When I head down the aisle, vacuum cleaners leap to their demise.

Bad things happen when I have a lot going on.

My sister aced Queen Bee Multitasker.

I’m taking Remedial Homemaking for the tenth time.

* * *

All I wanted was some iced tea.

Running around this morning with a deadline today, an appointment in an hour, a trashed house (usually happens re deadline), I filled up the kettle and placed it on the burner.

I raced to get more clothes into the washer, returned a few emails, headed back into the kitchen and

HOLY MELTING PLASTIC.

It was the smell that hit me first.

WARNING: The following image might be too graphic for small children and Martha Stewart.

Well, and any executive with Bissell.

UGH.

How do these things happen? We average a new vacuum cleaner every six months.

They are usually killed by a stray Lego, inhaling enough black dog and cat hair to knit an afghan or vacuuming up the dirt from an overturned 10 gallon planter.

This tops everything.

How could I be so careless? I washed out the cups yesterday and must have absentmindedly set them on the stove top. I turned on the same burner I do every time and….

Now I’m going to have to stop all I’m doing and buy a new vacuum when this one is two months old.

But this is a story of redemption.

Or of how my left brain grew two sizes today.

It came to me out of the blue. The motor still works. I just have to buy two new parts.

I didn’t panic.

I solved a domestic problem.

I got online and found the Bissell replacements.

Here’s the best part. I googled a coupon and got 10 percent off and free shipping.

That never happens in my pay-full-price-because-you-are-a-creative-wreck world.

See.

And the best part is that the new parts are due to arrive May 22.

No need to try and vacuum for a week and a half. (So if any of you stop over, consider yourself warned.)

What about you? What major appliance have you killed lately?

When I head down the aisle, vacuum cleaners leap to their demise.