Friends

25 June 2017

IRKSOME STUFF!

The new iPhone has caused me more angst than anything I’ve ever known. And it’s not as if I’m a stranger to them. I’ve lost count how many years I had the other one and right from the start I sailed through like someone born to be iPhone queen. Still, I guess even queens have their problems.
Thankfully, I have Luke. He is the odd job boy young man who comes once a week to do - odd jobs. I don’t know how I would have coped without him especially as he has a memory similar to the one I could brag about not so many years ago. I lost all recollection of one of my passwords so I sent him a text pleading for assistance. He didn’t need to come to the house, he knew it after only hearing it once. Hmmm, shouldn’t we avoid people like that?!
So, Luke saved the day once again. My friend, Judy, is asking if I can spare him one day to sort out her IT affairs. Gerroff! Sorry, matey, he’s mine and mine alone, anyway he lives too far away from you.  
I know you’ll be fed-up listening to my IT problems so I’ll move to the subject of furniture.
But first, the painful back.
After suffering for years the back has finally decided that ongoing pain is something I have to put up with. Except now it’s worse than ever, until … I’m always happy when there’s an ‘until’….
After Joe died I took over his chair, one of those that recline at the press of a button. It once belonged to my aunt and when she died it came to us.
It struck me that after a few sessions with legs extended my back would feel some sort of relief. Wrong. The pain worsened. Something had to be done other than constant visits to my chiropractor. Getting personal now….
A few pushes and prods in the painful area had me realising that tummies are meant to be held in. Not so in my case, I could only hold mine in by pressing hands FIRMLY. There was no way I could hold tummy in without help yet when it was helped the pain disappeared. That decided me to purchase some girdles… not hefty things like women wore in olden days, but with enough pressure to hold the tummy firm. It seemed to work in the shop but after a few hours the pain was agonising. Now they look pretty in the drawer where they will probably spend a few months or years.
One day, in desperation I flopped onto the sofa, a piece of furniture that I never used, and stayed there for a couple of hours until I realised the pain had lessened.
AND THEN IT DAWNED ON ME – the problem wasn’t with the tummy, it was the
Picture taken where chair now rests,
on patio.
Sunlight seemed to remove the
lovely green colour but not in real life. 
damn chair all the time. Close inspection made me see the reason. The padded upholstery was all wrong. The back of the chair was designed to look attractive, but the middle of its design was a receding square panel much deeper than the rest. And that was where the painful spine rested, day in, day out. No wonder it got worse. The picture cannot portray the depth of the annoying section but I promise you it is quite an indentation. Oh my poor back!
The chair had to go.
Luke called round and shifted everything to where I wanted it and the culprit chair was put out on the patio until such time as it can properly be disposed of.
Brilliant.
It’s not easy to get rid of furniture but he has a friend with a van who, he thinks, might dispose of it for me. I am still waiting to see if anything transpires with the friend with a van!
You will have worked out by now that Luke is a godsend, in more ways than one although I have my doubts about the friend with the van.
I still have the spine problem but it’s nothing like as painful. Now, if it starts up I sit down for a while until the pain goes away and of course there is still my lovely chiropractor to see me through. 

20 comments:

  1. Luke sounds like a wonderfully helpful young man. Glad you got your password back and sorted out your painful back. I am looking very suspiciously at our bed these days. The mattress feels like a rock, and although we are supposed to benefit from a firm one, I have my doubts :)

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  2. You have me wishing I had a 'Luke' now. I really hate bugging my son for IT all the time. I have been eyeing my recliner suspiciously, too. It has seen a whole lot of abuse and even the seat part is getting lumpy. I only recline when I have to put my feet up, would prefer to just sit and put up the feet but the chair puts me at an odd angle then. I dislike getting used to new, but I think it's time.

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  3. Denise, take my advice and stick with the firmer mattress. I regret going into a softer one. I fell for a part memory-foam and part something else but I can't keep changing so I'm stuck with it, at least for a while.

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  4. Valerie, so glad to hear that you were able to figure out the issue with the chair and your back, and had Luke there to move it to your outside patio. Btw, that chair looks in such great shape, almost brand new!

    Luke definately sounds like a godsend. So happy to know that you have someone there to help out around the house. And I have a feeling that he will come through with his friend with the van.

    LOVE the photo of Charlie on your phone screen. He's got such an adorable face!

    I was thinking of upgrading my phone to a newer model several weeks ago (because I spotted one on sale) but decided not to because my current phone is still working well. Isn't it something how you get comfortable with technical gadgets, that it's hard to get used to something new?

    Hope you're having a delightful Sunday, my friend!

    X to you and Charlie

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  5. I was having trouble with my back and our mattress made it worse. We bought a new mattress and life is better.

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  6. Nothing like a bad chair that makes pain even worse. I hope you feel better with it out of the way. And good to have people to help you around the house. Warm greetings!

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  7. SJQ. My chair had my legs and back at an odd angle, so it must be a common thing with them. I wouldn't recommend them to anyone now.

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  8. Good evening, Ron. The chair was reasonably new when we got it. My aunt, who had it first, wasn't the sort to knock things about. She and I are alike, every day I do something and remember that was the way she did it, consequently the chair is still in good nick.

    Charlie seems to get more adorable every day although sometimes he freaks out and I don't know why. Something in his past, I reckon.

    I would definitely think twice about updating a a phone unnecessarily. If you are comfortable with it, why spoil it by having to download stuff you already had. ?

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  9. Janet, it's a good job you changed before things got worse. Hope everything continues to be fine from now on.

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  10. Blogoratti, I do feel better now, thank you, leastways the pain has lessened dramatically although there will always be a problem in that area.

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  11. Luke sounds like a true blessing! I had a similar neck problem with our old sofa. I work from the sofa all day, too, so I'm sitting there a LOT! The one I Have now has better support.

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  12. I guess Luke lives too far away from me too :( Chairs can be the most frustrating things, especially for us shorter humans. The back hits us all wrong. I have to put pillows in the seat to raise me up higher. The top of the seat is usually filled to capacity with fluff which shoves our head forward. My current chair is over 20 years old but I finally have it comfortable enough.

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  13. Thanks for the advice Valerie, I'll stay put on the mattress then :)

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  14. Hi Stephanie, nice to meet you. I do hope your new sofa continues to be the better sitting area. Trouble with all this is being unable to give new furnishings a twelve month test! What seems fine in the store often proves to be useless in the home.

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  15. kden, I guess I could ask Luke if wants to go abroad but the worry would be in case he said yes. What would I do then? When I started this post I imagine I would be the only one in the world with a problem but's proving to be a false notion.

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  16. Furniture can cause all kinds of aches and pains. I sometimes think office stools are among the worst offenders, even when I was young the things used to give me a backache. I was always puzzled becuase I had thought they were expressly designed NOT to do that, but to help your back feel better. Oh well... :D

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  17. Jenny, it seems designers have got it wrong. Perhaps those of us in the know should get together and design our own!!

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  18. I smiled when reading the post about your phone, Valerie, as I faced a similar issue this week when we replaced our cordless phone system. The older unit was only 2-years old but one of the phones no longer had a ring sound and the speakerphone function was also gone.The new system took a full half day to re-enter numbers in the directory, rename the 2 units and still working on some quirks. Glad you sorted out the cause of your back problems and hopefully the chair can be passed along to another home.

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  19. Blogorratti, the chair is still with me, but it resides on the patio awaiting some developments. I keep forgetting it's there!

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  20. Beatrice, I typed a list of all my numbers to make it easier.... so I thought. However, most of the numbers were saved this time because the sim card was still intact from the old phone. Phew, was I pleased!

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