coming clean: confessions on a vacuum

My husband had a birthday this week, and to celebrate I bought him a vacuum cleaner.  

I feel like doing so loses me so much of my "cred" as a Miser Mom.  We already have two perfectly functional canister vacuum cleaners --- they're old, and have required a bit of service (which we got from a local repair guy), but they work.  We also have a roomba, which was a splurge itself.  Heck, given that it's me writing this, I should add that we have a trio of wooden-handled brooms, too, and we could probably do a decent job of cleaning much of the house with no electrical assistance at all.  

So purchasing a new vacuum cleaner is out of character for me, both because of "purchasing" and because of "new"  . . . buying this particular gift makes me feel a bit like I'm living a double identity.  My husband really doesn't like the old canister vacuums -- he finds them heavy and clunky and cumbersome, but he just figured that dealing with them was part of being married to me, much like cooking without garlic is part of what I accept about being married to him.  

But wait, there's more.  It wasn't just that I kind of generically purchased some random new machine; I followed the thread of a forum in which people enthused about household objects, and decided to take their advice and buy a cordless, stick vacuum cleaner that cost a bit over $800.  Serious money, that.  When I mentioned to my guy that I was thinking about getting him a vacuum cleaner for his birthday, he lit up; when I mentioned which one and what price, he almost staggered.  And then he told the kids, and they kind of staggered (except I-daughter, who said, "but this is what you do:  you're frugal most of the time so you can spend your money on things that you really want to spend it on.").  

In action!

At any rate, this does feel a bit like an existential experience for me, which I know is not the way that most people approach vacuum cleaners.  There it is: I loved keeping our old canister vacuum cleaners going, and my husband didn't love it, and so now we have a very, very fancy and very modern vacuum cleaner instead.

A few other random thoughts:

We've donated the canister vacuums to our local refugee resettlement organization, but we're keeping the robot vacuum (and of course, the brooms!).  

My husband has a friend who is a monk, and whose life makes my own life look totally hedonistic, who told my husband that he'd heard that it was an insult for married people to buy each other gifts that come with an electric cord.  What can I say?  It's a cordless vacuum cleaner?

I actually do love pulling out this vacuum cleaner and just doing a quick clean-up of stuff; it's much easier to move around than the canister ones, I have to admit.  Also, when you release the trigger to turn it off, the machine makes a noice that sounds like a cross between a purr, a hum, and "yum", which is a truly delightful noise.