Spa Talk 4.

Monday, August 18. 9:45 am. I arrive at my local YMCA for my favorite aquafit cardio class. The YMCA happens to be located next to the condo complex where I live.

The class which is taught by C. is popular and those interested line up in front of the reception. Normally, one of the receptionists will hand out the passes, but this time there is a tallish man who takes care of it. As he is handing them out, he is giving a short speech to explain a change in the system of regulating the admission to the indoor pool where the class takes place. Thus far, two life guards would walk around the pool to collect the passes from the class participants, before the class starts.

Under the modified system, two life guards would stand at two entrances on opposite sides of the pool to collect the passes. After handing their admission passes, the class participants could enter the water under the watchful eyes of the lifeguards. Presumably, this ensures that nobody without a pass will enter the pool.

Since it’s only 9:45 am and the class doesn’t start till 10:15 am, I have half an hour to kill. I quickly glance at the outdoor pool, but since the lanes are already doubly occupied, a quick swim before the class is not in the cards. So, a visit to the spa is the next best choice.

One of the two spas has one person and the other has four people. I choose the one with the single occupant since I know her. S, is a woman in her late sixties with whom I talk from time to time. She speaks a smattering of French and told me that she is considering relocating to France,

I joined her and placed myself in front of one of the hot water jets. I asked her how her relocation plans were progressing and she told me that she was hesitant at the moment and was weighing the pros and cons of a move to France.

In the meantime, three other people had entered the class. One of them was J., a six-foot-four slim man in his seventies with a large grey moustache, sunglasses and a military camouflage cap. The other man was S., a six foot 80-year-old with whom I talk regularly. He also wears sunglasses and has a green cap. The third person is A., a woman of color in her early sixties. She has a bathing cap and I notice that she has a white circular patch on her upper right arm. She just left the indoor pool where the class that had just ended was taught by M., a muscular heavily tattooed man in his late thirties with an enormously loud voice with which he yells out the instructions to his class. Listening to him you get the impression of a sergeant addressing his unit at bootcamp.

J. informed us that he has just finished cleaning out the leaves that had been collecting in the gutters around the roof of his house. I asked him whether he had purchased one of those leaf collectors that are constantly being advertised on TV and he said yes. Given the flood of leaf collector ads on TV, it seemed to me that this is a hot business. I presume they needed to flood the airwaves with a constant barrage of ads to tap into this lucrative field of commerce. I insinuated that these companies charge you through the roof; no pun intended! I figured that he had paid at least $3000 to get his roof fitted with a new state-of-the art gutter guard system. J. agreed that that was about right, but that he got a 30% discount on installation and parts.

S. then let it be known that he had done the job himself for a lot less money, upon which J. complimented him on his handyman skills. Putting gutter guards around a roof is not something anyone can do easily.
Apparently, just having the leaf traps installed is not the end of it. Regular maintenance is required which means climbing on top of a ladder, or better, directly upon the roof.

After we had exhausted the topic of ongoing leaf debris removal, the conversation turned to the new entry system for the aquafit classes. Apparently, controls for the system had been rather lax, and it was noticed that the classes were sometimes filled beyond the regulatory capacity. The ratio of class participants to lifeguards is regulated by California law and violations are not permitted. In today’s aquafit class by C. there were at least 55 people in the water. This would require a minimum of two life guards. But these life guards also have to supervise the two outdoor spas with a capacity of seven people each. This would boost the number of life guards required to three. Indeed, three life guards were on duty. As the summer vacation is ending and students are going back to school, the pool of life guards is dwindling. As a result, a couple of times over the past weeks, aquafit attendance has been restricted to 43 people.
I commented that the new system for the collection of passes wasn’t all that different from the old system. So, what was the big deal?

I thought this was the right time to ask the lady with the circular patch on her arm if she would be so kind to tell us what this was for. She said it was a glucose monitor which would register her blood sugar levels on a regular basis. She could get the glucose readings from her smartphone. A couple of times a day she would look to see whether her glucose levels were in the desired range. She would adjust her food intake if needed. The patch had to be renewed every three weeks or so. I asked whether the sheet of plastic over the patch was intended to protect the patch while she was in the pool and she said that that was indeed the case.

At this point we realized that our aquafit class was about to begin and we quickly left the spa to give our passes to the collecting lifeguards. That done, we descended into the warm 90°F water in the indoor pool and spent the next 45 minutes under the watchful eye of Ms. C. who put us through the motions of her aquatic routine.

Two lifeguard supervisors were counting the number of heads in the pool. No doubt to see whether the headcount agreed with the number of passes handed out.

MvR – August 18, 2025. ✍️