Normally, I'm not one to grumble, but under no circumstances should anyone leave the new Fredericton YMCA at ten to 5 on a Thursday and attempt to drive down Westmorland Street and across our only remaining working bridge. It took me 1 hour to cover the 1.7 kilometres. It would have been a little less if that very friendly and generous crackerhead in front of me had cared as much about my time as he did for every lucky sap that arrived at an intersection at the same time as he did. He's casually waving everybody in a head of him. He's lucky that my car is not rigged up with one of those gadgets that James Bond finds handy.
That said, I actually really like the new Y. It's bigger and more spacious. It has lots of new exercise equipment much of which I'm trying to firgure out. Unfortunately, these positives have encouraged a whole group of new people to join at the gym. Some of these witless souls have not figured out the etiquette and I'm not talking about the person with the awful headband and 70's shorts either.
Say, hypothetically, that a long time member was doing some squats and had loaded up the bar to 285 pounds. He'd just finished one set of 6 or 7 and while far from perfect, had given him some satisfaction that things were heading in the right direction. The person decides to give his legs a very short rest, and fills in the time with very quick set of shoulder press and a drink of water before nailing his final set. Alas, by his return less than 90 seconds later, he finds his bar has been relieved of all the weight and a couple of newbies are now squatting with just the bar. To make matters worse, one of them is wearing gloves, as though the 45 lb bar was going to scuff his girly hands (hypothetically).
Even if common decency doesn't suggest that an unguarded bar should be allowed at least a minute, a question and a look around before being unloaded, common sense should prevail. "Never mess with a bar that has more weight on it that you plan on lifting unless you are absoultely certain its user has left". Hypothetically, he may be a raving nutcase.
