More gym stories

We feel your pain! This morning we woke up to a rainy chilly morning with temperatures in the 60's! Southern Florida really has us spoiled, we're used to sunny 80 degree weather everyday. The front will pass over and paradise weather will return in time for our boat trip to Elliot Key on Thursday. Elliot Key is an island in Biscayne Bay National Park, more on that in the next posting.

We're busy everyday, although not really doing anything blog worthy. We go to the gym 4 days a week, but somehow I can't seem to make self torture an interesting subject to write about. The most intriguing aspect of being there is wondering about the other masochist's. 

There are two middle aged black men who are regulars, One is severely handicapped, literally dragging his near useless legs behind his walker. He works very hard on his upper body strength, for obvious reasons. I wonder what put him in such dire straits, polio, gunshot, or maybe a birth defect? His gym partner doesn't really exert himself at all, except maybe his jaws. He rambles on and on about his Facebook relationships and sexual escapades. His exploits seem a little far fetched to me, but who knows, he could be Homestead's resident Casanova! 

Then there are the gym rats, they pretty much stay on the weight lifting side of the gym, but we've seen them often enough to nod a hello in passing. Body building is a long term commitment to the gym and they are probably here every day. A surprising number of women in the gym are body builders.

On Friday a woman with her obese daughter in tow came through on the new member orientation. This poor girl was just puffed out in all directions, it didn't look like a genetic or medical condition, but instead a lifetime of junk food. The kid has a long rough row to hoe and the sad part is I got the impression she was at the gym at her mother's insistence. If she hasn't found the intestinal fortitude to fight for her health, then she's doomed. It's really sad because the poor child is only about 14 years old.

Arte Johnson on "Laugh In"

And then there's the old farts! One old guy shuffles from machine to machine like the character in “Laugh In” played by Arte Johnson. He removes the weight pin and just moves the arms of the various machines with no resistance, but heck, he's here doing something! A couple old guys and at least one old woman, all with obvious vanity problems are living in delusion, thinking themselves to be body builders. You can tell the ones here on doctors suggestion, they all have wives accompanying them, else they would be at the corner bar.

And then there are the only two normal people in the gym, Millie and me!