Yesterday was vac consciousness raising and moving day, with the last one lugged up the lane and repositioned well after dark.

I oversee all of the vacuum cleaners in the monastery, a voluntary position I should add. It’s a fairly benign task, taken on face value, which involves keeping them in reasonable fettle and with adequate spare dust bags to hand. Occasionally, as happened yesterday, a number of the machines need to be re-deployed. This occurs for a number of complex and intimately interconnected reasons, often involving the humans who drive them.

Today I passed a vacuum cleaner outside of its cupboard with no sign of its hose and power head. A small wave of concern flushed over me. Just why is it out? What’s wrong with it? Where’s the rest of it? It just shows how involved one can become with these critters, or any other thing for that matter.

Returning to the corridor after the evening meal I was slightly bemused to find a note of explanation fixed to the lone machine. SPIDER INSIDE (Hopefully making its way out!) Thank you.