Working Off the Pies

We, who usually avoid shopping on Black Friday like the plague, went shopping on Black Friday. Actually, it was WS's idea. The story unfolds thus:

Thursday, there was a huge Sunday paper supplement on the mailbox that was stuffed silly with flyers for after Thanksgiving sales. Since our vacation back to Kansas, and using the eliptical, treadmill and stationary bikes at the hotel (and Cop Car's gym), I had been wanting one of those pieces as an addition to our home gym. Our home gym consists of a multi-station weight station, plenty of free weights and a stepper. I also use the step on the deck to "run stairs". However, the only cardio/aerobic being the deck stairs doesn't work too well when it is snowing/raining/blazing sun so an addition of one of the previously mentioned pieces. I really enjoyed the elliptical and had been looking at them in the sales flyers ever since.

Thursday's flyers had some real bargains. In fact, there was one so cheap that we couldn't really afford to pass it up - $99 for an elliptical / bike combo. I mentioned it to WS, showed him the flyer, and he agreed that we would go look. There was also an incline bench on sale (I have been using the stepper raised up on part of the weight machine - not a really safe practice) that I wanted to look at. It was only a two day sale, so we had to go on either Friday or Saturday.

It was raining Friday (big surprise, it has done so for dang near 3 weeks - with only a day off every 5th or 6th day), and WS suggested we go shopping then, since it was supposed to dry out this weekend and he had work he wanted to do outside. So we headed out shortly before noon.

The traffic wasn't bad heading up to Manchester. I figured that was because everyone was already at the Mall and the other stores on South Willow (South Willow being THE shopping area of Manchester). Even there, the traffic wasn't too bad, and since we weren't going to the Mall, we had no real troubles finding a parking spot. After looking at the elliptical/bike combo, which seemed rather rickety and basic (I know, what did we expect?), we decided to see what other machines were on sale next door (there are 2 sporting goods store, literally next door to each other).

At the second store there was an extremely large selection. We were asked by a salesperson (who was helping someone else at the time) if we needed any help. At our "just looking," she said to feel free to jump on any of the machines and try them out - a welcome reliefe from the previous place that had signs up not to get on the machines. After touring the models, talking to another sales person about some of the pros and cons of different models, and picking out a couple of likely candidates, we wondered off to look at gloves and scarfs.

We then went to the mall (which wasn't nearly as crowded as we had imagined) to hit up Sears and look at their offerings. Although I didn't expect a large selection, I did expect them to be competitive with their pricing. I was dissappointed though as the type of model we were looking at was a good $100 more, so we went back to the second sporting goods store. Once parked, WS mentioned the incline bench at the first store, so we walked over there and took a look. Upon inspection, it was not what I was looking for, it was more for doing crunches on an incline instead of doing bench presses or flys or anything of the nature I was looking for. So, back to store 2 (we got plenty of exercise just walking between the tow stores - plus an extra shower every trip).

While looking for our original Salesman (we figured he put in the work, he ought to have the commission), we found incline benches more along the lines of what I was looking for. In fact, I had long wanted one that folded flat so that it could be stored against the wall (we have a 10' x 10' workout room, so space is precious). We found one that was perfect and was on sale. Just then, we spied our salesman, called him over and I declared, "THAT is going home with us," pointing to the incline bench, "AND", walking along the machines, "one of those is going too."

After checking to make sure that the elliptical was in stock, he volunteered to shrink wrap the box so it would stay semi-dry on our way home. He was actually surprised that we were going to take it in the rain, but I told him we weren't driving the 30 miles again to pick it up when it was drier.

WS put it together Friday afternoon / evening while I readied its spot. I had to move a dresser into the back room, and the grow light stand to the basement to make room for the machine. Fortunately we had decided on a fairly compact model (there were models there that I swear would not have fit along one entire wall of the room we have).

Yesterday, it was so windy that working outside was not much of an option (45-50 MPH). I did get the wood racks filled and picked up a couple of things that were blowing around outside (pumpkins, the wind was blowing around pumpkins!) I plugged in my Walkman (like an Ipod only different) and took the machine for a spin.

OOOHHH, I'm gonna like having this thing!

Comments

[Wichi Dude]

Sounds like you found what you needed. Hope you enjoy it.