My pre-blast announced: What do Eric Clapton, a baby’s butt, bundt cake and Matthews 7:8 have in common. Well…maybe a bit of marketing by YHC here but real Walmart purchased flour was used in quantity. If you can’t make the correlation to the first three items, just give me a holler.

Pax first: Had the blessing of a DR named Weaver from Greenwood SC (home of the Iron Pax). And we had an FNG: yes, no, maybe. Mike was EHed by Train but we crossed paths sometime after we left the shovel flags and tripped on us with about 5 minutes left. So he is designated as an FNG-In-Training and will be named when he has a full F3 experience.  Hope he’ll come back….seemed like a fine man in many ways.

On the unusual for paradise, it was freakin’ cold. 43 degrees and uber windy. Of course there may have been extenuating circumstances (I know one we expected very much made a great choice to serve his girls that morning) but maybe the terms kept some away?? I get it, some of you reading this have ice and snow and temps in single digits. But for our slice of paradise, 43 degrees is the same. But yet, our FS gents did miss some great fun. Peach – you get a pass on this since I’m sure you posted in frigid Toledo today.

As to Matthew 7:8, some description is required. Today we did a “Hash”…F3 style. Hash do you say: hash browns? corned beef hash? hash tag?, hashish (I know you thought that)? Not even close.

About 20 years ago I was introduce to the Hash House Harriers in Atlanta, and hen participated for a while in Charlotte (my home then). HHH calls itself a drinking club with a running problem. Keeping it simple, a hash is a trail set by the volunteer leader (rotating basis) using flour to mark the way. Usually about 25-ish yards a part, the handfuls of flour mark the way but not without other special twists such as a flour (or chalk) made symbol the the straight-ish trail ends and the runners have to run 360 and find where the trail picks up. Once or twice in a hash their are trash bags of the cheapest beer findable (anybody remember Old Style??) and water. A 5-10 minute fellowship ensues. Length of each trail, 3-4 miles. Terrain? Whatever: woods, parks, industrial areas, neighborhoods or combinations of such terrain. There is likely an active HHH club in most medium and major cities.

Yes…not only peer lead on a rotating basis, free, held outdoors, and one gets a nickname. It has its own culture and community. And it was started by the army! Sound familiar? Eerie I know yet it does affirm part of F3’s formula is successful for a reason: Us humans need community, exercise and fun, so both are similar in that regard. Differences?: Coed, younger (20’s-30’s), usually singles, the drinking, running only and culture that is more liberal than what we see. My nickname? Breezy Balls (got that because I, of deep Scottish roots in my family, owned a kilt). Many of their names can’t be told to your grandma or said in church. No 3rd F to speak of. And little evidence of transformational change of the participants and the community they live in.

Hash – F3 style? YHC came afternoon before and laid about a 1 1/2 mile trail with flour and chalk, plus creating 13 pain stations. I put indicators of pain stops on sidewalks, plastic rocks, pieces of wood on the beach, concrete on the pier, on a pier pole, on trees…so the group needed a careful eye. There was no “follow me” but instead YHC had a blast watching the pax wonder and wander with the trail experience.

All did well and I think they had fun with a new thing. But my oh my. El Capitan was like a bloodhound and guessed right 80% of the ever-changing directions of the trail. Amazing if not uncanny that he was as accurate as he was. Great work Cap!

Long way to Matthew 7:8? For everyone who asks, receives, the one who seeks, finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. We had an unknown journey here with many twists and turns that required unity, focus and eye on the prize(s). With God, we are on fantastic journey yet where and how we go on His trail is not obvious with limited signs and full of surprises. While I was a poor excuse of a creator of a journey compared to Him, we have to trust His ways to find the open doors.

COT: Not one in HHH world, so stuck with SSH, Abe Vigodas, Imperial Walkers, Mountain Climbers and Parker Peters.

THE THANG:

Pain Stations:

1. 5 Burpees/40 SSH/15 Diamonds/5 Burpees

2. 5 Burpees/20 Plank Jacks/30 Squats

3. 5 Burpees/25 Apollo Ohnos/10 WMD’s/5 burpees

4. 20 Star Jacks/25 Big Boy Sit-ups

5. 50 LBC’s/30 Imperial Walkers/5 Burpees

6. 5 Burpees/15 Heels To Heaven/30 Hillbillys

7. 20 Knee Jump Ups/50 Freddy Mercs

8. 25 Merkins/50 Dying Cockroach/5 Burpees

9. 5 Burpees/20 Carolina Drydocks/20 Bobby Hurleys

10. 20 Jumping Lunges/15 Dolphin Merkins

11. 15 Jump Squats/25 Penguin Plus

12. 10 RosaDollys/20 Flutter kicks

13. 10 Boxcutters/10 W’s/5 Burpees

COT: Countarama, Namearma, Announcements and Prayers. Not many announcements today, but we have many names for healing prayers that we have been praying for for awhile now.

El Caps’ “ministry” coffee, our staple coffeteria thanks to his effort to bring imported Honduran coffee (grown by his ministry there; proceeds go to a children’s home in Honduras helps run) was very welcome in the chill.

Today was fun to plan and execute, but it’s always a blessing to lead fine men in the journey to be better than we found ourselves when we woke up that morning.

Bird Hole