To the crazy guy outside my window & the Hell that is 24 Hour Fitness
Tuesday, October 2nd, 2007Please stop stumbling around, spilling your beer at yelling in some sort of slurry Spanglish. It’s 11:20pm, and I don’t want to listen to this any longer. Perhaps, you say, it’s my fault for living on a noisy street? No, I think it’s time to be quiet. Why don’t you go to the park and spill your beer there? Plus, you can sober up on the walk. I hope you have an iPhone so you can read this blog post out by the curb.
That guy probably wouldn’t bother me, but I made the horrible mistake of going to 24 Hour Fitness, my gym, at 8:30pm. I went to the location that I don’t usually go that is near my house and I was quickly reminded why I never go there. The toilet on a cross-country Greyhound bus would be a significant improvement over the men’s locker room at 24-Hour Fitness, particularly the one on Bryant in the Potrero Shopping Center by Safeway. Previously, I thought the handicapped stall at the Van Ness Avenue location was the worst due to the huge pile of filthy toilet paper with a plunger casually thrown on top, but I think the Potrero one might have it beat. The “pool” at this location has the most unappealing “water” I’ve ever seen. I’m not exactly sure how it gets to be that shade of yellow-green, but I am not about to dive in and find out. Besides, they are always holding a class for seniors that involves bouncing up and down in inflatable floaties so I’m not sure when I would be able to get in.
Google Street View picture of the 24 Hour Fitness in question.
At least I got to read a fifth-hand copy of Vanity Fair that someone left in the recycling bin. Of course, the one interesting article had been torn out so I had to read a lengthly story about Barbaro, the hero horse that almost won the Triple Crown but instead died after surgery for his broken leg didn’t pan out. I noticed today that on the 24 Hr Fitness web site all of the photos say “Photo representative of the club type. Actual club appearance may vary.” That means they Photoshopped out all the used Band-Aids and gum on the floor from all the images.