4th Time Lucky?

Well, mattress number four arrived yesterday. It's a Tempurpedic, meaning that it is a foam mattress that molds to your body impression. I think that it was the first style that I admired, but because of the price, we didn't opt for it. But, when we visited the store for what we hoped was the last time, we decided to go for it...seeing as there were so many problems with every other mattress so far.

Anyway, yesterday was the big arrival day. The truck pulled up, and two burly men carried the new monster into the house. They tried to get it up the stairs, but there was one problem. The mattress was frozen (apparently foam has a tendency of doing that), and that made it impossible to bend it in order to get it upstairs. So the newest baby had to be left on the main floor, in order to thaw, and the delivery people would return today (which they did), after the thaw, in order to get the beast upstairs.

Now, the mattress actually started thawing pretty much immediately, so we decided to get out the sleeping bags and sleep on it anyway. I must admit, it was a pretty comfortable night. Yes, the mattress has a 'smell' (it's a foam smell not a mold smell), but we were aware of this, and we also knew that the smell would dissipate with time.

Happy 2009 everybody! Here's hoping this mattress is 4th time lucky.

Strike Three!!!

This post was certainly not in the cards. I had thought that when we received Mattress #3, that all of the problems would be finished.

Not so!

Mattress #3 smelled as well. I dare not venture into the world of mold, but it would not surprise me at all if this mattress was moldy as well.

What this means is that we are getting yet another new mattress....soon-to-be Mattress #4! Yes, you read it here, Mattress #4. To make things interesting, we have decided to throw all caution to the wind and not exchange the present mattress for a traditional mattress. No. This time we are going out on a limb and try a Tempurpedic mattress. If you want to learn more about this type of mattress, you can find it on the Web, but mostly it is a foam based mattress, also known as memory foam.

We are keeping our fingers crossed on this one, and hope for no more stinky mattresses.

Happy Holidays everybody!

I Am, But I'm Not and I Do, But I Don't

....a whole lot of nothing...........

I love bluegrass, but am not a Country music fan.

I like purple, but not mauve.

I am smell sensitive to women's perfumes, but not to men's colognes.

I collect keychains from every place I've ever visited, but I never use the keychains for keys.

I adore the music of Jakob Dylan, but was never a huge fan of Bob Dylan.

I am a huge Survivor fan, but I could never be on the show because I wouldn't eat bugs!

I am excited to try snorkeling, but I am afraid of fish!

Nighttime sailing is fine, but I am afraid of the dark.

My Mother's Trunk

My Mother had a storage trunk. It was nothing out of the ordinary. Just a navy blue trunk in which she would store her keepsakes and build her wedding trousseau. Once she was married, her trunk became a repository for important papers, family pictures, and treasures.

Through my childhood, I would get the odd opportunity to peek into the trunk. It always sat in a very inconspicuous spot in the house. Because Mom loved to sew, she had made a special cover for that trunk, and stored extra blankets underneath.

When my Mom passed away, I inherited her trunk. It was carefully moved from her apartment into my house and then to my current house. Because it was, and still is in my mind 'her trunk', and housed her personal possessions, I never felt comfortable going into it. In the past 3 and a half years, I have only gone into it twice....once to locate important papers that were required when she passed away....and a second time, to satisfy my curiosity, and look.

During that second visit, I spent quite a few hours living in her world. I was very careful to put things back where I had found them, almost as if I was afraid that Mom would notice of things were out of place. She had treasures from all of her past....my Grade School report cards, assorted cards for various occasions, old family pictures, clothing from my Christening and babyhood. Aside from the 'things' that she kept, I was keenly aware that she had spent her life storing away the odd memento. Whether she meant it for herself, or for me to find later, these things were collected and stored with love and thought.

I also became aware of where my packrat nature stems from.....and this is a good thing.

Iggy Does It

Right now in Canada, we have a prorogued government, which means they are not sitting in Parliament, acting on behalf of the people (which would be us). The Liberal party has been in a bit of a mess. The other parties are not much better off.

Until today.

Today was the day that Michael Ignatieff made his official debut as the interim leader of the Liberal Party of Canada. I, for one, am thrilled that he has been chosen to lead. He commands a certain presence in person. I had the opportunity to meet and talk with him a couple of years ago. He has the charisma, the intelligence, and the backbone that is needed to stand up against this mean-spirited and full-on-attack government.

Go Iggy! We've got your back, as they say.

The Mattress - The Final Chapter

In the mattress complaint department, I feel as though I have written about this before, except that this time we seem to have a happy ending.

For those who are not in-the-know, or who are totally lost, here is a synopsis. We purchased a mattress less than 2 years ago which began to develop a big time sag (hence, mattress #1). I first wrote this initial post about how it's not in my head

That mattress was replaced with a mattress which had a smell (hence, mattress #2). Then, there was a follow-up post it's not in my head-the sequel

Then I wrote about how the saga continues.

This is the final chapter (at least I certainly hope it is) in the saga of the mattresses. We were scheduled to receive mattress #3, and it arrived safe and sound. It is working out fine (so far). There are no sags. There is a smell, but a different smell from the previous mattress. It is comfortable.

I have to add, though, that when mattress #2 was being removed from the house, the movers should have had air masks on. I was not at home to see this, but I was told that the underside of the mattress had black streaks along the bottom (strongly resembling mold, which we all know is not good for us). Gross me out.

So, wish us luck with the new one. So far so good. Maybe it's third time lucky this time.