New Year Resolutions

[Lobster]

Happy New Puppy Year Guys

Hopefully we will have Lucid . . . any day now . . .
So I plan to use that . . .

Did you make any new year resolutions?

I am taking up this running program
http://www.coolrunning.com/engine/2/2_3/181.shtml
. . . in fact already started

Had to extend week 3 for a couple more sessions
but on Monday will be running half a mile at a time
Was quite a challenge running when it was -6 and icy
No other runners that day on the local common . . .
Running in snow with wellies is also maybe not ideal
but so far have managed 3 times a week.

[omskates]

Happy New Years all you guys!!!

[tubeguy]

Did you make any new year resolutions?

This is going to be my year of saving. I paid off my credit cards as of last month and am debt-free for the first time in years. I should be able to put something away, I need to stop living check to check.

[RetroTechGuy]

Happy New Puppy Year Guys

Hopefully we will have Lucid . . . any day now . . .
So I plan to use that . . .

Did you make any new year resolutions?

I am taking up this running program
http://www.coolrunning.com/engine/2/2_3/181.shtml
. . . in fact already started

I didn't see anything about grizzly bears... So what else is going to inspire one to run...

[Lobster]

So what else is going to inspire one to run...

My running partner.
I did manage a slight ankle swelling, that and general lack of cardio fitness means we are only up to 8 mins running 5 mins break and 8 mins running.
Apart from grizzly's which are in short supply in London, I enjoy the challenge, the increased sense of well being and fitness.

Anyone else still going with any New Year Resolutions?

[tubeguy]

Anyone else still going with any New Year Resolutions?

Thread bump and guilt trip at the same time. Nice.

I bought a memory foam mattress topper because my mattress is so old there are wires poking out the side and the lumps were starting to gang up on me. Rather have a good nights sleep than money at this point. It was worth it.

Also made another donation to Barry.

[Sylvander]

MEMORY FOAM IS GOOD!

1. My wife and myself had recently bought a new good quality Myers King-size double mattress to fit the solid-Walnut bed-base I made years previously.
It was fairly conventional, no pocket springs, wool padding, nice, softish, WARM, comfortable; we liked that mattress.

2. But we needed a 2nd King-size mattress for bedroom number-2 for guests.
I decided that instead of buying an OK matteress...
We should buy a mattress we believe to be even better, and hope that it turned out to be actually as good as we hoped.
Well it really did turn out to be that good.

3. It's titled:
"Beds by Loren Williams"..."Ultra Memory Pocket".
REALLY THICK = 10 inches
Slightly on the firm side, yet comfortable because...
The individual pockets compress/give-way, under point loads, but if you lie out on it you remain substantially flat.
But then the memory foam gives way under hips and shoulders [where the body weight is greatest].
Hence, you get the best of both worlds.
There's no "bounce" when you move around, and it's easy to turn over, because of the good support.
Net result is...we decided to use this new mattress in preference to the previous mattress->[which is now in bedroom-2].

[Lobster]

Rather have a good nights sleep than money at this point. It was worth it.

Whilst you were dreaming . . .
jogged for 20 minutes this morning

In the Buddhist tradition those living simply have to
sleep on a low bed. Being as low as you can get,
I sleep on the floor, no mattress.
I do have a memory foam pillow . . .

Even though I have a desk and chair for one computer (Mac)
I also prefer sitting cross legged on the floor.
I do use a cushion.
Other luxuries include a hyacinth which I found growing in a pot
in the garden and brought in to flower.
I also have a pair of jays who are visiting the tree outside my window.

I think I might move on to 'New Day Resolutions'
Wonder what to decide?
http://www.dumblittleman.com/2007/06/39 ... exist.html

[tubeguy]

In the Buddhist tradition those living simply have to
sleep on a low bed. Being as low as you can get,
I sleep on the floor, no mattress.

Wait- what if there's a bug and it's crawling around on the floor and climbs up onto you and goes in your nose or your ear and lays eggs or something?

[Lobster]

What if the tree that fell on the path we run on had fallen whilst we were under it?
What if the world ends in 2011?
What if the bugs that live on our eyelashes or in our gut decide to evolve?
In some parts of the world you need a net and a raised bed is essential. Not here.

[tubeguy]

What if the tree that fell on the path we run on had fallen whilst we were under it?
What if the world ends in 2011?
What if the bugs that live on our eyelashes or in our gut decide to evolve?
In some parts of the world you need a net and a raised bed is essential. Not here.

Oh man I didn't mean to suggest you did not live well...sorry if my comment came out that way.

After I got sober and got my flat I slept on some bubble wrap because I didn't have much of anything. One of the happiest days was when my dad said he had an extra bed from a lady who died at the apartments he manages.

I think I have an irrational fear of bugs and critters though. Or maybe it's more of a distaste. In either case, I never thought I would live this long, and it looks like I'm going to be around a while, and I find I actually enjoy being around now, and something tells me not to tempt fate by making it easier for that bug to find me.

If my eyelash and gut symbionts evolve I think they would have a word with me on my eating and viewing habits.

[tubeguy]

MEMORY FOAM IS GOOD!

Last few nights have been great, when I go to sleep I'm out in minutes and for hours in a row. I can see how it would not be for everybody, there is no bounce at all and it's weird at first. It's too bad I resisted getting some for this long, I thought it was too good to be true what everyone says about the stuff. It ain't cheap though, I got a 3" Biopedic pad for $170, but it's worth it.

Also it was very cool how it looked like a crumpled up mutant piece of something when I unwrapped it then an hour later it was a mattress pad.

[Sylvander]

1. "living simply" seems a good place to start...
But just how simple is suitable/sensible?
When we started out [married 1969], and were given our first nice new 2-bedroom council flat [apartment] about 1970...
We had next to nothing.
Managed to fit wall-to-wall carpeting in the livingroom and hall.
Bought a new mattress that sat in the livingroom, and slept there.
Gradually began to acquire this and that.
Really spartan living, but we didn't mind.
Except for the idiot minority who caused trouble [vandals etc] in the council estate.

2. Now we own [the mortgage is paid off] our own 3-bedroom semi-detached house [with front and back garden] filled with all of our necessities, and a few comforts.
Little village, no vandals, no trouble, nice neighbors, farmland, wildlife.
Double glazing is nice; it keeps the house cozy.
Central heating is good, with a radiator in each room, each with a thermostatic valve.
It's really nice in cold or wet weather, for my aging bones and body to be warm and comfortable, and look out of the window at howling winds, or rain, or snow, yet be "snug-as-a-bug-in-a-rug".
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

3. "I got a 3" Biopedic pad"
Our layer of memory foam is only 40mm thick, and yet it seems to be OK
I'm not aware of the pocket springs giving when lying flat, although they may.
There are different firmnesses of foam.
How much do you sink in I wonder?
If you laid it on a hard surface and lay on it, how does it feel?

4. The foam on our mattress...
When first delivered...
Had a faint but detectable smell...
Like stagnant water.
Not nice.
But I read accounts on the web of this problem.
It was said that if there is a smell, it usually disipates after a few days or weeks.
So I hung back from asking the seller to take it back.
The smell did indeed disipate, with a half-life of about 3 days to 1 week.
After a few weeks it could no longer be detected.

[tubeguy]

3. "I got a 3" Biopedic pad"
Our layer of memory foam is only 40mm thick, and yet it seems to be OK
I'm not aware of the pocket springs giving when lying flat, although they may.
There are different firmnesses of foam.
How much do you sink in I wonder?
If you laid it on a hard surface and lay on it, how does it feel?

4. The foam on our mattress...
When first delivered...
Had a faint but detectable smell...
Like stagnant water.
Not nice.
But I read accounts on the web of this problem.
It was said that if there is a smell, it usually disipates after a few days or weeks.
So I hung back from asking the seller to take it back.
The smell did indeed disipate, with a half-life of about 3 days to 1 week.
After a few weeks it could no longer be detected.

I'm kinda fat so I compress the pad all the way in the middle, but it's more like I am dimly aware of the lumps rather than them being a problem now, sort of floating right above them.

Yeah that smell- it's not bad, just unusual, and it's going away. I suppose the smell is subjective, it wasn't offensive to me. Mine came with a sheet that explained how it would smell for a while and instructions on how to CAREFULLY AND SLOWLY unroll it then let it expand. The stuff is amazing. I think the next time I go visit my parents for the weekend I will bring it with to put on the foldout.

[obxjerry]

I'm not trying to take anyone here to the analyst couch. I have noticed that when people complain about not being able to sleep it's an inside problem, not an outside problem. I can easily think of half a dozen people that tell me about their partial solutions to their sleeping problems. There's not much I can say or do. I have tried in the past. People don't want to believe they can be too smart for their own good.

It's easier to sleep in the cold than to sleep enduring the complexities involved in obtaining and maintaining the impressive house. It is easy to sleep when you feel safe, not so easy when you make yourself aware of every danger. The bug doesn't hurt you on the outside, you hurt yourself on the inside because the bug is on the outside. If you're tense it's hard to find a bed that doesn't poke you.

I have no trouble sleeping. They do. They're quick to point out that I'm stupid, they are smart. Again I'm just saying what I've seen here (physically close), not saying here (in this forum) people are pointing out to problems that are in.

[tubeguy]

I'm not trying to take anyone here to the analyst couch. I have noticed that when people complain about not being able to sleep it's an inside problem, not an outside problem. I can easily think of half a dozen people that tell me about their partial solutions to their sleeping problems. There's not much I can say or do. I have tried in the past. People don't want to believe they can be too smart for their own good.

It's easier to sleep in the cold than to sleep enduring the complexities involved in obtaining and maintaining the impressive house. It is easy to sleep when you feel safe, not so easy when you make yourself aware of every danger. The bug doesn't hurt you on the outside, you hurt yourself on the inside because the bug is on the outside. If you're tense it's hard to find a bed that doesn't poke you.

I have no trouble sleeping. They do. They're quick to point out that I'm stupid, they are smart. Again I'm just saying what I've seen here (physically close), not saying here (in this forum) people are pointing out to problems that are in.

Good points. I was waking up several times a night and sometimes with pains and numbness, my mattress is a piece of crap. It got bad so slowly that I didn't really get what was happening until recently, normally I sleep pretty good, and I really thought it was my head messing with me. This time (and a rare thing at that) it actually wasn't me.

You do make sense though, most of my problems in life have been in my head, stupid decisions, making mountains out of molehills, caring too much what people think, letting my outrageous ego get in the way of rationality. Also thinking with the wrong head, that's gotten me into some deep doodoo.

[Sylvander]

1. "my mattress is a piece of crap"
Why not invest in a good quality new mattress?
One thing I'm sure of; it's the best buy you'll ever make.
Think of it...
We [probably] sleep in a bed every night of our lives.
And the mattress is the most important part of the bed.

(a) The first mattress we ever bought, right at the beginning of our marriage, was good quality, and bought from one of the best shops in town.
We weren't rich, but wanted a good mattress..
The padding was horsehair, which took too long to warm up; wool is better.
They made it themselves, and you could specify how firm it was to be made.
They compressed the springs more to make it firmer/thinner.
I asked to have it made FIRM because I'd read scientific reports saying that firm was good.
====WRONG!===
It was too firm, which made it less comfortable.
Being well made, that mattress lasted 25 years or so...
And we got rid of it because it wasn't comfortable enough, not because it was worn out.
We should never have tolerated it for all of that time.

(b) When we got our Myers mattress it was BLISS.
I actually quite liked that it was "springy".
And loved the initial warmth of the wool; only takes about 30 seconds for your body to warm it up.
So no need for an electric blanket.
But then, as you sleep in it, the wool is TOO WARM.
And we have difficulty getting over-covers that aren't too warm.
The minimum TOG rating for a Duvet is 4.5 and that is TOO HOT.
Especially when the wool-padded mattress is also too hot.
Ended up using a cheap mattress protector inside the Duvet-cover instead of a Duvet.
But my wife finds that isn't warm enough, so we're back to the 4.5 TOG Duvet.

(c) The memory foam isn't too warm.
Just nice.
A little cooler at first than the wool, but it too warms up rather quickly.
And then during the night it isn't quite so warm as the wool, though I still overheat, so sometimes throw off the covers until I get too cold, and must pull them over again.

(d) Never yet found a mattress that didn't cause my arm to go numb, and my shoulder to hurt...
If I sleep on my side.

[tubeguy]

1. "my mattress is a piece of crap"
Why not invest in a good quality new mattress?

New mattress is too much money for me to justify when the foam pad is available for a lot less.

[Sylvander]

Aren't you supposed to have both?

Isn't the pad to be used on top of a [good] mattress?

[tubeguy]

Aren't you supposed to have both?

Isn't the pad to be used on top of a [good] mattress?

I suppose in my case if I had a good mattress I wouldn't need the pad. The pad for me is a band-aid solution for a very old, lumpy, falling apart mattress.