Adventures In Fourth Blog-iversaries

In all the excitement and disorientation of my recent move to a new house, I almost forgot that I just finished my fourth year of this blog.  Four years of posting a new article every Friday.  I know I say this every year, but it’s more and more true every year…I’m so impressed with myself!  Okay, enough of that.

I thought I might tell you about a new thing I got during the move.  At my old house, I had a ratty old naugahyde recliner that was full of holes and getting holier by the day.  But…it was a perfect way to nap.  When fully reclined, with a towel rolled up behind my neck (or more recently, my miracle pillow behind my neck), my whole spine was held in a beautifully neutral position, and napping like that for a few hours went a long way toward relieving some of my chronic back/neck pain, even if only for a little while.

I decided not to bring that nasty old chair to my new house, which meant I was probably going to have to buy a new one when I moved.  I don’t know if you have priced new recliners recently, but they can go for anywhere from about $300 to truly jaw-dropping prices.  I ended up going a different route.

I’ve had my fantastic C2 sleep number bed for several years now.  And before this one, I had my first sleep number bed for 20 years before it finally gave up the ghost. I love this bed. But, I found out recently that I could buy an adjustable base for it, which is one of those mechanisms that raises the head and/or foot of the bed to a desired position.  The one I looked at (and ended up buying) even has a “zero G” setting on the remote, which raises the head and foot of the bed to almost the exact position of my old recliner.

I did buy the new base for my bed, in lieu of a new recliner, and I LOVE it.  No, sleep number beds are not cheap.  And the adjustable base was not cheap.  But the older I get, the more I appreciate that I really need to invest in things that will give me long-term benefit, especially for my back and neck.  When I use the bed in the zero G position, along with my miracle pillow, I drop right off to sleep and wake up relaxed and usually pain-free, which is a blessing at my age.

I saw something on Pinterest recently, which was along the lines of a conversation between a 20-something and an older person, where the young one said, “Now that I’m an adult, all I do is work and pay bills.  Is this all I have to look forward to when I get to your age?”  And the older person replied, “No, there’s also back pain.”  This is funny because it’s true.  So start early on taking care of your back and invest in as good a bed system as you can afford.  I saved up to buy my sleep number beds and I don’t regret a penny of the expense.  It was totally worth it.