Contributed by Auggie
Tolerant health nut
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Welcome to this weeks edition of “things that annoy me, but shouldn’t”. My day started like any other and probably would have ended like any other if I hadn’t looked at the calendar and realized it was only January 28th. Realizing I still had at least 3 days to honor my New Year’s resolutions I set off for the local health club where I am now a proud member.
About 2/3 of the way through my awesome workout (or as I like to call it, the “20 minute mark”), I became aware of strange noises that I deduced could only be the sound of a Siamese cat with its tail stuck in the vertical seated ISO chest press machine. However, having recently signed my membership papers I vividly recalled that cats were not allowed to join, so there had to be another explanation. My bewilderment vanished a moment later when a headphone-wearing brute strolled by obliviously singing in his best Robert Plant voice. A new form of bewilderment took over as I silently pondered the question “this still happens?” We’ve all heard the oblivious head-phone wearing singers at one time or another but I didn’t think it still happened in the 21st century. I mean, headphones became a permanent part of our social fabric . . . what, twenty years ago? To me, that is an acceptable adjustment period for the masses to realize this simple fact: when you pipe 105 decibels directly into your temporal lobe, YOU can’t hear your voice but OTHERS can.
This continued on for another several minutes until I thought it was time to alert him to his annoying behavior. So I hopped off my spinning machine and sauntered over to where he was preparing to bench press (or whatever it’s called when you lie on your back and lift weights). I had rehearsed my line: “hey Sparky, appreciate the free concert but if you’re looking for the redneck idol auditions I think they’re in Little Rock this year”. I patiently waited as he loaded the last of his 400 lbs on the bar when my other resolution suddenly popped into my head: tolerance of others. Hey, there’s enough room in the world for us all to live happily isn’t there? Tolerance is a liberating and healthy virtue that I would recommend to everyone. In fact, I might even make this a permanent resolution.
Tolerance, the action, can also be attributed to a person being scared. Next time, you stand up to that brute, and bring some of the ladies from the Jazzercise class with you as back-up.
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