It's just a flannel encased mattress. It looks like any other mattress we sleep on. Not even a Queen or King sized mattress, just a standard double bed mattress. It appears to be a little deeper than most mattresses. I'm not in the habit of measuring the depth of a mattress but my eyeball sees a standard mattress depth at...oh...say...ten inches. This one eyeballs at a foot but that's only two inches more.

It has a Swedish Memory Foam top rather than a pillow top. I don't know what the rest of the mattress is made from, but I'm going to assume there's bricks in there. I've spent much of my life, changing bed linens weekly and flipping mattresses for even wear a couple of times a year. Once a year flipped from the side, once a year top to bottom. Simple job, and I grant that I'm 58 years old and when it comes to flipping I know I've done it when I've done it, but I can do it. I have yet to meet a mattress that I couldn't flip...until now. Shoot, I can't even lift the corners of this one to get the fitted sheets on without a great deal of effort.

What we have here is a double bed with a white skirt made from a nice satiny smooth fabric. Well, the skirt part is but the part that sits under the mattress is flannel. The mattress itself is encased in a flannel dust protector and the sheets that adorn the flannel protected mattress are...you guessed it. FLANNEL!

I have to change the bed linens once a week on this behemoth of a mattress. Using...mind you...sheets that are made for a queen sized mattress. They fit...barely...with a lot of pulling and tugging on my part. In case you're interested, flannel does not slide easily onto flannel. Trust me. I know from personal experience. Once I get the fitted sheet onto one corner with the seam straight I have three more corners to go. I am capable of lifting the corners enough to get the fitted sheet down under the mattress but with all that flannel the sides don't always go where they're supposed to go. Lifting a side from the middle just isn't going to happen, not by me anyways. So, I just pull on the sheet until I can get it down far enough to cover this mattress.

Yesterday I arrived at Alma's prepared to do battle with the mattress and she says to me that she needs me to push the mattress up on the bed so that it's resting against the headboard. She says it moves. Yes it does, I need space to put my fingers in there to lift the corners of the mattress. She wants that space eliminated. So, I have to push the flannel clad mattress down the bed to make it up and then once it is suitably adorned in all it's flannel finery I have to push it back up. This is not an easy task.

Twenty minutes later, the bed is made. There's still the laundry to do, so I bend over to pick up the discarded bed linens and when I go to stand up, I couldn't. Five minutes spent waiting for the spasms to stop while leaning on her dresser holding the dirty linens. Once I could stand erect it was on to the next chore. Laundry, cleaning the bathroom and kitchen, vacuuming the carpets, helping her dress if needed all accomplished with a sore but not overly painful back.

I took it easy after I left there. Came home and sat outside listening to the birds, enjoying the sunshine and watching the grass grow. Played peek-a-boo with the weasel in the woodpile and talked to my neighbor's Siamese cat, who was trying to make a lunch out of the weasel. The weasel survived and so did I, all in all it was a great day. Today it's cold, rainy and dreary and I won't have to deal with the mattress and all that flannel again until next week. Another one of lifes little victories, and another great day.

 Practice trusting your own inner nature. Send out love and harmony, put your mind and body in a peaceful place, and then allow the universe to work in the perfect way that it knows how...Dr. Wayne Dyer.

Having found my peaceful place through meditation, I can handle the slowness of Blogstream as well as the problems that occur in real life. They are bumps in my road, not roadblocks. Is it frustrating? Sometimes yes, but when it slows down enough to be irritating, I use it as evidence that I need to be elsewhere doing something constructive.

The other evening as Hubby prepared to go out to the woodpile he was startled by one of our neighbors.

It is possible that the neighbor was just as startled, because by the time I arrived at the door it was gone. Hubby says it was the biggest possum he ever saw. I can't attest to that because I wasn't a witness to it's girth. He must have been impressed because he took the emergency flashlight out with him to the woodpile to illuminate the area further. Since then he has added better outside lighting. Possums can be pretty mean when disturbed and if the girth on the one he saw was a pregnancy, I wouldn't want to trust the mood of the animal in question.

So far, since living here, we've seen the usual animals, turkeys, deer and rabbits. Our rabbits locally are cottontails and they look something like this.

They tend to be quite common around here even in the city. However a few weeks ago I saw what I believe to have been a jackrabbit which is not common here and quite distinctively different. Did some online research and found a photograph that very closely resembles what I saw.

This fella is an Eastern Cottontail Jackrabbit. Not usually found this far east, but they are native to Ohio and other eastern states that are near to New York. They're very scrawny and they look as if they haven't grown in to either their legs or ears. Not at all as cute as our native cottontails.

We have to go back to the woodpile for an introduction to our newest neighbor.

The one that seems to have taken up residence is quite small yet and seems to be a tease. If you go to one side of the logs it'll pop up and look at you from another area. If you go to that area, it'll pop up and look at you from the area you just left. Fortunately, we are getting to the end of the wood heat season and will be leaving sufficient wood there for it to have some sense of security. Why fortunately? Well, woodpiles have been known to draw snakes, and weasels eat snakes.

The new motion detecting floodlight went in yesterday and I am waiting patiently to get a glimpse of any of my other neighbors that I haven't had the pleasure of meeting yet. Hopefully none of them will be black with a white stripe.

Some small measure of inner peace. That was what I was looking for when I set out to learn about New Age beliefs. New Age is a belief in a theory that the universe and nature should be seen in terms of interacting wholes. The interacting wholes in this case are Mind, Body and Spirit.  This theory is actually the basis for the Holistic approach to health and well being. This approach can include Accupuncture, Reiki, Meditation, Healing with Crystals and forms of stretching exercises like Yoga and Tai Chi. The Holistic approach is one that encompasses the entire person not just the symptoms. Does it work?

Not being an expert in the medical field, nor in New Age beliefs I can't really answer that question. I can only share what benefit I appear to have achieved through a few short weeks of research and practical application. I have put into practice in my life regular Meditation and Tai Chi. I am also using some of the Yoga poses that stretch my spine carefully. I plan on trying Reiki when our business picks up enough to pay for the sessions. Not smoking will be of tremendous financial help there. That actually does call to mind the first benefit I've received from using this approach. It has helped with the cravings. It calms me during them so I don't become agitated.

I make mistakes.

I can't undo them.

I can only move forward, accept responsibility and wherever necessary ask for assistance.

My mistakes don't define me, they show me where I need to make changes so that I can and will do better next time.

I am learning that sometimes it's OK to step in and try to help.

I am also learning when to leave well enough alone.

God grant me the Serenity to accept the thing I cannot change
The Courage to change the thing I can
And the Wisdom to know that it's Me.

Oh....can I keep my sense of Humor while I'm doing it?

 

God made Truth with many doors to welcome every believer who knocks on them.

Kahlil Gibran