Monday, February 23, 2009

Are these things available at Sharper Image?

Occasionally I find the answer to one of my minor personal biases. I have a set of things that I'd rather not do, and I sometimes feel as though my feelings are irrational because I may have forgotten the reason I felt like that to begin.
My fitness center doubles as a "community center," which is to say that the community invades the place now and then. There is an Olympic-sized swimming pool that I refuse to use because one of my personal biases tells me to stay out of any body of stagnant, filtered water that is used by great numbers of strangers.
There was a father and 2-year old daughter in the locker room (why, I have no idea) and the father was dressing his daughter for a trip to the pool. His friend asked him a question, and when I heard the question, I immediately realized why I don't use community pools.
"Does she have her pool diaper on?"
I couldn't help but glance back to see what a pool diaper looked like. It's an elastic banded plastic device that supposedly adheres to the child's legs so that her effluence does not infiltrate the pool water. That's the design, and it was at that moment that I was reminded of my bias against community pools.
And I remembered that there isn't an elastic band strong enough to fasten against a child's leg that would encourage me to use a pool used by incontinent children.

4 comments:

Handsome B. Wonderful said...

Eww but I agree with you. I find community pools to be nasty.

susan said...

Anthony,

I stopped going in the ocean after I saw "Jaws", and stopped the community pool when I saw "Caddyshack". (The scene with the candy bar).

As for community pools.... saw this sign once on the Y pool=

"There is no "P" in our Pool! Please keep it that way".

I guess the munchkins stay in the wadding pool for that.

kimmyk said...

If any of you think that adults don't pee in the adult community pool you're delusional.

My parents use to have a sign on our pool gate that said "I don't swim in your toilet, don't pee in our pool." It would be nice if everyone adhered to that thinking, but they don't.

As far as the lil girl in the dressing room, I don't have a problem with it...it's better than sending the lil tyke to the ladies locker room all alone.

Anthony said...

Kimmy: I neglected to mention that the center has a "Family Locker Room" in addition to the men's and women's. A more appropriate place to change a 2-year old, I would think.
And, given the slovinliness of certain humans, I don't doubt that all manner of effluence is done in the pool.