I was just at a meeting at the Cafe between Meyer Library (my office) and Green Library (Michael*'s office). The tables are outdoors, so we were chatting while he had coffee and I ate an apple (a Fuji - a good apple if you are buying from a grocery store). A yellow jacket (or some yellow and black wasp-like insect) landed on my LIPS. I thought it was a leaf or something so I blew it off. It didn't sting me, thank goodness.
The power of a good apple is known to multiple species, apparently.
* Michael Olson, not Michael Keller (who is the University Librarian)
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Saturday, September 11, 2010
new mattress!
In the last week or two, I have been so unhappy with my bed that I am delighted to fall asleep on the couch. That's really sad. Particularly because I've worn out my couch springs after lying on them for 4 months straight.
My current mattress is past its prime, and the box spring or whatever squeaks (a LOT) when i move around. I worry I'm disturbing my neighbor. And the dorky metal harvard frame under the box spring has loosened and I can't do anything about it. Mostly because I shouldn't lift my mattress or box spring, and also because there is a clamp missing (I jerry-rigged something and it's not currently holding).
Today I treated myself to a new mattress. I'm tired of my mattresses lasting less than 10 years, and now I have a back problem to boot. I did mattress research on the web yesterday and this morning. Because I believe in it and can afford it, I decided to prioritize thus: 1) Comfort and Support 2) Longevity 3) Eco-friendly (also includes supporting local businesses).
In this information age, you can tell Google Maps where you are, and then type "mattress" into the search box, and ta da! You've got a decent idea of nearby mattress stores. Because I live in a highly moneyed area, there are three different high end mattress places within a mile of my apartment (and within 4 blocks of each other).
One of the stores sells (only) Dux beds, which are outrageously expensive. Like $12,000. for a mattress. http://www.duxiana.com/us_en/index.shtml Insane. Not going there.
One of the stores sells (only) a locally made mattress line - high end, manufactured after the order is received. http://www.mcroskey.com/
The third store also sells (only) a locally made mattress line - but they are more eco-friendly. http://www.thenaturalmattressstore.com/index.html They also have a wonderful marketing strategy with a mattress comparison page.
They paint Dux as ridiculous (surprise!), McRoskey's as more similar to conventional manufacturing of old, and then they take on European Sleepworks in Berkeley.
I would love to check out European Sleepworks, but it's too far for me at this time. With no traffic, it's a 40 minute drive at least. No can do. Can't ride that long either.
McRoskey has its prices posted - ouch. European Sleepworks also has posted prices - less ouch, but inaccessible. The Natural Mattress store has no posted prices - uh oh.
So I decided to start with the Natural Mattress Store in order to get their prices, and also because it sounded like the greenest of the lot.
Walked in, was the only customer. The salesman was excellent. Knowledgeable, but not at all pushy. He's been a mattress salesman for 20 years. Egads! I didn't know there were such people. (Jacobsen's rug sales staff: interesting new rugs all the time, some travel; mattress sales staff: same spiel, nothing new?) He asked for my price range up front, in the good way - wanting to help me stay in range rather than pushing me higher. Turns out their prices are lower than McRoskey, so they are in the running. A little more blah blah, but then it's all about getting horizontal.
For the record, I want my mattress to support my spine properly, avoid painful pressure points (hip, shoulder), allow me to roll over easily (I do that a LOT and the springy mattresses make it too difficult), accommodate different sleeping positions comfortably -- I sleep on my side mostly at the moment, but was a stomach sleeper before I hurt my back, and even so, I sometimes wake up on my back.
I probably spent 90 min in there lying around ... on various mattresses. First on one side waiting to see how I felt after my body settled, then flipping over and repeating the process. I felt like Goldilocks: "this one is too hard" "this one is too soft" "this one is too springy". Just rolling over that much made my back a little sore, which was kind of a good thing for selecting a mattress - the soreness got better on some mattresses (yay) and worse on others.
In the end, I saw no reason to go anywhere else. I picked what felt best and ordered. W000t. Job done. (This would NEVER have happened before I was on anti-anxiety meds - far more shopping around would have been required ... to allow me to justify to myself the decision that I had already made.)
So my new mattress has no springs - it's all latex. And it turns out that in this case, it just needs to be on a hard surface with some breathe-ability (think slats). A box spring is not going to make sleeping more comfortable. The only reason to buy a box spring is to raise the height of the mattress. (Salesman told me this, obviously giving up the sale of a box spring).
My new mattress will be ready in 7-10 days.
Yay! Eep! I need to buy a bed!
Off to Ikea. As I feared, nothing I liked there. And too much walking - man, that store is a maze.
Back home to the web again. Found a basic platform bed with slats, which is really all I want.
And then ... sheets! This is a deeper mattress. I also went up from full to queen -
I can always hope I'll get lucky ...
At this point, I think I'm most dissatisfied with the eco-friendly sheet options. Would you like a solid color, or a solid color?
Why am I being so obsessed with eco-friendy, you may ask. Well, I've heard that cotton is probably the worst crop ecologically because of all the incredibly nasty chemicals used. The stats are astonishing.
The most ecological choice would be to find some gently used sheets on craigslist or whatever. But enough is enough. Mattress, bed, sheets ...
... nap.
My current mattress is past its prime, and the box spring or whatever squeaks (a LOT) when i move around. I worry I'm disturbing my neighbor. And the dorky metal harvard frame under the box spring has loosened and I can't do anything about it. Mostly because I shouldn't lift my mattress or box spring, and also because there is a clamp missing (I jerry-rigged something and it's not currently holding).
Today I treated myself to a new mattress. I'm tired of my mattresses lasting less than 10 years, and now I have a back problem to boot. I did mattress research on the web yesterday and this morning. Because I believe in it and can afford it, I decided to prioritize thus: 1) Comfort and Support 2) Longevity 3) Eco-friendly (also includes supporting local businesses).
In this information age, you can tell Google Maps where you are, and then type "mattress" into the search box, and ta da! You've got a decent idea of nearby mattress stores. Because I live in a highly moneyed area, there are three different high end mattress places within a mile of my apartment (and within 4 blocks of each other).
One of the stores sells (only) Dux beds, which are outrageously expensive. Like $12,000. for a mattress. http://www.duxiana.com/us_en/index.shtml Insane. Not going there.
One of the stores sells (only) a locally made mattress line - high end, manufactured after the order is received. http://www.mcroskey.com/
The third store also sells (only) a locally made mattress line - but they are more eco-friendly. http://www.thenaturalmattressstore.com/index.html They also have a wonderful marketing strategy with a mattress comparison page.
They paint Dux as ridiculous (surprise!), McRoskey's as more similar to conventional manufacturing of old, and then they take on European Sleepworks in Berkeley.
I would love to check out European Sleepworks, but it's too far for me at this time. With no traffic, it's a 40 minute drive at least. No can do. Can't ride that long either.
McRoskey has its prices posted - ouch. European Sleepworks also has posted prices - less ouch, but inaccessible. The Natural Mattress store has no posted prices - uh oh.
So I decided to start with the Natural Mattress Store in order to get their prices, and also because it sounded like the greenest of the lot.
Walked in, was the only customer. The salesman was excellent. Knowledgeable, but not at all pushy. He's been a mattress salesman for 20 years. Egads! I didn't know there were such people. (Jacobsen's rug sales staff: interesting new rugs all the time, some travel; mattress sales staff: same spiel, nothing new?) He asked for my price range up front, in the good way - wanting to help me stay in range rather than pushing me higher. Turns out their prices are lower than McRoskey, so they are in the running. A little more blah blah, but then it's all about getting horizontal.
For the record, I want my mattress to support my spine properly, avoid painful pressure points (hip, shoulder), allow me to roll over easily (I do that a LOT and the springy mattresses make it too difficult), accommodate different sleeping positions comfortably -- I sleep on my side mostly at the moment, but was a stomach sleeper before I hurt my back, and even so, I sometimes wake up on my back.
I probably spent 90 min in there lying around ... on various mattresses. First on one side waiting to see how I felt after my body settled, then flipping over and repeating the process. I felt like Goldilocks: "this one is too hard" "this one is too soft" "this one is too springy". Just rolling over that much made my back a little sore, which was kind of a good thing for selecting a mattress - the soreness got better on some mattresses (yay) and worse on others.
In the end, I saw no reason to go anywhere else. I picked what felt best and ordered. W000t. Job done. (This would NEVER have happened before I was on anti-anxiety meds - far more shopping around would have been required ... to allow me to justify to myself the decision that I had already made.)
So my new mattress has no springs - it's all latex. And it turns out that in this case, it just needs to be on a hard surface with some breathe-ability (think slats). A box spring is not going to make sleeping more comfortable. The only reason to buy a box spring is to raise the height of the mattress. (Salesman told me this, obviously giving up the sale of a box spring).
My new mattress will be ready in 7-10 days.
Yay! Eep! I need to buy a bed!
Off to Ikea. As I feared, nothing I liked there. And too much walking - man, that store is a maze.
Back home to the web again. Found a basic platform bed with slats, which is really all I want.
And then ... sheets! This is a deeper mattress. I also went up from full to queen -
I can always hope I'll get lucky ...
At this point, I think I'm most dissatisfied with the eco-friendly sheet options. Would you like a solid color, or a solid color?
Why am I being so obsessed with eco-friendy, you may ask. Well, I've heard that cotton is probably the worst crop ecologically because of all the incredibly nasty chemicals used. The stats are astonishing.
The most ecological choice would be to find some gently used sheets on craigslist or whatever. But enough is enough. Mattress, bed, sheets ...
... nap.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
