The dangers of string

Hi Mom,

Today I learned about the dangers of string. It looks docile enough, rolled on its large, clothesline-like spool, but do what I did today and it's something else entirely!

I turned on the vacuum cleaner, part of an initiative to find my floor before my guests arrive. It started whirring and wheezing and doing what a vacuum cleaner does. I think I began to hum, pleased at both my domesticity in that moment and how much better my room would smell when I was done. 

Suddenly the vacuum let out a different kind of cough. I looked down to find that somehow it had sucked up the end of the string; with every passing second, it was inhaling feet of the stuff like spaghetti. I couldn't stop staring. The spool was unraveling quickly, the vacuum mechanically pulling in more and more string. 

When I finished being amazed, I began the process of untangling it, and unraveling three and a half seconds of vacuum cleaner wonder from the brush. I moved the ball of string to the top of my dresser and began again. I was randomly reminded of how I used to stand on the corners of carpets so you could vacuum them without them rolling up. Room looks much cleaner now, by the way.

Love,

Karen