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Duane's Squishy Adjustable Bed

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This campaign has reached its goal thanks to kind and generous donors like you.

For those who still want to donate using PayPal to help with moving costs and bills that are being paid at two places, I have a PayPal account that I shared with my mother:

https://www.paypal.me/RandomTerrain

Thanks!

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My mother died on February 15, 2017 (about an hour and a half after Valentine's Day) at the age of 70.  Here's one of our favorite photos of her about a month before she died:


Her death is one of the main reasons why we are moving. The whole family revolved around my mom. My sister is trying to fill in and help as much as possible, but it's not going to work with her living even farther away. We have to be closer to her new job.

Since the Fall of 2006, I had my own side of the house and my mother and my stepfather had the other side. I usually ended up buying most of the groceries every month. I also mowed the yard and did other things they couldn't do. I have Asperger's Syndrome (autism spectrum disorder) with learning disabilities that make it difficult to live alone. I get temporary blind spots and forget that things exist or I can forget to do things for days. For example, if I had a pet and lived alone, I might forget to feed it for a week, then I'd suddenly remember that I have a pet. I'm like an absentminded genius without the genius part. Because I'm highly distractible and I basically see like a person with one eye, I don't drive and I don't have a driver's license.

I had my own bathroom and two bedrooms connected by a rectangular opening in the middle (like an archway without an arch), so it was almost like having one long bedroom. One room had my bed and computer/recliner setup, and the other room had a small table to eat on, a small refrigerator , TV,  closet (storage wardrobe from Big Lots), dresser from Big Lots, and so on.

My sister lived about 18 miles away; not so bad for visiting a couple times a week, but she got a new job 90 miles away and that's just too far. She wanted to move to a new place and have me and my stepfather move in with her so we'd all be under one roof and it would be easier for everybody.

We searched for months. Every house for rent was either horrible or snatched up before we could even see it, so we were lucky to finally find an apartment that was large enough for 3 people. The place is only about 5 minutes from her job and just about every store we might need to shop at is 5 to 10 minutes away. A big change from the 30 to 45 minute drive we had to make for years just to get to a Walmart or a Food Lion. Having a smaller room will be hard to get used to after over a decade, but at least I won't have to sit in a car for a million years if I want to buy something at a grocery store.

My mother and stepfather got a little chunk of money near the end of 2011 and bought stuff for themselves and family members. They bought a certain number of things at hhgregg. I don't remember why; maybe hhgregg was having a sale. My mother talked me into getting a full size adjustable bed instead of a twin. Big mistake. I've had to side step between the bed and my chair ever since, which increases the chances of spraining my left ankle (the one that loves to turn sideways for the fun of it).

I thought hhgregg had every Serta bed, but I later found out that they didn't. They had one with a cool layer on top that was a little stiff and a super-squishy one that was perfect for my legs and elbows, but the cool layer was UNDER a hot layer.  They said we could return the beds for any reason, "no questions asked," so I got the super-squishy mattress and adjustable foundation.

I loved how squishy the mattress was, but it was hotter than any bed I ever slept on. (I finally went to the actual Serta web site and saw that they had another squishy mattress with the cool layer on top, but of course, hhgregg didn't sell that one.) After arguing with hhgregg for what seemed like weeks, they finally let us return the mattress, but not the adjustable foundation, so I was stuck with the full size. I had to get the stiffer mattress with the cool layer on top. My legs and elbows were not happy, but at least it didn't feel like I was sleeping on the world's hottest bed.

The adjustable foundation had a vibration feature. It was helpful when my right side would start hurting, but that feature quit working. Then I couldn't trust that the top and bottom of the bed would move up and down properly, so I set it with the top slightly up for my mild sleep apnea and to keep the contents of my stomach from shooting up and entering my lungs and I haven't tried to adjust it since then. Although I need to put my legs up sometimes for swelling, I don't want the adjustable foundation folding me in half or getting stuck with my legs pointed at the ceiling.

So I've been stuck with an uncomfortable bed for about 6 years that is also too large and has a faulty foundation. Now that I'm moving to an apartment that has an even smaller room, this would be the perfect time to buy a smaller bed that is adjustable, super-squishy AND cool (and have it delivered straight to the new place). Why pay people to move my semi-broken huge heavy bed when I never liked it, I don't have room for it, and it's about time to get a new one anyway (according to the Internet)?

Seems like the Serta Twin XL Blue Max 3000 Elite Plush bed with a Serta Motion Essentials adjustable foundation is the perfect bed for me. The set costs around $3,000. I rounded up to $3,500 to help pay for any taxes and fees. The XL part will mean that my feet will no longer hang off the bottom of the bed.

Although I'll finally be living in the middle of civilization and will have the chance to go to the store more often, when I'm not doing the laundry and random stuff like that, most of my time will still be spent in my room. I'll be doing the bills/receipts, working on my web site in general, working on things like the Atari 2600 video game release date pages,  updating the batari Basic page, making example programs for the batari Basic page, trying to make my own batari Basic games that might be sold in the Atari Age store to help pay for my subscription, and so on.  A twin bed will help me move around better in my new smaller room (every inch of free space matters) and getting a better night's sleep on a high-quality super-squishy cool bed should help me become more productive and maybe a little less irritable.

I'm also getting my gallbladder taken out on January 11th of 2018 and that new cool super-squishy bed sure would make my two weeks of recovery a more pleasant experience.

Then there's something that people usually don't like to talk about. I'm in my 50s, my grandmother died of cancer in her 50s, and my mother died of a cancerous brain tumor at 70, so this really could be my last bed. I hope it isn't, but it could be. If you can make what might be my last bed the best bed I've ever slept on, I'd greatly appreciate it.

Oh yeah, to avoid damaging your eyes with a photo of me today, here's a photo of me when I was around 3 years old (probably in 1968), back when I was cute:


I was doing  what I do best, shoving food in my mouth.

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Donations 

  • Robert Tuccitto
    • $100 
    • 6 yrs
  • Andrew Davie
    • $262 (Offline)
    • 6 yrs
  • Anonymous
    • $5 (Offline)
    • 6 yrs
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Organizer

Duane Alan Hahn
Organizer
Pleasant Garden, NC

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