just when you think things are changing for the better... along comes another rule that gets in the way and kicks you back down... so tonight I trek over to the gym for my fourth workout in so many nights and I feel the fatigue but I push through and am starting to really feel good along about the twentieth minute on the whatchamacallit machine and in walks the local gentry to inform us that they (they being management of the apartments) wants the gym locked up at 9PM from now on (instead of 11PM)... so there goes my prime time workout time just when I was starting to get more serious about it...

fuck management in all shapes and sizes and the horses it rides in on...

well, maybe not the horses...

I called and complained about the change of hours, especially since there was no warning, but they don't really care about residents here... they didn't care when they closed the 24 hour access to the gyma couple of years ago... they don't even know that they pay for digital cable service and residents can get hundreds of stations including premium stations... they are piss poor managers with no interest in people and no marketing skills to keep the place full so they are probably hurting for money and close gym earlier as a cost cutting method... lower insurance... more convenient for the off duty cop who probabloy gets free rent or a substantial discount for locking up each night... so I got in half a workout tonight and I don't have time to go anywhere or do anything else so down I slide on the climb back into shape... why stay here now?...

it's just the idea location and clean and new enough and maintained fairly well for the right price, so I've ignored the lack of management concern until now... tonight I am considering looking around for another place to live (and give up the park?... crap, this sort of life intruding decision really sucks)...

so there were eight people using the gym at the time... so a dozen people a night or more will be inconvenienced and must consider moving if they want a gym at their apartments and don't have time (and don't want to spend the extra money) to drive to a big health spa type place... who cares...

it is sad that I put up web pages touting how great this place was once upon a time... sadder still is that the longer I live here, the less I'd recommend it to anyone looking for an apartment...

how does a place expect to stay in business, no less turn a profit, when the people they serve daily are not satisfied with the service?...

rhetorical, yes... meanwhile, it was a roller coaster night because just as I put my shoes on to head out to the gym (two hours earlier), the phone rings... an hour before that I found an email from a friend I had not seen in ten years who found me by doing a Google search... yes, old friends, I can be found by putting my name into Google... hint...

anyway, about an hour or less after I sent the email and threw on my workout clothes and headed for the door, the phone rings and it is him, yes, him who does not yet have a diary name and I didn't think of asking if he wanted a diary name and I never do so we will call him Nad... no relation to Chad, though he did live in Florida during that election fiasco a few years back and he is considering running for elected office someday, but that's just coincidence... Nad is one of the people I should have been in touch with all these years because he brings out the nerd in me and what good is living on a computer if you don't get good and nerdy?... no good, I'm glad you agree...

so the bad news is Nad is living far far away in the wilds of Massachussetts (and I will not spell it correctly until he moves back down here, so there)... of course he has good sense and will not work for Disney peanuts, which is about all most jobs down here pay these days, so he's going to work up north and make his fortune and then come back down here to retire and rent me a room in exchange for Disney peanuts... actually, Nad is the kind of friend who will, should he ever really become filthy rich, take a bath... no, I meant to say that Nad is the kind of guy who, if he won the lotto or powerball or somehow inherited the Walmart fortune, would pay his friends just for being alive just to make life easier for them and have more time to hang out and play... you know the lyric: I'd buy a big house where we all could live... that's how much he appreciates people who are his friends... no, you can't have his number... well, maybe if you send some nice pictures and a resume...

two hours on the phone cut into my workout time, but I still would have had plenty of time had the gestapo not come in to throw us hot sweaty people out into the cool cool cool of the evening and it was a phone call from heaven... well, not quite from heaven, though god was mentioned a few times... Nad used his technological wizardry to make it a three-way (the call, we're in different states and besides, we both lust after girls we have not had) and got (hmmmm, another new name... come on brain, choose one) Don on the phone... Don is now living a few hours south of where I am after retiring from the duck business and it was great to hear his voice as well... so we had a good old time on the phone and I am looking forward to getting together with them next year and then I was all jazzed to go down for a great workout and...

this is where we came in...

so now it is time to shower and eat if I have time and get to work... and curse the stupid management here at these apartments... and find another way to overcome the laziness and bad habits and work out on a daily basis... wake up earlier, get right to the gym before 7:30PM... it'll probably be way crowded once people realize they can not work out liesurely throughout the evening... but working out right after work has never worked for me... I'm too ready to fall asleep after work and too ready to stay awake after working out... if I work out after work I'll be up all day, not get enough sleep, then be way too exhausted to work out the next morning after work... and besides, I'd like to live my life by my schedule, the schedule that is healthiest for me and those around me...

another hill to climb...

at least there was much laughter and happiness tonight as well and ultimately, that's what will linger in the end... so welcome back into my strange and wonderful (and rather challenging) world, Nad and Don... thank you for reminding me how much fun it could be to run into walls... little did we know I would be doing exactly that just after hanging up, huh?... well, hopefully others will follow your lead and find me (not necessarily running into walls) and we'll have fun and frolick for the rest of our days...

or something like that...

. o O ( NOTES ARE THE NEW HAPPY PILL ) O o .
(just let me know you were here)