Delighting in the continuation of summer well into fall, YHC drew a deep breath of tropical air and launched into a warmarama with enough pax to populate not one, but two workouts:

SSH 15 (Sorry, Gilmore, for the false “halt” signal at 13.  That was just YHC’s still-sleepy voice cracking)
10 Chinooks 
12 Cotton Pickers
10 Mountain Climbers

Kay’s strongmen decamped for the weightlifting zone, while an indeterminate number of pax who did not want to get stronger remained with YHC to prepare for the fall decorating season, where M’s point and pax’s carry pumpkins and planters from one side of the porch to the other.  After a quick equipment time-out to repair some leaky milk jugs, serving today as proxy pumpkins, the pax was off to the bus lot behind the school for:

Pub Crawl – Partner A carries the pumpkin to the car – lunge walk carrying jug with a squat at each line.  Partner B avoids eye contact in hopes of avoiding a task assignment – bear crawl with a Merkin at each line.   Switch roles halfway across the lot.

Mosey to pickup benches for top-shelf pumpkin placement – Partner A:  Step-Up on bench, raising the jug over head each time.   Best line of the day (was it Bambi?). “This is why we can’t have nice things.”  responding to the several pax smashing their pumpkins into the awning above.  Perennial overachiever Dr Evil found some way to make this suck on the chest muscles too.  Meanwhile Partner B does a Mucho Chesto, imported from the Lutz, Fla pax – 5 each Diamond Merkins, Standard Merkins, Wide Merkins, Stagger Left Merkins, Stagger Right Merkins.

Switch, then repeat for round 2 with Partner B doing 10 Worst Merkin Ever.  Switch, then repeat for round 3 with Partner B doing 15 Shoulder Taps/Plank Jacks combos.  Bonus points to Chipper for adding in a Merkin on each rep.

Mosey down the hill and pair off with partners (Sorry, Checkbook, for leaving you, literally, the odd man out) facing each other for pumpkin toss:  Partner A squats and picks up jug from the ground, tosses it 6′  to Partner B, who squats to place the jug on the ground and stands up.  Then squats again to pick it up and toss back to Partner A.  Opposing partners mimic each other with all squats.  Wet jugs were a little more slippery than expected, and YHC’s unwillingness to leave the jug on the ground kept Sludge supplied with mumblechatter material throughout.   Continue Tabata-style for 6 rounds of 45 seconds work / 15 seconds rest.

Then mosey to the field in front of the school and form a big circle for pumpkin transfer brigade.  Side hop 1-2 steps to right, pick up jug from the ground, side hop 2-3 steps to left and set jug on the ground for next pax to pick up.  Side hop back to the right and repeat, transferring the jugs around the circle.  Once again, max effort from Chipper who covered all of his hops and half of mine to deliver a jug right to my spot.  Continue Tabata style for 5 rounds of 45 work / 15 rest.

Then mosey to the basketball court, with a halfway stop on Mountain Street sidewalk for some Flashing Monkey Humpers and a hand-off of jugs to partners.  Then the final event:

Pumpkin Shuttle Run – Partner A shuttles the jug, suicide-style, from baseline to free throw to half court, etc., returning the jug to the baseline each time.  Props to Tenderfoot, who was uncertain about the assignment but was the last one still moving when Omaha called.  Surprising level of confusion from the pax raises serious questions about QIC’s leadership.  We will all have to work on this one some more.  Meanwhile, Partner B holds Balls To The Wall and listens with increasing desperation to the chaos, thinking that he will never get off this wall.

After a round and a half, Kay and the muscle men showed up to lead us through 6 Minutes of Mary and a Circle of Trust.