Abacus – Page 5 – F3 Knoxville

The Lord Will Provide

March 8, 2025 BackBlasts

AO: asylum-daybreak
Q: Lilydipper
PAX: Pele (Jon Lindberg), High Heels (Henry Ritchie), Swimmies (Nathan Chesney), Honeydew, Choir Boy, Farley, Kentucky, Snitch (Cory Beilharz ), Matlock (Bill Maddox), Dung Beetle, Tropicana, Doubtfire (Nick Bond), Crash Dummy, CRISPR, Abacus, Pusher, Veggie (Rylen Huddy), Lulu (Greg Huddy)
FNGs: None
COUNT: 19
WARMUP: 20 Side Straddle Hops, 10 Mountain Climbers, 7 Twisties, 10 Tempo Merkins, 7 Tempo Squats, 10 Windmills, 7 Pterodactyls Forward and 7 Backward. From West end of parking lot to East End, Bear Crawl 3 parking spaces and lunge 3 spaces alternatively. When everyone has made it to curb we will sprint back to the West end. Next we will Bernie from the west to the east end of the parking lot, then sprint back.

THE THANG: Mosey up Mini Cardiac to the Crosswalk. We will do 20 American Hammers.
Mosey to Haslam’s Rock. We will do 20 Imperial Walkers.
Mosey to Coliseum Area. We will do 20 Diamond Merkins and 20 Hello Dollies.
Mosey south to the circle by the main park road. We will do 20 Rocky Balboas.
Mosey to the parking lot near the Northshore gate. We will go counterclockwise around parking lot, with High Knees and then Butt Kicks until we get to the pavilion.
Mosey to East end of the pavilion. We will split into groups of two to do Doras. While one man runs counterclockwise around the pavilion, the other will do exercises. Then partners switch. Here are the exercises each group will do as team:
100 Picnic Table Pull-ups.
–
100 Bench Dips
–
100 Decline Merkins
–
100 Incline Merkins
–
100 Step Ups.
–
Mosey to the end of the baseball field area. Then mosey south of the playground and go to the west end of the soccer fields parking lot. We will sprint north, stopping at the two crosswalks to do 10 Squat Jumps and then stopping at the stop sign to do 10 more Squat Jumps.
Mosey to the Bros Bowl. We will run clockwise to benches at top. Those getting their first do Bench Dips until the six arrives. We will then take a 30 second gander at the BSIA. Then we will mosey back to the bottom of the Bros Bowl. Those getting there first do Baby Crunches until the six arrives.
Mosey to the west end of the Caribbean Parking Lot. We will then sprint two islands forward, do 10 Merkins, sprint 10 more islands forward, do 10 more merkins, and continue that pattern until we have done 10 Merkins at the cone that is placed about 2/3s of the way up the other side of the parking lot.
Mosey to the Pavilion near the AO. The, mosey to the AO parking lot.

MARY: Nada this morning.

ANNOUNCEMENTS: Haw Ridge on March 28.

COT:

Message

The Lord Will Provide

James 1:17 “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights.”

Genesis 22:14 “So Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. And to this day it is said, ‘On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.’”

Malachi 3:10 “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse… Test me in this, says the Lord Almighty, and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven.”

As HIMs, we are charged to do good for others. Sometimes, in our everyday lives and amongst the battles we ourselves face, we forget that charge. Yet, I think all of us at times do try with great effort to help others. And, we see positive impacts such as the improvement in the conditions of Lakeshore Park when so many F3 brothers came out with chain saws and willing hands to cut up fallen trees and clear tree wreckage after the horrible winds and tornadoes of several summers ago. Such as the when many of us spend a Saturday working to paint and beautify the Cerebral Palsy Center and received such thanks from the staff there who were amazed at what we accomplished. And, such as the gratitude of our brother, Backflow, when we collected over $400 to help he and his wife with the recent birth of their baby or the gratitude of our brother, Jenner, when we gave him that copy of the trivia book that we purchased for him and signed.

But what happens when our efforts seen to fall short? The needs of this world are so great. We beautified the Cerebral Palsy Center but this one small region in our nation still has so many that suffer from that horrible disease. Poverty is abundant in Knoxville and in the United States, the richest nation in the world, no matter how much time or money we give to charities. How can we help so many in pain when there seems to be no answers and we fall short of giving those what they need? Because, God will provide. We must have faith in that. God is in control. He asks us to give generously, as that is part of his plan. And in that giving, we must trust in God to do the rest, whether here on earth or in heaven. Our giving is not in vain. So, let us do what we can and give with glad hearts, looking to the Mountain of God and knowing that He Will Provide.

Prayers

Prayers for Lizzy whose brother died in the past year, whose father-in-law has terminal cancer and whose stepbrother recently died. Prayers for Jenner in his continuing recovery from a stroke. Prayers of praise for Matlock’s teenage nephew, Jonathan, who has not had seizures in over 6 months. He, therefore, is able to drive a car now and work the high parts of the stage as stage crew team member at his high school.

Suffering Leads to Salvation

March 6, 2025 BackBlasts

AO: asylum-pm
Q: Crash Dummy
PAX: CRISPR, Lilydipper, Abacus, High Heels, Mr Jinxy, Curveball, Brick, Pele (Jon Lindberg), Switchhitter (Tony), Doubtfire (Nick Bond), Tenderfoot, MD Hammer, Rooney (Carl Whipple), Pusher, Double-Dribble, Boomer
FNGs: 1 Boomer
COUNT: 17
WARMUP: SSH, Cherry Pickers, Good Mornings, Runner’s Stretch, Downward Dog, Stretching

THE THANG: Mosey down the stairs to bottom of Everest. Bataan Death March – Up Everest. 1st Point of Contact (POC) – Coliseum, hold plank until the 6 arrives. Head down Pickett’s Charge to 2nd POC – Bros Bowl. American Hammers until 6 arrives. Run up Bros Bowl doing Jump Squats at 12 o’clock (5 reps), 3 (10 reps), 6 (15 reps), 9 (20 reps) and back to 12 o’clock (25 reps), run to the backside of Bros Bowl to 3rd POC – District 13. LBC’s until 6 arrives. 20 reverse lungs. Turn around and head back to the start – hitting all POCs.

MARY: none

ANNOUNCEMENTS: Hardship Hill OCR, Escape from Haw Ridge, Marathon Ruck.

COT: “…I’ve had some challenges in the last couple years and ultimately, I believe that suffering leads to salvation. That we must accept, not deny, but feel our suffering and feel our losses. Then we make one of two decisions; we either decide to go through the gate of resentment – which leads to vengeance – which leads to self-harm – which leads to harm-to-others OR we go through the gate of forgiveness. Which leads to grace.” -Jim Carrey (actor/comedian)

Seeing the Good in Others

February 18, 2025 BackBlasts

AO: asylum-pm
Q: Lilydipper
PAX: Pusher, Lizzy, Pele (Jon Lindberg), Crash Dummy, High Heels (Henry Ritchie), Abacus, CRISPR, Brick, Doubtfire (Nick Bond), Curveball
FNGs: None
COUNT: 11
WARMUP: 20 Side Straddle Hops, 10 Mountain Climbers, 10 Backwards Lunges, 7 Twistees, 7 Pterodactyls forward and 7 backward.

THE THANG: Mosey to the parking lot with the nice restrooms. We will bear crawl 10 paces, then lunge 10 paces and repeat that pattern until we are 2/3 of the way across the parking lot. Then sprint to the curb.
Mosey to the Caribbean Parking Lot. We will sprint to one island, and Bernie to next, repeating the pattern until we reach the end of the parking lot.
Sprint to sidewalk that leads to Bros Bowl.
Mosey to the Bros Bowl. We will run counterclockwise up the inside sidewalk to the benches. Those arriving to the benches first do bench dips until the six arrives. Then, we all will do 20 Incline Merkins in cadence. Then mosey back down the Bros Bowl. Those reaching the bottom first do Calf Raises until the six arrives.
Mosey to the soccer field parking lot. We will be going clockwise around the parking lot, stopping at every crosswalk to do one of the listed exercises. Those reaching the second crosswalk on the other side first sweep everyone back to the starting point.
Here are the exercises:
Round 1: Sprint to each crosswalk and do 20 Merkins at each
–
Round 2: Bernie to each crosswalk and do 20 Baby Crunches

Mosey to the small courtyard area. We will do 10 step ups at each step to the top
Mosey to the entry of parking lot that goes past the Outdoor Chapel. We will do 20 Rocky Balboas on curb.
Mosey to parking lot with Nice Restroom. We will first do 10 Imperial Walkers. Next, we will Bernie half way across and sprint the rest of the way.
Mosey to AO parking lot.
Starting at the parking lot spaces on the West Side of the parking lot we will Bear Crawl six parking spaces, the spring to East Curb and back to West Curb. We will then repeat the pattern but go down to 5 parking spaces, then 4, etc, until we repeat the pattern bear crawling only 1 space.

ANNOUNCEMENTS: We appreciate those who stepped up to help Back Flow and his family after the new birth in the family.

COT:

Prayers:
Prayers for Back Flow and his family after the birth of new baby. Prayers for Jenner and praise for his recovery. Prayers for Sparkler as he faces surgery in April for his prostate cancer. Prayers for Lizzy’s father-in-law, Ralph, as his cancer is worse and he will go off treatment. Prayers for Lizzy’s mother and for Lizzy. Prayers for Dray, friend of Crash Dummy, who has injury to muscle in his leg. Prayers for all F3 brothers facing hardships at this time.

Message:
My mother-in-law, who I called Saint Ruby, passed away in early January. She has a very positive impact on the life of many people. During the visitation before her funeral it was wonderful for me to hear stories from so many people about how Ruby had impacted their lives.
My wife, Jan, was brave enough to speak at Ruby’s funeral. In her message, she talked about some important lessons learned from Ruby:
1. Start each day with Jesus and stay with Jesus each day
2. Lose the you and focus on God and others.
3. See the good in others.
I have spoken before about point #2 and want to talk about point #3 today.
Ruby thought most folks were doing their best most of the time. She truly saw the good in others. As an avid Kentucky Wildcats basketball fan, the only possible exceptions to this seeing good in others were Christian Laetner, Billy Packer, and assorted basketball referees).
She loved the song, “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands” and she would keep the faith that God had you in His Hands, even when you couldn’t manage that kind of faith” I often asked Ruby to pray for me. It was as if she had some kind of connection to God that helped me to know that things were going to turn out ok.
If Ruby was in your orbit, she had confidence in you and was your cheerleader. If someone didn’t choose you . . . well, it was their loss, poor soul. If you were struggling she trusted that you, with God’s help, would do whatever hard thing you had to do.
Ruby also saw people as they “could be.” If you screwed up, well, that indeed was a problem . . . but she saw your potential. “Hey, you’re gonna get it right, I believe in you and so does our God. He will mold you. ” And Ruby molded you too, with her love, with her attention to you, with her belief in you. Just being around Ruby made you want to be better as well as believe that you could be better.
So, the message from my mother-in-law, Saint Ruby, to you is: you are fine as you are, you are special and you are loved. And, since you are loved and are special, why not see the good in others? Forgive them their sins. See their potential, not their failings. And remember, God has you and them in His hands.

Aluminum PAX

September 6, 2024 BackBlasts

AO: asylum-pm
Q: Drum Major
PAX: Lizzy, Pele (Jon Lindberg), Lilydipper, Switchhitter (Tony), Brick, Steam, Rooney (Carl Whipple), Welch’s, Pusher, MD Hammer, Dain Bramage (Will Olson), Curveball, Abacus
FNGs: None
COUNT: 14
WARMUP:

10 Side Straddle Hops

10 rockettes

10 baby arm circles each way + overhead claps

10 cherry pickers

THE THANG:

Mosey to traffic circle – 20 flutter kicks together

Mosey to new parking lot by new baseball fields

Aluminum PAX modified workout

Set Tabata timer for 1 minute, rotating

When 1 minute timer sounds every time do 5 burpees. Then start in on the rotation of exercises.

100 squats

100 LBCs

100 SSHs

When you complete 100 of your exercise run loop mapped out around full outside of parking lot.

If you get through all 3, rinse and repeat.

Mosey to small turf baseball field and lineup up at home plate.

“Diamond of Fire”

1 man goes around bases forward. When he hits 1st base the next man goes. Everyone else does merkins until their turn comes.

After home lineup on other side as you come in and start doing box cutters until last man comes in then do the same thing going backwards (3rd, 2nd 1st, home).

Mosey back to flag, via Pickett’s Charge

MARY:

Ended with some stretching at the flag

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

COT:

Loneliness Epidemic article

Between 1990 and 2024, the percentage of college graduates who reported having zero close friends rose to 10 percent from 2 percent, which is upsetting enough. Among high school graduates, the percentage rose to a heartbreaking 24 percent from 3 percent.

For context about 55% in America are college graduates, so that leaves 45% who have a high school diploma or less.

In 1990, an impressive 49 percent of high school graduates reported having at least six close friends. By 2024, that percentage had been cut by more than half — to 17 percent. The percentage of college graduates with that many friends declined also, but only to 33 percent from 45 percent.

Causes? You may think politics, but I would say that may be more a symptom than a cause. Surely COVID and everything being online and the ease it is to isolate yourself, surely cannot help. We as a collective group need to worry less about the cause…

Article in NYT is quoted:

What is the most important single thing that you can do to heal our national divides and to improve the social and economic mobility of your struggling neighbors?

I’d submit that it’s not voting for the right candidate (though you should certainly do that), nor is it engaging in activism to raise visibility for a worthy cause (though I endorse that as well). Instead, it’s something that is at once much simpler but also much more difficult.

Make a new friend.

Maybe you could even make a new friend outdoors, away from your phone, spending zero dollars, while getting some exercise and hanging out with other guys where politics, education and economic levels are not a factor? If only such a thing existed, wow what a cool thing that could be. I reiterate Crash Dummies challenge from Tuesday. In the next month try and convince a FNG to come out, you may be helping them more than you realize.

[bluegrass-pm-otb] Keep it simple

June 26, 2024 BackBlasts

AO: bluegrass-pm-otb
Q: Tenderfoot
PAX: Pele (Jon Lindberg), Brick, Abacus, Welches (Leland Murphy), Doubtfire (Nick Bond), The Situation, Dain Bramage (Will Olson), Drum Major, Pusher, Finger Lickin’, Gridiron
FNGs: None
COUNT: 12
WARMUP:
SSH
Tempo Squats
Tempo Merkins
High Knee mosey
Lunges downhill
Bernies uphill
BAC (F & R)

THE THANG:
Tree Biscuit until 6:25/6:30
Remainder of time: battle buddy – 5 stations/exercises:
– Decline Merkins
– Squats
– Knees on swing, bring knees to chest
– Dips
– Calf raises
1 Station =
Battle buddy #1: AMRAP one exercise from above
Battle buddy #2: runs down to park exit, then Bernies back uphill
Battle buddy #2: AMRAP one exercise from above
Battle buddy #1: runs down to park exit, then Bernies back uphill
Rotate to next station, try finish all 5 exercises

MARY:
American Hammers

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
– Summer Convergence: UnCOVEred on 7/13
– uncovered-summer-convergence
– westhills-ruck-otb

COT: “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” -Emerson
Keep it simple. Do what works. Don’t overcomplicate. Focus on fundamentals, discipline, and routine. Too many intricacies in a plan/mission can result in confusion, inaction and excuses/justifications.
“”The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so the necessary may speak.” -Hans Hoffman”Assess your commitments and schedule, set boundaries, prioritize what’s critical, minimize the distractions/non-essentials. Know your limits. Know your flaws/negative tendencies. Be honest with yourself. Take accountability when your plan isn’t working – and adjust accordingly.
“”See it big, and keep it simple.” -Wilferd Peterson”An ambitious vision is a powerful thing, but keep your goals grounded and your tactics tight.
Lastly, forgot to say this, but…Avoid the temptation of shortcuts, shiny trends and silver bullets.