Thanks to Zook, YHC knew that he was Q today. The lapse in memory that caused YHC to forget that he had signed up (or that Bump Draft had signed him up) reminded YHC of a book he read a number of years back called Moonwalking with Einstein. The premise of the book centers around research that shows we are able to keep a series of mental images in our head better than we are able to memorize numbers (or a sequence of workouts) by rote – typically, people can easily remember and recite about 7 digits, or a similar number of items from a list, but can store a vast sequence of mental images with minimal effort.

YCH set about committing today’s plan to memory during the morning's coffee by placing mental images of the workouts into various locations in a memory castle (sometimes called a memory palace by fancier folk). For YHC this “castle” is the home where he grew up – burpees in the driveway, Merkins on the mailbox, hello Dollies off the front porch steps (a welcoming image), and so on into various rooms of the house. Ironically, YHC did forget gas pumps in the bathroom, so this is not a perfect method, made even further imperfect by oxygen deprivation exacerbated by lengthy abstinence from sport.

While Zook may have been dressed like a Floridian who has not evolved to withstand long periods of cold, many of us were quite underdressed for the surprisingly crisp morning. So let us make sure we are moving! Thus:

Warmup

• 20x SSH IC
• 15 Mountain climbers IC
• 10x Slow Merkin IC
• 10x Imperial Walker IC
• 10x Windmill IC

Main Event

The PAX took a Mosey around the neighborhood, up Briar Chapel Parkway to The Wall and back down Cliffdale and Tobacco Farm Rd. to Briar Commons Park, stopping at various intersections to perform the stack part of what Chum calls the “track and stack.” YHC took a slowsey around the memory castle to keep the exercises straight.

• Mosey – YHC is standing in the driveway of 341 Tonjes Rd. in upstate New York. An avatar of the same correspondent is performing burpees on the crushed stone near a deep blue, beautifully restored 1971 Chevy pickup, rocks digging painfully into gloved palms.
o 5 Burpees OYO

• Mosey – YHC moseys from the driveway to the mailboxes, hop-stepping the specters of generations of half-flattened, feral cats, unlucky or unskilled at crossing the country road where the occasional tractor will grumble its way by at 25 mph, or the occasional local kid will drive past at 80. Balanced atop the mailboxes (mailbox and newspaper box in this mental image), the avatar performs the merkin.
o 10 Merkins SC
o 5 Burpees

• Mosey – From the mailbox YHC makes his way to the slanted front porch concealed by overgrown shrubs and built of fading plastic, chipping paint, and rotted boards and possessed of a sign advertising “The O’Mara’s.” The avatar is an unsettling site, performing Hello Dollies at the top of the steps up to the porch.
o 15 Dollies IC
o 10 Merkins
o 5 Burpees

• Mosey – Entering the front door of the house, YHC finds himself in the dining room which appears far smaller than previous memory: the table lower, the ceiling encroaching. Indeed, as the avatar performs side shuffle hop around the dining table with marquetry inlay, his fingers carve obscene gashes in the soft ceiling tiles. The 150 gallon fish tank burbles and glows with life.
o 20 SSH IC
o 15 Dollies
o 10 Merkins
o 5 Burpees

• Mosey – YHC needs only to turn his head to glance into the connected kitchen, rustic and creaking with oak flooring and oak cabinets. The avatar squats and rummages through the darkness within the fridge to fish out a Fanta.
o 25 Squats SC
o 20 SSH
o 15 Dollies
o 10 Merkins
o 5 Burpees

• Mosey – Here the memory palace blurs and fades from existence. Here the Q misses the hall bathroom where he would have seen the avatar engaging in gas pumps. Instead consciousness of the mental construct resumes in the living room, where the avatar stands in an inch of pink carpeting, cheering on the Yankees with an energetic overhead clap like a histrionic semaphore.
o 30 Overhead Claps IC
o 25 Squats
o 20 SSH
o 15 Dollies
o 10 Merkins
o 5 Burpees

• Mosey – The pink ankle-deep carpeting does not stop in the living room but continues up the stairs, followed by a streak of cherry wood paneling and several flattened rolls of 90s wallpaper. On the stairs YCH can see the avatar haltingly making his way up to the second level like a… well, like a mountain climber.
o 35 Mountain Climbers IC
o 30 Overhead Claps
o 25 Squats
o 20 SSH
o 15 Dollies
o 10 Merkins
o 5 Burpees

Mary
• Side planks with Leg raises 10x/side IC

Announcements/Prayer requests
• Prayers for DeWater’s uncle Roddy who is fighting cancer, that he will find the strength needed to recover as he moves to hospice care.
• Brotox gave props to Duelingbanjos who heroically (with some others who were not mentioned because they were not in attendance) braved the subtropical weather of November for 26.2 miles.
• Zook 3rd F option – See Zook for fundraiser details
• Duelingbanjos 3rd F option – YMCA fundraiser
• Holiday party December 20th? Or thereabouts
• Solstice Saunter December 26th?

COT/BOM

YHC said he had meant to talk about temperance and how this idea is composed of elements such as moderation and discipline, and then talked about it. We as adults do not have constant conditioning toward discipline and so must practice self-discipline. We have all heard of the power of cultivating constructive and positive habits, but calling this discipline seems to carry a bit more of the ancient gravitas.
YHC then talked a little about the memory castle, a subject which has been beaten thoroughly enough throughout this backblast.