Dog Days of Summer Baseball Cards

Pax: Flying Tomato, Mad Bum, Napalm, Chitwood, Aruba, Cap’n D, McQueen, Scout, Meat Sweats, Josey, & Poacher

Warmup

• 10 burpees
• Windmills
• Arm Circles
• Mucho Chesto

Beat Down & Down Painment (Cinder Block coupons, return to baseball diamond home base for baseball cards)

After picking a card, execute movement exercise in base order, execute exercise at appropriate base, and appropriate movement exercise back to home plate. If pick home 3^rd, 6^th, or 9^th inning, only go home, execute exercise and move onto next inning.

• 1^st Inning: Pick a card, run with coupon to base, execute exercise, run with coupon back
  • 1^st base: 10x Plyo Merkins
  • 2^nd base: 20x Derkins
  • 3^rd base: 30x squats
• 2^nd Inning: Pick a card, murder bunny with coupon to 1^st base, boxtrot to remaining bases, execute exercise, walk back
  • 1^st base: 10x chest press w/coupon
  • 2^nd base: 20x floor wipers (coupon elevated on six, leg raises each side)
  • 3^rd base: 30x calf raises
• 3^rd Inning: Pick a card, 10 burpees, run without coupon to base, execute exercise, run back
  • 1^st base: 10x shoulder taps
  • 2^nd base: 20x leg raises
  • 3^rd base: 30x flutter kicks or 30x slam balls
  • Home: 100x side straddle hops
• 4^th Inning: Pick a card, rifle carry to base, execute exercise, rifle carry back
  • 1^st base: 10x American hammers w/coupon
  • 2^nd base: 20x bent over rows w/ coupon
  • 3^rd base: 30x windshield wipers
• 5^th Inning: Pick a card, Bear Crawl to base, execute exercise, walk back
  • 1^st base: 10x coupon side slides
  • 2^nd base: 20x upright rows
  • 3^rd base: 30x curls
• 6^th Inning: Pick a card, 5 blockies, sled pull to base, execute exercise, alternate person – sled pull back
  • 1^st base: 10x shoulder taps
  • 2^nd base: 20x Freddie Mercuries
  • 3^rd base: 30x flutter kicks
  • Home: 100x Merkins or 100x jump rope
• 7^th Inning stretch: 5 min stretch
• 7^th Inning: Pick a card, Walk + overhead press to base, execute exercise, rifle carry back
  • 1^st base: 10x block hops (hope over blocks)
  • 2^nd base: 20x block swings
  • 3^rd base: 30x windshield wipers
• 8^th Inning: Pick a card, Bearpees to 1^st base, walk to remaining bases, execute exercise, boxtrot back
  • 1^st base: 10x alpos
  • 2^nd base: 20x lawn mowers (10x each arm)
  • 3^rd base: 30x LBCs
• 9^th Inning: Pick a card, Boxtrot to base, execute exercise, boxtrot back
  • 1^st base: 10x merkins
  • 2^nd base: 20x leg raises
  • 3^rd base: 30x side straddle hops
  • Home: 10x burpees

Announcements: Roadside Cleanup Jul 23^rd after Flagship at the Roast in Whispering Pines, though the pax could mutiny and repurpose the signs from HWY 22 to Linden Road due to lack of interest in Whispering Pines. Mentorship at Flying Tomato’s house the evening of 1 August.

Prayer: Scout led us out in prayer. Prayers for my M’s sister, who is in hospice and Napalm’s friend, who was diagnosed with cancer. Praise for Rafiki.

Moleskine: I recently went on a long-delayed family trip to a life goal/bucket list location, specifically Paris, France and Normandy, France. My family and I set a goal to visit France years ago and planned to go prior to the pandemic. COVID and travel restrictions/risk altered our plan, but we decided to pursue the plan this summer. Though our trip worked out, we almost suffered another setback when my M and I contracted COVID a month prior to our trip. In addition to the incredible experience, we reinforced several lessons in planning and taking advantage of those opportunities that life affords us, even when obstacles stand in our way. Of course, those obstacles pale in comparison to the men, who attacked the German positions in Normandy in the summer of 1944, but obstacles are merely challenges to overcome.

With Sub Zero entering his sophomore year at NC State and my mother turning 72, we knew that our opportunity to travel as a full family remained limited moving forward. Uncertainty about COVID or other unforeseen obstacles would also impact us going forward. Add the airline chaos of 2022, heat waves, and constant labor strikes in France and more obstacles continue to dissuade people from moving outside their comfort zone. Nonetheless, my M planned a precise, flawless trip with multiple contingencies and it went off without a hitch.

For those of you who did not visit the Normandy region, I cannot recommend it enough. In fact, every American should visit at some point in their life to understand the incredible valor and sacrifice that the Greatest Generation displayed in the face of pure uncertainty. In 1944, their obstacles to achieve victory in Europe and against the Axis powers proved extreme. The Nazis built what they called an impenetrable wall across 3500 miles of coastline from the Scandanavian countries to southern Europe. In a disastrous raid in Deippe, France in August 1942, the Brits and Canadians proved just how challenging an invasion into Europe would prove.

Most people visualize the Normandy invasion through movies, like “The Longest Day,” “Saving Private Ryan,” or “Band of Brothers.” These programs deliver a great sense of what these men endured, but it is tough to fully appreciate the scope and scale of the invasion without seeing the terrain. In fact, the most casualty-producing operations of the Normandy campaign that lasted from June through August in 1942 occurred after D-Day, attacking through canalized terrain, covered by thousands of German Soldiers. From Omaha Beach, only four unimproved roads, moving through small draws, provided the transportation routes for the Allies to move inland. They had to fight for every inch.

A lack of a deep water port, through which the Allies would need to deliver additional forces, and critical supplies, provided one of the greatest challenges to the Allies. However, through sheer will and expenditure of resources, the Allies constructed two artificial ports to provide this critical juncture. Churchill said, “As we have no harbour at our disposal, we shall bring ours.” In addition to sinking multiple ships to create a breakwater, the Allies towed 230 4000 ton caissons to create the footings for the bridgeworks in the harbor. If that is not will and overcoming extreme challenges, nothing is.

We visited so many places and saw so many examples of overcoming obstacles against all odds that it is almost overwhelming. This is not to diminish challenges and obstacles of today, but, the next time you are annoyed that you have to walk an extra 6 parking spaces in the parking lot, remember the men of D-Day at Pegasus Bridge, Arromanches, or Omaha Beach.