North Carolina - Why I'm Leaving For Good

Forty something years ago I came into being on this planet and was born in Charlotte, North Carolina and I've lived there all my life.  But soon that will be a thing of the past.


For several reasons I'm leaving: one being the terrible traffic on my thirty mile commute each day, another being taxes and another being the awful way our governor and government in Raleigh treats its citizens.


North Carolina has the highest gas tax in the whole southeast.  Currently gas in North Carolina runs around $2.00 while South Carolina is around $1.75-$1.80 per gallon.  Yet the roads in Charlotte continue to fall apart or only get repaired when they have to be.  There are exceptions, but the condition of some of the roads in this state is appalling.


Mecklenburg County's property tax rate runs around .85% now and South Carolina's averages $.57% and they have cheaper taxes on their gas too!


My biggest reason for leaving is that I'm able to sell and move much closer to work and avoid even getting on I-485 each day.


Raleigh is ignoring Charlotte's traffic problems as always and I'm doing the only thing I can do, leaving.


Not that I expect my vacating this state to make a bit of difference to the politicians, but it will certainly make a difference in my wallet and my peace of mind.


While Pat and his officers continue to stick their noses in the sand and up their rear ends, many people are leaving this state, many businesses are leaving too.


Good luck North Carolina, it's been real.

3.6.2009

March 6, 2009 my world got turned upside down.  After seventeen years of service at Bank of America, my services were no longer required and I was laid off amidst the shakeup of the industry and a merger with Fleet.  It’s easy to wonder what would life had been like if this event had never taken place. 

I still struggle with my weight, still unmarried, but I guess one huge positive I’ve learned in the past seven years is that God is faithful.  I had never really been forced to completely lean on God and my faith until I had nothing left but God.  When you have no money left, no credit left, nothing, you have only one way to look at that’s up.

My team at Bank of America was great.  I had a wonderful boss who I’m still friends with on Facebook, and many lifelong friends that I worked with over the years.

Many people hate Bank of America, but there are good people there. It’s sad the state the place is these days though and I really don’t miss the banking industry at all.

There were many dark days for me in the past few years.  Days when I dreaded going to the mail box because I feared another nasty message from creditors or banks.

To my amazement I now have paid off and closed all of those accounts and hope to be moving to Ft Mill or Rock Hill, SC and be free and clear of a mortgage very soon.

I get frustrated like anyone.  I get depressed about my weight and other issues, but I’m still here and God must have something he still wants to use me for.  Not sure what that is, but I’m just trusting God.

I have been blessed beyond anything I certainly deserve.  Currently I’ve ridden 292 different roller coasters around the United States and Canada and with new coasters being built every year, and new countries to explore someday too, that number will continue to grow as the Lord will’s it.

Don’t quit.  That’s all I can say as advice.  Don’t quit.  The media will tell you the world is a lost cause, but it’s only a lost cause when we give up on it.  God hasn’t quit, and he never will.  Don’t you quit.

That’s all for now.  Until next time…

Nation Of Heroes

It was a dark gray morning. Sunrise was still yet to come, but there lurked in the gloom shadows big and small, muscular and lean, this was no ordinary gathering. 

As I finished watching an episode of Arrow, the thought came to mind how much like heroes every F3 brother is.  Let me explain. 

I was always a quiet kid, which may surprise some.  Due to family strife and the style of verbal communication that went on in my home, I didn’t have a very high opinion of myself as a child, teenager or even man.  So I dove into the fantasy world of superheroes. 

Fast forward to my forties and after much prodding, I finally posted at F3 Ascent in South Charlotte.  Around me loomed men, some in black chatting and asking about who I was, who had invited me, you know the story. 

Then I caught my first glimpse of the Nation of Heroes during my first workout.  I was obviously out of my league and I immediately felt like I had made a mistake posting.   But the men around me weren’t macho jocks; to my surprise they were all very humble, strong men who amazed me at their athleticism. 

I have been a brother in F3 now 18 months and I’ve seen amazing things that remind me so much of the comic book superheroes.  We even have one guy that really likes tights. 

Sure there are athletes in F3 that are truly amazing to watch run, lift, ruck, or any number of things, but while that initially was what inspired me; it was the inner man that soon became the inspiration.  

As I settled in on Saturdays I soon made friends who would be my Barnabas. 

Barnabas is a man mentioned in the Bible known for his encouragement.  This man is the kind of guy you know you’d love to hang around with and my new brothers certainly created the glue of Second F for me.

What amazed me about these guys was that both of them were in phenomenal shape.  One brother is older and one younger than me, but you never heard a word from them about how great there are, what they mean to others, you get it. 

The self-sacrifice of ego that I see evident in these men inspires me to push past my own hang-ups and also learn to be comfortable in my own skin. 

When I move from the local group of men I’ve bonded with and to my region, or even the city of Charlotte I really start to see how F3 really is a nation of heroes. 

Heroes sacrifice, they serve, and they divert attention away from themselves and on to those being served.  I hope that as we work to help those in our country hurting and in need, that we’ll be inspired by our favorite superheroes and get out there and do our part.   

Sounds to me like truth, justice and the American way!  Aye!

 

 

 

T-Minus 9 Days!

Hello again Friends, it's about that time... when I try again to conquer El Toro at Six Flags Great Adventure!

If you go back to my first post, you'll read that back in 2010 I was denied riding the #1 ranked wooden coaster in the world, located on the outskirts of Philadelphia and it inspired me to start searching for a way to lose weight.

Along the journey to lose weight, I've discovered F3, GORUCK and all kinds of silly things like 5k's, 10k's and mud runs, all of which I've already completed with a little help from my friends.

I'm somewhere in the neighborhood now of 60lbs. down, with a goal to lose another 30 or so before I learn to settle into being skinny again for the first time in a very, very long time.

Recently I was able to buy my first 36" pants and shorts in probably fifteen years!

That brings me to this post: nine days from now I'll be hopefully riding El Toro for the first time!  I say hopefully, because after you've taken the Walk of Shame too many times, you never assume you are going to fit on a coaster, especially one so restrictive like El Toro.

Going into this weight loss journey, I was prepared I think, for the physical aspects but had no idea the emotional impact such a journey would take on me.

There are days I get depressed because I'm still overweight, still technically considered obese, then there are days I feel like nothing can stop me and the weight doesn't stand a chance.  This is why F3 has become vital for me.

F3 is full of thousands of guys, some serious athletes, at least one actual Olympian is in the F3 south Charlotte brotherhood now, but most are just average guys just trying to get better.

Many though have never been seriously overweight as I have been, and while they empathize with me, they really don't know what it's like to be so overweight you can't see your feet, so overweight that the weight of your arms puts pressure on your body while in bed to the point of stopping normal circulation, so overweight that you have skin issues, with being so heavy and skin rubbing against skin and causing sores and all other painful issues.  But they still encourage, still push me, still drag me along sometimes. OK, maybe not literally the last one, but certainly emotionally.

It amazes me when anyone says they are inspired by me, it's so easy to look at myself and forget how far I've come, to forget how strong I've gotten, and to forget that I'm well over half way home on the weight loss!

When a friend who I consider a real American hero, serving our country overseas while his wife is home taking care of seven children, because he'd "rather fight them over there, than at home." calls me an inspiration, and wants to do GORUCK when he gets home because I've gotten into GORUCK, it simply blows me away and humbles me, and shocks me a bit too.

When I consider that just a year and two months ago, I could barely survive a F3 workout, and now I've lead about twelve or thirteen workouts now, I just smile and shake my head.

Even though the Bible was talking really of spiritual things, I can't help but feel that 1 Corinthians 1:28 somehow applies to me:

God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are...

It's like me leading F3 workouts, what am I doing?  There are guys in much better shape than I,  who can run rings around me, but there I am.  But that's the great thing about the Body of Christ, God gifts us all with different gifts, different skills, we don't all know it all, and we haven't all achieved it all.

So, who knows if I'll fit on El Toro this time around.  I sure hope so.  But if I don't, I'm not giving up on this journey.  I've learned too much, I've been inspired and pulled into things that have reignited a passion for life, country, my fellow man and God (not in that order) and I'm excited about my life now, I'm excited about what the future holds.  Two years ago I would never have said that.  Never.

So if you're out there, and like me you struggle with your weight, an addiction, whatever, don't give up.  God is there reaching out to you, it may be through someone smiling as you walk your dog, it may be in a brother kicking you in the rear to keep running, whatever it is, God works in our lives, if we let Him.

Look for an update soon about the results of my trip, here's hoping and praying that I'm able to ride the bull! Ole!

Until next time...

Shops At A Premium

I normally don't talk about much besides my weight loss journey but I thought it would a nice change of pace to talk about the new Charlotte Premium Outlets.  Yesterday I was afforded the time to go check out Charlotte's first new mall in 10 years.

CATS Route 55 Westinghouse actually goes straight from the LYNX light rail station at Sharon Road West to the mall.  To save gas by having to drive all the way from my house in east Charlotte, I just caught the bus after work.  The route takes about 30 minutes from the light rail station.

After arriving at the mall, I walked up the hill to the shops and immediately noticed that the place is one of the nicest outlet malls I've been to.  I've traveled a good bit over the years and usually end up checking out outlet malls in whatever town I'm in.  Most are usually just glorified strip malls, and not much glory to boot.
The Charlotte Premium Outlets, while small at this point, are certainly a cut above most that I've visited.

One of the amenities I noticed is the amount of cover you have for an outdoor mall.  While the Gaffney, SC outlet has covered walkways, it always just feels like a strip mall to me.

The Charlotte outlet feels much more like you're walking the streets of your favorite town and just popping into shops, and you do have places to run to if the bottom falls out and we get one of those Carolina heat-of-the-day thunderstorms.

The main reason I wanted to visit the new mall was for the Under Armour Outlet.  I'm a big fan of Under Armour's products, but not such a fan of their retail prices. The only other UA Outlet I've visited was in Pigeon Forge where I got a new workout shirt for a great price.

I thought the Charlotte UA store had a pretty good selection. The store was having a Labor Day sale which helped, but not quite sure if the prices were quite as good as Pigeon Forge.  With the distance this store is from me, I'll probably just buy from their online outlet in the future.  Still I wasn't disappointed to visit my second UA store.

As I made my way around the mall, I noticed lots of nice courtyards with fountains, places to sit both under cover and out in the open.

The mall only has two restaurants in their food court open so far, but there is a new Bojangles located across the street (you would have to drive) from the mall and a new McDonald's is coming soon across from the Bojangles.

The stores in the outlet didn't really strike me as true outlets.  Kind of in the middle as far as price.  I guess they are at a premium.  A good example is the Old Navy Outlet.

The Old Navy Outlet at Potomac Mills, near D.C. had truly great prices.  I remember buying a t-shirt for $4 there.  The outlet in Charlotte might have had only slightly better prices than a regular Old Navy store.

I had to chuckle a bit as I passed the Crocs store.  Is this store considered the tackiest store in the world?  I personally don't get the hatred for Crocs.  I've got a pair of their flip flops and they have lasted forever and are super comfortable.  I don't own a regular pair of Crocs, but I really don't find them that ugly.  Our society really cares too much about what's on the outside of the body and not what's on the inside of the soul.

In summary, the outlets are very nice, but nothing that I'd say make a special trip far out of your way for unless you just have to visit them.  Pretty much everything that I found at the Charlotte Premium Outlets I can find at Concord Mills and Concord Mills has big box stores like Bass Pro.

One issue, just like when Northlake Mall was built is that the area has nothing around it, but I'm sure that will change in the next decade.  It looked like a strip mall of some sort was being built behind the new Bojangles by the highway entrance to the mall.

Overall, very nice, but small and in need of more stuff to do.  Thanks for reading and until next time, please sit on your sandals!

St. Peter Is That You?

I'm back from my second 5k trail run!  Just wanted to share a short report of how it went.

First a little background: last August, on a strangely cool morning I set out running not only first 5k, but my first trail run too.

As one who has never run since high school, and even then not any great distances this was certainly a challenge.

I started off o.k. but then my back started to hurt and we had to stop for a minute and try and stretch it out.  Still I kept going and I finished at around 54:30.  Not terrible I guess for my first time out and considering the back problems.

2014 came along and I had my sights set on doing the 10k option and in the meantime some friends told me about East Side Church's new Queen City Trail Run 5k.

Being my second 5k of course I wanted to finish faster than the last time, I didn't know however that Reedy Creek Park's trails would be even harder than the Charlotte White Water Center's.

I knew the park was hilly as I play disc golf there pretty regularly.

I didn't know that one of those hills would be waiting for me and brother was it a tough one.  Jokingly I posted later that I expected to see St. Peter waiting at the top of that hill.

But I kept going and the hill eventually was in my rear view and down another hill and up some more I made it to the finish line.  As I turned the last corner I saw the clock was just over 48:00 and I all of a sudden found more energy to run than I had all morning.  I picked up the pace and finished strong beating my last time by nearly 6:00!

Now I'm not here to tell you I'm a fast runner, far from it.  But I honestly never thought I'd be able to run 1 mile, much less over 3.

I'm living proof that anyone can do this stuff.  It's not rocket science.  It just takes some hard work, time and effort and you will see results.

Until next time...please sit on your sandals!