Sheer Laziness

I was over at my best friend's house one day. Her mom needed to run some errands and asked us to do some chores around the house while she was gone. She offered to pay us for our efforts, so my friend agreed.

My simple assignment was to vacuum the living room floor. I asked Nicole for the vacuum cleaner. She said it was down in the basement. Knowing how heavy it was, I wasn't too excited about lifting the heavy beast up the stairs.

So, I improvised....

I walked into the living room and began dragging the side of my foot along the carpet in straight lines. Up and down. Up and down.

When I had finished, the living room carpet looked striped and "vacuumed." I was so proud of my accomplishments.

Nicole's mom returned from the store and I was excited to show her my work. She asked me if the vacuum was broken. I asked her, "Why?" with a pained look on my face. Had my new vacuuming method been discovered? She responded by saying, "Look at the floor! Nothing was picked up by the vacuum. The floor is still filthy." She looked stressed. She obviously didn't want to splurge on a new vacuum. I didn't know what to do. I didn't want to confess my lazy ways. "Great! Now I need to go get a new vacuum!"

"WAIT!" I cried. "I didn't use the vacuum. I just dragged my foot up and down across the carpet to make it look as if I vacuumed!" I had to confess. A puzzled look came over her face. I know she was wondering why in the heck I would go through such trouble. But all in all, she was relieved that the vacuum still worked.

In the end, it took me twice as long to drag my foot in neat rows rather than using their dumb vacuum. It sounded like a good idea!?!?