The Sleep Number Has a Hole In It!

   Imagine this.. To  celebrate the coming in of 2012 , with 2 of my grandchildren  (the oldest 14 and youngest 5) my lovely daughter, (who NEVER gets outta the house) my wonderful partner ( who  never gets to the beach) and my in their 70's Mom and Dad....all 7 of us are stuffed in a minivan bound for the beach to bring in the New Year (or the last year as the Mayan calendar leads us to believe) .In a  brand new used minivan.We are headed for Kure Beach where mom n Dad have a tiny beach trailer. The brand new, used minivan develops a check engine light warning around 1/2 way there . My overly cautious mother pulls over to "check if out" . It was a good thing that she did because as the driver of many a car that has the "check engine" light on I piped up..."Oh keep going ,they program those things to come on so you'll take 'em in for a check up!".....But when mom pulled over, and after a quart of oil, when she cranked it back up, papapapow...kurplunk...went a lifter. What a great way to start a trip, or a New Year as far as that goes! Needless to say we had to rent a van from the closest car dealer (that had a minivan) , and not getting into it any farther , that's how New Years of 2012 started! We spent a good 5 days together and never was I so glad to get back home!
   My first priority was my dogs, and cats. Upon pulling up we could tell that the dog sitter had been here , still  food in every ones dish. Cat tower was empty so we filled it up on the way in. But I was in a hurry. I wanted to get inside and see Happy Charlie. Charlie is my one inside cat. Hes spoiled and a tad fat but he loves me. He is a special cat because he was my sons cat . I inherited Charlie from my sons estate, you see.He was there when my son died... All that is information for a post I cant write yet... Next step...new litter in the cat box, drag the suitcase to bedroom, sort out the dirty clothes. Time to lay on my back a few minutes. ( I have a bad back and it helps to lay flat)
    That's when it happened....When I laid down I fell into a hole, all the way to the box spring! There was no air in the bed. Oh shit I thought my bed has a hole in it! ?Locating the bed pump I blew the bed back up.That worked. So me, always looking on the bright side of things , relaxed and let a little nap overtake me. When I awoke about 4 am. I was in a hole on the bottom AGAIN! Being that it was 4 am, I pumped the bed back up and returned to nod land.When I woke up same thing...in a hole.
Now if you have had one of these beds for more than 4 or 5 years , you've had to replace a bladder or two.Ive replace the bladders 4 times and purchased a new pump too. The pumps are made of plastic and the male part that the hoses hook to tend to crack. Now when I say its a pain in the ass to replace them I REALLY mean it. You of course have to damn near dis-assemble the whole bed, drag it out from the wall, and unzip this huge pillow top. Did I mention that the bladders cost around a hundred bucks to?
Well as you ll remember this is after a beach trip ,with my grand kids, and daughter!, so I was outta money. I thought well shit guess I'm gonna have to sleep on the other side of the bed.The way I had this room arranged made it close to impossible to access the bed from the other side. For a week I climbed over all the things that had accumulated.When you live in a small house for 25 years there tends to be clutter..Figuring it would be months before I had the extra cash to buy a bladder I came up with a different solution....rearrange the room so that I can make my old side inaccessible, and my new side accessible. So the first thing Sat morning I approached my man with "We have to move the bedroom around".He helped me move the bigger stuff. The dust from 5 years got swept up, and the little things found a new home. I now have a new space to sleep ,write, and do yoga.
It gets the computer away from the bed, and actually gives me room to unroll my Yoga mat. I'm feeling a little free er, the words are coming a little easier now, and instead of looking at my mat, I have actually stepped onto it .Its been a long time now and Im feeling like a more free form vinyasa , not the strict Iyengar I studied and taught 10 years ago.
Who knows when Ill get a new bladder for the bed..For now, it stays pumped up as long as Happy Charlie is the only thing sleeping on it. Maybe with this New Year Ill forget about that bladder for the  bed alltogether~ Namaste~~