If you keep up with me at all you know I live across the street from a YMCA. I have joined it about 4 or 5 separate times. They never charge me the start-up fee when I go back, so that's a plus. I once quit to go traveling when I knew I would be gone for several months. I quit because I was upset with the staff members not telling some of the patrons to get off the machines if they were not using them. I know that sounds petty, but when all they do is stand around talking and they are literally using two of the machines I could use, it makes me a bit frustrated. I would say something polite, but most of the people there wear hearing aids and pretend they can't hear me. I'm not kidding when I say I'm one of the youngest patrons! It's no wonder they shut the doors at 8:00 p.m. and even earlier on Friday. Heck, if that wasn't bad enough, they are only open until noon on Saturday and they are closed on Sunday!
The YMCAs around the city don't have the same hours, most of them stay open later, they are open on the weekends, and the staff members will drill down like bulldogs if you ask them to. The Y across from my place caters to the elderly (as you may have guessed) and it's not uncommon to have a five to ten-minute conversation at the entrance as you assist one or two of them into or out of the building. I'd say they're a bunch of old blue-haired women, but anymore there are a lot more younger blue-haired women around; if I'm honest about it. Grace and Betty tend to let their natural grey show these days.
One of the biggest pet peeves I had about the club by my place was the fact that some of the ladies still had that "we're all girls" attitude, and they'll strip down to nothing in the locker room, walk around and carry on in several different conversations as if it's a normal thing to do! I do NOT want to see this. I have never really been all that comfortable with sharing and showing off my lady bits to others (other than my spouse). Call me old-fashioned, or are they actually old-fashioned? I'm not sure. I know I just don't want to see what I saw and can't unsee! I literally live across the street; I can walk home to shower, I can walk home to change. I can walk home to carry on naked conversations with my dogs and cats, I don't need to be a part of the Old Hen Social Club of the OKC YMCA! Nothing I have to add to those conversations needs to be added. I prefer to keep my eyes averted from being subjected to the burning that comes with those experiences.
There is a YMCA just up the road from where I work now, so I'll probably head out over there for the lunch hour. I don't take lunch now, I'm usually just working through it. I think I will take the hour, maybe even think about taking an hour and 10 minutes so I can be sure to get there, park, walk, work out, walk back to the car, drive back, and land back in my comfortable chair at the office, where I am the ONLY ONE in the office, to begin with. I think I can justify that extra time since I don't take smoke breaks, power naps, or break breaks. I tend to mosey out the door around 4:30 so I'll start mosey-ing around 4:45 to make up for any lost time at the lunch hour. I won't actually go at noon, that would be stupid. I'll make it at 11:30 or 1:00 I'm sure. Either way, I'll put in 4 or 5 workouts a week during the day, and I'll even bring my 8-pound bells to work to lift between assignments. I could get really creative and bring my chin-up bar and hang it in the doorway! Maybe. I'm thinking maybe.
After the Bethany YMCA lunch meetings, I can always jog (or power walk) over to the Y across the street and do a light ring/TRX pull training, perhaps a 10-15 minute row. I love the new row machines. I keep threatening to buy one. If I had more space in my place I would. Heck, if I had more space in my place, I would never join a gym. I pretend I have space now. I don't have space now. The cats and the dogs constantly remind me that my workout equipment is in their way; they can suffer. I have to at least make an effort to do more at home when I can. (I actually caught Fat Sammy the cat, lounging over the top of my weight bar the other day. He looked so peaceful. I couldn't move him. I had to forego the routine.)
It's beginning to rain a bit, and my knee is reminding me that it hates me. I have about 10 different knee braces; one for every day of the week really, and several more for the severity of the hatred that it spews. At least I have a plan to get new knees when I see Jesus. He's promised me that and so much more. For now, He and the Holy Spirit will have to deal with the temple I have to work with. It's not always easy to maneuver it, but we make it happen - - by we, I mean THEM and me. They do the heavy lifting, literally - - I show up for the credit and the photos. Who am I kidding? I'm not doing photos yet. I will someday. I may even let my good friend Michael Givens take "special" photos - - talk about showing off the unseen! He's about the only man I know I could fully trust not to laugh too loudly. I thought I would do that for my birthday last year, but I just didn't have the body I wanted. Maybe next Spring before heading off to Scotland. That way, if anyone in the U.S. needs to giggle I will be thousands of miles away when they do!
I really am glad I'm a member of the YMCA rather than some other club. It's part of the fabric of my life. Bethany's YMCA was such a staple in my life as I was growing up; it's good to be able to return and to see the same oak trees I climbed as a kid as I walked into the building. I don't think anyone will be upset if I climbed to the top of one but I'll ask first. You never know if laws have changed and I don't want to have to call one of my kids to bail me out of the City Jail. Too embarrassing really.
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