Author Archives: AndrewF

We packed up Friday and headed out to Uwharrie National Forest near Troy, NC for a weekend of camping and Jeeping. Caleb had a busy day helping to pack the jeep, going to Walmart for last minute supplies, etc. so he promptly conked out on me before we even got out of town. We got to the Outpost (only store in the area) at Uwharrie around 1730 hrs and met up with 3 other Jeepers that were going to be jeeping with us, and went to find our camping spot. The others wanted to camp right by the rock road that connects the trails to the hard top, but Caleb and I opted for a more secluded spot off Daniel, (which is considered by all to be the hardest at Uwharrie and feared by all). We were quite happy with our choice in spots. Saturday, we woke up to a beautiful sunrise and commenced to getting ready to go back to the Outpost to collect my friend Peter and his son, Christian. We jeeped all afternoon, then went to Badin Lake for a swim and a bath. We then went back to camp and proceeded to cook a wonderful supper and enjoy the cool air, brilliant moonlight, and warm fire. Peter and I figured out the price of Freedom, Its the cost of the Jeep plus modifications and gas. We swam, we ate, we slept, we fished; what an incredible weekend.

Get out your paper and pen, school is in session: All weekend long, I heard “Just like my Daddy”, “…Like you Dad?”, “You taught me that”, “…my Daddy taught me”. These statements were coming from my 5 year old! It hit me like a ton of bricks, my son WANTS to be like me! I puffed up for maybe .5 seconds before reality set in; My son was learning what to do, how to be, what to say, how to feel, etc. JUST LIKE ME! Humility immediately followed and I finally had an inkling of an idea, what an awesome, amazing responsibility my Lord has given me, as a father. I can choose to tell me son to “Follow me” or I can choose to borrow Paul’s words and tell my son to “Follow me as I follow Christ.” Then I prayed THIS prayer for myself AND my son, “Lord, thank You for Your MERCY for all the things I have done and have not done that did not honor You. Thank You for GRACE for all the mistakes I will make as I try to follow You. And thank You for HOPE and FAITH to know that through You, ALL things are possible. Help me to show and teach my son these principles.”

Thank you Lord for a wonderful lesson! Class dismissed.

I saw a facebook post the other week from a homosexual that said, “Why do straight people complain about gays when they keep having gay babies?”

It amazes me the lengths these people go to in order to try and justify their bad, horrible, stupid, and also disgusting choice. Yes, I said it, their CHOICE. Being a homosexual is a choice, just like being a heterosexual is a choice. It is a choice to get married. It is a choice to remain a virgin until you get married, it is a choice to remain faithful to your spouse. You also chose to have sex outside of marriage, you chose to be unfaithful, you chose to commit the sin in your life.

I could get into the meaning of being “born into sin”, but I’ll keep it simple here: Man has a pattern when it comes to sin, we tend to err on the side of stupidity, However, through Jesus, that stupidity can be forgiven, and, with His guidance (the Bible) and mercy, that stupidity can be turned into intelligence. Based on God’s Word, we can make smart choices, we can chose to NOT sin.

Until you make the choice to follow Christ, man up and accept the consequences for your choices instead of trying to convince everyone else that you can’t help it, you were born that way, that its genetic. Some would argue that stupidity IS genetic, but in truth, it is only disobedience. My prayer is that God will continue to guide me in eradicating my stupidity.

Sara went under the knife yesterday and I think she came out better looking and a lot more capable. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so I’ve prepped two pics to help with the thinking behind the work:

And after tearing the jeep down a little, painting some much needed stuff, here’s the end result:

I was transferring some pictures off my phone tonight and came across this little gem. Caleb’s reaction to my random picture taking is priceless, and speaks volumes!

Today I go to Lowe’s for the last time. I am turning in my badge, cell phone, and laptop. I will miss all the people I’ve worked with for the last 7 years; its been interesting to say the least. I was really nervous about it for awhile, now I am just relieved. I am ready to start anew, to get where I am going, to start the next chapter.

I am going to go play 9 holes of golf after signing out at Lowe’s, what a perfect way to end the day!

I’ve neglected “Sara” (my jeep for those that don’t know) for awhile now and it’s time to show her some love. I ordered an oil pan skid plate and since shipping was free, I went ahead and ordered a steering box skid plate as well. When hitting the trail, you can’t have too much armor.

I’ve been wanting to go to 35″ tires for awhile now for the additional clearance, but needed to upgrade some parts to handle the larger tires first. This included the chromoly shafts that I put in my front axle last month, and I also need to modify my fenders to make room for the tires during articulation. I can accomplish this via “flat” fenders, which opens up the wheel wells. I lucked up and found the fenders I’ve been eyeballing for a great price (used) and hope to get them installed on Saturday.

I just had a thought, I should start calling my Jeep the Bionic woman, since all I do is spend money to upgrade her. Oh well, she’s going under the knife this week, but she’ll come out much stronger and maybe even a tad bit prettier.

The month of March has been unbelievable. Robin got a phone call on the 5th from a hospital in Tampa with news that her father was sick with pneumonia and in intensive care. She left the next day with Caleb to go be with her father. The prognosis wasn’t good at all. Due to his weak heart, he was struggling to get enough oxygen through his lungs. I got down there on the next Tuesday and he passed away Wednesday night. We spent the next week cleaning out his apartment and getting his affairs in order. I had to come back home and go back to work. I left the next Sunday and crinkled up the hood and fender on the Miata on the way home; not my fault, but another hurdle, nonetheless. I got home to find out Andie had to go to the doctor because she was bleeding internally and having severe stomach pains. Thankfully, the doctor saw nothing major and prescribed medicine for what he thought was all related to stress, which is understandable as she is graduating this year, picking a college, turning 18, worried about where her boyfriend might go to school, etc. Way too much stress for someone so young.

God has a way of making an incredible journey (race if you will) out of all the hurdles. Although I can’t see it yet, I am excited to find out how it will turn out. This is Easter Sunday. I can’t even fathom how the disciples felt when they realized Jesus had risen from the grave. What a journey they had with the last days of Jesus on earth and how they watched Him die the horrible and humiliating death, only to find out that He did exactly what He said, exactly what everyone thought He was a lunatic for saying! How blessed we are to be loved by Jesus and how merciful and gracious He is for loving us.

That’s what you hear at theme parks when you get on thrill rides. Although I haven’t heard anyone say that yet, I am on the thrill ride of my life! I accepted the voluntary separation agreement from Lowe’s. No, I don’t have a job to go to. No, I don’t know where I am going to go. Yes, I do know that the Lord will take care of me and my family.

I kept thinking that I would take the separation agreement as long as I could find a job first (smart thinking, right?). But what I realized is, God doesn’t work that way. He wants TOTAL obedience. He wants us to surrender ALL to Him. I was still depending on me. I was still relying on my own abilities. Its funny, cause I looked for a few jobs before this revelation and there were not that many, and I was getting concerned, thinking that I will be staying at Lowe’s as long as possible since the job market was slim. I got hit on the head with the realization that I hadn’t surrendered all, that I wasn’t totally relying on God and I said, “Okay Lord, job or no job, I am taking the VSP. I am relying on you all the way.” Once the decision was made, it was a relief, excitement, nervousness, all those things. But when I did a job search this afternoon (AFTER the decision) I kid you not, I had at least 100 hits on positions in my field of expertise.

Now starts a new chapter…

I had a great birthday weekend: I ate steak, shot guns, went off road in my Jeep, and spent time with my family. I got to shoot the following: .38 caliber, .45 caliber, .22 caliber, .357 caliber, .44 caliber (aka hogleg), M1 Garand, 12 Gauge (full choke and not so, full choke), and my personal favorite now, .36 caliber black powder model 1861 Navy. And since no post is quite complete without pictures, here’s a few of where we took a “detour” off road this weekend. It snowed off and on all day on Saturday, and the great thing about having a Jeep is that you get to see things that’s hidden away from the interstate or the main thorough fares.

So I got up for work yesterday and logged into my email to thin the noise out before actually GOING to work and I came across this little gem…

Lowe’s commitment is to be customers’ first choice for home improvement products, services, and information whenever and wherever they choose to shop. To meet that commitment, we must continue to invest in key initiatives to improve experiences for customers and stay on the leading edge as a home improvement company. (stay with me here.  We’re getting to the good part) We must also constantly review and improve our internal processes and make tough choices about where we allocate our resources.

In 2012, we will evaluate the way we staff and support the multi-channel world in which we compete… blah blah blah blah blah …The first step of the re-engineering process is a reduction in the size of our staff in the US Customer Support Centers (CSCs)… blah blah blah blah blah.

And then I thought, “Hey, I work in one of the Customer Support Centers.” Here we go again, This is how the lay offs at Bank of America started. Don’t get out the tissue box just yet. I got excited, then I calmed down. God has NOT forsaken me yet and to date, He has provided quite well for me and my family. I had gotten the “itch” to move a while back. To be more clear, I believe God had planted the seed of us moving on to something different, something that He has for us for awhile now, and I even shared that with some of my family, but I have a good job and I am “comfortable”. Humans tend to stay in motion unless acted upon by an outside force. Is this the “outside force”? Is this God plucking the feathers out of my comfortable nest to get me to fly? Can I take this as a letter of commitment that God is in control of my life and He is directing me? I’m the one that posted “whenever, wherever” to the Lord at the beginning of the year (see the blog in January)

…Let the games begin!