Walking and Dancing
We've been going to the gym at the association clubhouse this winter -- both of us. The gym is three doors down from our house, at the corner of Walking Rain and Dancing Ground. It's literally 76 steps from my front door to the clubhouse door.
The clubhouse is designed to look like another home in the neighborhood, rather than a public building. Inside there is a gym, a meeting room with fireplace, men's and women's locker rooms, and a tiled sauna. Outside there is an outdoor pool and a patio with a pergola and barbecues for group entertaining.
It's all nicely landscaped outside, and impeccably kept up inside. I've been impressed with how nice it is.
Nothing about the clubhouse is very big -- the pool is a small rectangle in a tidy fenced area, seen here in a shot from summer.
The gym is a little square room, but it has all the equipment I need and it's brightly lit.
The machines are packed together in the space, and I wish there was a place for floormats for stretching, but there is hardly ever anyone in there when we go, so it never feels crowded. With multiple windows and big mirrors, it feels more spacious than it really is.
There are two fancy treadmills, recumbent bikes, ellipticals and several resistance machines. And lots of free weights and a single bench. The equipment is all newish and in very good condition.
The choice of equipment and the small, intimate size of the place seems just right for what we want.
And the fact that I can walk there in seconds without having to even take my wallet with me, without getting in a cold car to drive there, without needing to negotiate a big room full of macho equipment and lots of people -- it all makes exercising doable for both of us.
And so we have been going. How could we not? It's so close and often so private that it feels like walking into a room of our own house. . . . without having the upkeep or even having to clean it.
The cleanliness is impressive. All the rooms are always picked up and tended and the trash removed. The women's locker room is nicer than my master bathroom. I haven't showered there since my home is so close, but the showers are huge and quite luxuriously appointed.
There are notices and signs stuck on the walls such as the one in the gym asking people not to steal the weights. That was good to know. I wasn't sure about stealing weights, so the sign was helpful.
There's a community bulletin board at the entrance, where people put up lost cat notices and public meeting rally dates and job contacts and babysitter offers. The board is well tended and kept up too, with everything neatly posted and no old stuff hanging up.
The whole place is clean and inviting and private and pleasant, and it is so incredibly convenient to us, practically next door. Our association dues cover clubhouse maintenance and there are no separate fees for using the gym or pool, although if you want to host a party on the patio there is a one-time rental charge for that.
So look for me (and Jim too) on weekday mornings in the fitness room at the corner of Walking Rain and Dancing Ground -- even the street signs on the short way there remind us we're getting some exercise.
The clubhouse is designed to look like another home in the neighborhood, rather than a public building. Inside there is a gym, a meeting room with fireplace, men's and women's locker rooms, and a tiled sauna. Outside there is an outdoor pool and a patio with a pergola and barbecues for group entertaining.
It's all nicely landscaped outside, and impeccably kept up inside. I've been impressed with how nice it is.
Nothing about the clubhouse is very big -- the pool is a small rectangle in a tidy fenced area, seen here in a shot from summer.
The gym is a little square room, but it has all the equipment I need and it's brightly lit.
The machines are packed together in the space, and I wish there was a place for floormats for stretching, but there is hardly ever anyone in there when we go, so it never feels crowded. With multiple windows and big mirrors, it feels more spacious than it really is.
There are two fancy treadmills, recumbent bikes, ellipticals and several resistance machines. And lots of free weights and a single bench. The equipment is all newish and in very good condition.
The choice of equipment and the small, intimate size of the place seems just right for what we want.
And the fact that I can walk there in seconds without having to even take my wallet with me, without getting in a cold car to drive there, without needing to negotiate a big room full of macho equipment and lots of people -- it all makes exercising doable for both of us.
And so we have been going. How could we not? It's so close and often so private that it feels like walking into a room of our own house. . . . without having the upkeep or even having to clean it.
The cleanliness is impressive. All the rooms are always picked up and tended and the trash removed. The women's locker room is nicer than my master bathroom. I haven't showered there since my home is so close, but the showers are huge and quite luxuriously appointed.
There are notices and signs stuck on the walls such as the one in the gym asking people not to steal the weights. That was good to know. I wasn't sure about stealing weights, so the sign was helpful.
There's a community bulletin board at the entrance, where people put up lost cat notices and public meeting rally dates and job contacts and babysitter offers. The board is well tended and kept up too, with everything neatly posted and no old stuff hanging up.
The whole place is clean and inviting and private and pleasant, and it is so incredibly convenient to us, practically next door. Our association dues cover clubhouse maintenance and there are no separate fees for using the gym or pool, although if you want to host a party on the patio there is a one-time rental charge for that.
So look for me (and Jim too) on weekday mornings in the fitness room at the corner of Walking Rain and Dancing Ground -- even the street signs on the short way there remind us we're getting some exercise.
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