Reflections on vacuum cleaners

The following conversations have taken place over the last five days.

A.: This vacuum cleaner doesn't do anything.
Dad: That's not true; it makes a lot of noise.

A.: It's ridiculously weak. Can I please buy you a new vacuum cleaner for New Year's?
Dad: We have a dozen vacuum cleaners.
A.: But none of them work.
Dad: This is true.

A.: I feel bad. I just got an excellent vacuum cleaner but it's almost wasted at my house; I don't produce or accumulate nearly as much dirt. And I have a cat.
Dad: [Shrug.]

***
I am not OCD. It's true that (1) owning my home and (2) spending a lot of money on replacing things--and ending up with brand-new things (like floors) has inspired me to take better care of things, which includes keeping them clean, but I've never been a cleanliness-is-near-godliness person. Except maybe with food messes, and that's more because I don't need bugs cleaning up my mess for me.

But I could never, ever, ever let dust get to the point it is here at my parents' house, where the dust bunnies look like they're about to unionize. I vacuum once a week--and toward the end of that week is when I start to see dust starting to accumulate, and I can barely take it. I don't know how they coexist with all these dust bunnies.