Frances

[Frances @Frances_Wine]

@HarmeetKDhillon The right-hand side looks like your knitting is a blanket covering up a blonde-headed little girl. 😍

[NOBUNAGA🇯🇵🏯_夏樹蒼依 @japan_nobunaga]

A woman in Colorado invited me on a little hike.

A little hike.

We left at four in the morning, which should have been my first indication, and she brought a helmet, which should have been my second.

"How long is it?" I asked.

"Oh, it's a fourteener."

I did not know what a fourteener was. I said, "Excellent."

A fourteener is a mountain fourteen thousand feet high.

I did not know that. I know it now. I learned it at eleven thousand feet.

Americans have so many of these that they gave them a casual nickname, the way you nickname a cousin.

At eleven thousand feet I stopped being able to think in Japanese.

At twelve thousand feet a man jogged past us. Jogged. Upward. He said, "Beautiful day, huh," and was gone before I could assemble a sentence.

He carried nothing. No water. No pack. He had brought only himself, and it had been enough.

At thirteen thousand feet my guide, who is a dental hygienist, turned and asked if I wanted a granola bar.

I could not speak. I nodded.

She said, "You're doing great. My mom does this one."

I asked how old her mother is.

She told me.

I sat down.

At the summit there was a dog. Somebody's dog had walked up the entire mountain. It was fine. It was so fine that it had decided to be bored.

We ate the granola bars and looked at four states.

She said, "Not bad, right?"

Not bad.

There are fifty-three of these mountains. I did not know that number. I know it now.

I have a list. It is on my wall. I have done one. I crossed it off with a ruler, because it deserved a ruler.

Her mother has done forty-one.

[🇺🇸 🦅Simple Man 🦅🇺🇸 @Soaringeagle45]

I just went to the doctor and he wanted to talk to me about my weight…

Told him, “Well, it was about 30 minutes but the seats were comfy”

[Frances @Frances_Wine]

@Soaringeagle45 19 for me. No AOL address — but I did have Earthlink. 😂

[Andrew McCarthy @AJamesMcCarthy]

I just don't understand the people that aren't completely obsessed with space... look at what my 12" telescope is looking at right now. INSANE.

[Mountain Cabins @cabinsmountain]

Heavy hail rain with thunderstorms

[Not Today Eric @NotTodayEric]

January: new year new me!

July: oh no.

[Frances @Frances_Wine]

I had every one of your DVDs and am ready to sign up — you must have ready my mind.😍 A line that has stuck with me for years was when you were sitting in a yoga squat doing bicep curls 💪, and you said, "I don't want to hear from anyone asking if I can lift heavier. Well, yes, as a matter of fact I can", and I laughed and laughed.

[Tom Fitton @TomFitton]

I'm surprised a federal judge didn't stop the fireworks tonight.

[Florida MAGA Godzilla 2.0 @OnlyinFlorida2]

The Sunshine Skyway lit up in Red, White & Blue.

God bless America and god bless the great state of Florida!!

I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else!!

[NASA @NASA]

Happy 250th birthday, America! We got you a present. 🇺🇸

The red, white, and blue stars of this globular cluster shine like a sparkler waved on a dark night in this image from @NASAHubble, released in celebration of the United States' 250th anniversary.

[Buzz Patterson @BuzzPatterson]

World Cup 2026 has been exactly what the US needed, a patriotic infusion heading into our 250th Celebration!

“It was going to flop. Nobody would come. They’ll be giving tickets away. Everybody hates Trump.”

In reality, America, this is the US.💪🇺🇸🔥

[Charlie Brown Fan Account @Peanuts_4Fans]

Hello, July! #Peanuts

[Breaking Aviation News & Videos @aviationbrk]

WATCH: Pilot of a Cessna Skylane RG has drawn a “250 YEARS” in the skies over Ohio to celebrate the 250th anniversary of American Independence.

[Bite-Sized Nostalgia @landofthe80s]

Let that sink in!

[Andrew Wilkow @WilkowMajority]

My Pride flag is up.

[Not Today Eric @NotTodayEric]

Big week for hands.

[NOBUNAGA🇯🇵🏯_夏樹蒼依 @japan_nobunaga]

A shop in a shopping mall, called Cinnabon. I did not walk to it. I was pulled, by the nose, across two floors, the way a fish is pulled by a line it cannot see.

I came to the mall for socks. I want to be clear about that, because it is the last clear thing about that afternoon.

The smell reached me on the second floor, by the men's clothing. Cinnamon. Sugar. Butter, browning. I turned toward it the way a sunflower turns, without deciding to. I went down the escalator. I crossed the atrium. I arrived at a counter where a young man stood beside a glass case of white spiral pastries the size of my fist, each one buried under frosting laid on without mercy.

"You smelled it, huh," he said.

He knew. He has watched men arrive like this all day. Dazed. Sockless. Drawn in on the line he casts with an oven.

In my country, this would be a forbidden art. To defeat a man not with a blade, but with a smell that walks him out of his own fortress and delivers him, unarmed, to your gate. We outlawed it. It was considered beneath a warrior. Here, they put it on a sign and gave the young man an apron.

"I came in for socks," I told him.

"They all did," he said, and boxed me a roll I had not yet ordered, because he already knew.

I ate it standing at the counter. It was warm, and it was vast, and it defeated me completely.

I did not buy socks that day. Or the next time. There is a Cinnabon between me and the sock store, and a man cannot pass through a smell like that and come out the other side still thinking about socks.

It has been two months. My wife buys the socks now. She has stopped asking why I cannot. She knows there is a mall, and a smell, and a young man with an oven, and that her husband, who once fought with steel, surrenders every Saturday to a pastry he can smell from the parking lot.

I came in for socks. I have never once left with socks. I regret nothing, which is the most defeated thing a man can say.

[Dan Scavino Jr.🇺🇸🦅 @DanScavino]

2 YEARS AGO🫠TONIGHT…

[Dan Hightower @Danhightower]

Daycare calls me. That's never good.

For them.

Daycare: "your son hurt his elbow and won't move his arm. Can you come take him to a doctor's office?"

Me (ex Special Forces Medic): "A real doctor is on the way to you now. I am 6 mikes out. Alert me of status changes."

I arrive at daycare. I locate the patient. 21 month old male. Scene is not safe. I drag the patient to cover and concealment behind a seesaw, away from the other small terrorists in the AO.

I begin my assessment. Blood sweep negative for massive hemorrhage. Mental status: conscious and verbal but confused (answers "dada" when asked for blood type). One breath every 2 seconds. Bilateral rise and fall of the chest. Strong carotid pulse, strong bilat radial pulse.

Teeth and tongue intact no blood no mucus no dip or foreign objects. Eyes PERRLA, negative JVD/trach deviation, C-spine intact upon palpation.

Heart sounds strong upon auscultation. Percussion negative for hemo-T. Abdominal quads normal upon palpation. Pelvis negative for book sign.

Arms and legs negative for crepitus. However, Patient indicates discomfort in right arm upon palpation and supination/flexion of the elbow.

Nursemaid's elbow.

I begin interventions. Supination/flexion technique complete at 1215. Palpable clunk on successful reduction. I write the time on his chest in Sharpie. I tape a popsicle to his hand and tell the patient to suck but do not bite/chew. I write "1 x popsicle (10g sugar)" on his chest in Sharpie.

I reassess the patient after performing interventions then package the patient for handoff to daycare/higher level of care. I yell at daycare over the Blackhawk in my head: "21 month old male!!! Nursemaids elbow!!! Treated with supination/flexion technique at 1215!!! Patient has 1 x popsicle onboard!!"

Daycare: "sir please leave."

Me: "you should have called my wife."