Blow Out

Hard to write about exciting developments when the biggest news is the air leak from the double-height inflatable bed (19" high - just like a regular bed 'n boxspring). Aaaah, that small hissing noise that means you're rapidly 19" closer to the hardwood floor. Always on the flocked part so a patch (we've tried duct tape, shipping tape, packing tape, a vinyl patch from REI, a bicycle tube patch, and crazy glue) doesn't work. When it happens, and you can trust my expertise on this as we've just tossed away Inflat-a-Bed #5, it's a pretty amusing sight. The bed's inhabitants look like they're in a hammock as the butt sinks to the floor but there's still enough air to keep legs well elevated. Not at all comfortable, but pretty darn funny. Unless it's you, then it's less funny.

But that's a small issue in the scheme of life, and now that I've got the way to tie bag handles together so the 19.8-lb box can be more comfortably carried home, it's just another $80 +tax. Of course, buying a regular mattress-type bed might have been more cost-effective for what has turned out to so far be almost a year of in-home camping, but then we'd still have to either move it out or toss it out for The Renovation, and then get the real bed built anyway. A mattress on the floor wouldn't work, as we're both too old to climb up out of bed in the middle of the night - but we sure thought about as yet another blow-up bed blew out.

The great news is that wonder-cat, Zoot, had his 18th birthday and is still delighting us with meows and headbutts and cuddles. He seems pleased with the rug Jay found on eBay, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright for the Arizona Biltmore hotel and probably the brightest green we've ever seen. We unrolled it so see how it would look, and he curled right up and seemed delighted that we finally gave him a nap-spot. But, of course, it's now packed away until after (say it with me) The Renovation, when things will get more interesting....