Twisting The Knife

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So going along with my Medicare advantage policy, I get a free gym membership at one of several participating facilities. I used to be a member of the 02 at 540, so I'm thinking I'll do that because they participate and then someone tells me I HAVE to go over to Healhtrax and check it before I make a decision. So I go over there and it is a beautiful facility offering everything I want plus a huge salt water pool which is wonderful. Here's the thing . I go in and Everyone there is old, white, upscale, it looks like a wealthy Tea Party/Republican senior center, and here I come with my long hair, beard, yes I've grown a beard for the Hell of it, a neat one but a beard nonetheless, and visible tattoos and these people are looking at me like a space alien has arrived. This is about all the ammo I need to cement joining Healthtrax and freaking out the regulars. I'll wear my Ozzy, Priest and Shoot To Thrill t shirts, display my tattoos, put on my headphones full of 80's metal and take perverse pleasure in watching the displeasure and uncomfortable-ness of the "decent" clientele. Whoot Whoot!!!!

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Type: Question • Score: 7 • Views: 1,703 • Replies: 15

[+3] - blueveinedthrobber - 04/18/2014yes, it's silver sneakers and it's part of my bcbs medicare advantage program. I thought for sure there was a catch but no, every service available to a paying member is part of it, no charge,...

@blueveinedthrobber,

It's fun to think about it, but it will get tedious very quickly. Don't forget, you're talking about North Carolina. Beautiful state, but over the last 37 years I have been so flabbergasted by the crap those "decent, white, old, church centric intolerant folks will say, it takes my breath away.

My favorite technique is to drag out the rosary beads and watch people react as if I was in direct communication with Satan. Maybe your tattoo will have the same reaction. But, if you can enjoy their reactions more than the entitled attitudes, you're a better man than me Charlie Brown.

(For everyone else, it's just an expression, I'm not a male so resist the urge to challenge me to a fist fight)

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Invite them all to your Wiccan, Lenin/Marx/Bill Clinton themed nude gay wedding. Then you can get the pool to yourself. Might go with you. Mrs bobsal C.bluevienedthrobber does have a certain ring to it.

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I liked the ymca, but that was in a different time and place and social culture than Carolina in 2014.. west LA over some decades, 80's and 90's. Wonderful pool, not salt water though, members who wore ordinary stuff, sometimes raggedy, smart staff. No attitude except testing some health parameters once in a while and handing you reports, and a get it done view towards exercise. I never did with them, but some of the people used to run together outside the gym. Had a gym up in Humboldt Cty (Eureka) that I liked, though not as well as the Y. Forget the name, but that's a little far for you anyway. You might have a local Y though.

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@blueveinedthrobber,

You spend way too much time thinking about how others are going to react. Be comfortable with yourself and pretty soon these yahoos won't even notice that you're a wee bit different from them.

Besides which, if there are others with the same line of thought as yours, then soon the place will have dozens, even hundreds of other men who appear on the outside the same as you and express similar viewpoints to yours. In other words, the thrill ain't gonna last no matter how you slice it.

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@Sturgis,

Sturgis you make a huge mistake if you think I'm sensitive to any of this. It's just my sense of humor at work. I don't think you'l ever meet a person more comfortable with themselves than I am. In addition it's fun to predict the reactions of others. I'm usually correct

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@blueveinedthrobber,

I've been working out at one gym or another since (OMG) 1954. I don't recall ever participating in one as obviously geriatric as you have mentioned.

But how do you get a free membership? Is it the Silver Sneakers program? I'd be interested in hearing more about it. Right now I have membership in 24hr Fitness and L.A. Fitness, both good clubs, but I shore would like some help with the fees.

Oh, and you would fit in just fine around my neck of the woods.

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@neologist,

yes, it's silver sneakers and it's part of my bcbs medicare advantage program. I thought for sure there was a catch but no, every service available to a paying member is part of it, no charge, period. I think it's good thing that insurance companies MAY be beginning to realize that it's cheaper in the long run to assist in keeping people healthy.

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@blueveinedthrobber,

I'd like to see a selfie of you working out.

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@chai2,

I don't do selfies, but I'll see what I can do, just for the Hell of it

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@blueveinedthrobber,

BCBS Medicare, you say? I will check it out when open enrollment comes around.
But, I understand, with Silver Sneakers, they check up on you. Have you seen that?

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@neologist,

can you elaborate on check up on you? and it's a BCBS Medicare advantage plan. Supplement to A&B and includes D

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@blueveinedthrobber,

blueveinedthrobber wrote:

can you elaborate on check up on you? and it's a BCBS Medicare advantage plan. Supplement to A&B and includes D

I heard the club has to keep records of your attendance. But since United has dropped it, I will need to explore elsewhere

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@Sturgis,

Sturgis wrote:

You spend way too much time thinking about how others are going to react.

That's funny.

Sturgis ... meet BPB.

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@Ticomaya,

thing is Tico....I don't do that at all. I just throw **** out there then sit back, see how it develops and watch the fun. Some people think I'm cool for it, others think I'm awful for it, most don't think about it at all. Sort of like God and the Universe. Laughing

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@neologist,

I know there's a form of info you need to fill out and Health Trax anyway actually wants something signed by your doctor. Probably a liability issue of some sort for the participating gym would be my guess, and/or a tracking method to measure the effectiveness of the program versus cost perhaps. In any case I have no problem doing it because I'm one of those people that will make really good use of the membership so I'm probably a good investment for them.Or maybe it's to get me on a government list of some sort to sell to Putin or a Moo-slum terrorist group of some sort. All I know is that until the black helicopters come for me I get to go to the gym for free. Mr. Green

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Twisting The Knife

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