Who wins a battle between a space heater and a shop vac?
I do not housesit often especially with having younger children myself, but I will make an exception for couple who are great family friends. So while they are experiencing a Gatlinburg Christmas with a cabin and all the trimmings, I have been asked to visit their cats daily to make sure they have fresh food, water, treats and litter boxes. These cats also get some company from me and all the pets they are willing to accept. Being a cat person, everything I was being asked to do was second nature, but pulling garage appliances apart was not exactly on my bingo card on day one.
On the first day of cat sitting, I made sure that everything outside was normal before I headed inside. The Christmas yard decorations were all located where they were meant to be, the garbage was placed at the end of the driveway and no packages were sitting out waiting for the pending rainstorm. I went down to the garage entrance that I had a key for and opened the door. Several boxes greeted me from inside and after looking to see what would provide the easiest access to the house as all options were blocked, it was determined that the shop vac needed to be moved. However it was quickly discovered that the shop vac was next to a large space heater and the wheels on both of these were not moving when I attempted to relocate them. Both appliances were attached to each other and were interlocked by black melted rubber. The rubber once resembled a hose for the shop vac and it was all through the still working space heater with the garage floor also covered as well. After some creativity, I was able to turn off the space heater and once things began to cool, the two appliances were separated. Although the hose was destroyed along with the formerly all white space heater, the house did not become the victim of their tango.
So after my hot rubber covered event, I did what anyone else would do and raked cat litter boxes. After the boxes, I fed my feline friends along with spoiling them with treats and pets. They did not seem to mind the rubber smell that I surely was now rocking and their owners also did not appear to be upset when I explained the status on these two appliances over the phone. At the end of the day, everyone was fine and the cats, they provided for a little stress relief!
