Four bit workout

I watched an amusing scenario play out yesterday morning at the gym.

The cardio vascular area has a row of recumbent bikes in front of a row of eliptical machines. About five minutes into my eliptical machine work out, I noticed that someone had left two quarters on the seat of one of the bikes.

A woman, about my age, sat on the bike without noticing the coins under her bottom. My first gigglesome thoughts were of "The Princess and the Pea". The woman also amused me in that she was wearing pretty large (appx. 1.25") silver hoop earrings. How serious could someone be about their workout if they don't take off their dangling jewelry? Obviously she was not that serious since her ride lasted about ten minutes.

She then went to the paper towel machine and spritzed a towel with disinfectant and brought it back to the bike area. She then noticed the quarters on the bike seat. This seemed to confuse her. She couldn't possibly have been riding THAT bike! After all, she would have noticed the coins under her bottom, right? So, since the bikes to either side were also vacant, she wiped down both of those, but not the bike with the coins.

I began to think that maybe I would pick up the coins when I was done with my workout. I also considered that this might make me look like a big time desperate loser, to be picking up two quarters that someone left on a bike seat. I didn't give it too much thought though, since I had another fifteen minutes to go with the eliptical machine. I figured it would work itself out one way or the other.

About five minutes later, a geeky looking man, a few years older than me, approached the bikes. He nearly sat on the coin-bike when he noticed the coins on the seat. He did not look around. He stared at them for a few seconds, but then picked them up. He realized that he didn't have pockets in his shorts, so he ended up slipping the coins into his shoe. Then he mounted the bike. He too was done on the bike before I finished my eliptal time.

People watching at the gym can be entertaining and distracting. Maybe I'll put some coins on a bike another time, just to see what happens.