AMERICA - The Right Way!! (WEEKEND EDITION - Days 686 and 687) [Remember the Trade Center!!]

Various News Sources and FReepers | December 7, 2002 | All of Us

[Chairman_December_19th_Society]

We will not tire, we will not falter, and we will not fail! [President Bush]

Good morning!! Do not let the victims of the attacks on New York and Washington, nor the brave members of our Nation's military who have given their lives to protect our freedom, die in vain!!

GLOBAL WARNING ACTIVIST ALERT!!

December 7 record low temperature:

Washington Dulles Airport - former record: 18 (set various years)
Washington Dulles Airport - new record: 3 (set in 2002)

Other temperatures around the Washington metro area:

Washington: 21 [not a new record]
Richmond: 21
Petersburg: 18
Patuxent River: 14
Roanoke: 13
Fredericksburg: 12
Charlottesville: 12
Lynchburg: 12
Manassas: 0 [ZERO]

Here, at the cottage: a nice, balmy 9.9

Question for the global warming people: considering that current low temperature records for the day were not simply broken, but crushed, does this fit your "models"? Hmmm?

In the news:

Runoff election day in Louisiana. And what would an election be if it didn't have a Criminal Party vote buying scandal? Landrieu is accused of trying to buy military votes with $10 Thanksgiving food gift certificates. The claim is reported in The Washington Times, and comes from Gen. George Peyton Cole, Jr., retired.

North Carolina has activated the National Guard to help storm victims.

And one of the hottest toys this Christmas shopping season? A talking President Bush doll. The Daily News reports the doll says "17 powerful and patriotic phrases," including:

"Terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings, but they cannot shake the foundation of America."

"I will not yield. I will not rest. I will not relent in waging this struggle for freedom and security for the American people."

And what would a President Bush doll be without a mangled phrase? They included: "I will not hold this nation hostile."

Reportedly the manufacturer is also planning dolls for JFK, and President Reagan.

[They are also planning one for UOx42, but it is not clear whether one of the phrases for that doll would be: "I never had sex with that woman."]

For AMERICA - The Right Way, I remain yours in the Cause, the Chairman.

[Neets]

Sounds like a blast

[Neets]

I didn't know you were from NY.

[nicollo]

What fun your cruise -- and that's brilliant, your greeting to FDR! I've never taken a Potomac cruise, and I've always wanted to. If I ever take a tour on one, I'll have to do some learning about the ole' Potomac river. I don't know that much about it. The only thing I tell people is that the Indian word is a reference to it being a landing spot for Canadian geese. I don't remember now the exact translation. Did they tell you on the cruise?

The other thing to note about that river is that dreams of navigating it into the Ohio Valley inspired George Washington to pursue the first inter-state trade agreement of the Confederation period. He got MD and VA to form a joint corporation dedicated to building the canal. Remnants of that effort can be seen in slight impressions in the ground along the top of the Virginia side of the Great Falls park. The Corporation proved both the viability and necessity of inter-state cooperation, and the example was important going into the making and philosophy of the Constitution.

Do you like the FDR monument? I do. I even like the wheel-chair addition to it, for it's all part of the political game. There's nary a monument in DC that doesn't have some scandal or Congressional hearing attached to it.

Thanks for your story!

[jtill]

The USS Potomac was the lead ship in the "Festival of Lights" at the Port of Oakland. It was beautiful and all of the other smaller vessels were decorated with fabulous light shows. Some with Santas and reindeer, angels, Christmas trees, just lots of lights - my favorite was a sloop that had this huge angel done in gold fabric and gold lights - spectacular. One boat was done up with a huge Christmas tree (all lights) on the bow and on the aft they had a good sized flag all done in red, white and blue lights.

The Fire Department started the parade, coming down the estuary with its hoses spewing water. I had never seen that in person - only on TV, in movies, etc. Neat! The Oakland Police accompanied the parade with lights glaring!

[Neets]

WOW..now that description sounds even better than the first one!!!!!

[nicollo]

You guys have to see what Hole_in_One did on my limousine thread today...

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/802976/posts?page=37#37

He took screen shots of Nicollo in various poses, then pasted them next to shots of the Vegas showgirls... it's beyond funny.

[lodwick]

Very cool - thanks for the good report.

[kayak]

Unfortuantely we didn't get to see the Panthers' great victory today ..... the game was blacked out because it didn't sell out. I'm sure part of that was because of the weather but part was because of the season we've had, too. It's a shame that so few people got to see the game ...... from the play-by-play I read it sounds like it was a wild one. There were 2 punt returns for touchdowns, a safety, both running and passing touchdowns ..... quite an exciting game. I hate that we couldn't watch it.

[kayak]

How're you feeling, Sweetie?

[Neets]

Hi Toots!! Glad to see you back in posting form...was real worried about you this week.

I'm feeling better today, at least I was able to get up and fix a frozen dinner for my mother..hehehe.

I slept all afternoon and evening yesterday, so that helped.

[Neets]

Jane, don't waste your time over there arguing with people who are so narrow minded.

It is an obvious conclusion that the meth problem in america today is not a NEW problem, and not a resulting problem due to border patrol or lack thereof, nor is it a "Mexican-only" problem.

People who are taking issue with this administrations policy on open borders will latch onto anything and everything they can to try to drive their issue home, right or wrong.

[kayak]

Now for some of the details of our week ...... though it would take a book to tell all.

Our power went off about 10:30 Wednesday night ...... it flickered a time or two before going out for good. We sat around in the dark for a while, hoping it would come back on. We heard branches snapping and falling in the woods behind our house and around the neighborhood but couldn't see enough to tell exactly what was going on. With no heat, we didn't want to open the doors to look out and let the cold air in. We finally found extra blankets and headed to bed.

Thursday is when things got really crazy. We were frantically working on payroll when the power went off, hoping to get the checks prepared and printed for distribution on Thursday evening. When we awoke on Thursday morning to cold and dark, we knew we had a problem. You don't pay people late, period! Not if it's humanly possible to avoid it.

Hubby called around and found a hotel that had vacancies. Because their computer system was down, they couldn't reserve rooms except in person so he headed off to save us a room. Then we disassembled our computers to take with us. Hubby's monitor is a flat screen and his printer is smaller so we packed those us; but the programs we needed are on my computer so my CPU had to go. We gathered up checks, envelopes, etc. that we would need, threw a few clothes in a suitcase; and headed for Charlotte. Yep! Charlotte.

We knew that the power outages were random so we decided to see if our new office had power ..... it would be easier working from there if we could. We were delighted to find lights and heat on at the office, even though stop lights and businesses within a block were without power. Hubby got busy setting up our hybrid computer so I could get to work. We don't have internet service there yet so we couldn't go online ...... and, although we managed to connect through dial-up while we were at convention, for some reason that wouldn't work either.

In the meantime, employees were calling ..... "I can't come in tonight" ..... "Are we working tonight?" ....... "When will paychecks be ready?" ....... "Can I get in my building tonight?" ... etc., etc. As soon as he could, hubby started calling our customers to see which ones were open and needed service. All of our supervisors showed up at the office to see what was happening and how they could help! They were wonderful. While I worked on payroll, hubby coordinated efforts to get all the buildings that were open serviced that night by someone ..... which is not as easy as it sounds because it means making sure that the right people have the right keys and alarm codes among other things.

I was finally ready to start printing paychecks ..... and we found out, to our great frustration, that hubby's printer prints about 1 page per minute when using my accounting program ...... it took FOREVER to print the checks. Then supervisors headed out to deliver as many checks as possible and to clean whatever buildings needed to be covered.

Hubby and I finally got away from the office, went and bought some supper, and came by the house to check on things. It was then that we thought about the water pipes and left a faucet running upstairs to try to keep from having broken pipes to add to our problems. We got to the hotel around 9:00 ...... thankful that we had a warm place to stay and that in spite of all the chaos we had accomplished quite a bit during the day.

This is getting so long that I'll continue my saga in another post tomorrow. But I'd like to mention a couple of other things.

We have just hired a new Operations Manager ..... he started working just a week ago. He was FANTASTIC! Though the office is far from set up (pretty much all we have is desks and chairs plus all our equipment and supplies), he pitched right in ..... and he hardly knows anything about our company yet. He was taking phone calls, running errands, dealing with employees, helping set up the computer ..... whatever we needed! ..... we told him that he got a Trial by Ice ..... and he passed with flying colors. We are really excited about that. And he also didn't walk off the job after seeing all the chaos ...... that's a very good sign ...... LOL!

A word of advice for all of you: if you have phone numbers and contact info about other FReepers, be sure it's written down on a piece of paper somewhere. All the phone numbers and other such info I have for some of you was ..... you guessed it! .... in my FReepmail ..... which I couldn't get to. Just last week I had written down Brad's Gramma's phone number and said that I needed to do it with all of the info I have .... but I hadn't gotten one of those round tuits yet. I will definitely be getting that info where I have access to it whether or not I have power or internet access ..... and I recommend that each of you do, too.

[kayak]

Our choir sang a really beautiful anthem this morning. I had never heard it before nor the fact that inspired it. The name of it is House of Bread .... and that is apparently the meaning of the name Bethlehem.

The words were especially meaningful ..... it spoke of Jesus being born in Bethlehem and now those who partake of the Bread of Life will never hunger or thirst.

If any of you musicians are familiar with the song or can find the words, I would love to have them posted.

In spite of the weather and the disrupted week, our church was full this morning ..... and the service was a real blessing!

[Iowa Granny]

You were so fortunate to find a motel room. I heated water on a camp stove for 10 days in order to take a bath. I drove 40 miles to a laundamat that had power to wash all the muddy clothes. It was a nightmare. But I didn't have to worry about payroll checks. Our employees are our kids,,,, we just wrote checks to each of them to help meet the additional expenses they were facing,,, chain saws, generators, etc.

[JRandomFreeper]

Wow, that sounds like a real mess. You guys dealt well with it though.

I'm back from drill by the way. It went well. The commander is willing to write a recommendation letter when I apply for a chef internship at a place I can't disclose yet.

/john

[Mr. Mulliner]

Sounds like you have earned your merit badge for the year, kayak. Boy Scouts don't have to go through what you did and their motto is "Be prepared."

Glad to have you back with us and I'm sure you're glad to be in a warm home again.

Good advice about phone numbers and addresses. I've often wondered what I'd do if I had an accident and couldn't get to a computer. My ATRW family would be the ones I'd want to communicate with the most, at least to solicit prayers. I'll have to get something in place so I could contact someone around here.

Mrs. Mulliner and I taught the Junior High Sunday School class the past two Sundays so today was our first time in the church service in a while and I was so glad to be there. A simple message about worship, but everyone could really sense the presence of God there today and it seemed like people had really open hearts to God.

[lodwick]

Your next effort should definitely be on the History of ShowGals in Limos - you're already off to a rolicking start. Thanks for the link. ;-)

[kayak]

We are quite aware, and humbled, that we were fortunate to be able to get a room. Even when we arrived at the hotel Thursday night, many people were being turned away. And a lot of people can't afford a hotel room. We offered to let some of our employees spend the night at our office. It wouldn't be the best accomodations in the world ..... and they would have to bring their own blankets and pillows ..... but it would have heat. To our knowledge, none of them took us up on it but the offer is still out there for the taking.

But we are, indeed, blessed .... and I'm so thankful that hubby thought about it and took steps early Thursday to get us a room.

A couple of other things ......

Someone near our house has a sign in their front yard .......

..... "Santa please bring power"

Even in adversity they are maintaining a sense of humor! God bless them!

Some of you may know about the devastating hurricane that came through this area (virtually unheard of this far inland) back in the 80s ...... Hugo. Though it's not unusual for a place like this to get the heavy rains of a hurricane, or even a tropical storm, having 85 mph winds from a hurricane this far from the coast is quite rare. Some people were without power for weeks ...... some up to a month! When we were house-hunting, real estate agents would tell us that a house had a "Hugo roof" .... which was shorthand for saying that the roof had been replaced after Hugo and thus was fairly new.

Well, this storm is being referred to as Hugo on Ice! Don't know if Disney appreciates it but it's certainly apt!

[kayak]

Off to inflict ...... back later.

[lodwick]

"The Banquet Table"

by Robert Fleming

Heaven's banquet table is set with new bread and wine.
The "Bread of Life" will bless it and serve it one portion at a time.

The "Giver of Life" will pour it and tell us to drink up.
The new bread and wine is better, as we lift up our cup.

Take eat all of it, my body was broken for you.
Take drink all of it, my blood was shed for you.

n the little town of Bethlehem, called the "House of Bread",
The "Bread of Life" was born with angels about his bed.

Angel choirs sang praises of the new born King.
We will sing praises as we behold our King.

Yes, the banquet table is set, the invitations have all been sent out.
Now you can feast with the Lord at the "Lord's Supper" without a single doubt.

Jesus said he would wait for us before He partakes of the fruit of the wine,
And we will see that the new bread is better and so is the wine.

Each invitation has been whispered in our ear, over and over again.
Jesus wants to save you and forgive you of your sin.

The banquet is ready, "The Master" sits in the Master's seat.
The bread and wine are waiting for all of us to eat.

Come join the banquet party the saints will soon arrive.
Your place is set and waiting because Jesus, our Savior is alive.

This is the closest google could find on short notice.