On Friday, June 18, 2010, Eddie Taylor lost his battle with cancer.  Eddie was married to my sister, Beth.  They have three children, Mason, Blair, and Phillip.

Our friendship began out of rivalry.  It was 1985 and Eddie had just started dating Beth.  That year Newberry College played Furman, and beat them in the very last few seconds when Eddie kicked a record-setting 52-yard field goal.  That was Furman’s only regular-season loss that year, and the defeat rallied them to go all the way to the National Championship (which they lost.)

Eddie was the epitome of service to others.  Through coaching and teaching he reached out to many young folks.  He coached at two private schools before he and Beth started working with the Boys Home of the South.  From there Eddie went into the Methodist ministry, where he pastored Wightman Methodist in Prosperity and finally Grace Methodist in Abbeville.  Both churches grew and prospered with Eddie at the helm.

A good man told me that you only have one chance to get it right.   Those were the very last words that good man said to me, and Eddie did get it right.  To the very end he was more concerned about our well-being than his own pain.  His last sermon was preached from his hospital bed.  He set the bar high for all of us.  If we could only partially live up to his legacy this world would be a much better place.

I normally don’t copy and paste from other websites, but this is important. Funding for SCETV may be drastically reduced because of a veto by Gov. Sanford. Here’s a press release…

ETV Appeals to the Public to Contact Their Legislator and Help Overturn Governor Mark Sanford’s Vetoes

For Immediate Release
June 11, 2010

Columbia, SC… On Friday, ETV made a statewide appeal to members of the general public to show their support for ETV in the wake of Governor Mark Sanford’s budget vetoes. The message asks South Carolinians to contact their legislators and urge them to override these vetoes. If the vetoes are sustained, it would decimate the network’s ability to fulfill its core functions.

The message reads as follows:

Emergency Alert!

Your help is needed now! Contact your legislator before the Tuesday, June 15th vote.

Governor Sanford has proposed a cut of over $5.2 million from South Carolina ETV’s $9.6 million state budget appropriation. This is a 52% percent reduction. This would have a devastating impact on ETV and the services provided to public education and to every citizen.

If the legislature does not override these vetoes it would have a crippling effect on services and programs.

* ETV provides technology training and learning opportunities to 65,000 teachers, all 86 school districts, and their students. In addition, over 6,500 K-12 teachers receive hands-on, face to face training annually. This service would be drastically impaired or eliminated.

* ETV would be forced to discontinue its public safety and local government training. More than 13,000 law enforcement personnel – this includes local police and sheriff departments, SLED, and corrections officers.

* ETV’s local and national programming would be significantly impaired, and some services eliminated all-together. Television and radio programs that focus on SC issues and concerns would be in grave jeopardy.

* ETV is a valuable asset available to every South Carolina citizen, a key component in the state’s educational, cultural and economic development. Many deem ETV as a jewel of South Carolina and a good example of what is good about our state.

Your help is critical to our ability to retain core educational service for every SC citizen. It’s imperative that these vetoes be overturned. We need your help – please contact your legislator today to save ETV!

Thank you!

The vetoes can only be overturned if two-thirds of both bodies of the General Assembly vote to do so. The House and the Senate are expected to take up all 107 of Sanford’s vetoes beginning at noon on Tuesday, June 15. The proceedings will be televised on ETV World.

ETV is South Carolina’s statewide network with 11 television stations, eight radio stations and a closed-circuit educational telecommunications system in more than 2000 schools, colleges, businesses, and government agencies.

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For more information, contact Rob Schaller at (803) 737-6556 or rschaller@scetv.org.

The folks at ETV do some wonderful things, especially for our teachers. This is a worthy cause.

Today was the day. After having them for not quite two years, my braces came off. It was a strange experience, but I’m glad to have moved on to the next phase of this project.

Of course, the timing wasn’t great.  This was our big concert weekend, and the Hebrew and Italian were sometimes painful to sing with the braces.  But then, I couldn’t have predicted how changes to my teeth would affect my singing.  I survived, though.

The actual removal didn’t take long at all.  However, it did leave adhesive that had to be polished off of my teeth.  There were X-rays and photographs to compare with when I started the process.

The most time consuming thing those, was having to have the retainer made.  Impressions were made of my teeth, then the retainer itself had to be made.  This is a temporary plastic device that I will have to wear all the time for the next several months.

To celebrate I had a Reuben sandwich without fear of sauerkraut getting caught in my braces.  It was was a pleasant sensation.  Not having metal grinding into my cheeks was nice.

Speaking of the retainer, turns out it’s going to be a great way to lose weight.  I’m not allowed anything but water while wearing them, and I have to wear them all the time.  I certainly can’t eat with them in place, and these things aren’t easy to remove.  That means every bite I take has to be a conscious effort.  I can’t just walk by a bowl of grapes or candy and pop one in my mouth.  Snacking between meals just became more bother than it’s worth.  We’ll see if this works.

And finally, much to our cats’ dismay, I can whistle once again.  I’m not up my usual trills and virtuosity, but at least I can produce a sound.

On the way back from our paddling trip on Monday Alan and I stopped by the Duncan Chapel Methodist Cemetery, better known as the “Children’s Cemetery.” Alan had never been here, and was unaware of the cemetery’s existence. I had visited before, and was both intrigued by the history, and disturbed by the amount of desecration. This visit there was a bit more weirdness going on.

The cemetery got it’s nickname because there are many children buried here, but there are also many adults. On this visit we noticed that most of the children’s headstones had either stuffed animals or little toys. One even had a couple of doll baby bottles at the base of the headstone.

Most of these graves were from the early 20th Century, so I don’t understand why the toys were left. I don’t know if it was some pseudo-paranormal group, someone even more deranged. I can only hope that this behavior is more respectful than those that have knocked over the headstones. It may be weird, but I at least it isn’t destructive.

A couple of weeks ago Houston celebrated his 60th birthday. We wanted to hold a surprise birthday party for him, and he provided us the perfect opportunity this weekend. Houston suggested that he come up to visit, and we could head out for one of our photo treks. What he didn’t realize was that while we were out taking photos, a party would be gathering at our house.

We spent the week preparing, which included inviting guests, sending out maps, and cooking about eight gallons of chili. On Saturday Houston arrived with Lynda and a friend from work, Jeannie. I wasn’t able to warn Jeannie ahead of time, so she was just about as surprised as he was.

As with most of these treks, we have a general target, but we can be easily sidetracked. We stopped at Furman a bit first to take pictures of the Place of Peace.

Next stop was a bit off of Highway 25, just before the community of Lima. On Trammel Road there are the remains of an old mill. I have no idea what mill it is, or what they made there, but it’s an interesting place to stop.

We continued up Old Highway 25, then turned toward Poinsett Bridge. Had to stop there for a bit and take a few more shots, even though I had just been there a week or so ago.

Our next target was the town of Saluda. Along the way we had to pass through the Greenville Watershed. The rocks along the road had tremendous icicles hanging from every ledge. We ignored the signs that said “No Stopping” and stopped anyway for a couple of shots.

Lunch was in Saluda, and we wandered around the streets a bit.

By this time it was starting to rain, and our guests were gathering. Houston kept making suggestions for other places we could stop, but I declined, blaming it on the rain. When we got back to the house the yard was full of extra cars. I explained to Houston that our neighbor threw large parties and sometimes parked on our lawn. He bought it right up until when he saw the balloons on our door. I think it was a successful surprise. We had a great party from then on out.