Bed Pillows – what a strange thing

Have you ever had a bed pillow that you were in love with? Have you ever had one that was like the fabulous ones at that fancy hotel? I ask, why not? Pillows fall into the category of appliances in some regards for me. You gotta have them , but you hate spending any money on them.

It has been a while since I have had what I consider a great pillow, if pillows can even be great. When you are in the store you look, you squeeze and you think, is this too firm, is this too soft and even, how much of a pain in the ass is this going to be to get into my pillow cases. I have purchased pillows at mattress stores, upscale retail stores, high end bedding stores and even once from Wal-Mart and once from Costco. Although I am not proud to admit it, in my younger days I have even stolen one from a hotel that I thought was great – for the one night I slept on it, it turned out to suck after a couple of days.

Pillows are fickle things, somewhat like mattresses in that regard. It is impossible to “know” ya got the right one with the few minutes you spent with them in the store. I mean, laying on the mattress at the “Mattress Firm” for a few minutes with all your clothes on and with folks staring at ya is not a good way to judge if a mattress is going to the be the one that goes the distance with you. It takes time to become acquainted with it and it with you. The relationship has to start out slow, kinda like when one was first dating their spouse. You don’t want to just jump in and ask her to marry you after the first date, you have a set of criteria you are using to ensure that she will be the one who will last, the one who will someday be helping you pick out, say a mattress or a pillow. Now a days I see that they will let you use the mattress for up to 90 days to make sure you like it. Not sure how that works but I bet it is a HUGE pain in the ass to return that mattress after those 90 days. If you have done that tell of your experience with that.

On the mattress side we are set, when Bride had back surgery the doctor told us to buy the absolute best mattress we could afford and at the time that ended up being a very expensive Stearns and Foster king size bed. Although now I see that the marketing folks have whipped up some hysteria about mattresses in what is nothing more than an attempt to get us to buy a new one – that is NOT happening. Seems that now we are to believe that after just 8 years our mattress needs to be replaced, yep – we are told the mattress will double in weight from dust mites and bed bugs and the like. It matters little that you bought a mattress with a 10 year warrantee, 8 years and out to the curb with it. Double in weight my ass! What a way to bilk us of our money! I am not sure how long a mattress is supposed to last but I feel that it is more than 8 years. There are a few reasons, one, I know for a fact that my mattress has not doubled in weight in the 11 years we have owned it. I could barely move ours 11 years ago and if it had doubled in weight I would not be able to move it now, I am 11 years older and more feeble as well. Also that bed seems to me every bit as comfortable as it did when we bought it, keep the mattress flipped and you can go some time, of that I am sure. It is a marketing ploy folks plain and simple.

Anyway, back to pillows, I wish they had the 90 day trial thing too, wouldn’t that be nice? I recently bought a Serta memory foam contour pillow, I am on my third night and am still in the evaluation mode. I think I am liking it. The pillow I replaced was slap wore out though so anything would have been an improvement over that piece of crap. It is shaped like a trough, high on both top and bottom with a kind of valley in the middle, it seemed strangely shaped to me but I was desperate for some relief.

I wonder if I look that good when I am sleeping on that pillow. I suspect that I am more of a mouth open, snoring and drooling all over the place but I am going to continue to believe I look as contented as she does.

I got it at Sam’s for less than 20 bucks. I was unsure at first, would it be as comfortable if I was laying on my stomach as it would be if I were laying on my side or back? I am going to give myself a week, at least, before I pass judgment though. Bride is looking for a new pillow as well so when I am done she is going to try it to see if she likes it before we buy another. We have burned through a number of pillows that we did not like so now we buy one, evaluate and then get the other one. I remember once going through 6 pillows that we bought and used before we realized we did not like them. The folks at the SPCA thrift shop looked at us like we were nuts when we dropped off six pillows that appeared to still be brand new, it makes me laugh remembering that.  I even asked my friends on Facbook with no difinitive answer there either, seems we all suffer with this issue.

So what brand of pillow are you using and do you like it or not like it?

Here is an explanation of a self-examination quest I am starting, I am looking for others to join my quest.

I am not sure when I first heard that Benjamin Franklin created a journey of self-examination when he was in his 20’s but I recently read a story about it, refreshing my memory. Most folks know old Ben for his kite flying activities and for being a founding father. As a matter of fact, he stands alone as the only person to have signed all four of the documents which helped to create the United States of America. He signed the Declaration of Independence and the Treaty of Alliance, Amity and Commerce with France. He also signed the Treaty of Peace between England, France, and the United States and the big one, the United States Constitution. He was a scientist, a philosopher, a realist, a true American. He started the current postal system, the first fire company in Philly and the first fire insurance company among other foundational supports that live on to this day in our country.

Anyway back to this test of virtues, there are 13 in his journey and he spent his life tracking each. The 13 are not all that different than other religious virtues, probably because our country is a Christian country. As much as we try to suppress that fact, we are a country based in Christianity. So I got to wondering if these virtues would still be relevant in 2011. There is much more knowledge available today then back at the birth of our country – would or could it work in today’s world? What other comparisons could be made, what other virtues could be added without taking away from his intentions? Would it be possible to use his 13 and add some others, some from different religious faiths? Could some principles from Islam or Confucianism be rolled into this exercise and still hold the same meaning it meant for Ben way back then and better yet could it still apply to the whole human race?

That is exactly what I am going to attempt. I am going to work the list of 13 virtues that Mr. Franklin created and I hope to show the relevant pointers from other religious orders. Hopefully, in some miniscule way, this can shed light on that fact that we are all the same and we all “mean” to be doing the same things, the “right” things. We may mean to do the “right” things, but in reality doing the right thing is never as easy to do as it is to talk about doing. Aside from that I want to test my own mettle with regards to doing the right thing.

Here is Ben’s original list:

Temperance: Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation.
Silence: Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself. Avoid trifling conversation.
Order: Let all your things have their places. Let each part of your business have its time.
Resolution: Resolve to perform what you ought. Perform without fail what you resolve.
Frugality: Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself: i.e. Waste nothing.
Industry: Lose no time. Be always employed in something useful. Cut off all unnecessary actions.
Sincerity: Use no hurtful deceit. Think innocently and justly; and, if you speak, speak accordingly
Justice: Wrong none, by doing injuries or omitting the benefits that are your duty
Moderation: Avoid extremes. Forebear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.
Cleanliness: Tolerate no uncleanness in body, clothes or habitation
Chastity: Rarely use venery but for health or offspring
Tranquility: Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable
Humility: Imitate Jesus and Socrates

So there are the 13, along with the brief description that he assigned to them. My first exercise will be to see if I can meld others into that list, subcategories if you will, at that point I am going to investigate whether any others could be or need to added on their own right and why. Not that I want to take ANYTHING away from him or his list but I want to create my own list and work from it.

Now some will call me a fool and call Benjamin a hypocrite, he was a heavy drinker and womanizer so how could he pretend to be virtuous? Well I will let you in a secret, none among us perfect and none among us will attain perfection. Knowing, and understanding, that kernel of information is what makes my life make sense to me. I am not perfect and will never be perfect BUT that does not mean that I can’t learn something from the attempt. And that kernel of information is another cornerstone of my life. I do not know everything and I will continue to learn from everyday events until I stop sucking air. I pray that I never get so jaded to think that I have all, or any, of the answers – to anything.

When I look around today I wonder what has happened to the belief in the virtues on Ben’s list, or the list I will compile in this process. Especially in the lives of public officials, I wonder what has happened? Ben Franklin would roll over in his grave if he were to witness the level of apathy (with regards to virtuous actions) that is rampant today. When our weak minded leaders have to “settle” for what they could get passed instead of what is right (not right in the political sense), it is a shame and I am embarrassed at times at the pettiness of the games they play. It makes me wonder where along the line things went off the rails, it matters little now since we are WAY OFF the rails but it might be interesting to see when it started.

So there is my initial list and challenge, I am looking for friends to join me on this journey. Friends to first assist me with reviewing the 13 virtues that Benjamin Franklin originally created and determine if that list needs modified, and why. Next I am looking for friends to join me on spending a week or two grading ourselves on each of the virtues from the list. This has to be an honest evaluation of ourselves, whether you share with me or others is not important, that you are honest with yourself is the point of this exercise. I plan on writing about the review of Ben’s list, the final list and then spend some time writing about my experiences while taking this trip of self-examination.

A Wal-Mart boycott - gone horribly wrong

I have reconnected with a friend from High School on Facebook, Curtis Taylor and he was boycotting Walmart.  He drifted astray on Black Friday and here are the results.  Thanks Curtis, for letting me repost this

I said it, I'll never buy anything from Wal-Mart. I had kept that promise for a year. I hate the poor quality, the limited selection, and mostly what they think they can and can't do. Then black Friday came around.

I got caught up in the electricity, the talk, the ads. At Thanks giving all my in-laws sat around the kitchen table and formulated a plan to hit the stores. I have to admit I was jealous, I wanted in. But, I had made my stand, and now it was getting in the way. What to do, I racked my brain. What could it hurt if Ronda and I went out on black Friday? So many stores, Wal-Mart would not be a problem. I decided - we are going.

At 2:30 am mind you, we are up and getting ready. For some reason I am excited! I can't wait! For the first time ever, we have money on black Friday, and like the rest of the world, we are going to stimulate the economy. First we try Target. It was truly a test of patience, and we wound up empty handed. Remember this is our first time out, we did not think about needing tickets or standing in lines for hours over a limited quantity of product. It was a lesson we learned quickly. Off to the next store.

Somehow, some way, we wound up at Wal-Mart. My senses are going crazy, like walking on the bad side of town, or feeling a fart and the most important people in the world are standing beside you. You just don't like the feeling.

I went in. The layout was easy. We knew what was up. We had a plan. We divided and conquered. We got everything but a TV, which was supposed to be given one per customer, but the guy passing them out, could not count to one. Some received as many as five in a cart. They ran out two from where I was standing. But the prize that I went after, I got. An HP note book with a 15.5 inch screen and all the goodies. It was a steal. I thought I saved $200 bucks on this thing, and then I got it home.

I waited until the time was right, as it was hidden under our bed. It was a gift to Ronda, for her school work and stuff. She never looks under her side of the bed. It was a perfect hiding place. I got it out to set it up and then wrap it. I put it together and the first thing I see, is an orange screen and a pop up that says "this computer needs service ", I could not believe it. My worst nightmare had come true. Wal-Mart screwed me again.

I took it back, they had no more. I didn't want a refund, I wanted another one. They suggested I go to another Wal-Mart to see if they had one. They were too busy to check for me. I left boiling. Within 150 miles of my address, there are 89 Wal-Mart’s. After calling 23 of them I found that they had a system to check other stores. Why the first guy didn't tell me this is totally beyond me. I guess it would have required thought. I found out that they were no more. Step two, call Hewlett Packard. Tell them what the deal is, send it in, they send me another back, I pay for extra speed postage, and it's all good. Yeah, only in the movies.

I call HP, I get John, he doesn't understand me, I can't understand him. In frustration I hang up. It is 8:00 am. I call back. I get Paul. He understands me, I understand him. We agree to talk slowly and clearly to each other. He tells me that they will repair it, and send it back to me. I tell him I did not pay half price for a repaired computer, I want a new one.He tells me they have to try and repair it first. I have the manual in front of me and it says "repair or replace", I tell him to replace it. He transfers my call, I find out that "Paul" is located in the Philippines. It is 9:30. Now I talk to Ron. The transfer took some time, so I pull Hewlett Packards web site. They have made over $126 billion in revenue this year and their mission statement says "they put the customer first". Their commitment is to "establish customer loyalty through product and service". I feel that I am armed to the teeth!

Ron wants me to run the computer thru some steps, which I refuse." If your car has no windshield there is no need to turn the wipers on". We do the same song and dance over the same thing. I want a new one, he wants to repair it. The one thing that is blowing me away through this whole thing is that they keep telling me to take it back to Wal-Mart and trade it, even though they have a flyer in the box that states '' STOP! Do not return this product, for faster, better service, call the 800 number!" Keep telling HP that I cannot take it back for a trade, they are sold out.

Ron says their is nothing he can do for me, He is sorry. He works in Georgia. It is 12:00 pm. I call corporate. It is in California. I tell the operator I need to talk to the president. Sandy Sandoz come on the line and assures me she speaks on behalf of the president. I know better, but what else is there to do. But this time, I have a case number she can pull up and see. She knows I have been all over the world on the phone.

Sandy informs me that corporate backs up the decision of their tech’s. It is the policy. I read to her what I thought the policy was, as it is on the web site. She tells me it is not necessarily the case. She then again informs me that what the tech department decides, they will back up. I ask her "if the tech decides that I am right and replaces my computer, and then decides to give my 5 more for pain and suffering, will they stand behind that", she said no. So I pointed out that the policy can be side stepped. She suddenly stated that she will have to review this case and give me a call, no later than Monday the 20th. I asked before she got off the phone, "What is the integrity of HP worth? A billion? A million? or $300 bucks?" She said she would let me know. It is 3:45pm on Thursday.

I found out a few things during all this. I found out that Wal-Mart received the computers from a middle man who bought the parts from HP, and that not even the numbers matched on the computer and battery, or the box. The order was just for Wal-Mart for black Friday. That is why they are no more. Which is also why they want to repair instead of replacing. You can't replace what you don't have.

It is not Wal-Mart who is at fault here. And not everyone who works at Wal-Mart are dimrods, there are a lot of good people who work there. I only get the dimrods! I knew going in what my odds were, and they did not disappoint - You can't get something for nothing.

Most importantly, if you make a stand on something, and you compromise it, it is you who winds up on the short end of the stick.

I'll get back to you if they call me on Monday or not.

I have a serious medical condition, I need a pill that will surly solve all my problems

Ya know I was watching the evening news with Brian Williams last night, something I do not usually do, and I noticed something. Every commercial break has at least one advertisement for some sort of medication and one case there were two back to back. At the end I was going to use the DVR to rewind and count them and write about it. Well Bride would have no part of that since Wheel of Fortune was coming on and since that and Jeopardy are her favorites there was NO way I was doing that. Well I let it pass and thought I would take note of the rest of them for the evening and base my blog on that.

Have you noticed the rash of new maladies and the corresponding rash of medication to correct those maladies? I mean stupid, stupid things I never knew existed, restless leg syndrome for example, or as it is known in the medical community - Nocturnal myoclonus; RLS; Akathisia. What is this?? Well according to one site I found the definition is as follows: Restless leg syndrome is a disorder in which there is an urge or need to move the legs to stop unpleasant sensations. ?? So I then wanted to find the cause of this disorder, well then it got even odder. Causes: Restless leg syndrome (RLS) occurs most often in middle-aged and older adults. Stress makes it worse. The cause is not known in most patients. The cause is not known in most patients. So if the cause is not known then what is this pill treating?

So what is this pill doing I wondered? Well one of the medications they are hocking is pramipexole, that is a medication for Parkinson patients. WHAT?? I also found out there is no specific examination that will definitively say that you have restless leg syndrome. Most health care providers will not usually find any abnormalities, unless you also have peripheral nerve disease. They say that blood tests (CBC and serum ferritin) may be done to rule out iron deficiency anemia, which in rare cases can occur with restless leg syndrome. I also learned that there is no known cure for restless leg syndrome. Of course there isn’t, there isn’t even any real way to determine you have restless leg syndrome, why you might ask – BECAUSE IT IS MADE UP!! You can also be prescribed sleeping pills, tranquilizers, iron supplements and even narcotics. Keep in mind that restless leg syndrome is not dangerous or life-threatening, and it is not a sign of a serious disorder. However, it can be uncomfortable and disrupt your sleep – so we are going to give you some over the counter narcotics. What in the world is going on??

I do not mean to pick on that one, there are many, like the one for dry eyes. Again this is one that has no cure, what a surprise. There are, however, a number of steps that can be taken to treat them. As far as causes, it seems that it can be caused by situations that dry out the tear film. This can be due to dry air from air conditioning, heat, or other environmental conditions. So maybe, just maybe, we should go outside and play once in a while. Get off the PC, put down the Wii controller and turn off the TIVO and GO OUTSIDE! Other causes can be natural aging, menopause they say. I suppose that is why every commercial I have seen for dry eye has had a woman doctor and a woman patient. Dry eye can also be caused by the side effects of other medications, what you say? RESTASIS® is the medicine they are hocking for this malady, the side effects of which includes a temporary burning sensation, eye redness, yeah from the burning sensation. There can also be a discharge, watery eyes, eye pain, foreign body sensation, foreign body sensation? What the hell is that?? It can also cause itching, stinging, and blurred vision. Do you see the craziness here??

There are so many medicines I sometimes wonder, are there folks who are just dreaming up ways to make money? My favorite TV channels are the ones where the personalities are fixing or tearing apart things, seeing how dirty they are or blowing things up. Well on those channels I must be the target demographic, a middle aged man. So we have the erectile dysfunction medications, they are SO stupid. If I were trying to get with Bride we would damn sure be in the same bathtub, that is all I will say about that. There are also the male enhancement commercials, I actually think these are funny. Old Bob has so many lightly veiled comments about the size of his penis. They make me laugh because I am amazed at how many references they can get away with. Hahaha. And just for the record, if I have an erection that last four hours – I am calling all my friends to brag! Has anyone thought about the imbalance in the biological evolutionary track these medications are and will have. We got a bunch of old geezers who leave their wives and find some young thing that can keep up with his newly erect penis. What have these medications done to the divorce rate in our country? Maybe there is a reason those parts stop working, we are not living our lives right (stress) or we are just too damn old to procreate.

These out of control pharmaceutical companies have allowed the ridiculousness to spill over into the over the counter medications. I saw a commercial for the Rubitussion relief finder, yeah the Rubitussion relief finder. This is a web site that you can punch in whether you are a child or adult and then check some symptoms and it will tell you which one of the 87 million different products might help you best. Really, Really???

I was perusing Natural News and found that the amount of television advertising money that pharmaceutical companies have spent in recent years has doubled. They say that studies show that viewers often see a medicinal product and bring up what they saw to their doctors. However, the tone of the advertisements today often are misleading and exaggerate the health benefits of taking the drug, according to a recent report by the Annals of Family Medicine. TV ads engage in blatant deceptions and exaggerations that even the medical journals are starting to condemn the practice. This week, the Annals of Family Medicine published an analysis of popular drug advertisements that concluded the ads essentially lie to the public about the benefits of pharmaceuticals while utterly ignoring alternative health strategies like dietary or lifestyle changes., utterly ignoring the way we (the human race) has dealt with our medical problems throughout our time on earth.

I do not know what the answers are, hell I do not even know what the questions are but I would be willing to bet there is pill somewhere that will help you find them. I read someplace that in 2009 the profit made across the board was 315 BILLION dollars and with an average profit margin of almost 20 percent. With medications for real diseases such as Herceptin, for breast cancer costing a person $48,00 year, and many insurance companies won't cover it -- or people quickly hit their limits and must pay for it out-of-pocket or go without. 48K per year, REALLY!! They should supplement the medications for real problems with the ones they make for made up problems. Imagine a man buying Viagra and while his is boinking his 20 something girlfriend he is supplementing his wife’s breast cancer treatments. I like it!!

Our young people are dying in foreign lands at an alarming rate!

So I posted a little comment on Veterans day about what it means to me to be a Veteran.

Here is that note:
I am a Veteran of the United States Navy. Veterans are people who swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. It is an oath to protect our way of life here in the United States of America. That oath sometimes requires sacrifices, sometime the ultimate sacrifice. 5772 (Five Thousand Seven Hundred and Seventy Two) of these heroes have paid that ultimate price in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. I encourage you to visit this site (link below) every day to read their stories, look at their faces, mourn their loss and pray for their families - I have and will continue to do so every day – it takes their deaths from being a 15 second news bite to making it personal - AND THEIR DEATHS SHOULD BE PERSONAL for all of us!

So on November 11th there had been five thousand seven hundred and seventy two of our military hero’s had been killed in the two wars we are currently engaged in. At some point after that I decided that I would post a short note on facebook about each of the folks who died after that. My little way of honoring them and trying get other people to see their faces and to read their stories.

The site, http://militarytimes.com/valor/ lists every Military member who has died since our Political leaders have entangled us in what I see as unjust wars. I have finally finished reading the little bio of each of the now 5815 heroes who we have lost. It has been a lot tougher than I thought it would be, not because it takes time each day. It is tough on my soul, reading about these young people who volunteered to serve our country and ended up paying the ultimate price – giving their lives. It saddens me to think that we have lost this many of them and I still do not understand why we are in either place to begin with. In case you have not done the math that is 43 folks have died in less than a month DEAD serving our Country.

I am not even sure what point I am trying to make, I am mad as hell at the republican for getting us into these wars, with no remorse and I am mad as hell at the democrat for bold face lying to us about getting us out. These wars have cost us to much, too much in American lives, too much in Afghani and Iraqi lives – the cost is too high! And we are not talking about the finical costs. Over a trillion dollars so far – yeah $1,115,831,950,564 dollars. That is like taking a stack of 100 dollar bills that is 67,770 miles high, or enough to wrap around the planet almost three times – yeah with 100 dollar bills. Or about 22 million pounds of 100 dollar bills, and our government wonders why the economy is sucking wind. That equates to each and every American paying three thousand, seven hundred and nineteen dollars. $3,719 would sure stimulate my economy. There is a site that keeps track of the cost of the war http://costofwar.com/.

I guess I want each American to pull themselves away from their hectic and harried lives for just a moment and look at what we (our Country) is doing and demand our leaders stop the insanity! Maybe I just want folks to know that my soul is hurting for all the loss of life and my life is hurting with the lack of a healthy economy.