What’s in the bag?

• This morning as usual I wanted to challenge myself and set many goals ahead of me. As is usually the case I wound up getting a terrible night sleep anticipating what would happen…..and  further than that I had a son talking in his sleep , cats being rowdy and my M staying up well past midnight doing what? I don’t know! I was truly excited to see great number of pax already arrived but I don’t believe I’d ever Qd before with Gastone  present. And Bandit was even present…. The last time he was present was the last time I Q’d…. perhaps I should Q more often( thoughts Bandit?)
• As I come up I’m wearing an extremely small pack on my back…. to which Roadie asks”What’s in the bag?” My casual response is “ what bag? I don’t see any bag”
• 5:30 pledge disclaimer …..brief message on how warm up will be conducted …. something I’ve wanted to try for some time… moving from one exercise morphing into another maintaining cadence count …. changing to another exercise ssh became goofballs to hillbillies and lastly imperial walkers… now that we survive that lets Mosey into park taking long path over to the play area.
• talked briefly about one of our main tenets …. FAITH …. even in the dark I have my faith in God and faith that I remember mostly where all play equipment is so that I won’t fall and hurt myself …that being said when swings become open 2 rounds of Derkins with feet in swing alternate with plank. Next we did 20 squats to be followed by lower  plank ( on elbows and lower arm ) Q fail as I was supposed to pass on the knowledge that we as men must cope with and endure pain ( arms in the mulch …. there was also to be another exercise the french fry! Seeing as most of the pax moved over to the softer bouncing material this was left out!   It was either Bandit or Roadie Who said that if God made that softer material he must use it!)
• now we move on some real meat and potatoes! It was a true crowd pleaser a one minute dead hang!! There was a brief explanation about how I will be trying to accomplish the Bone Frog obstacle course next month and turtle man will be doing third part of the Spartan trifecta next month and that we both need these exercises . 20 more squats followed by 2 rounds of 5 pull-ups , 10 merkins and 20 more squats . I then amble around until I locate the monkey swing and we all make way across one time . Amazing job by all!
• Mosey to the turd shack where we partner up and I luckily get Island for my partner ( it was only last week that I told him I looked forward to partnering with him …. it’s another challenge of mine to partner with as many different pax as possible ).  We did two rounds of hip slappers x10 and lbcs at walkway . Told everyone to plank in the grass …. oddly I was only one in grass …. repeated instructions with the warning that the next exercise was Jack Webb’s and anyone not wanting scored / scratched knees should relocate…. amazing how quickly everyone wanted to be in the wet grass !!! Did these up to 10 . As we all were catching our breath I further explained how I am often reminded of Pastor Ronnie Bowers of Flint Groves Baptist Church and how we men are not only the leaders of the family but the spiritual leaders as well and that we should not take that for granted ! I also further explained how the first sets of exercises made us each stronger then by partnering up we pushed each other Then I spoke of how my M wanted to begin running but not alone and then she found s diet that really has worked for her so I had to support/ help her by adding more running each night and due to this diet our food has become very health conscious and that my weight is down where it’s not been in s long time ( as Whoopee says ,” you cannot exercise away a bad diet” it is also notable that Turtleman has performed his Spartan races with his M and Oompa Loompa has added running with his M as well ….so now it’s time to take all this to the next level !Mosey to well lit area and time to discover what is in the bag….., a jump rope ! Yet another thing I’ve been trying to incorporate ….. and I’m so glad I did I sought for us to challenge each other by jumping rope ( another option never used but available was the SSH…. great job by all!! ) Thd pax circled wide and performed lbcs while person in center did as many as they could ( or wanted ) , Qfail as I forgot to point out to halt whenever hand off occurred Gastone mentioned having done somewhere north of 1000 ( maybe so ).  But it was truly inspirational to see Island do some amazing tricks Gastone took a moment to remember how…  and he amazed all …. Dr Feelgood made it look easy to skip rope! Turtleman asked for hula hoops next time …. hmmm do we still have that?????? Oh back tothe  program …. now we mosey back to start where some unnamed individuals attempted to poke the Q for 8 minutes on the table …… that only means one thing…….
• Mary …and 6 healthy minutes of it too !! I started us with ski abs of 10 we also had pax call on American hammers , flutters( Gastone … did you have to ask !!) dying cockroaches, big boy sit ups and I believe Freddie mercuries to which I kept hearing “ Galileo, Galileo “ TIME! …. it should also be mentioned that there was s train at end of jump rope where we did our 5.
• announcements that Thursday night please come out and support Toto at Hickory Tavern 7 until as he struggles with civilian life ( life with children and not much adult conversation ) and depression issues . All this he opened up on Monday at end of boot camp .

Prayers for Bandits friend Mark , continued prayers for Stuart Payne middle school youth pastor at Bethlehem and unspoken

my final thoughts are how amazed I was at everyone in today’s challenges, strong group of men and I was also very moved by all the mumble chatter even from Gastone ! This was hands down my favorite Q , it was a true honor !!