Planet We Don’t Give a F, Paid the price

Last week when I was at Planet Fitness I decided to use the leg press sled instead of doing squats which have been aggravating my lower back recently.  When I did my first set with light weight I noticed that the foot platform was incredibly loose, rocking back and forth.  I got up and took a look at the back of it and found that two of the four bolts that hold it on were missing and the two that remained were not tight.  I immediately went to the front desk and pulled one of the staff back there to show him.  I told him that was a real hazard.  He agreed and said he had more bolts up front that he would use to fix it. Ok fine, I went and used a Cybex leg press instead.

So yesterday I was back at PF for leg day and I again opted to do the leg press sled.  It felt even looser than the week before.  I take a look and the same two bolts remained.  The one top bolt was so loose I could spin it by hand.  Keep in mind a leg press sled can have five or six 45 pound plates on each side.  Having half of the bolts it is supposed to have and those two being loose is a huge danger.  They could easily sheer off from the strain.  When that happens a weighted sled could come crashing down potentially on a customer.

I found the same guy I talked to the week prior and marched him back over to the equipment.  I reminded him that last week I told him about the problem and he said he was going to address it.  He said he didn’t have any bolts that actually fit.  After looking at him in disbelief for a few seconds, I said “Listen, I am trying to save this place from getting sued when the equipment fails while someone is under it”  I demonstrated to him how loose the sled was and how I was able to spin the bolt with my hand.  My demonstration was enough for him to go grab an “equipment is out of order” sign.  I mean hey, I realize Planet Fitness is a shit hole job but that isn’t an excuse for not doing the basics to make sure your customers aren’t maimed while using your facility. Idiots.

So we have had issues with wasps in the chicken coop for awhile, evidently they view it as a prime spot to build a nest.  I removed a smaller nest on the roof a couple months ago.  Well there has been another nest forming under the stand I built for the solar generator, a large one.  Up until this point I have let it be as I generally hate killing other living creatures, outside of fire ants or mosquitoes.  The wasps have not attacked me but they evidently have buzzed Cindy quite often.  Evidently yesterday a whole bunch of them came at Cindy so she really wanted me to get rid of the nest.

My plan was to do it in a nice way.  I was going to use the hose to blast the nest off the structure, hopefully getting the wasps to relocate to another area.  Well the second I got the hose in position I got stung on the ring finger of my right hand which of course burned.  The sting also flipped the switch in my head.  This was no longer a relocation effort but an eradication exercise.  I am very much a counter puncher.  I don’t want to hurt anything but if something hurts me the gloves are off.

I went up to the garage and got some wasp killer.  Even with vengeance on my mind, I felt badly as I shot the nest, watching all of the wasps drop off and die quickly.  After spraying I had to do clean up as I didn’t want wasp killer on surfaces the chickens would touch and of course all of the dead wasps and the nest had to be removed as well.

So as I am cleaning up and pulling paper towels I notice a couple more wasps in that area.  I look under the shelf where the paper towel holder is mounted and find ANOTHER nest, about four inches to the left.  It’s amazing we haven’t been attacked from that group yet.  In my experience when the wasp nest is small they mind their own business but once it gets to a certain size the insects are more aggressive regarding protection of the nest.  This second wasp nest was smaller than the first but still had 7 or 8 of them on it.

So even though this group had not attacked me they met the same fate as the first group.  I blasted them with the spray with the same feelings of guilt.  As I cleaned up the remains of the second nest I felt like shit.  As the night progressed the swelling in my right hand spread from the finger to the entire appendage.  Today I can’t even see my knuckles.  It’s crazy that was from one sting.  Imagine if a few of them hit me at the same time.  I told Cindy we need to be on constant lookout for new nests so we can knock them down before we get to the point where mass extermination is needed.

Yesterday I sold not one but two EUC stands to people in the UK.  It costs them almost $23 to just ship it over there but they were willing to dish out the bucks to do so.