Zappy

[rootofnewt]

Today, our landlord kindly visited with his truck and trailer and helped us move some stuff. The futon, plants, bedroom bureaus, and several bins are now over at the new house. He also started installing our deadbolts for us. It was very nice of him and I really appreciate it. He's offered to come over again this week and help us move *more* stuff. It's really cool of him to do this. I know he's appreciated having good tenants, but this is incredibly beyond the call of duty!

I'm still catching up on rest from the weekend. The past couple weeks have taken a heavy toll on me and I'm hoping that I can survive finishing this move, cleaning both houses, and having my in-laws visit next weekend. I need to be well rested, otherwise our trip to California will be highly stressful.

What's more, there's a keyboard in my car trunk that reeks of stinky fragrant stuff. I can taste the damn stuff every time I get in the car. It's not as bad as when boy unthinkingly put it in the backseat when he picked it up Friday, but it's not exactly tolerable. I doused it with a garden hose and the air improved slightly. I'm going to soak the entire thing in saltwater tonight and see if the problem is fixed. If that fails, I'm torching it--car and all.

I've been having trouble sleeping lately. Well, more trouble than usual. It's not like I ever truly get a good night's sleep, but I'm waking up more frequently--a sign that the crazy-ass drugs I'm on aren't working as well. In addition, the nasty side effects have lessened, also an indication that the dosage probably needs to be increased. I'm also finding that the sheets are attempting to strangle me more often. *sigh*

I exchanged the canister vacuum of doom today, only to discover that the new one ALSO builds up a nasty charge. I didn't get enough of a jolt to make me drop/throw it today, but I got enough to jerk a bit, SEE the arc, and to feel the field around the vacuum tube/bar thingy. My hair was having fun, too. So boy tried sweeping. He just got a moderate amount of static charge. Unless baking soda is incredibly conductive, I think this is yet another one of the manifestations that give me my nickname (you know, the only that nobody but boy knows) "Zappy".

I taunted boy about my inability to do housework and he suggested that it might be a seasonal disability. Darn those intuitive kids. I feel bad, though, for returning what was likely a perfectly good vacuum. The Sears people were dismayed and encouraged me to exchange it, but now that I know that another one (slightly different model--they alternate the one that is on sale. The one I got this time has a cord that is two feet longer, that's it) makes me light up, I feel a bit naughty. On the other hand, I got zapped good and hard yesterday--enough for my arm to still hurt several minutes later.

So, if anyone knows whether vacuuming up 15+ pounds of baking soda would lead to abnormal build-up of static, let me know. I did change the bag every few minutes, as necessary, in addition to shaking out the filter.

I was really enjoying vacuuming, too. I'm all sad at the thought of *not* being able to vacuum for a couple months.

An hour ago, I was helping boy make the bed and the blankets bit me. Damn zappiness.

Comments

[drcuriosity]

My mother has greater than normal levels of zappiness, too. Not to the same extent, but still enough to be notable. I tend to be slightly static-dampening, myself; I have trouble getting the same kind of charge as most people do when rubbing the soles of their shoes on appropriate kinds of carpet and all that.

Perhaps it has something to do with the speed of people's electromagnetic fields, or something arcane like that. Or possibly I just spend too much time immersed in the electrical fields of various computers and appliances and have become somewhat attuned to the children of the lightning god. Hmm. That might explain some of my reaction to thunderstorms, too...

[krasota.livejournal.com]

I go out and dance during thunderstorms. love them love them love them.

ionizers, the kind that sit on a table and generate negative ions, those drive me BONKERS.

[drcuriosity]

I love them, too. When I'm not single.

What are said ionizers supposed to do? (Well, other than generating ions.)

[krasota.livejournal.com]

They make dust stick to walls.

Theoretically, this gets it out of the air. Realistically, it just makes everything filthy.

Supposedly, they make the air smell "fresh", too. Since thuderstorms and tumbling water also lend themselves to the formation of negative ions, humans have tried to create a machine that can do the same thing.

[jenx.livejournal.com]

They make dust stick to walls.
EWWWWW! Yech. I wondered why you never had to clean the filter on those things - now I know why.

[mustelidmania.livejournal.com]

"An hour ago, I was helping boy make the bed and the blankets bit me. Damn zappiness."


damn those blanket carnivores. sometimes they draw blood too.

[ismene.livejournal.com]

Obviously, your house is possessed.

Hmm. Do the salt candles that give off negative ions drive you nuts, too? I rather like mine, except that it's hard to get melted wax out of it.

[lightning-rose.livejournal.com]

What device is this of which you speak, please? :)

[ismene.livejournal.com]

A brief explanation is here, with some resources at the bottom of the page. I got mine here.

[hellsop.livejournal.com]

dry weather makes everything zappier. Baking soda, all by itself, is an insulator rather than a conductor, which makes it really good at generating a charge when moved over another appropriate insulator, maybe carpet, maybe even just air. When it contacts a conductive thing, like a metal tube on a vacuum, it will dump its charge onto the conductive tube.

I'm sure the shock was annoying as hell, but I'm not surprised it happened, nor would I expect it to indicate that anything about the vacuum was defective. It's even evidence that everything IS wired correctly in the thing and that bad socket wiring (hot and neutral reversed) won't make it a real hazard.

[krasota.livejournal.com]

Well, since Sears doesn't train their managers in this, I suppose they can suck it up. I didn't intend to return it--I wanted to know why I caused it. They told me to return it, though, and were really freaked out.

The first nasty zap,incidentally, was from the insulated wire-coil hose, not the zoomy vacuuming bar. And it hurt. This is from someone who's had other zaps with no complaints.

It's good to have the info on this, though. Thanks. :)

And the outlets I had it plugged into were correctly wired, which is fortunate. Testing outlets and rewiring them has been my little task lately.