A Few of FR's Finest....Every Day....07-29 thru 07-31-05....T.G.I.F. at the Finest

[Billie]

A Few of FR's Finest....Every Day

Free Republic made its debut in September, 1996, and the forum was added in early 1997.   Over 100,000 people have registered for posting privileges on Free Republic, and the forum is read daily by tens of thousands of concerned citizens and patriots from all around the country and the world.

A Few of FR's Finest....Every Day was introduced on June 24, 2002. It's only a small room in JimRob's house where we can get to know one another a little better; salute and support our military and our leaders; pray for those in need; and congratulate those deserving. We strive to keep our threads entertaining, fun, and pleasing to look at, and often have guest writers contribute an essay or a profile of another FReeper.

On Mondays please visit us to see photos of A FEW OF FR'S VETERANS AND ACTIVE MILITARY

If you have a suggestion, or an idea, or if there's a FReeper you would like to see featured, please drop one of us a note in FR mail.

We're having fun and hope you are!
~ Billie, Mama_Bear, Dutchess, Aquamarine, Dolly Cali ~

Welcome to TGIF at the Finest!   We hope you've been having as much fun as we have with our essays and/or spotlight on various FReepers. From the beginning, we've been kicking back on Saturdays and Sundays and simply reviewing the features of the week; our weekend threads now start on Friday and continue through Sunday. If you missed seeing any of this week's threads and want to say hello there now, just click on the link for that particular day. If you'd like to drop in and out of this thread today through Sunday, please feel free to do that also. One of us will try to be around to see the welcome mat is still out, put the coffee pot on, and maybe even bring fresh flowers for the table. : )

~ Billie, Mama_Bear, Dutchess, Aquamarine, Dolly Cali ~



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


"Getting to Know You"

THIS WEEK'S THREADS


07-11-05 ~ Military Monday
By Billie
Presented by The Mayor

07-26-05 ~ I Have a Rant!!!
By Billie

07-27-05 ~ I Have a Rant!! continued
By Billie

07-28-05 ~ Beep-Beep! Wile E. Coyote Dems can't catch Rove-Runner
By JohnHuang2
Presented by Dutchess

Have a wonderful weekend!

06-28-05 ~ Hall of Fame #12

Click on the photo to view the album. To submit your photo, please contact dansangel or .45Man at danbh59@yahoo.com and include Freeper Photo Album in subject line.

Opinions by our own 'King of Ping' Every Thursday at the Finest The guy's good, folks!

"Wear Red" Friday

You will soon see a lot of people wearing Red on Fridays. Here's why..... The Americans, who support our troops, are the silent majority. We are not "organized" to reflect who we are, or to reflect what our opinions are. Many Americans, like yourself, and all their friends, simply want to recognize that Americans support our troops. Our idea of showing our solidarity and support for our troops is starting Friday and continuing on each and every Friday, until this is over, that every red-blooded American who supports our young men and women, WEAR SOMETHING RED.

Word of mouth, press, TV -- let's see if we can make the United States, on any given Friday, a sea of red much like a home football game at a University. If every one of our memberships share this with other acquaintances, fellow workers, friends, and neighbors, I guarantee that it will not be long before the USA will be covered in RED - and make our troops know there are many people thinking of their well-being. You will feel better all day Friday when you wear Red! So let's get the word out and lead by example; wear RED on Fridays.

SUPPORT OUR TROOPS! WE LIVE IN THE LAND OF THE FREE, BECAUSE OF THE BRAVE. FOR US, THEIR BLOOD RUNS RED!! GOD BLESS AMERICA.

I received this in my email June 10th, the author is unknown.
I am wearing red today and every Friday ~ Billie

[Colonial Warrior]

((((ping)))) to cheesecakes

[Colonial Warrior]

Oooooh...my tastebuds and my tummy thanks you !!

[Colonial Warrior]

Yikes, hon. Did you see that photo of us dancing??

ooooh nooooo!! Do you think it makes my butt look too big?

Nah! It's bearly noticeable.

[DollyCali]

Well Jeff, "your woman" should be home in less than an hour. I just got home from a great day in Columbus & a long fun ride home with frequent stops thru Amish country & a nice dinner at a favorite place - Macaroni Grill. Uncle Bill (wheelbarrow) thought you were awfully "cute" Dutchess. I assured him you were very happily married!

Jeff, did you photoshop those doggie ears? Watch out flying nun.. but he is definitely a cutie & I know Lori has missed both of you very much. A dog that dainty would NOT have a chance to live to be one year with a klutz like me as his owner. God knew what he was doing by giving me a big/strong dog like Oliver.

As Dutchess said we had a fast furious time trying to squeeze in Finest Shop Talk, personal stuff, going over the trip, (a little wee bit of gossip?), and good comments about all the fine people on this thread. And oh yes, lunch. I took everyone's left overs & between oliver & Bill they did a quick disappearing act.

Took quite a few pix.. and Amy, Lori,Dutchess.. remember the camera that that man could NOT get to work. On the way home I took 138 more pix w/it. He had the magic touch (NOT)

I will post when I can but our dear server has changed formats again & my password did NOT work & the new one they gave me does NOT work. So I will get pix up when I can.

dutchess, we spent another hour or so at that pet cemetery.Oliver romped & bill snoozed. I took LOTS of pix & found some of the grave markers fascinating. The oldest grave was early 1900s. the pet cemetery was there LONG before those runways were built on either side of it.. It had an eerie charm. I have been to many pet cemeteries but NEVER to an old one like this.

[DollyCali]

Hello gents/all/anyone?.. not sure you or anyone is still up or around. Need to take care of a few things here.. will stop by later

[DollyCali]

awesome post.. beautifully presented.

I have had the words on my profile page but not "billied" up like yours.

Thank you.

I need to spend some time eventually to add background & some tables to my profile page. I just know "what can happen" if I screw up - which will prolly happen. When I did the page I really did not know about tables, how to post font variations (other than thru font colorizer) and to do the block quoting.

At times I am not sure I still know HOW TO DO THEM. I am very good at copy/paste though.

[DollyCali]

folks - this is an awesome story (thanks jtill)

Father And Son

I try to be a good father. Give my kids mulligans. Work nights to pay for their text messaging. Take them to swimsuit shoots.

But compared with Dick Hoyt, I suck.

Eighty-five times he's pushed his disabled son, Rick, 26.2 miles in marathons. Eight times he's not only pushed him 26.2 miles in a wheelchair but also towed him 2.4 miles in a dinghy while swimming and pedaled him 112 miles in a seat on the handlebars - all in the same day.

Dick's also pulled him cross-country skiing, taken him on his back mountain climbing and once hauled him across the U.S. on a bike. Makes taking your son bowling look a little lame, right?

And what has Rick done for his father? Not much - except save his life.

This love story began in Winchester, Mass., 43 years ago, when Rick was strangled by the umbilical cord during birth, leaving him brain-damaged and unable to control his limbs.

"He'll be a vegetable the rest of his life," Dick says doctors told him and his wife, Judy, when Rick was nine months old. "Put him in an institution."

But the Hoyts weren't buying it. They noticed the way Rick's eyes followed them around the room. When Rick was 11 they took him to the engineering department at Tufts University and asked if there was anything to help the boy communicate. "No way," Dick says he was told. "There's nothing going on in his brain."

"Tell him a joke," Dick countered. They did. Rick laughed. Turns out a lot was going on in his brain.

Rigged up with a computer that allowed him to control the cursor by touching a switch with the side of his head, Rick was finally able to communicate. First words? "Go Bruins!" And after a high school classmate was paralyzed in an accident and the school organized a charity run for him, Rick pecked out, "Dad, I want to do that."

Yeah, right. How was Dick, a self-described "porker" who never ran more than a mile at a time, going to push his son five miles? Still, he tried. "Then it was me who was handicapped," Dick says. "I was sore for two weeks."

That day changed Rick's life. "Dad," he typed, "when we were running, it felt like I wasn't disabled anymore!"

And that sentence changed Dick's life. He became obsessed with giving Rick that feeling as often as he could. He got into such hard-belly shape that he and Rick were ready to try the 1979 Boston Marathon.

"No way," Dick was told by a race official. The Hoyts weren't quite a single runner, and they weren't quite a wheelchair competitor. For a few years Dick and Rick just joined the massive field and ran anyway, then they found a way to get into the race officially: In 1983 they ran another marathon so fast they made the qualifying time for Boston the following year.

Then somebody said, "Hey, Dick, why not a triathlon?"

How's a guy who never learned to swim and hadn't ridden a bike since he was six going to haul his 110-pound kid through a triathlon? Still, Dick tried.

Now they've done 212 triathlons, including four grueling 15-hour Ironmans in Hawaii. It must be a buzzkill to be a 25-year-old stud getting passed by an old guy towing a grown man in a dinghy, don't you think?

Hey, Dick, why not see how you'd do on your own? "No way," he says. Dick does it purely for "the awesome feeling" he gets seeing Rick with a cantaloupe smile as they run, swim and ride together.

This year, at ages 65 and 43, Dick and Rick finished their 24th Boston marathon, in 5,083rd place out of more than 20,000 starters. Their best time? Two hours, 40 minutes in 1992 - only 35 minutes off the world record, which, in case you don't keep track of these things, happens to be held by a guy who was not pushing another man in a wheelchair at the time.

"No question about it," Rick types. "My dad is the Father of the Century."

And Dick got something else out of all this too. Two years ago he had a mild heart attack during a race. Doctors found that one of his arteries was 95% clogged. "If you hadn't been in such great shape," one doctor told him, "you probably would've died 15 years ago."

So, in a way, Dick and Rick saved each other's life.

Rick, who has his own apartment (he gets home care) and works in Boston, and Dick, retired from the military and living in Holland, Mass., always find ways to be together. They give speeches around the country and compete in some backbreaking race every weekend, including this Father's Day.

That night, Rick will buy his dad dinner, but the thing he really wants to give him is a gift he can never buy.

"The thing I'd most like, Rick types, "is that my dad sit in the chair and I push him once."

By Rick Reilly
Sports Illustrated

Dick and Rick Hoyt have a book and DVD. To learn more about this very special father and son team go to: www.teamhoyt.com

[lysie]

Wow! Thanks , you two.

[Tuba Guy]

Thanks for the ping Dolly!

[deadhead]

Reading about the Hoyt's touched my heart. A beautiful story to read first thing Sunday morning. Thank You for sharing it. Found a couple of photos:

"Not long after the triathlon, Rick Hoyt, speaking with help from an electronic device, said, "I wish I could be an athlete. But if I could have anything I wanted, I'd ask my dad to sit down for a while. Then I'd push him around."

[The Mayor]

July 31, 2005

Bridges Of Grace

Read:
Acts 5:33-42

They departed . . . , rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name. —Acts 5:41

Bible In One Year: Nahum 1-3

Imagine for a moment that you are driving through the desert in Southern California and you see the magnificent Golden Gate Bridge spanning the dried-up bed of "Three Frogs Creek" on the outskirts of "Turtle Soup Junction." What a ridiculous sight that would be!

So too, the Lord never displays His power and grace at an inappropriate time or place, but He always provides according to the difficulty of the hour. He does not impart strength until it is needed.

We shudder when we think of what some of God's children are enduring because of their faithfulness to the Savior. Many have chosen the path of intense suffering rather than following the line of least resistance. I wonder, would we do the same?

Of course, the Lord does not ask us to make such a commitment before it is necessary. And we can be sure that when we "suffer for His sake" (Philippians 1:29), He will provide whatever we need to endure the pain.

As servants of Christ, we can take one step at a time and be confident that whether we come to a dried-up gulch or a surging river, the Lord's bridges of grace will be just right to allow us safe passage to the other side. —Mart De Haan

Each day God sends His loving aid
To strengthen you and me;
We need to use today's supply
And let tomorrow be. —Anon.

God gives enough grace for each trial we face.

FOR FURTHER STUDY
Why Would A Good God Allow Suffering?
Surviving The Storms Of Stress

[deadhead]

Happy Jelly Bean Day Freepers

Like many of you, when I hear about jelly beans, I think of President Reagan.
Found the following, "According to a company spokesperson, about 10,000 jelly beans were used in the below artwork."

[The Mayor]

Great pic of Ronnie!

[Billie]

You have mail, Col, I had a hard time getting your post to open, with the picture being so large - it's still going to be in our comments for those you addressed your post to, but for those who are on modems and an 800 x 600 screen resolution, the thread will be easier to read with the smaller version of your tables - they look WONDERFUL - I resized the picture only. :)

The Average Military Man

He trains my hands for war, and my fingers for battle. Psalm 144

The average age of the military man is 19 years. He is a short haired, tight-muscled kid who, under normal circumstances is considered by society as half man, half boy. Not yet dry behind the ears, not old enough to buy a beer, but old enough to die for his country. He never really cared much for work and he would rather wax his own car than wash his father's; but he has never collected unemployment either.

He's a recent High School graduate; he was probably an average student, pursued some form of sport activities, drives a ten year old jalopy, and has a steady girlfriend that either broke up with him when he left, or swears to be waiting when he returns from half a world away.

He listens to rock and roll or hip-hop or rap or jazz or swing and 155mm howizzitor. He is 10 or 15 pounds lighter now than when he was at home because he is working or fighting from before dawn to well after dusk.

He has trouble spelling, thus letter writing is a pain for him, but he can field strip a rifle in 30 seconds and reassemble it in less time in the dark. He can recite to you the nomenclature of a machine gun or grenade launcher and use either one effectively if he must. He digs foxholes and latrines and can apply first aid like a professional. He can march until he is told to stop or stop until he is told to march.

He obeys orders instantly and without hesitation, but he is not without spirit or individual dignity. He is self-sufficient. He has two sets of fatigues: he washes one and wears the other. He keeps his canteens full and his feet dry. He sometimes forgets to brush his teeth, but never to clean his rifle. He can cook his own meals, mend his own clothes, and fix his own hurts. If you're thirsty, he'll share his water with you; if you are hungry, his food. He'll even split his ammunition with you in the midst of battle when you run low.

He has learned to use his hands like weapons and weapons like they were his hands. He can save your life - or take it, because that is his job. He will often do twice the work of a civilian, draw half the pay and still find ironic humor in it all. He has seen more suffering and death then he should have in his short lifetime.

He has stood atop mountains of dead bodies, and helped to create them. He has wept in public and in private, for friends who have fallen in combat and is unashamed. He feels every note of the National Anthem vibrate through his body while at rigid attention, while tempering the burning desire to 'square-away' those around him who haven't bothered to stand, remove their hat, or even stop talking. In an odd twist, day in and day out, far from home, he defends their right to be disrespectful.

Just as did his Father, Grandfather, and Great-grandfather, he is paying the price for our freedom. Beardless or not, he is not a boy. He is the American Fighting Man that has kept this country free for over 200 years.

He has asked nothing in return, except our friendship and understanding. Remember him, always, for he has earned our respect and admiration with his blood. And now we even have women over there in danger, doing their part in this tradition of going to War when our nation calls us to do so. As you go to bed tonight, remember this shot.. A short lull, a little shade and a picture of loved ones in their helmets.

~Author unknown

Prayer Wheel

"Lord, hold our troops in your loving hands. Protect them as they protect us. Bless them and their families for the selfless acts they perform for us in our time of need. Amen."

The Colonial Warrior

[deadhead]

Hi Mayor, how is your foot? Saw your work in the post from yesterday, great work.

[Colonial Warrior]

Thank you...and apologies to everyone for the oversized pix.

As soon as my hands heal...(Billie's ruler!) I promised to do better.

[deadhead]

"Hey! not too lively!"

LOL

[Billie]

As soon as my hands heal...(Billie's ruler!) I promised to do better.

Which is better - the ruler or the corner? LOL

[deadhead]

"That is one funny gif, I love penguins"

I love penguins too, make sure to save that gif.

[deadhead]

"deadhead, your post was so pretty! Love that little girl on the beach and the icy blue looks great with it!"

Thank You, Billie :-)