Asymptomatic

I used to think that Volant Fitness in Downingtown was a great investment in a home-town gym, but as it turns out, they're just another of the myriad of money-grubbing impersonal fitness corporations earning their keep off the forgetfulness of their auto-debited members.

Admittedly, it's been quite a while since I've visited Volant Fitness. Since April, when we started seriously thinking of moving, I haven't had any time for that, not that I was a very regular visitor before then. But I did call to cancel my account because it was a $50 monthly drain down which my money poured.

My call to Volant was a bit odd. They told me that the person responsible for cancelling accounts was not there. I assumed this was necessary so that they can convince you to keep paying for nothing, but at a lower rate. More likely, it was a ploy to keep me unable to cancel so I would continue to have the fees drafted from my credit card. I left a message in the general manager's voicemail, and in the turmoil of moving preparations I never noticed that he didn't return the call.

I would see the charges from Volant gym on my bank statement periodically during this period, and sometimes call them to try to cancel. Each time, there was no manager available.

Finally yesterday, I figured I would visit the gym itself to cancel my membership. They couldn't deny me if I was standing in front of them, could they? Yes, they could.

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I don't really think it's a demon that's possessed me, but I woke up this morning with a strange thought in my head, and I had to act upon it.

See, I have my alarm set to go off at 7am. For some reason, the maker of the clock decided that 7 minutes was enough snooze time for anyone, and because of this, I usually actually get out of bed at 7:28.

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I hate lateral thinking.  The answers to the puzzles usually don't
make any sense.  How can you answer a question when all of the facts
aren't presented to you in the beginning?  There are a couple that
make some sense, though.  Here's one that isn't too bad:

A man lives in an apartment on the 35th floor.  He gets in the
elevator to leave his building for work.  He hits the button for the
first floor, gets off there and goes to his office.  At the end of
the work day, he returns home, gets in the elevator and hits the button
for the 32nd floor.  He gets off on the 32nd floor and takes the
three flights of stairs to his apartment.  If he didn't do it for the
exercise, why did he get off the elevator to take the stairs up?

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