Pickens County Ramble

Posted on By Tom 4 Comments on Pickens County Ramble
Local, Photography, Rambling

Cateechee School 2

I’ve been going a bit stir crazy. The weather has been perfect for hiking or kayaking, but with this lingering cough I just haven’t wanted to risk getting sick again. Laura was busy writing an exam, so sister Glynda and I decided to head out and find something to photograph.

For this ramble we repeated a trek that I had made with Duckhunter back last year. Our route took us north of Clemson and into some of the old communities of Pickens County.

From Greenville we drove to Easley, then followed 93 to Liberty, then on to Norris. From Norris we headed north to our first stop at the mill village of Cateechee. Glynda had never visited this part of the state, so it was new territory for her. We circled through the mill village and looked at the ruins of the mill, then drove around to the old Cateechee School.

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How Many Greenvilles?

Posted on By Tom 8 Comments on How Many Greenvilles?
Geocaching and Maps, Miscellaneous

Greenville_Sanborn_Map_Cover

Perhaps it was the fact that I’ve crossed several state lines recently. More likely it was because I’ve spent several late nights wide awake and coughing. Being sick can make you think weird things, but for some reason the following aphorism popped into my head…

There is a town called “Greenville” in every state. However, Tennessee is the only only one that spells it as “Greeneville.”

I don’t even remember where I heard that the first time. My first intent was to take this at face value and create a Google Earth KML file showing the location of each town called Greenville. (Did I mention that I’ve been sick lately?) That turned into a challenge to test the validity of this statement, and learn a bit more about Greenville, where ever it might be found.

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Rambling in Western Virginia

Posted on By Tom No Comments on Rambling in Western Virginia
Family, Rambling, Travel

Mabry Mill with Texture

After a successful wedding we had a couple of days to spend in Roanoke. I got no sleep because of coughing, but I still wanted to make the best of our mini-vacation.

We started with a fantastic breakfast at the hotel, then spent the rest of the morning helping Glynda recover. We got the wedding gifts and other paraphernalia packed away, and got her checked out of her hotel. I drove Aaron’s car, Glynda drove hers, and Laura drove our car up to the hotel where Houston and Lynda were staying, and we got together with them and Chip, Anna, and family for lunch.

Having just married off her daughter, Glynda was exhausted both physically and emotionally. She is normally one of our heartiest ramblers, but that wasn’t going to happen today. She stayed back at the hotel, while Houston, Lynda, Laura, and I set off to see what we could find.

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A Virginia Wedding

Posted on By Tom No Comments on A Virginia Wedding
Family

Katie and Aaron

This weekend Laura and I traveled to Virginia to see our niece, Katie, get married. Katie and Aaron had dated on and off for ten years, and had decided on was better than off, and decided to make it permanent.

We left Friday afternoon and drove part of the way up, spending the night on the road in North Carolina. I had been fighting a cold all week and coughing badly. I let Laura drive a good bit of the way, and it was a good thing we stopped for the night.

Saturday we drove on into Roanoke and checked into the Hotel Roanoke. My brother, Stephen tapped my shoulder as we were checking in, and we made plans for lunch.

Hotel Roanoke

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Back to School 2012

Posted on By Tom 2 Comments on Back to School 2012
EdTech, Miscellaneous

Aviary google-com Picture 1

And so it begins again. Students return on Monday. Our teachers were back last Monday. The summer is over and we’re getting back to the business of educating kids.

Not that summer has been a vacation for me. I’ve long ago left the cycle of having summers off. In fact, summer is typically my busiest time as we try to do upgrades on our systems. This summer was particularly busy because we tried to change/upgrade just about every technology system we have. It’s been a crazy time with late evenings, working on days that I would normally have off, and trying to conduct a three ring circus of vendors working on frantic deadlines to get everything ready before August 15.

Here’s a list of our projects this summer…

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Getting Religion on the Edisto

Posted on By Tom 1 Comment on Getting Religion on the Edisto
Paddling, Photography

Edisto River 2

The Current be with you.

And also with you.

May the waters of the Ashepoo, Combahee, and Edisto flow over you and bless you…

I’ve mentioned before how our Lowcountry Unfiltered core group tends to consist of guys with names of the disciples. On this latest trip to the Edisto River we noticed other religious aspects. While not a defined liturgy, we do have our own order of service, dictated by the nature of the paddling venue. There is The Gathering then The Launch. Instead of wine and wafers we take communion with beer and brats, and our preferred method of baptism is via rope swing. What happens in between tends to be more free-form Charismatic than Episcopal, with a touch of Calvinism thrown in for good measure.

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Two Libraries, Revisited

Posted on By Tom 4 Comments on Two Libraries, Revisited
Local

Taylors Library Branch

Back in 2010 I wrote a piece entitled “Two Libraries, Two Attitudes.” In that article I took the Greenville County Library to task for their Internet blocking policies. At the time they blocked lots of sites, such as Twitter and most blogs, because their Acceptable Use Policy stated that the computers couldn’t be used for chat. By extension, this included most forms of social media, including Facebook, Myspace, and other similar sites.

The other night one Brian Dykes, who apparently is an employee of the library, left a comment stating that the information in that post was now incorrect. The snarky tone of the comment aside, I decided to take Mr. Dykes up on his challenge, and revisit the library to see if they had, in fact, reformed their policies.

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