Abbeville, SC

On Tuesday, Cari and I headed over to Abbeville. When we got there, we spent some time looking at the monuments around the court square. There is a fountain placed by the National Humane Alliance that originaly served as a trough for animals tethered in the square, a Confederate monument placed in 1906, and a bell that served as the town alarm.

Buildings face into the square on each side. Standing in the center, you could imagine this being the center of activity in the early 1900's. We walked over to one side of the square where the court house and opera house sit. Both buildings were constructed and opened in 1908. The courthouse of Abbeville has a funny history. The current building is the fifth court house of the town. It appears they were having some issues early on.

I went into the courthouse to get a look at the interior. I stepped inside to be greeted by a guard. Standing at the entrance with my camera, I looked at the metal detectors and this young female cop who was talking on a cell phone. She was just staring at me. I said, "I'm not coming in." She kept staring and talking on her cell phone so I turned and walked out.

The opera house is directly next door so we went to check it out. I walked in to see a hall of offices. Tax collector and city hall are located in this building. At the end of the hall some steps lead down to the theatre. There were no signs or ropes, so I walked down. It is an amazing place. I ran back outside and got Cari. We went in together and took picutres as we explored the theatre. The wooden floors creaked loudly with every step. Cari suggested it was haunted.

It was amazing being able to be in there and take some time to explore. Abbeville was an overnight stop for trains running Atlanta to New York. The theatre was a main attraction for people staying in town a night.

The next main attraction we investigated is the Trinity Episcopal Church. This building towers over the end of a road from court square.

The building was constructed in 1860 and is an amazing structure. We were oustide taking photos when a woman told us we could go inside. Once we were told that, we didn't waste any time getting in. Most things inside are original to the building, including the pews.

this shot is from standing at the front of the church looking back toward the entrance.

There was a sign outside that said it was amazing the church bells still exsist because the Confederate soldiers wanted so badly to melt them into cannon balls during the war.

As we continued walking around town we saw more churches and homes from the early 1900's.

There was too much to see and read for one day.

This white house is the Burt-Stark mansion. We were offered a tour through it but had to decline because we were going to be late meeting the kids at home after school.

The Burt-Stark mansion is where confederate president Jefferson Davis met with his cabinet for the final time and made the decision to end the war and the confederacy. This will definatly be a place to return to.

On the way out of town, we drove past secession hill. This is a place where just weeks after Lincoln was elected, the first organized meeting to seceed from the union took place.

Abbeville, SC is such an amzing place with more history than I could write in this blog. There are so many stories and photos that I have left out to try and keep this from becoming a book.

What doesn't kill me. . .

Eight days straight at work. Eight mornings of the alarm clock going off at 4:30am.
I'm tired.

I haven't even had time to read any of your blogs in several days.

I'll write tomorrow.

American Idol

We've been watching American Idol this season. We prefer to Tivo it and watch it whenever we have time. Sometimes that means we fall behind a few days or even a week. It also means that we fast forward through a singer if they aren't great in the first fifteen seconds.

My favorite to watch was Christy Lee Cook. What a cute girl! When Christy started to sing last week, Cari hit the fast forward.

"WAIT!" I shouted. Cari looked at me and rolled her eyes. She knows I think that Christy is cute. "She's REALLY good. I want to hear this song," I pleaded.

In my head, I had tuned out the noise coming from the television. I just wanted to watch. Cari was disgusted that I thought the singing was good.

"Simon is going to say it sucks." Cari argued. I bet against her so that I could keep watching. After the noise stopped, the judges had their say. Simon said it wasn't the best, but it was pretty good.

Honestly, I was surprised he said that. I looked at Cari and said, "Told ya."

The next night Christy was voted off of American Idol. As soon as it was announced, I looked at my wife and said, "Man, she was awful".

I Can't Stop Kicking Myself

In my heart I knew I should take the camera with me.

It was about five thirty in the morning and I was leaving for work. Just before lunch time I would be taking a drive to Greenwood, SC for a meeting. I had never been to Greenwood and didn't know what I would find there.

I was torn about the camera as I stood there half asleep. I didn't really want to leave it in the car all day and I didn't really know if I would have time to take pictures in Greenwood. The plan was to skip lunch until after the meeting and walk around town before leaving.

I decided to leave it home and I started off to work. As I drove, I said out loud that I would be kicking myself once I found out how beautiful Greenwood is.

When I arrived at Greenwood I realized that there was nothing to see. I stood in the parking lot of the meeting place and looked around. Looking around takes a few minutes for me. I like to stop and observe and look at the details. This place is boring. A busy highway surrounded with plain shops and restaurants.

Having my camera in Greenwood turned out to be unnecessary. BUT on the way to Greenwood I drove through Abbeville, SC. WOW! Abbeville is AWESOME! Abbeville is BEAUTIFUL! Abbeville is a place you slow down below the speed limit when you are ten minutes late to a meeting because you are in awe of the beauty, charm, and history around you. Then the car behind you taps his horn and brings you back from dream land, but you are still ten minutes late to a meeting.

When I arrived in Abbeville I started to kick myself. Hard. Why did I leave the camera at home? Abbeville is history. Civil War history. It is the place that the Confederate President Jefferson Davis made many important decisions. Including the meeting that started the secession from the Union. Many Civil war era homes and buildings still stand in Abbeville.

When I got home, I looked at the calender and told Cari that we are going to be taking a walking tour on my next day off.

I'll be taking my camera.

Photography DEGREE from Flickr

I have learned an incredible amount about photography just by being involved with groups on Flickr.

Probably the single biggest thing I have learned is about light. Light is one of the biggest things that can make or break your shot. A group called Strobist teaches how to get the light off the camera (don't use the flash on the camera) and become more creative.

What makes some of those groups so helpful is obviously the people that use them. We all learn from each other. Over time I have marked various users as a "contact" so that I will be notified when they add photos. When I see a photo that is remarkable, I can email the photographer to find out how the shot was made. I have learned about Orton process, dodge and burn, aperture, split tone, and more from people that are my contacts. The most recent thing I have learned is adding texture to a photograph. I have seen several people starting to do this on Flickr lately and I couldn't figure out how it was being done. Then I saw one of my contacts do it. They linked to their source and it clicked in my head.

I made a few quick samples to see how it works. The first shot in each set is the untouched, the 2nd is after I added texture.

[1] Trumpet

[2] With a texture:

[1] Cemetery

[2] with a texture:

Everyone may not like the results, and it certainly doesn't work for every shot, but it can be an easy thing to make your shot more unique.

Essentially, I found a photo with some open space (no main subject) and over layed that section onto a photo. I blended them together in photoshop and I was done. You can do more with this such as altering the color, and erasing parts of your texture to highlight some areas (like a persons face).

The textures I used in these shots were:


For the trumpet, I took a landscape shot taken from a mountain. This is a small portion of that shot enlarged. I put this on top of the trumpet shot.

This is some sand around a stepping stone I had a photo of. I took this sample of the sand and enlarged it to fit the cemetery shot.

Thanks again, Flickr users!

Pickens Azalea Festival

It was a colder rainy day on Saturday. There's no reason to sit inside and cry about that, so we went to Pickens. The ad in the paper said "rain or shine" the Pickens Azalea Festival would be happening.

When we got there it wasn't crowded, but there were a good many people around. The rain had stopped and the air was still cool. We walked down main street to check out all the vendors. Randy and I picked up our stickers that told everyone we support the creation of a Confederate History month. We stopped by the tent the fire dept was running to get some lunch and then we sat next to the main stage. I didn't get the name of the group that was playing, but it was some of my favorite music.

I used Cari's camera to make a short film. The sound is a bit horrible because I was sitting next to the speaker and the volume distorted the camera mic. But you can be sure the band sounded GREAT.

Although that is some of my favorite music, it isn't the favorite of anyone else in my family. After two songs we moved along.

Cari's favorite vendor was the local bee keepers. They brought a small plexiglass container of bees to check out. Cari and the keeper talked for a while about bees while the kids and I went to check out the police dog. When we went back to Cari, she had purchased two things of honey. One of them being a "cream honey". It is made of nothing but honey and is the consistency of butter. There is some long process to get it more solid like that. Cari can tell you more about honey if you ask her. I didn't really pay much attention to the details.

So where are all the azaleas, you ask? I don't know either. There were two small tents with some plants and only one of them had azaleas. There are a large amount of azaleas planted around downtown and they were all in bloom. Maybe the festival is to celebrate another year the gardners didn't kill the plants. Whatever the reason is, they put on a good show.

Spring has arrived!

Tuesday was a bit cooler than it had been, but it is still spring around here. Cari and I took advantage of my day off and headed to Falls park in Greenville.

It was one of those mornings that you start to wish you had stayed in bed. I was kinda grumpy and things just kept slowing us down. I loaded up some geocaches and typed up the list in Word. When I tried to print the sheet, the printer was out of ink. I popped in a cartridge and it still wouldn't work. I called Epson customer service. It turns out that I have a defective cartridge and will wait for them to send me a new one. Cari started to hand write all my notes and I went to get ready.

We were at least thirty minutes behind my goal as we left the driveway. Once we arrived downtown I followed signs that said "PARKING". I pulled into the parking garage to find that it was not public parking. The garage belonged to a private company and they only opened it on the weekends. I really wish their signs had said that. I squeeled the tires as I left their stinking private garage. We went back into the streets and found a public garage.

Once we got going I started feeling much better. The flowers and trees were blooming, it was quiet in the park, and the sun was shining.

Cari found a small turtle laying on the path. We took some photos of it and put him in the river (near the top of the falls). He didn't move and I wondered if he was dead. Later we stopped in to check on him and we saw him digging in the mud.

Cari and I also found a few geocaches as we had a great time walking the park together.

That night I met with the bride's parents for the wedding I shot last month and they ordered a ton of prints. That means I got to order a new lens for my camera!

What I learned on Tuesday is to never give up on a day because of a rough morning. You never know what the rest of the day will bring.

Exercise

At a park in Florida last week we found these exercise stations positioned along the trail.
This one wanted you to use arm strength to flip your body from one side of the pole to the other. You can see how each of us did.

Geocaching in Florida

It's too hot to Geocache in Florida. Maybe at six in the morning it would be ok. But by ten, you better be headed inside.

We took the kids out to some nearby parks for a few hours of caching. We found two in the first park before the complaining got bad. The kids grabbed the first one as I just about stepped on it without seeing it.
The second cache required climbing past some poison ivy so I let Cari take the kids while I watched the stroller. They found it pretty quickly.

After a short car ride, we started at the bigger park. At Lakes Park we couldn't find the first cache on the list. Cari and I were all around it, but the kids just sat and watched. They said they were melting from the extreme 88 degrees and 150% humidity. We took a short walk over to the lake where the kids did some more sitting on a bench. We decided to give up geocaching for the day and head back home for some swimming.

Starbucks, it is just too easy

We visited Starbucks this morning as we left the hotel. It was only my second time at a Starbucks. Cari and I stood at the counter and I asked for a cup of coffee. The barista stared at me. He offered to froth some milk in it or dump three pounds of sugar into the cup. I refused and asked for a cup of black coffee. The barista shifted his eyes to his feet. He looked a little nervous and I thought his head was about to implode. He shuffled off to make Cari's fancy, frothy drink. I wasn't sure he understood what I wanted. I whispered to Cari, "He knows he only has to pour my coffee in a cup and give it to me, right?" She shrugged her shoulders as she watched him sprinkle ground cinnamon onto her drink.

He came back to me and told me he was starting some coffee. Really? It's Starbucks. They don't have a pot of coffee ready to go? It was about eight in the morning and there were people all over the place. How could they not keep a pot of coffee made?

Maybe they felt I wouldn't get the "Starbucks experience" unless they made something special for me. Maybe none of the other drinks they sell actually contain coffee. Five minutes later he handed me a cup of coffee, plain.

As I said, this was my second experience. My first one was very similar. I waited OVER five minutes for a cup of plain coffee. That happened in a different state, so I feel like this is a problem for all locations. Their baristas are over trained. Next time I'm going to McDonalds. They can hand me a cup of hot coffee, black, in about forty seconds.

Were You THAT Good?

We went to dinner last night with two other families. There were seven kids and six adults at the table. The kids were very well behaved. Several old people stopped at our table on their way out and told us how great our kids are. One old lady even came to the table and whipped out a photo album of her seven grandchildren. Then she started passing HER photos around OUR table. What made her think to take a full size photo album to dinner with her? And then SHARE them!

One problem with this restaurant is that they had no sweet tea. I asked the waiter twice about this. The second time he offered a bowl of sugar with some regular tea. No thanks. Back home you might struggle to find a place serving un-sweet tea. I went with water.

Throughout dinner, the waiter stopped by twice. Once to bring the meals out and one other time to refill drinks. The next time he came around he dropped the bill off. He brought it down to my side of the table where the three dads were sitting. The three of us just looked at each other. Who would pick it up? We were all paying our own. I picked it up, looked inside and put it back in the middle of the table. The number was too large for my mind to calculate. Why didn't the waiter split it up? Why wouldn't he even have asked about that? The three of us joked a few minutes about paying. One guy told his kids to get in the car and then excused himself to the bathroom. The other suggested that the first one to pick up the bill had to pay it. I just sat there in shock from the number I had just witnessed. The next time the waiter strolled by, one of the other dads asked him to split it up. The waiter took it and walked off. He didn't even ask how we wanted it split up.

Once I got my portion of the bill and paid, the waiter brought back my credit slip. The one where you can add tip. Cari said, "Don't give him anything." She was annoyed that her drink sat empty for so long during dinner. I knew we wouldn't give him "nothing," but he wouldn't get more than about ten percent.

I looked down the receipt. The line read "Additional gratuity." Additional? I reviewed the details. Sure enough, the guy had included a tip on the bill. He gave himself 18%. Woah. Is there a line to take some of that back? Maybe he included it because we were such a large group. Maybe it is one of those restaurants that just does that. Maybe he over heard Cari say that she wasn't giving anything. Maybe he thought he was just THAT good.

The Threat

Recently, Cari has started up again. "I'm going to start my own blog!", she says.
Every time I threaten to write about her on my blog, that's her reply.
Every time I say or do something kinda stupid she gets up to "write it on her blog" as she laughs.

This type of talk has gone on for about a year now. I never paid it much attention because I knew she hadn't taken the time to sit down and write. There was a time, months ago, that I got a bit nervous. After one of her threats, I tried to call her out by asking for the url of her blog. She told me she wasn't going to tell me because she didn't want me reading the things she said. For a day or two I started to think she might have a secret blog. Then she gave in and admitted she didn't have a blog.

I came home from work on March 28th with Cari sitting at the table smiling at me. It was a grin that said she was about to burst with joy. "I have a blog", she said. My response was only a look that said, "oh, right." Then she took my hand and lead me to the computer. I sat down and read HER BLOG.

The threat has become reality. Now when I sit down to write about her, she has a forum to tell her side of that story. When I decide to write some fiction about her peeing on the plants outside, she has a place to dispute that.

There may be times where we both write about the same experience. Just remember that there are two sides to every story. . . and mine is usually right.

Neighbor Update

In honor of my April Fool's Day HOAX, here is an update on my neighbors:

Winter is over and the neighbors have come out from hibernation. It's time for an update.

To my left we have the Yankee and his ugly wife living a few doors down. I'm pretty sure they have some children, but I've never seen them outside. They still won't wave as they drive past you on the block. At least they keep the grass cut.

Also on my left we have yard maintenance maniac. I don't think I've told you about this guy before. Probably a nice guy, but we have never really said more than hello over the years. Cari has had lunch with maniac's wife and I'm told she is nice. This guy fertilizes, waters, and stares at his grass on a regular basis. He cuts it a minimum of once per week during the summers. He even changes the direction of the cut each time. Last year he sprayed round up on his entire yard and then tilled it up. Then he planted some seed and started fresh. I'm not really sure what this is all about. I think he may hate being inside with his wife.

On my right, we still have atheist and his religious wife. They don't come around much. They have a new baby whose name was chosen from the Bible. They recently got two dogs that bark at me when I'm snooping around their yard. The smaller one gets out of the fence sometimes and plays with our dog. At some point, our dog will probably eat it.

Across the street are some good friends of ours. They have some children about the ages of ours and the kids are always playing at one house or the other. The wife of that house is a supplier of gossip on the neighbors. She won't tell me any gossip directly, but she tells Cari, who tells me.
I get all my gossip from behind closed doors. I wouldn't want to be known as a nosy neighbor or something!

I'm SORRY

I just found out that my neighbor has been reading this blog. This is the man that I referred to as "atheist" earlier this year. I want to come clean here and say that I'm sorry for referring to him in this way. Calling him that name wasn't based on any fact.

This good neighbor came up to my car yesterday as I got home from work. He first told me that he learned of my blog recently and saw the things I wrote about him and the other neighbors.

Then he told me that he was going to type up a letter and distribute it to everyone on the block alerting them to this blog. I immediately apologized to him and explained that I had only meant it for fun. I asked him to not tell anyone else about the blog.

He agreed to keep quiet as long as I meet two conditions.
#1. Write the post that you are reading to let each of you know that he is NOT an atheist. He happens to be one of the best Christians I have ever met. I hope I did not take anything away from his great faith in God by calling him names.
#2. By Friday, I will search any posts that talk about my neighbors and delete them. I will no longer write anything about my neighbors.

I never thought that someone in this small town would find my blog. The problem is that it is a small town. Cari had told a couple at church about this blog and they happen to know the parents our my neighbors, who told him about it.

Again, I'm sorry for the incorrect things I have said and I hope that you forgive me.