Saturday, March 24, 2012

Wildflowers and Stinkers

We are going out this afternoon to look for wildflowers.  This is supposed to be a banner year for them.  It was such a hot dry year last year the wildlower experts weren't sure what was going to happen.  It was an exceptionally hot and dry summer and fall last year.

Hope to be  back later with pretty flower pictures.  I'd told my husband about this pretty one I'd seen in a construction area where I figured there would not be any wildflowers.  The news just said it is called "bastard cabbage" and is taking over in Texas.  It has dense low growing foliage that shades out other wildflowers.  It is a real problem and from that article sounds like it is as much fun as kudzu is in other parts of the country.


On another note I thought I'd found an answer to the broken back and my love for ironed sheets. While stopping for a Subway sandwich one afternoon I saw the cleaners down a couple of doors away. When I asked if they did sheets and they said yes. The cost was about $11, she thought and that was what it was with the first set of queen size sheets I took in. I'd gotten behind on ironing the durn things because it is such a hassle to iron a king size sheet (sort of like ironing a circus tent), and the kids had been here recently so there were more than just ours to get caught up. When I went to pick up some queen size yesterday they told me it would be $39!?! They had no idea why, but only charged the $11 it had been before. I don't know what to do, but to try to get an firm estimate from them and other cleaners before taking them in. None of the websites have a listing for prices for dry cleaning or laundry. It is a market they could probably optimize if they were smart.  Maybe it is a continuation of the discrimination against women.  It costs much more for a woman to get a shirt laundered than a man and I have no idea why.  That stinks!




5 comments:

  1. NO! No, no, no!! Someone is watching dry cleaners, or WERE a few years back. I took a pleated dress of my daughters to the cleaners...white with tiny red pola dots on it, self belt and tiny pleats all the way around the skirt. The buttons on the dress were tiny red roses...when we got the dress back, (it was just some sort of cotton..nothing of unknown material) the dress was ruined. It was a hundred dollar dress and she only wore it the one time..it was brand new. When we picked it up, the rose buttons were GONE, the pleats had all been ironed completely out of the dress..and it looked horrible!!
    We began checking and found that dry cleaners are governed by some sort of place that decides what is fair and not fair. They made the cleaners give back the full price of that dress. Washing and drying a pair of sheets... It cannot cost any $39.00!!! Check into it. research and lodge a complaint!! The squeaky wheel gets the oil.
    Make your voice heard!!! :)
    Good luck and let me know what you find out. If they didn't make you pay that amount..insist on speaking to the owner or manager..or go to a more reasonable place..and save your reciept!! I hope you did..because I would take in another pair and show them the receipt and insist on that price..which is much more fair.

    Hugs,
    Mona

    ReplyDelete
  2. I agree with Mona or if that fails, just get the wrinkle free sheets. Pull them out of the dryer in time and they really are wrinkle free.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I only buy supposedly wash and use anything. My iron is rusting in a closet. But we are not too fussy. Casual wear is the mode here. And no body sees my sheets.

    However, I do fold them as soon as the dryer stops and use lots of softener and dryer softening sheets, too.

    That is highway robbery. Unbelievably I bet they don't wanna do sheets.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I didn't pay $39.00 to the "robbers". They gave me the sheets for the $11.00. We were then on the lookout for another establishment. I talked with the owner of another of that chain and she said the one by my house sends the laundry to her store. She was speechless they didn't have a price sheet and couldn't give me a solid price.

    I love the feel of an ironed sheet and have been doing the ironing for years, but the arthritis has made it too hard to lift the durn things, and to stand long enough to get them right. I know it is silly, but it is a luxury I'm willing to pay, but not $39!!

    Mona,
    I had a similar experience long ago when I was in high school. My cool aunt gave me a sweet skirt and westkit set in pale yellow. It was SO COOL. My family didn't have a log of money at all and I attended a high school with a lot of the elite families' kids.

    When it came back from the cleaners the vest was ruined from a stain from another item of dark clothing. My mother argued with them and got some money, but the cool factor died that day. Isn't it odd how we remember things like that after so many years.

    I'll get my sheets ironed for a reasonable price and will hang on to my reciepts for dear life.

    ReplyDelete
  5. That should read "a lot of money"!!

    ReplyDelete