Things that Rock Thursday

Thursday, yuck. This one hasn't been that bad, I guess, but I'm tired and somewhat grumpy, so I need some things that rock to cheer me up.

A new fan configuration in the craptastic gym

You may remember my genius setup to keep cool in a way-too-hot gym. 

 

This worked pretty well, but I was always a little nervous that the fan might fall off of the elliptical (the last thing I need is to be indebted to the craptastic gym for a new fan).

So, when I ran last night, I tried a new configuration.

Not only did I not worry about a crashing fan, I ran in comfort for 2.5 miles!
 

Look folks! I didn't sweat ... much (I'm pointing
at the lack of sweat on my shirt).

All-Star Game festivities

I’ll try to cool it on the baseball talk after this. I know I haven’t been able to shut up about it lately, so I’m sorry if baseball isn’t your thing. It is my thing, and the Fan Fest rocked my world. So many interactive exhibits, baseball memorabilia and just cool stuff. 

I started my life as a die-hard Oakland A's
fan because of Jose Canseco.

I didn’t go to the game, but it was cool to see the stadium where I spent my summers growing up showcased to the nation. It was also cool to see Rays’ players David Price and Fernando Rodney each pitch a scoreless inning (this says a lot considering the American League pitchers gave up 8 runs). 

Weird promotions

OK, I know I said I’d cool it with the baseball talk, but I guess I lied because this is baseball-related. The buzz around town since the Rays announced their 2012 promotions: the Zim Bear. What is a Zim Bear?, you ask. Good question. It's a teddy bear with Don Zimmer's face (Don Zimmer is a senior adviser with the Tampa Bay Rays and has been in baseball since 1949).

Players took photos with the Zim Bear. Collectors said it was so weird and creepy that they had to have it. The paper said people were going to line up 4 hours before the gates opened to get their hands on one of the 10,000.

It so happened that this was one of the games my dad and I attended. We wanted a Zim Bear, but we really didn’t want to stand in the heat of the Florida summer for 4 hours. We decided we’d tough it out for about an hour and a half (and prepared with umbrellas, towels and Gatorade). We arrived at the stadium to this. 

Yes, we were the first in line at Gate 5.

So, we got our Zim Bear. And, it's crazy, creepy and weird (and still in the package ... in case I can sell it for millions of dollars).

The craptastic gym saga

You may remember that I recently did something brilliant. 

I stole the fan from the craptastic condo gym's weight room and put it on top of the elliptical in front of the treadmill. Genius, if I do say so myself.

When I say stole, I really mean borrowed. Even though I thought both the cardio and weight area equally deserved a fan, I put it back where I found it.

Every craptastic gym visit, I went to the weight room, grabbed the fan, set it up, ran and then replaced the fan when I was done. 

Until I saw this.

 Yes, those are TWO fans in the weight area. Uncool, weight room. Uncool.

So, at that point, I decided it was OK to leave one in the cardio area. Cardio folks deserve air movement, too. We're sure not getting it by opening the windows.

So, I left a fan in the cardio area. Seems fair, right?

Well, last night I arrived at the craptastic gym and found this.

Yes, that's a new fan with "DO NOT REMOVE" written on the bottom. Perplexing. 

When I went to the weight room to see what was up with their fans, I found this on the door. 

 And, the door was locked.

So, this leaves me with many questions:

• How does an entire weight room because inoperable? I understand if a machine didn't work, but the whole room?
• What happened in there? Did someone have 'roid rage because it was too hot with only one fan? Or did someone sweat so much with only fan that the room needed to be fumigated?
• Did I have anything to do with the fan with the giant "DO NOT REMOVE" message? Or was that directed at weight room fan hogs?