I took the dogs to the park in the morning and did a lot of errands afterward. Then I waited for the mattress delivery and listened to
a musician my kid turned me onto:
Will Wood (and the Tapeworms). He has a few albums on YouTube and I was able to stream them while doing other things.
Of course the truck arrives without calling me first, like I had asked since I have dogs that need to be secured before the delivery guys enter the house. The truck is too large to back into the driveway, just as I had guessed and told them as much. They said the mattress was too heavy for them to drive the truck up the road and carry it back to my house.
I put one dog in his crate (he got lots of dog-safe jerky treats), and the other one who can't be crated because he freaks out, I put him in my car. I didn't have time to find my car keys to crack the windows but figured the pup wouldn't be in the car for too long. Poor pup was totally confused and thought he was going for a ride. The truck is blocking the road and cars are backing up from the school bus stop. The movers bring the new mattress in, unwrap the plastic and stand it up, pull off the old mattress and put it in the plastic and glide it out the door. Very quick and professional!
I ask them to take the box springs. They say their paperwork says just the mattress because I only bought a mattress. I tell them that I told the person on the phone, the person that didn't tell them to call me first because I have dogs, because the driveway is too narrow, and that I have a box spring to go with the mattress. The fellow shows me his paperwork and I tell him I don't want to get him into trouble (because I don't), but then he tells me that he'll take the box springs anyway. I tip him $20.
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New frame & mattress
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The mattress company charges an extra $30 to take the old one and specifies that it should be clean and unstained. Uh, what are they expecting from a 35-year old mattress? Are they going to recycle it? I could've just scheduled a town pick-up for free. Except that those schedules are arbitrary and I have no place to leave a king mattress and box springs outside for a rubbish truck. Never mind how I would actually move it out my house. (The husband came home for a day and a half, and had to be back in Boston for the next three weeks, so it's not like I can rely on him to help me.)
Now about that new mattress. I bought a Saatva after doing a bit of research over the years. It's pricey but there was a Labor Day sale. It has good ratings, is American-made and I'm hoping will last me another 30 years. (WTF, I'll be in my 90s!) When I lay down on it, it feels plush and soft yet firm. I had a foam topper on my old mattress because the bed springs started poking me! After a few years, the topper wears out and starts to disintegrate although up until the moment I rolled it up and put it in the trash, it did its job insulating me from wire coils. When I had the old mattress on the floor or on the new bed frame, I didn't feel the coils, so maybe it was the fault of the box springs?
My only concern about the new mattress is that the edge seems a bit soft compared to my old mattress. But my hip and lower back don't complain when I'm laying in bed, and I wake up with less sciatic problems. I also have a minor complaint about the new bed frame: the middle leg on either side is flush with the frame, so I'm constantly bumping my foot into it when I'm changing the sheets, making the bed, etc. If it were inset, that would be better. But considering the bed was fairly inexpensive, I'm not really complaining. No, I put all the money into the mattress. Yep.
I don't know if it's because I slept better last night, but I had more energy today when I went to the gym. Granted, I skipped yesterday and my only exertion (besides being dragged down the road by my dogs after the delivery people left), was moving some furniture back into position.
I do better on the elliptical. The step machine has it's own mind and arbitrarily sets the pace, usually within a range. Eight minutes at 45 spm instead of 50 spm (steps per minute) makes a 40 step difference. I can't say that I wasn't really tired and drenched in sweat regardless of how slow the machine progressed.
However, I was happy to get past a dozen reps each time I bellied up to the Stretch Cage for pull-ups. And I felt recovered enough to zip along on the cross-trainer, all the while singing to myself. I was pleased to see Wind Breaker on the elliptical as well, although I pretty much ignore everyone when I'm exercising. It's that single focus that might come across as rude, but I'm not there to socialize, and my friends all know it.
I'm still skipping movements that seem to aggravate my sciatica. No Bird Dog planks, nix on the one-leg hip bridges. Push-ups weren't quite so bothersome though. (Pulling apart the old bed and assembling the new one didn't seem to have any effect at all. Whew!) I still have annoying tingling numbness in my toes, foot, calf and hip but it's not as intense and doesn't last as long. Which says to me that I'm recovering. As long as I don't do anything to re-aggravate this extremely persnickety nerve bundle, I'm hoping to be "normal" in a few weeks. Just in time for that long drive to Buffalo for Parents' Weekend.
2 Oct 2024 11:48-1:43
Wednesday — All Cardio
Brilliant Day — Timolol / sciatica
New Mattress!
Precor elliptical #1
Program 3
Time: 30 + 5 (5626)
Distance: 2.85
Cal: 316
Avg Hr: 156, 194-85
New FB: 51-134
HGPU 15
Matrix StairMaster (R)
Manual timer 8+2 cool down
Minimum 5 minutes
Speed 5 (45-50) / 29-36 (2-1)
Steps 426
Floors 26
Cal 64
Hr 109
HGPU 14.5
Life Fitness X-Trainer #5
Program Manual L1
Time: 12 (+3min cool down) = 15
Distance: 1.38
Cal: 115
Avg Hr: 129-135
HGPU 14.5
20 Hip Bridges
Piriformis/Hip/Pencil Stretch
DeadBugs 20 x 5
Piriformis stretches
Quick Child’s Pose
Cat stretch 12
Child’s Pose
Fire Hydrants 25 x 2
Push-Ups 25 (minimal tingle)
Arm rotations 20
Air Squats 25
Neck stretch / Eye yoga
