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*Sigh*... There are bigger problems in the world right now, I know. But when everything is crazy and you're already on the brink all the time, sometimes the unexpected little things hit way harder than they should.
My stupid gym is going through Chapter 11, and is closing my location for good. Memberships are a minimum of one year, and they are issuing no refunds during the closure, so they still have all our money--which means they were in such a precarious financial position that three months of no new memberships was enough to put them under. Irresponsible fuckers. Of course, since a couple of their locations will theoretically re-open, they think I can just drive 20 miles south and won't be issuing any refunds for permanent closures, either.
And it's not about the money, anyway. I paid up front to get the discount, so the money's already long gone, budget-wise, and won't be a continuing drain month-to-month. It's the physical location that was key: right across the highway from my kids' school, no excuse for skipping a workout immediately after dropping them off in the mornings. The summers were a wash, but 9 months out of the year I was going 3-4 times a week and doing really well with my overall joint strength, which needs constant maintenance just to function normally. Three months into COVID, I can already feel my knees starting to fuck up again, even though I'm taking morning walks around the neighborhood, because stiff legs on hard pavement don't work out the right stabilization muscles. I can do the "right" physical-therapy approved exercises at home with stretchy bands and the like, but I don't want to. That was the whole point of the gym, to shoehorn it into my routine so I couldn't look across the room at the stretchy bands from my nice comfy chair and say "fuck it." I had a good thing going, and now I have to come up with a new plan, and it sucks.
My one glimmer of hope is that the building itself is super-specialized, including a long skinny lap pool, and maybe a new gym will take the space. I'd gladly pay double membership if it means I can get my location back if/when the schools re-open--which realistically isn't going to happen by August anyway. Texas is about to hit its real surge, and all the things that say they're re-opening in July are going to stay closed when reality comes knocking. The permanent nature of my gym's closure won't even really be a thing that matters for the rest of 2020, at least, so I was going to have to come up with a new plan regardless. I'm just tired, and mildly irritated. That's all.
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