Today is Friday and I don't work on Fridays. Well I don't get paid for the work I do on Friday at least. Usually Fridays are put aside for catching up on all the stuff I don't get done at home while I'm out getting paid to work. But I also have Henry at home with me on Fridays. I love that about Fridays but it also means I'm limited in what I can actually get done. I've learned to compartmentalise and prioritise my Friday. I usually decide what I'm going to do for the day soon after I wake up. I dream about the list of things that need taking care of in the early hours while I'm drifting in and out of sleep and then while drinking my first cup of tea I mull over them all. Usually I've made a final decision by the time I take the last sip.
This morning, while mulling through the list in my mind I decided I wanted to do something that would have a visually appealing end to it. The pile of bills, while they would be able to be filed once they were paid would simply make my bank statement ugly. The pile of clean washing had only grown over the week and while it might get put away if I folded it, it would grow just as large by the end of the day. I could dust and vacuum but it seemed pointless because the dust never disappears, it just moves up into the air and then settles again somewhere else. I walked outside to say good morning to the world and took a look at the state of the garden. I knew then that I was going to at least make an effort to do something about it.
Normally I try to achieve only two things on Friday. That's realistic for me considering I have Henry at home with me. If I think I can do more than that and don't manage it I get frustrated. So I decided it would be the gardening and the folding of the clean washing and if I can complete only those two things I will feel a sense of achievement.
I'm a lazy gardener. I like gardens but I don't have the time to do anything too creative or to dig weeds all day. I like to do things the easy way. My garden was looking more like a weedbed than a garden and the few actual plants that are in it all look a bit sick. Never mind, I thought. I'll just break that job down into smaller parts too. I'll get weed matting and then some mulch and that should do it.
I went online to find the contact details for our local lanscape supply place. I was going to call them to see firstly if they stocked weed matting and secondly how much it was per metre. Their website told me all I needed to know. They had it in stock and it was $1.80 per metre. I put Henry in the car and off we went. Less than a five minute drive from home and we were there.
I told the young but friendly looking girl at the counter that I was there for some weed matting. The following conversation ensued.
Her: Yeah we've got some, it's $2.95 per metre
Me: oh. But the website says it's $1.80 per metre
Her: Yeah, that's our internet price. You have to order it online to get it at that price.
Me: So if I go home now and order it online for $1.80 per metre can I pick it up or does it have to be delivered?
Her: No, you can pick it up.
Me: So when I come back to collect it will you cut it from this same roll?
Her: Yeah. That's just our special way of doing it. It's just different, you know.
Me: (acting as though I completly understood) Yeah, I know. Ok. I'll go home and order it and be back in ten minutes.
Her: (looking quite daft) uh, ok, sure.
I don't think she believed that I would do it but I did. I drove the three minutes back home, ordered it and paid for it online and returned to her store with the order in less than ten minutes.
She had seen me pull up and as I walked through the door she was obviously telling her work colleague that I was the woman who had gone home to place an online order. She rolled her eyes as I walked in and handed her a print off of my order. She tsked and then stormed outside and without measuring, cut me what she obviously guessed was five metres of weed matting. She then scrunched it up and practically threw it at me.
I thanked her profusely, being sure to sound completely over the top and appreciative of the fact that she had gone out of her way to help me. She stormed off back into the protective confines of her air conditioned demountable office.
I didn't quite have enough to complete the garden but what I have done looks so much better and almost as though someone actually cares about it. I haven't yet started on the pile of clean washing but I'm thinking it might be just as easy to burn it.
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2 comments:
Love it!!! Michael says "way to go, save $5.75 and piss off a moron at the same time, doesn't get better than that".
Yeah. It became more about the fact that she was stupid than it did about saving $5.75. They also sell mulch for $38.00 per cubic metre online but if you just drive in, it's $58.00 per cubic metre. The only difference is that you just pay for it online and then pick it up as opposed to paying them when you get to the store.
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