Core Principles – and Autistic Awareness Day
4-4-2023 / Westside High School
AO: Coliseum – about 43 degrees, and a steady 13 mph wind.
Q: Tight Lip
PAX(23): Hind Sight, Mac-N-Cheese, Sandy Cheeks, Side Dish, Lansbury, Swinger, Doll Face (Respect), Beaver, Parka, Rosetta, Splinter, Grillz, Scoober, Green Street, Rancid, Q-Tip (Respect Respect), Jump Street, Taser, Black Lung, Wentworth, Almost Famous, Ice T, Stella, Tight Lip
Announced: Well, I announced that I was surprised how many men were present and informed them that I am not a professional. The men then informed me that disc golf draws a crowd. I recited our mission statement and our credo, and I needed to be reminded to include our 5 core principles. Those core principles are truly important, and they need to be stated every time.
Warmarama
We set off on a mosey south and headed west uphill on William Street, then turned north onto 90th and stopped at the parking lot 200 meters shy of Pacific. Despite the steep uphill route, everyone did well staying in a group. We circled up for some Tappy-Taps, a few cherry pickers, some slow silent big ones, 5 Merikans, and then transitioned to some cobra pose stretching for what was about to come next.
The Thang
I don’t really like to announce when Warmarama concludes, every man is different, so I simply transition and the PAX figure it out in their own time that Warmarama has ended… We’re coming up on swimsuit season and it’s been cold out so it seems like we haven’t spent much time on our six of late. Given the warm temperature, I figured that today was a good day to get a good ab burn going… We did 20 LBCs, 15 Low Dollies, 20 Heels to Heaven (IC), 15 WWI sit ups. It was at about this time when I heard the first guy cuss, and I knew we were on the right track. We then did 20 Imperial Walkers (IC) to take a little break, then transitioned back to our six to do 15 dying cockroaches (IC), and then did 20 Flutter Kicks (IC), and then transitioned to 15 Box Cutters (IC), and finished with 20 Big Boy sit ups. At this point there were many groans groaned, and I would’ve groaned too but I needed to keep the count going to sustain that burn.
The (other) Thang
We then took a short jaunt down the hill on the west side of the high school. We lined up on the edge of the parking lot and the PAX was instructed to Burnie up the hill, wall sit at the top until the 6 was in, and then we transition to 5 Chicken Peckers (IC). I realize now I should’ve made it a larger even number like 8 or 10… We then ran down the hill where we did 10 Merikans, 10 Ass to Grass squats (with a “down” and “up” command), 10 more Merikans, and 10 Monkey Humpers (IC). We did this cycle two more times with each cycle having a few more reps (mostly).
6MOM (though I heard someone mention it happened 30 minutes prior)
We then mossied back to the track around the north side of the school. At that point the wind really made its presence known. That sucked. We got back to the track and did three cycles of 5 burpees, and 10 Sweat Angels (I hate sweat angels). I had intended for us to do some stairs on the bleachers, but we did not have an appreciable amount of time left, so we took a lap instead.
Prayers and Announcements
General announcements were made about 1st F and 3rd F events approaching on the calendar. It was a little slow going for prayer requests, but after a bit they began to trickle in. Prayers for healing of family members, and prayers for lost loved ones of our fellow PAX.
COT
This past weekend was Autism Awareness Day, and as a parent of an autistic child I thought I’d take the opportunity to express some of the challenges and growth I experience. I have two children, Claire who is eight years old and Ben who is 5 years old. My son Ben is autistic. He’s pretty high functioning, but certainly has his challenges with communication and transitions. My daughter Claire attends a private Christian school. Allowing a child’s faith to root is important to us as a family. We want the same opportunity for Ben, but because of the level of academic support he needs, that is not possible for him. So, as parents we are presented with the reality of having one kid enrolled in private school and the other in public school. On the surface this feels awful as a parent, but it is what is best for our children’s respective futures. Funnily enough, one of my son’s favorite toys is his dry erase board. He loves spelling words, and could challenge many first graders with some of his spelling ability. However, he also struggles to articulate sentences and concepts over five words, so there is plenty of challenge in understanding his wants and needs. Many people seem to think that most autistic kids have some special ability, and that is not the case. We are fortunate that Ben engages with learning how to spell words and we’re able to understand his basic requests, but every autistic person is different. I’m not sure that there is any wisdom in what I have shared, just perspective, and I hope it can lead to good conversations and better understanding.
Aye, Tight LIp
