Lee Valley Tools is a bad store. A very, very, bad store. Because it’s hard to not spend too much money on too many things that I didn’t know I didn’t need. I rarely come out of there unscathed. Today I went to pick up a single item for a Secret Santa gift exchange later next week.
When I went to pick it up, the woman behind the counter flipped through order sheets after asking my last name….”Amelia?” she asked.
“No, but that’s my cousin’s name” I replied.
“Oh, probably someone else” she said.
“Probably not” I replied.
Amelia Ackerman is about as common a name as Paige Ackerman.
A quick text:
“Hey, did you order something for pickup at Lee Valley?”
“I did. Why?”
Too funny, but a reasonable assumption, all things considered.
Our uncle (her father’s other brother) often says that some families have distance between them, but a hurricane could blow through our family unnoticed. There is some truth to that. I haven’t seen my cousin for a few years and we live in the same general geographical region. Funny that something like picking up an order at Lee Valley would precipitate a brief exchange.
I can browse this store for hours; I love the hardware, the tools, the cool things they bring in seasonally. And the displays of the really cool things that they have plans and patterns for, and that you can take classes to learn how to make – also cool. Like this amazing mask someone made and which was displayed in a glass case near the entrance.
I walked out with the puzzle I ordered, with a Slinky I desperately wanted last year and didn’t get, and some funky stretchy covers to replace the use of plastic cling wrap – one for us and one for a gift for someone else.
But at least I kept it under a hundred dollars for a change.
4 comments
You missed the pack of 5 “disposable” jackknives for $15! I didn’t
Ha ha ha!