The Vent and Rant Thread

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

On the Permian comment, I asked because you said Texans love their football.
I thought you might have read Friday Night Lights. It was a book about high school football and one team in particular.
The later movie while about the same team had as much resemblance to the book as a giraffe has to a great white shark.
Note: I have been to one state championship football game. It was not pretty on the flight home. Our team lost. I think the entire plane consisted of the team's hungover fathers, a couple of mothers (same shape) and 2 sober kids.

No I've never read (nor had I heard of) Friday Night Lights. I was commenting on how important football, including high school football, was to Texans. I've never had any interest it it.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by Hamlet53

No I've never read (nor had I heard of) Friday Night Lights. I was commenting on how important football, including high school football, was to Texans. I've never had any interest it it.

What you were in Texas two years and they didn't assimilate you?
Just teasing.
Though FNL both the book and the movie do show just how fanatical some people get about high school football.

For the record, it was NOT my idea to go to that game I went to. I could have found much better things to do with my time. But our father insisted we be the "perfect" children and go to that game with him and 2 of his friends. Come to think of my brother didn't want to be there either. But at least he could do Dungeons and Dragons planning in his head.

[Bilbo1967]

A rant against myself, specifically my extreme manual dexterity ineptitude.

Today I bought a new gas barbecue for us. Some assembly required!! Guide time for assembly, 1.5 hours. How long it took me; 4 hours. This is not a rant about the instructions for assembly, it's purely my inability to see any sense whatsoever in diagrams that others just understand.

The low point was realising about an hour in that I'd put the left and right legs the wrong way round, necessitating a dismantle and rebuild that I hadn't planned for (although, to be honest, given my record, I should have planned for). Of course, once I'd finished, the gas regulator didn't work and I had to replace it (another half hour because getting a gas hose off a regulator is not an easy job, for me at least).

I know I'm spatially challenged, but I always (naively) think it'll be different every time I start something like this.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by Bilbo1967

A rant against myself, specifically my extreme manual dexterity ineptitude.

Today I bought a new gas barbecue for us. Some assembly required!! Guide time for assembly, 1.5 hours. How long it took me; 4 hours. This is not a rant about the instructions for assembly, it's purely my inability to see any sense whatsoever in diagrams that others just understand.

The low point was realising about an hour in that I'd put the left and right legs the wrong way round, necessitating a dismantle and rebuild that I hadn't planned for (although, to be honest, given my record, I should have planned for). Of course, once I'd finished, the gas regulator didn't work and I had to replace it (another half hour because getting a gas hose off a regulator is not an easy job, for me at least).

I know I'm spatially challenged, but I always (naively) think it'll be different every time I start something like this.

I'm just glad you didn't burn yourself.
Oh and sympathies.

[wodin]

Originally Posted by Bilbo1967

...
I always (naively) think it'll be different every time I start something like this.

According to Einstein, a definition of insanity.

[Hitch]

As some of you may know, Mr. Hitch has had a damn tough year, coming up on 14 months, now. He's still here (hooray!).

About...4 months ago, he started having problems with his sinuses. Constantly stuffed up, then dry, then runny, then dry...just a major hassle. Now, he's had various types of hay fever/allergies as long as I've known him, and we thought it was that, when the olive trees down in the Valley bloom, as they do every year.

However, time passed, and the sinuses didn't clear up. Doc finally gives him an antibiotic, for "infected sinuses," even though I grumbled at the time that it OBVIOUSLY was not that. No result. It's so bad, that as it gets worse--which it keeps doing, mind you, as time passes--he literally can't sleep--he keeps getting up, too congested to breathe, and he has to sleep sitting up in a gigantic leather King chair we have in the living room. Poor bastard. I mean...geeze.

More miserable months go by. We start getting pretty damn desperate, by yesterday, because he's just MISERABLE. Nose is running like Usain Bolt, his head is pounding, and so on. We start REALLY thinking--what could it be? I even look at a hair product I've been using, which is fundamentally Argan oil, which is distantly related to the Olive tree. We think of the cats (oh, please, no..I'd have to seriously think that one over...) and a bunch of other wild things.

Then I remember--I'd switched to new sheets, some months back. I tend to change fabrics and weight, as the months go by...heavier cotton in the fall and spring, lightest-weight cotton or linen in the summer, flannels in the winter. I'd purchased some high-thread-count (500-600) sheets--two sets--during Peacock Alley's last big sale, last winter. BUT, because Mr. Wonderful's pillow was utterly disgusting, I'd also acquired some Cuddledown pillows, all-down. No feathers, no foam; down.

So...last night, I change the sheets back to a cheapy (well, not really. Just..not quite as nice) set I had, and knew he'd slept on, a year back, and found older non-down pillows (or down from a completely different source, that we'd slept on before without the Geyser of Snot)...and today, he's just FINE. FINE.



So, we have to figure out, is it the down pillows, or the Italian cotton sheets? I mean, COTTON, for ****s sake!

S***sky. I mean, really. So, I've made poor old Mr. Hitch suffer--unnecessarily--for MONTHS. He's actually being really good about it--he's had problems finding out what thing(s) he had an allergic reaction to, since he was a child, and he had to undergo all these shot tests, for two YEARS (so bad were the allergies that the military wouldn't take him during VN), so he's pretty sanguine about the fact that his wife put him on nice, smooth, soft sheets that tried to give him anaphylactic shock...(j/k).

SIGH. Somebody at the donation place is going to be VERY DAMN HAPPY.

My paean to nice sheets:

Spoiler:

I confess, it's one place where I spend money, is on bedding. We do, after all, spend a chunk of our lives in bed, and as you get older...well, that comfort can be more necessary than luxury. I'll drive a car until it's ratty with age, and limping along, because I'm just CHEAP, but bedding? Nunh-uh. I want to sleep on very, very nice sheets and soft lovely pillows. I don't think it's too much to ask for, given that I'm not wild with money everywhere else. But now...now I have to worry that he'll have a reaction to ALL new sheets. I can see me now, buying polyester sheets. Yuck. In AZ, man, cotton or linen is the ONLY way to go. Even blowing the AC full-tilt boogie, it's 78-79F inside, at night...none of that lovely 68F that people always recommend. So, lightweight sheets, natural fibers, are a MUST. I'm really hoping it's my pillow. I could try something like...buckwheat, I guess? Or those artificial down pillows? Yick.

Hitch, Archduchess of the County of Allergy, Sea Island of Cotton (sob)

[wodin]

Oops, duplicate.

[wodin]

Thank (insert you favorite deity here) it's not the cats.

[badgoodDeb]

I'd put my money on the down pillows, far ahead of the sheets.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by Hitch

As some of you may know, Mr. Hitch has had a damn tough year, coming up on 14 months, now. He's still here (hooray!).

About...4 months ago, he started having problems with his sinuses. Constantly stuffed up, then dry, then runny, then dry...just a major hassle. Now, he's had various types of hay fever/allergies as long as I've known him, and we thought it was that, when the olive trees down in the Valley bloom, as they do every year.

However, time passed, and the sinuses didn't clear up. Doc finally gives him an antibiotic, for "infected sinuses," even though I grumbled at the time that it OBVIOUSLY was not that. No result. It's so bad, that as it gets worse--which it keeps doing, mind you, as time passes--he literally can't sleep--he keeps getting up, too congested to breathe, and he has to sleep sitting up in a gigantic leather King chair we have in the living room. Poor bastard. I mean...geeze.

More miserable months go by. We start getting pretty damn desperate, by yesterday, because he's just MISERABLE. Nose is running like Usain Bolt, his head is pounding, and so on. We start REALLY thinking--what could it be? I even look at a hair product I've been using, which is fundamentally Argan oil, which is distantly related to the Olive tree. We think of the cats (oh, please, no..I'd have to seriously think that one over...) and a bunch of other wild things.

Then I remember--I'd switched to new sheets, some months back. I tend to change fabrics and weight, as the months go by...heavier cotton in the fall and spring, lightest-weight cotton or linen in the summer, flannels in the winter. I'd purchased some high-thread-count (500-600) sheets--two sets--during Peacock Alley's last big sale, last winter. BUT, because Mr. Wonderful's pillow was utterly disgusting, I'd also acquired some Cuddledown pillows, all-down. No feathers, no foam; down.

So...last night, I change the sheets back to a cheapy (well, not really. Just..not quite as nice) set I had, and knew he'd slept on, a year back, and found older non-down pillows (or down from a completely different source, that we'd slept on before without the Geyser of Snot)...and today, he's just FINE. FINE.



So, we have to figure out, is it the down pillows, or the Italian cotton sheets? I mean, COTTON, for ****s sake!

S***sky. I mean, really. So, I've made poor old Mr. Hitch suffer--unnecessarily--for MONTHS. He's actually being really good about it--he's had problems finding out what thing(s) he had an allergic reaction to, since he was a child, and he had to undergo all these shot tests, for two YEARS (so bad were the allergies that the military wouldn't take him during VN), so he's pretty sanguine about the fact that his wife put him on nice, smooth, soft sheets that tried to give him anaphylactic shock...(j/k).

SIGH. Somebody at the donation place is going to be VERY DAMN HAPPY.

My paean to nice sheets:

Spoiler:

I confess, it's one place where I spend money, is on bedding. We do, after all, spend a chunk of our lives in bed, and as you get older...well, that comfort can be more necessary than luxury. I'll drive a car until it's ratty with age, and limping along, because I'm just CHEAP, but bedding? Nunh-uh. I want to sleep on very, very nice sheets and soft lovely pillows. I don't think it's too much to ask for, given that I'm not wild with money everywhere else. But now...now I have to worry that he'll have a reaction to ALL new sheets. I can see me now, buying polyester sheets. Yuck. In AZ, man, cotton or linen is the ONLY way to go. Even blowing the AC full-tilt boogie, it's 78-79F inside, at night...none of that lovely 68F that people always recommend. So, lightweight sheets, natural fibers, are a MUST. I'm really hoping it's my pillow. I could try something like...buckwheat, I guess? Or those artificial down pillows? Yick.

Hitch, Archduchess of the County of Allergy, Sea Island of Cotton (sob)

My guess would be the down pillows.
But glad he can breathe again.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by wodin

Thank (insert you favorite deity here) it's not the cats.

OH, YES, indeed. That would have been very, very bad. And not just for me--he's strongly attached to them, as well. They are our kids, and that's how we feel about them.

Originally Posted by badgoodDeb

I'd put my money on the down pillows, far ahead of the sheets.

Agreed.

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

My guess would be the down pillows.
But glad he can breathe again.

Indeed. But here's the thing--he didn't like the pillows, so he went back, within 3 days, to that old cruddy one he had, that he likes. (Which, BTW, was down from...god, I don't know how many years ago--a LOT.) I am the one sleeping on the down pillow, so I didn't think about it. After all...my head, not his. BUT, I've known him a long time, and his allergies, once they start, are highly sensitive. I can only think that the down, being mere inches from his head, was too much.

I do hope it's the pillows and not the sheets. I'd give up my down pillows a lot more cheerfully than the sheets---especially since there's no way to know WHAT in the sheets--the fabric washing, the weaving, etc.--caused this. I mean, 100% cotton. Period. It would make me very neurotic about sheet buying in the future!

Anyone here not able to use down, who've found GOOD alternatives? Is buckwheat really that fab? Anyone know?

Hitch

[Toxaris]

Originally Posted by Hitch

As some of you may know, Mr. Hitch has had a damn tough year, coming up on 14 months, now. He's still here (hooray!).

About...4 months ago, he started having problems with his sinuses. Constantly stuffed up, then dry, then runny, then dry...just a major hassle. Now, he's had various types of hay fever/allergies as long as I've known him, and we thought it was that, when the olive trees down in the Valley bloom, as they do every year.

However, time passed, and the sinuses didn't clear up. Doc finally gives him an antibiotic, for "infected sinuses," even though I grumbled at the time that it OBVIOUSLY was not that. No result. It's so bad, that as it gets worse--which it keeps doing, mind you, as time passes--he literally can't sleep--he keeps getting up, too congested to breathe, and he has to sleep sitting up in a gigantic leather King chair we have in the living room. Poor bastard. I mean...geeze.

More miserable months go by. We start getting pretty damn desperate, by yesterday, because he's just MISERABLE. Nose is running like Usain Bolt, his head is pounding, and so on. We start REALLY thinking--what could it be? I even look at a hair product I've been using, which is fundamentally Argan oil, which is distantly related to the Olive tree. We think of the cats (oh, please, no..I'd have to seriously think that one over...) and a bunch of other wild things.

Then I remember--I'd switched to new sheets, some months back. I tend to change fabrics and weight, as the months go by...heavier cotton in the fall and spring, lightest-weight cotton or linen in the summer, flannels in the winter. I'd purchased some high-thread-count (500-600) sheets--two sets--during Peacock Alley's last big sale, last winter. BUT, because Mr. Wonderful's pillow was utterly disgusting, I'd also acquired some Cuddledown pillows, all-down. No feathers, no foam; down.

So...last night, I change the sheets back to a cheapy (well, not really. Just..not quite as nice) set I had, and knew he'd slept on, a year back, and found older non-down pillows (or down from a completely different source, that we'd slept on before without the Geyser of Snot)...and today, he's just FINE. FINE.



So, we have to figure out, is it the down pillows, or the Italian cotton sheets? I mean, COTTON, for ****s sake!

S***sky. I mean, really. So, I've made poor old Mr. Hitch suffer--unnecessarily--for MONTHS. He's actually being really good about it--he's had problems finding out what thing(s) he had an allergic reaction to, since he was a child, and he had to undergo all these shot tests, for two YEARS (so bad were the allergies that the military wouldn't take him during VN), so he's pretty sanguine about the fact that his wife put him on nice, smooth, soft sheets that tried to give him anaphylactic shock...(j/k).

SIGH. Somebody at the donation place is going to be VERY DAMN HAPPY.

My paean to nice sheets:

Spoiler:

I confess, it's one place where I spend money, is on bedding. We do, after all, spend a chunk of our lives in bed, and as you get older...well, that comfort can be more necessary than luxury. I'll drive a car until it's ratty with age, and limping along, because I'm just CHEAP, but bedding? Nunh-uh. I want to sleep on very, very nice sheets and soft lovely pillows. I don't think it's too much to ask for, given that I'm not wild with money everywhere else. But now...now I have to worry that he'll have a reaction to ALL new sheets. I can see me now, buying polyester sheets. Yuck. In AZ, man, cotton or linen is the ONLY way to go. Even blowing the AC full-tilt boogie, it's 78-79F inside, at night...none of that lovely 68F that people always recommend. So, lightweight sheets, natural fibers, are a MUST. I'm really hoping it's my pillow. I could try something like...buckwheat, I guess? Or those artificial down pillows? Yick.

Hitch, Archduchess of the County of Allergy, Sea Island of Cotton (sob)

I actually had to look up what a down pillow is. Since I know now, I agree that this very well might be the culprit, it sounds much more logical than cotton sheets. We use pillows stuffed with silk. Our quilt/comforter (I hope that is right, I had to Google translate the word) is also stuffed with silk. It is hypoallergenic and, as a bonus, we can use it both during winter and summer. Somehow its warm in the winter and still comfortable during the summer.

[cromag]

Originally Posted by Hitch

...
Anyone here not able to use down, who've found GOOD alternatives? Is buckwheat really that fab? Anyone know?

Hitch

I have used buckwheat hull pillows for about 18 years, now, and I really, really like them, but they are not for everyone. In particular, my wife cannot understand how I manage to sleep on one.

A good pillow will ship fully stuffed and you can remove some of the filling if you need to. I keep mine fully stuffed. The pillow really doesn't provide much cushioning -- I compare it to sleeping on a bag of BBs. I make a slight depression for my head and I'm good -- I'm not one of those people who moves around much during sleep.

One drawback is that you cannot wash it -- the buckwheat hulls wouldn't do well in the laundry -- so, after a few years, it's time to get a new one. And good ones aren't really cheap. You can get replacement hulls to refill the pillow, but I've never done that (check Amazon).

Also, we have a king-sized bed and when I got my current pillow, almost 2 years ago, I got a king-sized pillow. Up until then I'd used a much smaller twin-sized pillow. The king-sized pillow is much bigger than I need, and a lot more trouble to get into a pillowcase -- the smaller one was really all I needed. I'll keep that in mind for next time.

Anyway, if you're interested in trying one out I'd recommend that you buy a smaller sized pillow to try out. You might find that you don't need a big one.

[Luffy]

Thanks Hitch, for sharing this story with us. I really like your political rants. But this one was special. Not that I'm glad of your husbands misadventures, but I'm simply grateful for this type of sharing.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Hitch

I'd also acquired some Cuddledown pillows, all-down. No feathers, no foam; down.

99% - it's the pillows. Ummm... you do know that down is essentially feather? It's the just soft under-feathers, not the rougher exterior feathers.