My mother-in-law was staying with us last week. Now, unlike the stereotypical husband / mother-in-law relationship, I quite like it when she stays with us. This is because we have a small child, and having three people around to deal with said child is a significant improvement over having two. So I'm all for having my mother-in-law in the house. The more, the better.
And, in fact, she had actually changed her airline reservations to stay with us for several extra days because the baby was sick. Being Americans, we of course have no vacation days and no sick days left to stay at home with a sick child, having already used them on previous illnesses. So her staying longer was a tremendous boon to us.
I swear, the Europeans are just so goddamn much more intelligent when it comes to public policy than we are. I would move to France in a second, were it not for three things:
Anyhow. Mother-in-law was here. Now, she recently had knee surgery and was supposed to be on a regimen of light physical therapy. Which is difficult to arrange while travelling. Since she had extended her stay, she really wanted to get at least some of her recommended exercise in. A few days with access to a stationary bike, maybe some light weights.
One option was the local University, of which my wife is an alumnus and has an alumni membership to the recreational facilities. So they went up to the fitness center and inquired about getting a couple of day passes so that mom could keep up her physical therapy.
No dice. Well, yes, she could go, but only as a guest of the official member and that would, of course, require that the official member actually be there - in short, she could only go if accompanied by my wife. Which was feasible but not exactly convenient.
Another option was for mom to go to a local fitness center. Now, I had been a member of the Bally Total Fitness in a nearby mall for several years, until I got a job on the far side of town and changed to a gym - or rather, a tennis club that had a gym - near my work. The Bally wasn't the greatest gym in the world - that would be Dave Draper's World Gym in Santa Cruz, CA - but it was good enough and had friendly staff and clientele. I had been happy enough with it as my gym. So she went over there to ask about purchasing a couple of day passes.
Well, they weren't set up to sell day passes; like most gyms, they were more into the membership game. Ongoing revenue stream, you see. Dependable. Bankable. But, unlike the bureaucrats up at the university, the staff at Bally's told my mother-in-law "You only need to come in for a couple of days? No problem. No charge."
That's right, free. They took down her driver's license number and for the next 2-3 days she was able to show up and work out at the gym for free. And then she flew home.
Here's to you, Bally Total Fitness. I don't know if this was corporate policy or if it was the policy of that particular club or if it was just that desk clerk, but we appreciate it anyway. Not so much the free part - a couple of reasonably priced day passes would have been fine - but the part about letting her work out at the club for a couple of days without any hassle. That was worth a lot. Thanks.
- Sun Ra