Tag Archives: Ugly American at the gym

Monday 9-28-2026

Dave Mottram – @dmott70 on Substack

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Oh, the joy of it!!! I KNEW it!! 20 minutes into my walk at the gym and Ugly American came in, armed with his phone, talking loudly to someone and already making his way to the end of the gym and back. I was sitting on the bench, waiting for Brian to finish. He passed me, looked at me and said, “Good morning.” I mumbled it back. I’m afraid he lives here and I’ll have to deal with this the best way I can.

Otherwise, though, I increased the incline on the treadmill and burned more calories than usual, so he’s good for SOMETHING…

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I had a good session of old lady yoga stretches just before starting this. I took a good, long time, really breathing into the stretches. It amazes me that I can be so stiff when first getting down on my mat, and how my body finally ‘lets go’ a bit as I breathe after getting into a position.

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I was going to tell you that the weather people were wrong about the rain, but as I was typing, the rain started. It isn’t a hard storm now, though, just a quiet rain. It’s starting to pelt against some of my windows now, though, so I’ll keep an eye out for leaks. Last night I had a power blip and spent a good amount of time resetting my air filters, one clock, my TV, and my computer. (That was why I only wrote two posts yesterday.) It was only a blip, though, and didn’t ruin my evening – just took some doing to get everything up and running again.

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I’m looking forward to spending time at the cafe this afternoon. I have a couple of ideas for sketches to start.

Chrysti Enden

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Friday 9-25-2026

Pamela Schifano – @pammypoo on Substack

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I’ve had my usual wonderful Friday – gym, breakfast with Brian, and massage this morning. The cafe in the afternoon. Good weather.

The only thing that wasn’t stellar was that Ugly American showed up 20 minutes into my walk on the treadmill at the gym this morning. He came in with his phone blasting music. He finally turned it off, only to start talking to someone in a loud voice as he walked up and down the length of the gym. Such a lovely man…

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Here are my latest painted sketches –

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At the cafe today, my favorite server brought my iced latte, wrapped in a brown napkin, as usual, but with this addition –

I don’t speak Thai and he doesn’t speak English, and yet he goes out of his way to do something nice like this. Isn’t he amazing?

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Happily, last night Brian fixed my problem of not being able to watch YouTube on my TV. It turns out that the automatic update we thought we had set up didn’t work for some reason. We updated the software and everything was peachy again. I got to watch my music videos and was happy as a clam. Yea, Brian!!!!

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Yesterday Shanfan Huang, whose art I have featured several times on the blog, contacted me, asking me if I would change the posts to list the entire address for her Substack account. I went back and made the changes on the posts involved, but I wanted to make sure that you have the information from me here in case you would like to go to Substack to see more. Her full Subtack address is substack.com/@shanfanhuang

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Saturday 9-19-2026

Anna B. – @bornforart.bsky.social

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Today was a rainy day. We got rained on going to and from the gym. Again going to and from a visit with Harvey at the nursing home. Again to and from the cafe, and it rained while I was there. And it will probably rain again this evening. Happily, my shoes didn’t get soaked this time, so I’m good to go.

Ugly American wasn’t at the gym this morning. I told Harvey about him. He thought we should shoot him. Failing that, he suggested Brian rig the treadmill so it would throw the guy off. We told him we thought both ideas weren’t proportional to the ‘crime’ of being annoying… 🤣

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I had a good session at the cafe. I started a sketch of an ugly frog named “Bob” that I got the reference photo from a lady named Kaitlin M. on Substack. I also started a sketch of an old movie theater.

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I started “Fury in Death” by J.D. Robb (Nora Roberts) yesterday. I confined myself to the prologue, since I don’t want to be drawn down into the rabbit hole. I absolutely love her writing and I could lose whole DAYS reading her books.

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Art van der Spek

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Wednesday 9-16-2026

Jenny’s Notes App on Substack – @jennysnotesapp

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The Ugly American came to the gym this morning while I was on the treadmill. This time he confined himself to walking the length of the gym and back again over and over talking loudly on his phone. I found myself smiling more and more, and even chuckling a couple of times ( yes, I DO chuckle – and usually at inappropriate times. Since I really don’t want him to deck me, I’m trying to keep any sound to an absolute minimum. It’s a good thing he’s walking behind me, though, ’cause I can’t hide my big grin.

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It started absolutely POURING just as we finished and were ready to leave the gym. We waited a bit for a letup, me putting on my trash bag rain suit and Brian using his umbrella. (This photo is from last year, though I’m still using the same suit.) It started to come down really hard as we began walking. Suffice to say, my shoes were absolutely soaked, but the amazingly good rain suit kept ME and my carrier from getting soaked.

I pulled my drying rack inside from the balcony when I got back. After my shower, I spread a sheet under it and put all my wet stuff, plus my wash, on the rack. I set up a fan to blow on it all, hoping it will dry by tomorrow. We have a 95% chance of rain today, and it’s supposed to be rainy all day, but my windows are performing beautifully so far. I’m hoping I can go to the cafe this afternoon, but time will tell.

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I have almost finished the base painting on my latest two sketches – one of the rattan chair and the other, the trees going through the roof of the seating area beside a cafe.

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I have found an amazing number of people whose work I want to share with you. I feel rich and happy to be on the same planet as these talented people.

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The street crew was out last night, jackhammering the street overnight. They did leave a small area blocked off today, but were busily using water and brooms to clean the street when I got up a little after 4 this morning. I had a laugh because in the other direction, there is an area where water lines will have to be repaired and water is running everywhere. There are two areas within that where the street crews have put lots of dirt, sand, and gravel and the water is pooling and running around it. In the middle of the area, there is a ‘no parking’ sign… hahahahahahahaha!🤣

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zenigifts.com – Sharon Freda Brandon

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Friday 9-4-2026

LindenShieldARTs.bsky.social

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Today is a different Friday than we normally have.

Brian and I went to the gym, as usual, and guess what! – Ugly American was there in all his glory. I’m not sure how he got in today, but he said “Good Morning” to us, which we ignored as we entered. He proceeded to go to the back, making lots of noise with the heavy equipment. Then the walking up and down behind me and loud talking on the phone started up again.

I definitely need to work on my character-building. I was so busy trying to ignore him that it had the opposite effect. I found myself straining to listen each time he passed to hear if he were speaking English or not. I couldn’t hear him but Brian told me later it was, in fact, English. Then I was mentally seeing news signs about “old American lady arrested for assault at a local gym, the victim sporting teeth marks on his calf that match the teeth in the old woman’s mouth….”

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When we got back, my favorite cleaning lady met us in the lobby with a big bag of gorgeous bananas. Apparently, she has a banana tree and grows her own! We each had one as part of our breakfast this morning and they were delicious!

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Brian got a text from Khun Bpaum, our housekeeper, this morning saying that she was sick and so wouldn’t be here today.

I went to my massage as usual. Khun Weaw was back and I got a really nice massage. I am very, very lucky that both ladies there are so good and willing to give me massages.

Brian texted me soon after I got back to my place from that, asking if I wanted him to bring a “Sanak” as he calls it. Sanak (सनक) most commonly means a sudden whim, craze, obsession, or a fit of madness in Hindi and Urdu. As if he really needed to ask… We shared a really decadent treat and then had a glass of lemonade. Whoopeee!

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I will be heading to the cafe soon to enjoy some sketching.

These are my latest sketches.

An amazing thing happened at the cafe yesterday. I walked in and a young man was sitting at the front. I turned and started toward the back. He stopped me, stood up and said, “I’m in your spot.” I laughed and told him that it wasn’t ‘my spot,’ and that I could be comfortable at the back. He said, “No. I’ve seen you drawing before and you need the light. I’ll move somewhere else.” He insisted, and moved to a spot in the outside area. Can you believe that?

Heidi came and we had the nicest visit. I feel as if we could talk for hours and never run out of things to talk about. When she left, she was going first to Canada, then to the States, and finally to India. I’m in awe of her calmness telling me of her plans to see family. She is planning to be back here in the spring, so that gives us both something to look forward to. Meanwhile, we can keep up with each other via email and chat, and maybe even carrier pigeon… :0)

After she left, I finished the sketches above.

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Sue Elliott

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