Better and worse, Ready to flip it

While I was on vacation Planet Fitness, the gym I love to hate got some long overdue new equipment, they replaced about 75% of their stuff.  Some of the equipment they had previously was very old and downright dangerous like that leg press that was falling apart.  So when I walked back into the place on Wednesday I saw the new equipment but I also saw that they rearranged everything.  Most of the new equipment I liked, the new arrangement I did not.

The free weight area which already was overcrowded many days was moved to an even smaller space which was absolutely moronic.  It’s like they keep making moves to push wannabe “lunks” out of the gym.  They removed the one piece of equipment that allowed me to do pull ups in a fully extended position.  Now my remaining options require me to do the movement with my knees at a near 90 degree angle which sucks and is inefficient.  The two pec dec machines they had before used to be almost always in use.  The replaced them with one, meaning a take a number system will be needed if you want to use it.

In general it seemed like whomever there engineered this new layout did very little thinking.  There are huge wasted areas of unused space throughout the gym while in other areas the equipment is slammed together so close it makes it tough to walk between it.  Of course I would expect nothing less of the worst gym chain in America.  All I want for Christmas is for the on campus fitness center to get a smith machine so I never have to step foot in Planet Fitness again.

Yesterday morning I sent an email to my electric company asking for a status of getting the two way meter installed which is required for solar.  The response I got was it should be done by the end of next week.  It wasn’t the timeline I wanted to hear but at least I had a time frame now.  Imagine my surprise when Cindy told me that it looked like someone had been out to the house today.  I asked her to take a picture of the electric meter.  I was happily surprised to see that somehow the end of next week turned into same day service, I now had a two way meter hanging off the house.

I contacted the solar contractor and let them know.  They said that was great news and all they needed now was official permission from LCEC to connect the system.  Based on my experience so far I was not going to passively wait for that to happen.  I sent another email to LCEC asking how that permission is granted and how long does it take.  My reward for being proactive was a response in my email this morning with the acceptance letter.  I forwarded the letter to the solar contractor and BAM, they are supposed to be out tomorrow to throw the switch.

It has been nearly a three month process with the solar install.  It could have been less if I would have babysat the permitting process closer but all in all I am happy with the end result.  Well I shouldn’t say that until I see just how much juice the system cranks out.  Unlike our federal budget, I hope to be running at a steady surplus from here on out.

This weekend I have a handful of holiday tasks but I also have good old fashioned things to do and/or fix.  Doing stuff keeps me going.  People that are content with just existing in a passive manner just don’t compute to me.