A collection of photography and exploration focusing on Upstate South Carolina and beyond.
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Yeah, I bought a Powerball ticket. With the jackpot reaching an unthinkable amount, why not dream a bit? After all, they say that if you don’t play you can’t win. If I can spent money on a Star Wars ticket, then this is a reasonable price for just as absurd a dream.
I don’t believe in New Years resolutions. They never seem to work out. However, I’ve got things I want to accomplish this year. So, I’ll make a list, and we’ll see if those things happen or not. Heck, New Year’s Day was four days ago, and I’m just now getting around to this post, so any resolution I make is already getting a late start.
I’ve made one more pass around old Sol. Laura says that this is an auspicious birthday because my age is divisible by both five and eleven, two of her favorite numbers. Last year was complicated by family matters, so I spent the day by myself climbing a mountain. This year was complicated by singing engagements, … Read More “Birthday Banjo” »
I’ve got several singing gigs this holiday season, and my performance wardrobe was in dire need of an update. I had already gotten a new tuxedo, and now I was after a red sweater vest for the informal holiday gigs. That’s how I found myself in Dillards talking with one of the most fascinating people I’ve met in a long time.
It’s as I feared. The floodwaters that inundated Columbia are now washing downstream. The image above is of Highway 301 between Manning and Turbeville, the very area I explored a couple of weeks ago. This image was posted on Facebook by John McLeod, a Manning Resident. He also posted this image just northeast of the … Read More “Tobacco Trail Flooding” »
You might have noticed. There haven’t been any new podcasts lately. There is an unfortunate reason for that. When my Macbook crashed at the first of the summer I was able to recover just about everything. Just about. The casualty was all of my raw audio files. That includes interviews about historic cemeteries, interviews about … Read More “Where Are the Podcasts?” »
We got the sad news yesterday. Russ Morin had finally lost his long battle with cancer. One of the coolest individuals I’ve ever met has left this sphere. Russ was a musician, craftsman, and educator. I’ve known Russ since 1980, for 35 years. He was one year behind me at Furman, and we became friends … Read More “So Long, Russ” »
Our television gave up the ghost. While it was a fairly modern hi-def LCD TV, by today’s standards it was quite small. We still hold to the old “TV as furniture” ideal, and kept it in a cabinet in a corner. This was actually a design decision, as we have picture windows overlooking our back yard and lake, and didn’t want a large TV interfering with that view. Perhaps it got jealous of the big new TV in our newly remodeled basement. Who knows? The upshot is that on Wednesday I found myself heading out to buy a new one.
A combination of technical problems and family situations have meant that blog posts have been few and far between lately. Just about my entire line-up of podcasts has been put on hold. I’ve got the material, and I’ve got tons of draft posts and research. I just haven’t had a chance to put it together.
It was a spectacular Wednesday morning. I’d been doing yard work all week, and needed to escape. That seemed like the perfect time for a trip to the Pickens Flea Market. This time, rather than carry cameras, I had a backpack loaded with audio recording gear.
Apparently everyone in Pickens County had the same idea as me. I had planned to get there around 8:00, but Highway 183 from Greenville to Pickens was a zoo, and traffic was clogged headed through the town and out to the flea market. Eventually, though, I did get a nice, shaded parking space, and set out to explore.