F3 Knoxville

Tag: Convoy

Omaha to Paris

THE SCENE: Couldn’t be a nicer morning
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
Lots of on-time pax this morning! Stalled with some Michael Phelps or something while we waited on the stragglers, and did burpees in honor of Swimmies’ on-time (for him) arrival. Then it was time to get going. I read an article on the op-ed page of the New York Times ( https://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/06/opinion/memories-from-normandy.html ) that got me thinking I’d like to meet the author, who lived in Sweetwater.
THA-THANG:
Down to the CMUs. 5 rounds of Keepaway, or whatever that game is called. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot in between rounds. Team 1 won, although numerous lawsuits have been filed and the outcome will be contested until the recounts are over and the results have been certified.

Clint’s mom thought she outsmarted the US Army by sending Clint to typists school to keep him out of the draft. He was sent instead to the 82nd Airborne, 512th Glider Infantry.

There was work to do at the Cloud. Stepdowns, LBCs, Box cutters.

Jack Webb showed up…easily the least welcome guest at any workout.

Clint trained in Africa and was dropped into Italy. Fought his way past Mt Vesuvius, which he sketched in his secret and illegal diary.

Moseyed to the dock, practiced some Junk Science – like 90% of us are statistically entitled to 10 more years.

Clint Riddle got into a glider again and landed somewhere near Sainte Mere Eglise, and they fought their way into France.

Operation Overlord, our tribute to those guys. Omaha (Beach) to Paris. It’s almost a half a mile, and it’s all uphill. It is not easy.

Back to back Have a Nice Days, mosey home, ATM.

MARY:
Ain’t nobody got time for that

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
Clinton Riddle stayed a Private until the war was over and he was finally discharged. He came home to Sweetwater, married, had kids, became a bi-vocational pastor, and started talking about his experience of war in his 90s, when he was one of the few people left to talk about them. He spent 3 hours one morning with me and my sons, telling us about every part of his time in battle. Pvt Riddle died last December. He was 98 years old.
MOLESKIN:
With gratitude to Clinton Riddle and everyone who serves selflessly. With gratitude to the men of F3.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
I owe Jumbo breakfast – INCREDIBLE Omaha-to-Paris sprint.

Moving Refrigerators

THE SCENE: Beautiful evening, temps in low 60s
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
20 Side-Straddle-Hops, 10 Tempo Merkins, 10 Mountain Climbers, 32 Grady Corns, 10 Windmills, Little of This and That.

THA-THANG:

Mosey to “the Caribbean” parking lot.  We will journey a candy cane route around the parking lot (starting up south side of parking lot then rounding to go about half-way down north side of parking lot) but stopping at each cone planted along the way.  The cones will be spaces at about every other island in the parking lot. Once the final cone is reached we will sweep back to the beginning of the candy cane.  We will run the candy cane 6 times, journeying by the following methods and doing the following exercises.  We will always run back once the cane is finished.

  • Sprint and do 10 Merkins at each cone.
  • Bernie and do 10 Big Boy Sit-ups at each cone
  • Grapevine left and do 10 Star Jumps at each cone
  • Grapevine right and do 10 Smurf Jacks at each cone
  • High knees and do 10 Hello Dollies (4 ct) at each cone.
  • Butt kick and do 10 Iron Mikes (both legs = 1) at each cone.

Mosey to start of Serpentine Sidewalk.  We will do 14s along sidewalk by bear crawling for one light and running for four lights until we reach the perimeter trail.  Then we will do 20 American Hammers.

Mosey to start of Cardiac.  We will run up Cardiac stopping at each of the following to do the listed exercises:

  • First Curve:  20 Flutter Kicks (4 ct)
  • Second Curve:  20 Hello Dollies (4 ct)
  • Third Curve:  20 Decline Merkins
  • Benches:  20 Bench Dips

Mosey to AO

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
14 men, no FNGs
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

One of my good friends in my doctorate program in psychology was a guy named Jim Dupree.  He was about ten years older than me and had already practiced as a therapist but with a master’s degree and was going back to school to get his doctorate.  He sweat like a pig on those hot days in Texas and smoked cigarettes like a bandit, but he was wise, honest, and an excellent friend and counselor.  I remember him and me working on painting a room in his house one time and him saying, “You know John, talk is good but if you really want to get close to a guy you need to do something like move a refrigerator across town with him.”

You know, I think he’s right.  We brothers are close.  Our talks at board meetings are part of the reason but I think a bigger reason is that we work hard and sweat together to accomplish something good.  I have also enjoyed “moving fridges” type moments with some of you guys that drew us closer.  Recently, I enjoyed working with Sparkler, Abscess, Pele, Steam and Curveball to both put up and break down obstacles at Hardship Hill.  I acquired a bit of poison ivy in the process but it was definitely worth it.  I remember a big group of us, including Mr. Jinxy, Hooker, Doubtfire, Pele, and Abscess, sawing and pruning branches in Pinto’s backyard and enjoying the reward of his swimming pool and some brewskis thereafter.  There is something about working together, sweating together, that brings us close.  We face the same challenge and it unites us.  Gents, I enjoy our fellowship and appreciate your willingness to help each other through the grind.

MOLESKIN:
Prayers for Rooney’s coworker who is currently on ventilator after contracting Covid 19; for Pinto who is recovering from stem cell transplant; for Jared, brother of Corona Weight, who is in prison but had to go to hospital after accidentally cutting off top of finger – may he recover and find God to help him change his life; and, for our country, that we may be united and at peace no matter who ends up winning the presidential election.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
F3 Knoxville 5th Anniversary and Convergence this Saturday

Scarred

THE SCENE: Light rain, temp in low 60s.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
20 Side-Straddle Hops, 20 Plank Jacks, 10 Windmills, 10 Rockettes, 10 Baby Arm Circles Forward and Backward, 7 Wide Arm Circles Forward and Backward.
THA-THANG:
Our AO for the day was the pavilion at the Northern Ball Fields.

Mosey to semi-circle roadway that goes by soccer fields.  We ran high knee for 10 stakes, did 10 squats, then butt-kicked for 10 stakes and did 10 squats.  We continued that pattern until the end of the semi-circle roadway.  We then returned to the start with the same pattern but this time doing squat jumps instead of squats.  We, finally, went back on the semi-circle, this time doing Bernie Sander for 20 states and 5 Imperial Walkers, repeating that pattern to the end of the semi-circle roadway.

Mosey to parking lot by southern ball fields.  We did suicides up parking lot, running to each of the large light posts along the parking lot.  When we got back from each cone we did 20 Squats.  We rinsed and repeated.

Mosey back to the street but stop at curb before stop sign.  We did 10 tempo merkins by curb.

Mosey to parking lot with the islands that is located south of the Northern Ball Fields.  We divided into three groups.  Two groups positioned themselves on islands on the opposite end of the parking lot.  While the third group ran from one end of the parking lot to the other, the groups on either island alternated between doing 10 incline merkins on curb and 10 bench dips on curb.  Once the running group got to the island then they started the exercises while the group that was there ran to the other end.  This pattern continued until all groups had run from one end to the other two times.

Mosey to Pavilion.  At pavilion, we ran to benches, did 10 bench jumps and ran back to pavilion.  Rinse and repeat.

Finish at Pavilion.

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
17 men, no FNGs.
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

Galatians 6:17

From now on let no one cause trouble for me, for I bear on my body the brand-marks of Jesus.

I’m going to talk a little bit about the importance of scars, the importance of wounds.  As men, we sometimes take a bit of pleasure in showing our scars to one another.  Sounds weird, but I think there are good reasons for it.  By sharing we show one another that we have been wounded and have that in common.  We also show we were tough enough to take it.

Our brother, Pusher, has told me of a tradition in the Philippines where boys are circumcised at the age of ten.  Think about how painful that is for a ten-year-old.  For two weeks after the circumcision that boy, in fact, wears a dress because the touch of pants to the circumcised area would be too painful.  Filipinos realize that they could change the age of the circumcision – to circumcise at that age is certainly not a medical necessity.  But in the Philippines it is a rite of passage.  The boy fears the moment, fears the pain, but in enduring it makes a major step toward manhood.  He can walk proudly, knowing he has endured it.

The Aborigines have an interesting rite of passage that I read about.  At the time of puberty the male or female meets overnight with the same sex members of their community who tell them stories of manhood or womanhood.  Afterwards, the male or female meets in a ceremony with their father and mother.  Both the father and the mother each take a sharp claw from an animal and cut the skin on the chest of the child.  The cuts form permanent wounds that will remain on the daughter or son’s breast for the rest of their life.  It is a symbol of recognition: “I have been wounded by my parents and I must accept that fact.  In accepting it, I can become a woman or a man.”  I love that – my parents love me but they have also wounded me and I need to man up to that.

I can remember my cousin and I talking, at about college age, about the types of women we would like to marry.  Of course we talked about physical beauty.  But we also talked about the character of the woman we wanted to marry.  We both agreed that we would rather marry a woman who had been wounded by some hardships than marry a woman who never had faced hardships and was completely innocent.  Our scars give us character.  They also help us to empathize with the pain and hardships experienced by others.

I accept that I have been scarred by life.  I cannot deny it or escape it.  I am not the Innocent Man that Billy Joel sang about.  But, as a Christian, the ultimate example of empathy for me is our Lord Christ.  I expose my scars to Him.  For, He was willing to take on the scars of the Cross to save humankind from our sinfulness.  In recognizing this, in baptizing myself to this, I am given the ultimate rite of passage.  And, as Paul states in Galatians 6:17, “from now on let no one cause trouble for me, for I bear on my body the brand-marks of Jesus.”

MOLESKIN:
Prayers for Helga and his wife who is having surgery, for Steam’s father who just had total knee replacement surgery, and for Steam as he considers a new job.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Hardship Hill on Saturday, October 3.

It Isn’t Wasted Time

THE SCENE: Partly cloudy, temps in high 50’s.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
20 Plank Jacks, 10 Cherry Pickers, 10 Squat Jumps, 10 Rockettes, 10 Little Baby Arm Circles Forward and 10 Backward, Michael Phelps
THA-THANG:
Mosey to Northeast Corner of Admin Bldg.  Do 20 American Hammers.

We will next go along the road that semicircles around the admin bldg.  There will be cones along the way that will tell us what exercise to do and also tell us how to get to the next cone:

  • Cone 1:  Do 20 Iron Mikes (both feet equal 1).  Bernie Sanders to Cone 2.
  • Cone 2:  Do 20 Big Boy Sit-ups.  Bear Crawl to Cone 3.
  • Cone 3:  Do 20 Dive Bombers.  Sprint to Cone 4.
  • Cone 4:  Do 20 Star Jumps.  Then go down the stairs just past the bat cave.
  • Cone 5.  Do 20 Merkins.  Then run to pine cove area just below the top of Summit.
  • Cone 6.  Do 10 Burpees.  Run to roadway at top of Summit.
  • Cone 7.  Do 40 Baby Crunches.  Run to Cone 8.
  • Cone 8.  Do 20 Squats.  Hop to Cone 9.
  • Cone 9.  Do 20 Flutter Kicks (4 count).  Sprint to Cone 10 near the stop sign.
  • Cone 10. Do 20 Hello Dollies (4 ct).  20 Carolina Dry Docks.  20 Smurf Jacks.  10 Hand Release Merkins.  20 Bicycle Kicks (4 ct).  20 Squat Jumps.  20 Box Cutters.  20 Diamond Merkins.

Mosey to grassy decline on left side of road as one goes from stop sign to main park road.  We will do sevens starting with 1 Jump Squat at bottom of hill and 6 Burpees on top of hill.

Mosey to grassy area close to outdoor chapel.  We will do 20 tempo merkins.

Mosey to playground.  We will do elevens at benches starting with one bench dip and ten bench jumps.

Mosey to CMU pile.  Each man grabs a CMU.  We will do the following in cadence:  20 Overhead Presses, 20 Curls, 20 Rows.

Mosey to bottom of mini-cardiac.  We will Bernie to park sign then sprint the rest of the way to the AO.

MARY:
30 Merkins
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
17 Men, no FNGs.
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

F3 Message

Hebrews 11:8:  By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.

Matthew 3:12:  His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.

So you can get on with your search baby
And I can get on with mine
And maybe someday we will find
That it wasn’t really wasted time

            — The Eagles

When I was in college I, just like undergraduate and graduate students today, was required to do research projects for quite a few of my classes.  We didn’t have the internet back then.  By my years in graduate school we at least had made it past card catalogues and could search for books and journal articles that might be relevant for a topic by typing in a keyword on the computers provided at the library.  In so doing, the computer would list articles or books that might have that keyword in it.  We would then have to go find the book or journal article somewhere in the library to see if what was written in it did really apply to the topic we were researching.  Often times the information found did not apply.  This was particularly true when first starting the research on the project.  It was quite frustrating to spend hours of work on a project finding information that was not applicable.  By graduate school, I had come to accept the fact that for any research project I was going to have to spend hours of “wasted timed”, time I would spend roaming the floors and aisles of the library to come up with information that was not useful.  But, to quote the Eagles song, “it wasn’t really wasted time.”  It was necessary time.  To find what I needed, I had to separate the wheat from the chaff as alluded to in Matthew 3:12.  I had to find what was good for me (the information that applied) and put aside what was not (irrelevant information).

When one thinks about it, much of life is like this.  To receive our inheritance we must journey forward in faith, like Abraham, not quite knowing where we are going, heading down wrong turns and circling back to get on the right course. Some of you younger single guys may have the desire to find the “right” mate.  I certainly had that desire in my 20’s.  I dated a large variety of women, sometimes growing tired of the “dating scene”, breaking hearts and having my own heart broken in the process.  I wasn’t exactly separating the wheat from the chaff but I did have to find the right person for me.  And, in my 30’s, I finally found that person, one who has meant so much to me and made me a better man in the process.

My vocational career has not exactly been a road straight up a ladder.  It has been full of mishaps and struggle, and finally a decision to change my vocational course all-together, going to graduate school in psychology after I had already attained a law degree and practiced in that field for a period of time.  That period of time was not easy – it was full of anxiety and angst and I often felt like a failure.

Whether it is finding the right mate, job, friendships, place to live, or way to spend our time, we run into challenges and sometimes hit dead ends.  As a man in my sixties, I can see that the so-called floundering wasn’t wasted time.  It may have been had I given up and chose to ignore and not learn from my mistakes.  I can see that the dead ends were necessary and even helped me to grow.  How sweet it is to think that God has been there with me through it all.  Some of those moments when I was at my most depressed were times that I was speaking to God the loudest, yearning for him, reaching out to him for help.

In your journey, keep pushing forward, learn from your mistakes, and realize that God is there even when you don’t know where you are going.  If the road is confusing and seems impossible, it may just be that you are a complex man whose needs are not met easily.  My prayer for you is that some day you will look back on your younger years . . . although perhaps not without scars from your falls and lines on your face giving evidence to a history of some difficulties . . . and, be able to say that it wasn’t really wasted time.

MOLESKIN:
Prayers for Hooker’s sister, Molly, who is getting married to day, for Mr. Jinxy’s wife, Susan, whose surgery went well and who is recovering, for Helga and his wife as she has brain surgery this week, for Convoy and his family after the death of his father, for Doubtfire and his family after the death of his mother, for peace and love in the face of racism, and for those other brothers like Thunderstuck who have family members with cancer or who are ill.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Hardship Hill on October 3.

Double Ring of Fire and some hard work and sweat at the Asylum

THE SCENE: Slightly overcast, temps in the mid-80s and a bit muggy
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

SSH 20 IC
Cherry Pickers 15 IC
Windmills 15 IC
Grady Corns 31 IC
Merkins 10 IC

THA-THANG:
I

Mosey to Hill west of stop sign
1. 15 Merkins – Bernie to next station
2.  15 BBS-   Run to next station
3.  20 Squats Bear Crawl to next station
 4.  20 American Hammers (4 ct) –Run

Rinse n repeat

Mosey to Tree at bottom of hill – divide across each cone
Cone 1 – 20 Hello Dollys (4ct) , Cone 2 – 20 Imperial Walkers (4ct), Cone 3 – 20 shoulder taps (4 ct)

Rinse and repeat
I minute Plank
Quick Ring of Fire – 1 merkin each
Mosey to Island
Partner up
Run Opposite direction.  When you meet within 6 feet, 5 Merkins , run again, 10 Merkins, run again – 15 merkins
Rinse and repeat – 5 Bobby Hurleys, 10 Bobby Hurleys, 15 Bobby Hurleys
Mosey to halfway up hill towards AO – One more Ring of Fire

MARY:

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

Wayne Dyer- Power of Intention.
Need to separate from Ego.Move away from Ego dominance. Your free will can either move with universal spirit and its unfolding or away from it toward ego dominance. We do not create anything alone, we are all creatures with God. Our free will combines and redistributes whats already created
1. I am what I have. My possesions define me
1. I am what I do. My achievements define me
3. I am what others think of me. My reputation defines me
4. I am separate from everyone. My body defines me as alone
5. I am separate from all that is missing in my life. My life space is disconnected from my desires
6. I am separate from God. My life depends on God’s assessment of my worthiness

MOLESKIN:
Pray for @Jinxy’s wife who is having surgery
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Hardship Hill Obstacle build- supply pick up at Christmas Lumber on Kingston Pike ~ 3 pm friday and build at HHOR site in Kingston on Saturday starting at 9 am, need able bodies, skil saws, cordless drills and impact drivers. Let Sparkler know if you can come