Things That Work
Dec. 11th, 2016 02:47 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lydyFor no good reason, a random assortment of things that work:
1) My bed. I love my bed. It is a heated, king-sized waterbed, which means that it is exactly the firmness I want, and it is cuddly warm to slip into in the winter. After years of unsatisfactory linens, I found some reasonably priced micro-fiber sheets on Amazon which misleadingly call themselves 1400 Thread Count Cotton like. It's easy to miss the fact that they are not, in fact, a high-thread count cotton. They are, however, delightfully soft, breathe well, and fit my bed perfectly. While I miss my down comforter, the down-alternative comforter has been satisfactory, and I bought a feather pillow from Ikea at the same time. I haven't had a feather pillow since I was two, and my mother took them away on the order of the allergist, since I was allergic to all living things, which included feathers. (They also removed the drapes in the room, the fleece throw rug, and all knick knacks.) But the packaging assured me that the pillow was hypoallergenic, and machine washable and dryable. And it is delightful. So perfectly squishy. I love my bed.
2) CPAP. As far as I can tell, I have several different sleep disorders. The only one that's been diagnosed is obstructive sleep apnea. I've been using CPAP for almost 20 years, and my what a difference it makes. It doesn't fix the other problems, obviously, like delayed circadian rhythm disorder (which is actually an asset for a night job) or other weirdnesses in my sleep, but it does mean that when I go to sleep, I actually get rested. I love my CPAP.
3) Red Juice Cleaning Solution. A really, really long time ago, I used to work in a massage parlor, and one of the women I worked with was thinking about quitting The Life and starting her own business. She was enamored of Speed Cleaning, and wanted to start a business cleaning other people's houses. Which, in its own way, is an interesting indictment of prostitution, if you think about it. Speed Cleaning has pretty good books on how to make housework simple and fast, and a host of products. I pretty much ignore their advice, but I do like the cleaning solution called Red Juice. It's your basic spray-on-wipe-off cleaner, but much better. It has various claims to environmental friendliness which I can't evaluate, and claims to be perfectly safe in kitchens. It comes as a concentrate, which you dilute 10-to-1, and put in your own spray bottle. And that, that is certainly a lot more environmentally friendly than buying a new spray bottle every time. The stuff works really well, cuts through most dirt easily and quickly, and is not perfumed. I love it a lot.
4) Feliway diffusers: Lady Jane Grey and Nuit will probably never like each other, and they continue to squabble, but it's been a while since Lady peed on my bed, and I think that is largely due to the two Feliway diffusers that I'm using. Mind you, that's $20 a month to keep the peace in my feline family, but so worthy it.
5) Scrub skirts: I basically don't like pants. I dislike trying to find pants that fit me in the waist, hip, crotch, and leg. Mostly, I can find something that fits one or two of those parameters, but not all four. I love skirts, and I like the swish of fabric around my calves or ankles. The problem with skirts, though, is that they tend to not have pockets. I was wearing jeans skirts, which had jeans pockets, and were nice, but then I found out that there are scrub skirts. They are made from the same material as my scrubs, which means they launder well and don't wrinkle, and they have enormous pockets. I love them to death. My only complaint is that they cling to my legs when I try to wear leggings under them in the winter. I may have to switch back to my jeans skirts for the cold months.
And as we used to say, "Five things make a post."
1) My bed. I love my bed. It is a heated, king-sized waterbed, which means that it is exactly the firmness I want, and it is cuddly warm to slip into in the winter. After years of unsatisfactory linens, I found some reasonably priced micro-fiber sheets on Amazon which misleadingly call themselves 1400 Thread Count Cotton like. It's easy to miss the fact that they are not, in fact, a high-thread count cotton. They are, however, delightfully soft, breathe well, and fit my bed perfectly. While I miss my down comforter, the down-alternative comforter has been satisfactory, and I bought a feather pillow from Ikea at the same time. I haven't had a feather pillow since I was two, and my mother took them away on the order of the allergist, since I was allergic to all living things, which included feathers. (They also removed the drapes in the room, the fleece throw rug, and all knick knacks.) But the packaging assured me that the pillow was hypoallergenic, and machine washable and dryable. And it is delightful. So perfectly squishy. I love my bed.
2) CPAP. As far as I can tell, I have several different sleep disorders. The only one that's been diagnosed is obstructive sleep apnea. I've been using CPAP for almost 20 years, and my what a difference it makes. It doesn't fix the other problems, obviously, like delayed circadian rhythm disorder (which is actually an asset for a night job) or other weirdnesses in my sleep, but it does mean that when I go to sleep, I actually get rested. I love my CPAP.
3) Red Juice Cleaning Solution. A really, really long time ago, I used to work in a massage parlor, and one of the women I worked with was thinking about quitting The Life and starting her own business. She was enamored of Speed Cleaning, and wanted to start a business cleaning other people's houses. Which, in its own way, is an interesting indictment of prostitution, if you think about it. Speed Cleaning has pretty good books on how to make housework simple and fast, and a host of products. I pretty much ignore their advice, but I do like the cleaning solution called Red Juice. It's your basic spray-on-wipe-off cleaner, but much better. It has various claims to environmental friendliness which I can't evaluate, and claims to be perfectly safe in kitchens. It comes as a concentrate, which you dilute 10-to-1, and put in your own spray bottle. And that, that is certainly a lot more environmentally friendly than buying a new spray bottle every time. The stuff works really well, cuts through most dirt easily and quickly, and is not perfumed. I love it a lot.
4) Feliway diffusers: Lady Jane Grey and Nuit will probably never like each other, and they continue to squabble, but it's been a while since Lady peed on my bed, and I think that is largely due to the two Feliway diffusers that I'm using. Mind you, that's $20 a month to keep the peace in my feline family, but so worthy it.
5) Scrub skirts: I basically don't like pants. I dislike trying to find pants that fit me in the waist, hip, crotch, and leg. Mostly, I can find something that fits one or two of those parameters, but not all four. I love skirts, and I like the swish of fabric around my calves or ankles. The problem with skirts, though, is that they tend to not have pockets. I was wearing jeans skirts, which had jeans pockets, and were nice, but then I found out that there are scrub skirts. They are made from the same material as my scrubs, which means they launder well and don't wrinkle, and they have enormous pockets. I love them to death. My only complaint is that they cling to my legs when I try to wear leggings under them in the winter. I may have to switch back to my jeans skirts for the cold months.
And as we used to say, "Five things make a post."
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no subject
Date: 2016-12-11 02:44 pm (UTC)I went out to buy a bed and bought a waterbed that I kept for 20 years. I loved loved loved that bed. Finally, after moving it every 18 months when my job moved me to a new location, it just fell apart. And waterbeds were no longer everywhere so I got a regular bed instead.
A few years ago, I splurged and got a fancy mattress on an adjustable base and I do love it but, honestly, not as much as that amazing water bed :)
Your entry just makes me smile. Plus, I'd never read of Red Juice of scrub skirts or even those infusers so the entry was also a me education!
no subject
Date: 2016-12-11 06:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-12-11 07:36 pm (UTC)Are these a new thing? I have seen changes in medical gear brought on by the flood of somali women in the field. But maybe they are wearing stuff always available but not common.
no subject
Date: 2016-12-11 10:35 pm (UTC)here's hoping they work for us!
also i agree that ikea squishy feather pillows are the best :)
no subject
Date: 2016-12-12 12:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-12-12 12:46 am (UTC)I would love to see the kittens again, but I've got one weekend before I go to NYC, so probably it will have to be after the first of the year.
no subject
Date: 2016-12-12 04:27 am (UTC)They also removed the drapes in the room, the fleece throw rug, and all knick knacks.
Did they also take out the toilet paper so you wouldn't bend the bars, roll the toilet paper out the window, slide down the roll, and have an escape?
no subject
Date: 2016-12-12 03:51 pm (UTC)Did they also take out the toilet paper so you wouldn't bend the bars, roll the toilet paper out the window, slide down the roll, and have an escape?
Heh. This was in the days before rescue inhalers. Since one of the things I was allergic to was dust, the doctor advised removing all the dust-catchers from the room where I slept. Which included the drapes. They also elevated the head of my bed six inches (used an old kneeler from a defunct Catholic church, put under the feet of the bed), which gave me dreams of being at sea for the first day or two. The real tragedy (and I don't mean that in the least sarcastically) was that they got rid of our ten cats. (Three adult cats, seven kittens. Abby and her three kittens died of distemper the following spring. Festus went to the Human society, never found out what happened to her. I believe her kittens went with her. Felix went to the farm of someone we knew, and when next I saw him, he didn't recognize me.) I sometimes joke that my earliest memory is that of throwing up. It is also probably true. I was very, very sick as a child. Discovering that I had allergies was a huge relief to my parents, as it gave them something to do. On the other hand, I really wish I had escaped. Because my parents, they were really really bad at it.
no subject
Date: 2016-12-13 03:12 am (UTC)Oh dear. I'm sad to hear that about your cats, that was indeed a tragedy.