Boxing Day In Woodstock

Boxing Day, the day after Christmas, is one of those holidays we don't share with the USA. It seems to be confined to some Commonwealth nations and its origin has been subject to much speculation.

We got up late this morning but had a mission to accomplish. Unlike Sudbury, where shopping is prohibited on Boxing Day (giving rise to much acrimonious debate from both sides), Woodstock finds itself in the 21st Century and Boxing Day sales are the norm. This is probably the closest thing to Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, in the US.

Tom was already up and lined up at Staples when I got up at 7:30. He was trying to nab one of a limited number of Acer Netbooks advertised in their flyer. That left it up to Heather and I to get to Canadian Tire before it opened at 9:00 AM to get two motorcycle lifts on sale for half price. It was damp and cold as we picked up the CTC flyer from Tom, where he was well positioned near the front of the line.

There were about twenty people lined up at the Crappy Tire store when we arrived at 8:45. The line built quickly but, other than one guy in a CMC vest ahead of us, nobody else looked like bikers. When the doors opened, there was no stampede like seen in the Black Friday videos. True to Canadian style, we were very orderly as we filed in. Unfortunately, this store has an unusual layout and we didn't scope it out before Christmas, so it took a while to find the lifts. In fact, I saw a guy with one in a cart and he pointed me down an aisle saying there was only one left. One left? Maybe they only had two. We grabbed the sole remaining lift and then Heather went to look for a trouble light that was on sale. Imagine our amazement when we saw cart after cart carrying lifts. There was even one grey haired lady who looked like she was 70 pushing one. I blame myself for making the same mistake as Custer at Little Big Horn. Always scout the territory in advance.

We got the lift back home to find that Tom had been successful in his Netbook quest. Lucky for him he only needs one lift next summer for maintenance. The second one was so that both bikes could be stored off the ground. He has almost a whole year to find another sale.

We spent the day watching the recorded Big Bang Theory marathon. I hadn't seen most of Season One so these were new to me, but I enjoy the show so much I don't mind watching reruns. I also got some work done on the blog, which is way behind. The rest of the day was pretty quiet, with the last while spent packing and getting ready to head for home tomorrow.