Ok already, enough with the rain, Arizona is turning green, and I’m just tired of it. We know the temperatures overnight drop off, at sunset the cold comes in, but I don’t know all this moisture, we have never seen the desert greener, oh we had heard about it, the green, the desert flowers, but we had never seen it. But we have noticed it this trip, almost every trip into the desert there is a layer of small green plants we have never seen before. The west coast has been hit by one storm after another, Southern California had road closures because of snow, and like we are day six of Winter!

Who would have guessed Goderich Ontario would have been the same temperature as Ajo Arizona this morning? Well not I! And as much as I see it is, I still don’t have to like it, I know it’s just a temporary thing, but it is a thing that I am about over with…just saying. And with only five more days in Why before we move, I have one more project that I need to tackle, I can handle the cooler temperatures but I need a little more warmth to tackle it, so maybe on the weekend as today is our last day of rain for about ten days, but we are moving on the first of January, so I’m starting to get a little squeezed for time.

So because it’s not going to be a productive day at the camp site today, so we are heading to the organ pipe Cactus national monument to see the effects of the rain on this area of the desert.

The desert is alive with plants springing to life every where…I’ve seen freshly seeded lawn that weren’t this green and lush, there is water falling down the sides of the mountains, there are little streams of water in many of the smaller washes, just to hear the sound of running water is the desert was an amazing thing. This is not the harshness that I remember from two years ago, we hiked into archway canyon, to find the green beauty that is the desert today, it is amazing how a little water makes everything thing come to life.

Yes as much as the weather has not totally cooperated today, it has made the national monument even more spectacular, by highlighting even more of its beauty, yes this was truly a day well wasted.

Our big Canadian Boxing Day sales that are so common back in Canada, do not exist in the States, similarly the Black Friday sales are an American created event. So unless the area has a lot of Canadian snowbirds, there is no mention of Boxing Day. Boxing Day is a statutory holiday in Canada, but here in America the day after Christmas is a holiday for very few, just a couple states celebrate it as a holiday, and any sales are just the day after Christmas sales. Similar to the Black Friday sales where people line up to get some great deals this happens on the 26th of December in Canada, people are lined up at stores that open early in the morning with door crasher items with heavily reduced prices.

This was the explanation of Boxing Day that I grew up with: Boxing Day was traditionally a day off for servants and the day when they received a ‘Christmas Box’ from the master. The servants would also go home on Boxing Day to give ‘Christmas Boxes’ to their families. Whether it is factual or not, this was always the story that we were told as kids and with Canada’s relation with the United Kingdom it would certainly make sense, and I’m pretty sure my grandparents would not have intentionally lied to me as a kid…just saying.

Boxing Day and the sales were never my thing, so it will not be missed by me, in fact the day after Christmas was often a day with extended family as Christmas Day was usually much quieter and more intimate event. We really don’t miss the rush that was Christmas, weather was always a concern, and then there was all the over eating at big prepared dinners for multiple days in a row, oh the food was always good, there was just too much food.

But similar to the Black Friday sales that last a week or longer our Boxing Day has become Boxing Week so the sales lasted into the first of the new year, it was while looking into prices on door buster electronics that have such a cheap pricing that I became aware of the fact that many companies make a special product that while is cheaper than the regular ones and also has less features than the regular product. When I purchased my previous big screen TV I became aware of all the different models, often produced for each seller. The TV you buy at Costco may have a different model number or code than the one sold at your local furniture store, and may have different features, not big differences that most people would never notice unless you were looking for it.

So we are back to if it seems too good to be true, it probably is. It’s usually just minor features not missed by most unless it’s one you really want. So my warning to you is a 50” big screen at one store may have different features that a 50” big screen at the store across the road, even though it’s the same make just check the model code. This is an even bigger concern with computers on big sale events, but this practice is found with most electronic items, so be aware and know what you are buying, and good luck doing your research.