TheBanyanTree: From Pam via bounce (how fitting <g>) - "My Mattress Adventure"

[Sachet]

More than a year ago, Jim and I started looking for a new mattress set. 
  The one he had was pitiful so we trashed it, and the one I have had 
was almost just as bad, but we kept it anyway since we had to have 
something to sleep on!  And we started the great "New Mattress Quest". 
What a PITA!!!!!!!  The sales folk urged us to lay on the mattress!  One 
can't figure out what's comfortable just by sitting on it!!  We should 
LAY on it, get comfy!!

Are they crazy!??!  Laying on it wasn't going to help either!!  What we 
needed to do was move into the showrooms for a night and actually try 
SLEEPING on the durned things!!  For a few weeks, we stopped wherever we 
saw a sign, and we walked around and looked and talked, and even got 
horizontal a few times - always being careful to keep most of our bodies 
OFF of the mattresses that a lot of other folks had laid on also!!  And 
mattresses are NOT cheap!  Holy crap!  Sure, sure... if you divide the 
price by how many months slash years one could own it, it probably 
doesn't sound so bad - but meanwhile it's a huge expense at the 
beginning!!  And, as we were told more than once, pricier doesn't always 
mean better!  It depends on whether one likes firmer or softer, 'pillow 
top' or 'flip', etc...

After a month or so, our interest waned and we just stopped looking!  If 
we couldn't decide on the perfectly priced and comfortable mattress then 
we just wouldn't buy any!  Ha!  So there!!

Meanwhile, the set we had got shaggier and shaggier and saggier and 
saggier, and my back hurt, and some mornings - okay a LOT of mornings! - 
it's like dragging a ninety year old body out of the rack!!  I kept 
thinking I might get better sleep on something new - even if it did 
suck!  And maybe, just maybe!, Jim wouldn't snore so bad!!  (Okay, that 
last is a pipe dream!)

Then, a few weeks ago, while Christmas shopping on the internet, I 
happened onto Sears' site (I was looking for an Olympic weight bench!), 
and the big HALF PRICE mattress sale they were having!!  Who-hoo!!  HALF 
PRICE!??!?!  The more I surfed around, the better it sounded!  Even the 
very cheapest model would be NEW, which right off the bat!, *HAD* to be 
better than the thing we were sleeping on now!   And I didn't have to 
get the cheapest since the sale gave me more 'wiggle room'!!

The name brands were on sale, and we'd 'tested' those out!  I thought of 
everything I could to talk myself into (out of?) the sale!  And finally, 
I made a choice.  I BOUGHT A MATTRESS SET!!!  I didn't even talk to Jim 
about it!  Well, I *did* tell him that Sears was having a big sale, but 
he didn't ask any questions, so I figured he didn't have any opinion! 
(And I haven't told him yet!  It's going to be his Christmas present - 
SURPRISE!!  Well, not his ONLY present, but this was another excuse!!)

When I "filled out the paperwork" online, I got to 'choose' my delivery 
date, and I chose last Saturday!  He'd either be working or golfing (so 
I knew he'd be out of the house!), and the kids and I could take the old 
set out and haul it to the dump, then they could bring the new one in, 
and viola!, SURPRISE!!!

Since I ordered it at work, I'd used that email address, so when they 
sent a confirmation email, I forwarded home so I'd have it in case. 
(Good call!)   But the stoopid government system won't let me convert 
emails to 'html', so what I got was a long list of links.  Whatever. 
Except my gmail wouldn't convert it either so I STILL had a long list of 
links.

Anyway, last Saturday Jim went to work, and the kids and I got the old 
mattress and box spring out and loaded into the back of Molly's truck. 
I putzed around and washed all the linen and even thinned things out a 
bit under the bed.  Eventually it occurred to me that I was not POSITIVE 
that they were delivering that day.  Hmmm... So I found the email and 
started clicking on links, trying to bring up words I could read.  And 
that's how I found  - way down the bottom! - the delivery date of 
December 10th!  WHAT?!?!?!  I also found a '1-800' number and I called 
it to ask.  The nice gentleman assured me that yes, while he had no idea 
about my "chosen" delivery date, the set was, indeed, set to be 
delivered on the 10th.  I still had five more days to go.

It wasn't near as much fun unloading the old crappy set from Molly's 
truck and setting it back up in the bedroom!  And amazingly, by the time 
Jim got home, both of the kids are forgotten, or didn't think it was 
important, and nobody ever said a word to him!!

Yesterday I got a recorded message telling me that my set would be 
delivered today!  FINALLY!  And with confirmation!  They gave me a 
'timeframe', so I took Jim into work, checked in myself, and then came 
home to wait.  Molly was just leaving for work so I gave her my car keys 
and kept the truck for the dump run.

Earlier than I expected, the nice delivery men came and leaned my new 
set up in the garage.  I was waiting for my son to get home from school 
and help me move out the old set and then take the new set in.  While I 
waited, I wrapped some presents and did a load of laundry.  Then I 
started wondering why I couldn't haul out the old set myself!  If I 
could get it off the bed and out of the room, then I could just slide it 
down the hallway and wrangle it out the front door!  Which is what I did 
with both pieces, dumping them in the front yard.

Then I did a few more chores and started wondering just how hard it 
would be to bring the new - heavier! - set in.  Come on!  I spent twenty 
years in the Marine Corps!  I don't need no steekin boy to help me!!! 
And so I drug the new box spring in through the garage and through the 
kitchen, and then on down the hallway and into the bedroom.  With the 
huge plastic wrap on it, it was protected in its journey (and it also 
swept the floor on its run through the house!) and I actually had no 
problems removing the wrap and setting it up on the frame.

Well!  If THAT was so easy, how hard could the actual mattress be?!?! 
To find out, I repeated the whole process with the mattress, and with a 
minimum of wrestling, I had the whole bed set up, and then I even put on 
clean sheets and stood back to admire my work!  Holy cow!  We're a whole 
'nother foot off the ground now!  I was pretty impressed and satisfied 
with myself!

But!  I thought to myself... But if I did all that, SURELY I could load 
up the old stuff in the truck myself too!!  Surely!

I had a big box that needed to go to the dump and I'd loaded that into 
the truck earlier.  Then I threw the two big plastic wrap/bags in, and 
then I started wrestling the mattress.  I could get it leaned up on the 
tailgate, but it wouldn't just push up onto the pile.  So, I climbed up 
and sort of pulled and tilted and wrestled and YES!, I got the mattress 
up and in!!  By golly I didn't need help or more hands!!  I am woman 
hear me roar!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now I just had the box spring left - heavier and bulkier.  Certainly 
there was no way I could wrest it up and over and on top alone.  I 
remembered what a pain it was the FIRST time with the boy helping!  But, 
hey!, whatheheck!, one never knows until they try, right?!?!  So I 
dragged the box spring over, and got it leaned up on the tailgate. 
Again, there was no pushing up and over, so again I climbed up onto the 
back and tried leveraging it up.  I have 'something' wrong with my right 
shoulder.  For the last couple of months it's given me fits trying to 
lift any kind of weight, or to reach over and back.  I'm sure it's just 
'old age' and will eventually go away.  Or my arm will fall off.  But 
it's not been anything I've even considered seeing a doctor about.

Meanwhile, it was not making the loading any easier AT ALL!!!  I could 
get it lifted up off the ground and about halfway up, but I just didn't 
have the arm strength to lift it all the way up and around to get it on 
top.  Finally, I had a brainstorm!  And I sort of fell over/laid back, 
holding onto the box spring and letting my body provide the leverage to 
carry it up and over!!!

Try not to laugh picturing me laying on the mattress in the back of the 
truck, mostly under the box spring, (still in dress work clothes and 
slippers!) trying to wrest my way OUT of there!!!  Somebody with a video 
cam could have made a ton of money on "America's Funniest Videos", trust me!

Anyway, and so, I had totally and completely by myself, removed the old 
set and loaded it up, and brought in and set up the new!!

Am I the woman, or what?!?!?  Are you crazy!??!?!?!?

My back hurts and I am so stiff and sore right now!!!!!!!!!!  Gawd but I 
hope this new mattress is comfy!!

Pam