Halloween Countdown with the Spooky Q

QIC:  Band Camp

Date: 10/1/2021

PAX: Blue, Milkman, Starbucks, Lyft, Cleaver, Sherlock, LifeAlert, Money Shot, Snowcream, Tasty Cakes, FNG-OB

AO: Shothouse


Conditions

The moon was out with an eerie glow, masked in part by the shadowed clouds above. A tainted breeze filled the air, punctuated by the smell of HIM tears. Howling was heard by all, though it was just yours truly in his truest form (aka the Spooky Q). Perfect for a pumpkin-spiced beatdown.


COP

20 SSH’s in cadence

10 Windmills in cadence

10 Willy Maze Haze in cadence

Toe touches 30 seconds OYO

Cobra 15 seconds OYO

10 Michael Phelps in cadence

20 Merkins in cadence


The Thang

Make your way to the track with a coupon. Pair off into groups of 2 (Dora’s—Person A and Person B).


Phase One, the Monster Mash
Person A starts and exercise, Person B completes a movement 10 yards there and back. When Person B gets back, Persons A and B switch so that Person A completes the movement while Person B completes the exercise. Each sub-section below is completed for 5 minutes at a time:

Mummies (5 minutes)

A – mummy lifts (sit-up with block)

B – Mummy walk 10 yards and back (straight leg high kicks to your outstretched arms, no coupon)

Werewolves (5 minutes)

A – howl at the moon (dive bombers)

B – bear crawl 10 yards and back (fast, no coupon)

Vampires (5 minutes)

A – flex your wings (bent over rows with coupon)

B – fly! 10 yards there and back (long jumps, no coupon)

Spiders (5 minutes)

A – squash the spider (American hammers with coupon)

B – Spider-Man crawl 10 yards (push-up optional, no coupon)

Jog to the home bleachers with coupon

Phase 2, Trick-or-Treat Preparation

Keeping the same groups, complete these exercises for 3 minutes each, then switch. (We were only able to spend 1.5 minutes each due to time.)

A – candy bag bicep curls with coupon (5 low curls, 5 high curls, 5 full curls) until failure, alternating with front door step-ups on bleachers as needed.

B – chocolate arm dips until failure, alternating with candy apple bobbing pull ups on the bleacher railing as needed.

Phase 3, Ding-Dong-Ditch

Continuing with Dora groups, the following happens on the track without coupons:

A – holds Al Gore looking in opposite direction until B “rings the doorbell”, then tries to catch B through a jailbreak

B – starting from 20-ish yards behind A mosey’s to A and says “Ding Dong!”, then immediately bernies along track to get away from A

Once A catches up to B, the roles switch, with A starting 20 yards behind B. Once one team makes it all the way around the track to the starting point (home bleachers), the exercise is over for everyone. We were only able to get 1/4 around the track due to time.

Walk back to parking lot with block.


COT

Before going into my Word of the Day in this post, we got to name the FNG. Welcome OB (short for OBGYN)! Brave man for coming out to a Spooky Q with yours truly, hopefully we didn’t scare OB away…

Word of the Day:

Like many of our modern holidays, halloween historically was something that embraced evils. It wasn’t until a Roman Catholic holiday was established on November 1st, 609 that the celebration changed in the western world.

So that’s the history lesson, I believe it has direct implications on our life today. As HIM’s, when we experience adversity, do we become victims of wrongs? Or do we take a bad event in history and change our perspective to build ourselves up and move forward, like Pope Boniface IV? Halloween’s true history shouldn’t be forgotten, but we shouldn’t be hampered down by that history—we can remember and should call out evils, but we can’t let it keep us from living our lives going forward. If we’re Christians, we know that the world doesn’t end until Jesus says so, we keep running the race of faith and life (1 Corinthians 9). There is a time for mourning and tearing down, but also a time for joy and building up (Ecclesiastes 3).

My wife read an interesting book review this week—the article stated we all meditate on suffering. Much of the current social justice movements focus on the suffering of the self. Christians however are called to meditate on the suffering of Christ, from there we find our identity (1 Peter 2:24). By the God of creation becoming a victim, He allowed us to overcome our personal struggles. God says we can trust in Him, not only for salvation, but for our daily life (Proverbs 3:5-6). That means God invites us out of a life of victimization and into a life of conquering for His kingdom (Luke 12:32).

On a personal level, I’ve had a lot of personal struggle being okay with my recent failures at work. But I can’t let those failures determine how I perceive myself, or else it will also impact my area of influence. Good leaders don’t get the luxury of self pity. We must be vulnerable and admit our weaknesses, but we are also charged with circling ourselves with good people who will pull us out of the muck (1 Thessalonians 5:11, Galatians 6:2).


Moleskin

Life Alert made sure to remind me that less than 12 hours of October had transpired and here I was leading a Halloween-themed Q. I guess the moral of the story is you never know when a Spooky Q will happen to you (just like no one expects the Spanish Inquisition!). As a side note, I dress up as characters all the time—just ask my wife about our role playing adventures. The way I see it there’s no reason to keep dress up for just one day a year when I can dress up like a scantily-clad firefighter anytime I want. If I had it my way, I’d have “Halloween” every day of the year. I’d also probably have like 10 kids by now though.


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