Oblivious to Surroundings
Last night I was putting in a little time at Lifetime Fitness lifting weights. The pace was laid back, generally slower than I usually go. Despite the relaxed environment, there was still one man at the gym out to ruin it for the rest of us. I will call two separate transgressions committed by this man to your attention:
One
Why it struck him as a good idea to use a phone as a boombox is beyond me. However, there he was, listening to music through his phone’s built in speakers, which were rather loud. So, as I’m lifting there’s the sound of Sarah McLachlan from the club’s speakers clashing with the tinny sound of gangster rap emanating from the cell phone of this faux-pas machine of a man.
Two
I’m back at the site of Transgression One when, out of the corner of my eye, I see a giant red exercise ball fly 15 feet through the air across the gym and hit a mirror, distorting the reflections looking back in astounded silence. Turns out this guy, while talking on his cell phone, happened across one of the exercise balls… and decided to give it a boot of such force that even the likes of David Beckham (had they been there) would’ve taken note. Now, this ball he kicked is not a basketball size contraption… no no. This is an exercise ball about 2 and a half feet across - brand named Resist-A-Ball - so it’s hard to miss one when airborne. Incidentally, I’d never seen one airborne before last night. The scene got even more bizarre as Mr. Inconsiderate walked away from the scene of the crime. It turns out this poor woman had simply set the ball down to put a piece of equipment away, while her back was turned… kick. She grabbed it as it continued to bounce across the floor, and cast a fierce look of confusion and anger at the back of the man who had sent her equipment on an aerial adventure.
Certainly, we all have our moments when we are unaware of the people around us and we do silly things, but I have never seen such a display of contempt for the public.
The bottom line: this man was completely unmoored from the dock of reason and floating about aimlessly in the seas of irrationality.