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~~                                                                                                                                                                                                       

Recycling OCD

   Get those toilet paper rolls outta the trash and put em in the mixed paper bin, I almost shouted. But then I am the one who dropped them in there, knowing full well I would see them when that trash can was emptied."He" wouldn't dare put them in the trash....we had this fight years ago.
   Recycling OCD, you might ask what that is.I have always recycled.That's one of the things I got from spending the summers at my Mamaws. An old country woman who grew up in the height of the depression. She recycled EVERYTHING. Not because it was a new trend she was bent on following, or because the county government commanded it,but because "You never know when you might need it". To this day I bet I can find glass milk jugs under her cupboards.
   Now I'm not saying her and papaw didn't produce any trash. It was collected and taken to a spot in their woods, in a big hole the boys had dug out, and disposed of there. Bad for the environment I might say to her now, but shes been dead and gone 20 years.
   So that's where it all started.When we first moved into this house 25 years ago, a new family, or at least our first non-rental home, I followed Mamaws lead and reused all we could. Margarine tubs became "Tupperware", bread bags became "sandwich baggies", wrapping paper was always used from Christmas to Christmas...the rule being unwrap it like your a human, not a pack of dogs! We gave the scraps to the dogs (always plenty of those around) , and had a trash barrel to burn the rest. To this day I know people who burn their trash in a barrel out back. And yes I know that there are all kinds of bad things that can happen burning trash, but I live in rural NC, and I can't change everyone.
   Then our county started carving out little pieces of land to sit a couple of dumpsters on. Recycling containers followed in a few years. Now we have containers for glass, aluminum, cardboard, clothing, batteries, oil, mixed paper, and newspaper! There is virtually nothing that cant be recycled! There are times we go to the dump just to take off the recyclables....with no trash!
   Sometimes I get angry because a redneck will pull up in his truck, and throw away 20 bags of trash that I can literally see the beer cans through.I have pointed this out to a couple people but its not good to be arguing with a man with a rifle rack on his window out in the middle of the woods. For now I keep it at disapproving scowls.
   So I have a different place for everything.And you can be sure that when dump day comes around I will be taking the toilet paper rolls out of the trashcan!

RAIN OR RATHER WHO DOESNT LIKE THE RAIN?

Rain. It seems a very simple thing. It waters the trees, gives us all something to drink with our supper, and cleans off some of the grime we humans are so good at making. Water of course is a precious resource that we all take for granted. That is until it becomes hard for us to get, whether we need it to water our livestock, grow our vegetables, or wash our damn cars! ( I dont believe in washing cars.) I leave my Jeep out in the rain for its washing. But that brings us back from water to rain...which is what this post is about.
I love the Rain. Maybe it has something to do with my manic-depressive personality but I feel oddly comforted by a good thunder storm. I love to listen to the rain and when I can get by with it I open the window over my bed so I can Hear it and Smell it. I love music...but I will cut off any music to hear the rain. I even sleep to YouTube videos of rain. The real thing is better but beggar's cant be choosers my daddy always said! I can hide from the world in the rain. There aren't a lot of brave souls that will come out on a cold rainy January day. At least not to see me!
My dogs seem to at least like the rain. I've seen the smart one (a 11 yr old German Shepard) stand out in the rain and look up at the sky. Although thunder will bring her running for shelter! Yes my dogs are outside dogs, lest you judge my animal caring for abilities. They live on my 3.24 acres in the middle of about 17 and are free to roam it all. But again I veer from my rainy post....my animals will be some other post.
The rain is welcomed by me but hated by my boyfriend. You see the chimney leaks. I've lived here 25 years and its getting pretty bad. The mop bucket catches a lot but its still a pain in his ass.
Of course since I love the rain. I love the Doppler radar. I can watch as the rain comes, when is the heaviest downpours, and what its doing in surrounding communities. At my friends house up the road, or at my mom and dad's house up the interstate one exit.
If all this helps you get to know me better, that's good. Leave a comment if you are so inclined. I think I'm gonna open the window. The radar shows some clouds that look suspiciously like rain two counties over!