out.

The chain was stuck, but a little more jiggling made it slither out onto the floor.

And that's how I found my Air Miles card.