Product Updates

My friend, author Jason Deas, asked me how we like the Lunix LX3 cordless electric hand massager we ordered from Amazon a while back, and I told him it does an excellent job and Terry loves it and uses it all the time. I like it, too, but my wrists are so thick that I can’t get my hands in all the way. I lack about 1/2 inch to get the full effect, but it still feels great.

That got me thinking I should do a blog post about some of the other products we have purchased that people have asked me about. One was the model 510 Golden Chair powered recliner that I bought to replace my La-Z-Boy that literally fell apart. I have had several recliners over the years, and this one is absolutely the very best by far. Is it super comfortable and can be adjusted any way you want to make it comfortable for your specific needs, including zero gravity if you have back issues as I do.

Another chair that I’ve been using for a couple of years now is the Lifeform Ultimate Executive chair I use at my desk. Again, between my newspaper career and my work as an author, I have gone through a lot of office chairs in my time. I have been using the Lifeform for over two years now, and although it was expensive, it has been worth every penny I paid for it. I spend anywhere from 6 to 8 and sometimes even 10 hours a day working at my desk for days on end, though I do get up and move around from time to time. With other chairs I have used, sitting that long was painful and I could hardly stand after a long writing session. But not with this one. It has done wonders in helping to reduce my back pain. The only drawback to it is that it is very large and very heavy, so it’s not something you can just get up and push out of the way, even though it is mounted on rollers.

A recent addition is Terry’s Cuisinart ICE-100 ice cream and gelato maker. Terry has only used it once, to make delicious homemade strawberry ice cream, but it’s definitely well worth the money. It takes less than an hour to make a batch of ice cream that will make several servings, and she has found dozens of recipes for all kinds of combinations of frozen treats we can’t wait to try out.

I have read a lot of horror stories in online groups for people who use CPAP machines for sleep apnea and it seems like the majority of people have a terrible time adjusting to them. I was sure I would be among them, but I have been amazed at how easily I adapted to my ResMed AirSense11 machine right from the start. The machine keeps track of my usage data, and except for a very few nights, my overall sleep score has been in the high 90s since I began using it, back in early January. I don’t wake up gasping for breath like I was doing before, and overall, I feel much more rested.

The CPAP machine has a reservoir that you are supposed to fill with distilled water every night. However, we found it was often difficult to find distilled water at our local Publix grocery store. Terry also uses distilled water in her fabric steamer and her AeroGarden, so she ordered a Megahome countertop water distiller from Amazon. It takes up quite a bit of space on the kitchen counter, but it does a very good job, and now we have all the distilled water we need.

It was amazing to us that even though we use a water filtration system at our house, the bottom of the reservoir is always filled with gunk and minerals removed from the water through the distilling process. Terry has to clean it after every use. I can’t imagine what it would be like if we were using straight tap water.

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us. This seems like it might be a nice community to spend some time in.

Congratulations Mary Baughman, winner of our drawing for an audiobook of Undone, the first book in my friend Jason Deas’ Burt Bigsley mystery series. We had 21 entries this time around. Stay tuned, a new contest starts soon.  Note: Due to the high shipping cost of printed books and Amazon restrictions on e-books to foreign countries, only entries with US addresses and e-mail addresses are allowed.

Thought For The Day – Of all the things I’ve lost, I miss my metabolism the most.