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!

“‘Political Correctness’ is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, illogical, liberal minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end.”

My advice is to stay away from Zappos. They make it too easy to find stuff you like. But can you blame me?  Look at these boots! 

It’s a sobering topic, but one that screams “SILVER LINING HERE!” more so than any other. I cannot control my own mortality no more than I can influence the path of the sun in the solar system. The silver lining is this: God has given your days to you not to worry about dying, but to celebrate living. People go through their entire lives worrying about not tempting fate or making sure EVERY germ is cleaned or not putting themselves in harm’s way. “Finding Nemo” had a great quote when the over protective father talked about protecting his son so nothing would happen to him, and another fish pointed out, “If you don’t let anything happen to him, then NOTHING will happen to him.” I have been accused of taking too many risks, whether it’s riding my motorcycle, or driving my Jeep, or climbing and hiking. But I am living. I am leaving my mortality to God and I am experiencing all I can that He has provided for us on this earth. You really ought to try going over 100 miles per hour – its exhilarating! Everyone should jump out of an airplane at least once in their life, its so peaceful and serene. The beauty of a coral reef at 100 feet underwater is unmatched on land and nothing is more majestic than the horizon of the Rockies at 14,000 feet! I know this to be true because I’ve done them.

I want to teach my children to do more than exist, I want to teach them to live, to really live!

I pulled in at the Harlan County Campgrounds at 1530 hrs. Chuck and Josh were there waiting on me, so I quickly got my park pass and paid for the camping. We then proceeded up the mountain to the camping spot Chuck had already picked out for us. We got the tents set up, got a fire prepped, then headed on up the mountain into the park for a quick recon of the area before heading back into town for supper.

The trails were really slick from the rain earlier in the week and that afternoon, so making it up the mountain to the trails was interesting in itself. The park has a green trail (easy), blue trails (intermediate to difficult), red trails (hard to extreme, body damage probable), and then the orange dotted and red dotted trails (highly modified, body damage guaranteed). Of course, we hit the first red trail we came to (48) and it was not bad at all. We ended up riding on a lot of the red trails, they had some great hill climbs and down hills, and the rain multiplied the fun factor. Pictures don’t do justice to the steepness of these hills; at one point before ascending, Josh yelled back to me, “Tell my mom I loved her!” The red trails skirted the ridge line and offered great views at around 3400 feet. Be sure to go to the photos page and look at the Harlan gallery where I posted more pics. We had a great weekend and I can’t wait to go back!

Grayson is a great place to backpack for beginners and fun for the kids because of the ponies. We had a great day!