Chalkbot - It's About You

During the Tour de France, Chalkbot debuted. It is a long standing tradition to paint on the roads of the Tour to encourage the riders. I did it myself when I went to the Tour de France, camped out on Alpe ‘d Huez, and saw Lance win his Sixth. Chalkbot is a little robot that can be pulled behind a car and paint messages of hope and encouragement from text messages sent to it. I chose my message to memorialize dad… and did not really think it would get printed because it was not very inspiring, but rather sad. When I sent my text, I received a reply that said it would reply back once my message was printed. So, I would certainly know if it ever did. The Tour went on and I received no messages… not entirely unexpected.

I was supposed to leave Flint on Tuesday – but work decided it best I finish up something there and get it in the email before I start driving. This gave me an amazing opportunity to see the Perseids Meteor Shower (my annual birthday gift from God) – which to be honest, I had been thinking it was the following night. Scheduled to start at 11pm and peak at 3am, I drug mom outside sometime after 11 to see if we could see any before she went to bed (I was still working on my document). We watched for a few minutes and saw a couple of faint ones. And then I said something to the effect of “Okay, show me something…” I did not remember if I actually said Dad in there or not. But immediately after that we saw the most amazing meteor I had ever seen. It was very bright in magnitude and streaked across from one side of the sky to the other. But it skipped, so there were two in the exact same path. I just recently saw someone describe this who may have also seen this very same one as two meteors in the exact same direction right after each other). But I was intrigued how it was two going in the same path. I often try to make this all my problem… and things keep reminding me that it is “our” problem – both me and mom.

The point to all of that (other than the absolute beauty) is that on my last day at Flint this last time, just a couple of days shy of my birthday (but still with mom) I received a text message from Chalkbot. I could not believe what I saw. It said my message had been printed… how? The Tour has long since been over. I went to the link and my heart honestly stopped. What I saw was my dad’s name on the streets of France. My first thought was wow, they kept going and are doing it at some other race. But as I looked at the picture, I saw it was taken on July 10th (mom and dad’s anniversary). It had GPS coordinates and all. I spent the next three hours finding the exact location of this memorialized message. It was under Lance’s wheels as he pedaled up the last HC (so steep it is unrated) climb of Stage 7. The one that Contador attacked when unnecessary and when we saw how much Lance really was a team player and did not attack. It was the beginning of the Pyrenees, the first high elevation finish of this year's tour. The message was painted in a ski resort in Andorre between Ordino and Sornas. I later checked Chalkbot’s Twitter feed and he said he was still sending out messages of everything they painted due to slow internet in France!

The photo

Stage 7 route and about Andorre

And the profile of the stage

Vallnord Ski Complex Map – to the left between Ordino and Sornas

A photo with the route mapped on that last climb

And a closeup of the finish.

GPS site - Area - Closeup

Map of Stage 7

Chalkbot Site with a must-see video

I also noticed another message… “It’s About You”. I had given up on LIVESTRONG… did me no good, he did not live. Nor would he want to just survive. Living isn’t living just by breathing to him. And I realized it was a message to me.

A simple yellow band

Stood more for drive
and awesome ability to ride
With a life gone
and the yellow given away
I never put it back on
there was no livestrong

A tweet, and a photo
seemingly from the dead
A message to myself
of what I have left

I have lost something and with it, I have given up on something else.

With no LIVESTRONG, I have no life?
A message on the photo...It's about you!

For me…
it’s about life – not his, mine.
I am the one that needs to livestrong.

Most Requested Photo

Here is the one you all seem to love!



The Setup

I am working on the best way to load the rest of the slideshow photos... soon!

Memorial Service Flyer

Here are the original files for the memorial program.

Program Outside

Program Inside

A Letter from RJ Garcia

Bill Freeman is a friend of mine.

Before I begin, let me express my sincere condolences to Becky and Susie Freeman. I know Bill loved Becky. They've been through some good times and sad times but managed to keep it together through all of it. Bill's face would light up every time I asked about Susie. He was so proud of her and her gig at NASA. Hell, if Bill could have figured out a way to be on that shuttle instead of watching it, he would have done it.

My story begins in 1988 or so when I first met Bill. Bill was the reserve and acquisitions engineer at CODA Energy. It didn't take long to figure out he really knew his stuff and made my job as a bank engineer much easier. More importantly, I gradually began to know Bill as a person, and once I got past that gruff exterior it became apparent that Bill had a heart of gold as big as Texas. I learned that we shared a love of high school football, UT football, Southwest Conference football, Texas Ranger baseball, golf, hunting and fishing, skiing, and a general zest for life. From Bill, I learned to live every day as it might be my last.

During the last twenty years, I shared a lot of good times with Bill. Among the highlights were skiing at Vail/Beaver Creek, watching the US Open at Southern Hills, attending the MLB All Star game at the Ballpark in Arlington, dove hunting at the palatial hunting lodge in Electra Texas, playing a couple of rounds of golf with Bill and Russell Romoser at Southern Hills in Tulsa. The highlight of all the bucket list items was going with Bill to the 2002 Masters at Augusta National. Bill called and saying he had a couple of tickets and asked if I could go for the Thursday/Friday rounds. I figured he was pulling my leg, but it gradually dawned on me he wasn't joking. Didn't take long for me to book a flight to Atlanta and join Bill for the golf trip of my life. We must have covered every inch of that golf course during those two days. I believe that Susie came up and joined him for the last two days and they were able to watch Tiger make history. I know i came back with $700 worth of goodies for my buddies.

I feel fortunate to have known Bill Freeman. He was one of my heroes and I'll miss him.

Our Beloved Discovery Stowaway

I have found on Twitter an account called DiscoveryBat. Of course, I started following him. He has been telling me through tweets that there is apparently many lovely tributes to him on You Tube. Here are two we liked that reminded us of Dad.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ibq2IwznCgc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVm7phHuit8

Your Memories

Add your memories by commenting to this post. Maybe I didn't quite think this out.... not anyone can post to this blog - but you can comment to my posts. There is also the ability to add authors to this blog - if you would like to be added, please let me know! Additional authors I add will be able to post freely to this blog.

Dad's Eulogy

James William Freeman, age 68, died from a heart attack on Saturday, March 14, 2009 at Cape Canaveral waiting for the shuttle launch. He had been diagnosed with inoperable pancreatic cancer Thanksgiving, but had successful surgery in mid December. He died before any true battle with cancer – and was still very active. In fact, only 75 days after major pancreatic surgery at the Mayo Clinic, he went skiing at Beaver Creek. At his post surgery check-up he had asked Dr. Kaye Reid Lombardo, his Mayo Clinic surgeon, when he could play golf. She looked at him puzzled and when asked if he actually felt good enough to play golf, he said almost – and with a smile she said as soon as he felt good enough.

His bucket list, as Phil described it, was more like a 25 gallon galvanized tub. And he had good friends that helped him check each item off. Good friends indeed… lifelong friends. He was a good, caring man who would help out someone in need, no matter the cost. The impact on his friends and family of his passing is testament to their love for him.

He died before that launch… but he had a much better view than we earthbound viewers. And that launch was magnitudes more beautiful and representative of his zest for life.

One of his many passions was their summer home on Flint Creek in northeast Oklahoma. He was a hard worker, constantly improving life at Flint – while enjoying every minute of it.

He also loved sports and managed to find himself in Augusta at the Masters when Tiger won, the Rose Bowl when Texas won the national championship, Indy 500s, Busch Stadium front row on the dugout for game 5 when the Cardinals won the World Series, and this year’s Super Bowl.

Equally enjoyable was his love for ­­­­­­­­music – of which you have all had the unique pleasure to experience today. He loved the local music scene and has, on occasion been know to throw Bo Diddley a birthday party – only later to find out Bo would have come had he known!!!

He is survived by his wife, Becky, daughter Susan Freeman of Seabrook, Texas, niece/daughter Nacha Guzman and her husband Roy Guzman of Denton, Texas, and sister Barbara Milligan of Ft. Myers, Florida. Bill resided in McKinney, Texas. He met his wife while receiving his BS from Tulsa University and was on the golf team. He worked for Exco Resources in Dallas and Tulsa.

His funeral will take place in Siloam Springs, Arkansas at a later date. The family requests, instead of flowers, donations be made in his memory to the Mayo Clinic for pancreatic cancer surgical research.

Living Blog

Welcome! I decided in order to capture all the wonderful stories and memories of Dad, we would start a blog in his name. This allows his friends and family to contribute to this memorial - and share their memories with those he loved. And anything we receive on email, we will add as well. Feel free to share how his life impacted yours - and toss in a picture or two!