Today, a strange thing happened to me. Yesterday, I watched LJ wash a king sized comforter in the washing machine and then put it in the dryer and immediately after use it on her bed. All these years I thought you had to take them and have them professionally dry cleaned. So this morning, with my white comforter in dire need of cleaning from dog slobber, stains from raw beef bones hidden in my bed, along with the usual assortment of dog biscuits (yes, I have an unusual diet), I dragged the soiled comforter to the washing machine. The exact washing machine that performed so well just yesterday for the Lovely Jules. Before putting the comforter inside the machine, I turned on the HOT water and put a mixture of detergent and water together and let it fill about 1/2 way up. My next step was to insert the comforter. sounds simple, right? The problem was, only about 2/3 of the comforter would fit inside and now the water in it's effort to fill the tub was overflowing onto my feet. Hmm.... what to do? I truly needed a quick solution. First reaction was to turn the water level to low, to stop the water..........no help. the floods were still coming. Then I turned off the water completely and of course that stopped the water, but the comforter had absorbed the entire contents of the tub and now it weighed a gazilion pounds. Plus it was likely to drip about half of that onto the floor. I had no choice Note, sidebar* LJ likes to keep the water temperature up there pretty high and it was no less than painful to grab the comforter and drag it's drippy ass to the backyard, where I fought it onto the top rail of the fence around the pool, suffering second degree burns all over my hands. . As a side job, now I had to clean up the laundry room floor. What better way was there to use LJ's dirty towels, than to pick up the arrant water. The remainder of suds in the washing machine was useful as a solution for washing them in. Feeling pretty good about the outcome, I put out some emails and phone calls on where to get a replacement comforter.
I was instructed to go to Anna's, Walmart's, Target's, and Steinmart's. Steinmarts was my first stop, With the parking lot mobbed on this Sunday escapade, I pulled into a parking place and walked a good distance to the front door. They must have been giving things away, but I was on a mission. I don't think I've ever purchased a comforter before and guess what. It's NOT fun. I approached a lady that was trying her best to not make eye contact with anyone. I soon found out why. She was straightening up pillows when I approached her. I asked if she could direct me to the comforters. I then interjected that I did not want ruffles, just plain, solid color if you have one? She said, there's only green in solid color. I displayed my dislike for green and she wanted to fight. "How am I supposed to know you don't like green"? I decided that Steinmart was not a good choice for today and left.
Next stop, although I wasn't planning on it, but I passed a Walmart. I pulled in and could hardly find a parking place. As I parked and walked across the parking lot, I was about to enter when I saw a greeter explaining to a lady that could not bring her bird inside. Laughing to myself, I went in and was greeted by a Hispanic lady with a big smile and a nod. With a smile on my face and said to her, "Comforters and bedspreads"? She looked at me and said in her broken English, "When people speak English to me and they talk very fast, I no understand". All the things that went through my mind came together at once and I smiled and put my two hands up to my right cheek and used an inquiring look. With full knowledge of what I now want, she replied, "Oh, TV's, all the way at the end. I nodded, smile and left, headed for the TV department.
I must say that Walmart has a vast sleep department and most of the employees were there sleeping. I found a lady that once again was making herself scarce but tackled her and held her down while I asked for help. I said I wanted a comforter only and everything I see has a bed in a bag type thing where are the plain comforters. I might ad in all fairness that I am not good at finding things. It's just not one of my talents. The kind lady was sort of enjoying herself, since I took her away from stocking. She actually found me a comforter with 2 pillows and it wasn't necessarily ugly. I was kind of gonna buy it. I asked her how much it costs and she started telling to take it 3 isles down and four over and there will be a machine that will read the bar code. She must have recognized that "lost" look on my face and then volunteered to do it for me. Again all the same things went through my head as when the Hispanic lady told me not to speak so fast if I was going to speak in English. Basically, I know I'm at Walmart, but what the hell happened to customer service.... and English? She walked me over to the machine, had a hard time getting it to work and then advised me that it was $99. What happened to "Falling Prices"? I put it down on the floor, the only place I could find that was available and said thank you and began walking away. She yelled after me, don't you want it? I turned and said I was going to Anna's and did.
I arrived at Anna's and found a parking place right at the front door, I thought I'd died and gone to heaven! I walked past an outdoor display where a young lady smiled and said hello in English. I smiled and walked inside. There were 3 employees and several customers browsing around and I immediately approached a young girl and asked for a king sized comforter in a solid color. She told me to follow her, I did. There were full selection of them in assorted colors and they were clearly marked $39.95. I asked if there were anymore that I might be interested in, that are not solid color and she took me to a rather pleasantly designed one in assorted shades of blue, with circles on it, for $19.99. I said I'll take it, do you accept American Express? She said that comes to $21.85 with tax, have a nice day. My only question is, why didn't I go to Anna's first?
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