I will offer answers to selected questions and responses to some of the comments appearing in this thread up to now. My responses start on new lines introduced by double dashes --.

themank: Due to the curvature of space as some theorize, any straight line in the universe will end up where it started. Or as Dr. Pamela put it, 'you shoot a laser beam into the universe it will eventually hit you in the back of the head.'
--Space curvature would cause any straight line in space to end up where it started only if space curvature is uniform through space, which is very unlikely. Curvature is affected by local mass. For example, light is bent around massive galaxies, producing "lensing".

themank: And since the big bang everything is essentially moving in a straight line (more or less) outward,
will not all the stuff of the universe eventually re-converge on the same spot on the 'other side' of the universe?
--I visualize objects in the expanding universe not as traveling around the surface of a phere but as fixed on the three-dimensional "surface" of an expanding four-dimensional hypersphere,. See my thread entitled "The shape of the Universe".l

EvilEye: If the toroid was like rubber and being stretched in every direction, then ---
-- All of your comments are based on the idea that the Universe has a toroidal shape. Despite its popularity in some quarters, I find that idea to be so contrived and implausible as to be ludicrous. See my thread entitled "The shape of the Universe".

Mechphisto: "The analogy of a mass being like a weight on a trampoline ---"
-- I feel that the trampoline model is crude at best. It has a body pressed downward into the sheet by gravity, conveying an entirely erroneous idea as to the nature of gravitation. Time is a crucial component of the picture and is totally ignored in the trampoline model. See my thread entitled "The shape of the Universe".

Mechphisto: "if it snaps,"
-- The very idea of the analog of the trampoline snapping shows how far afield this analogy can take one

Mechphisto: "Maybe we are only right near the halfway point of the expansion."
-- Current evidence indicates that the expansion rate is increasing at an accelerating rate and will do so into the indefinite future.

EvilEye: "You are at the center of the universe right now, "
-- I believe that that statement, like the rest of your argument, is indefensible. See my thread entitled "The shape of the Universe".

Steve Limpus: "you could be thinking of a cube --- "
-- I feel that you derailed yourself as soon as you mentioned a cube. I dn't see any justification for seeing the Universe as having any sort of cubical symmetry. I feel that the geometry described in my thread entitled "
The Shape of the Universe" is the only one in any way plausible.