Update

Greetings, earthlings. Sorry I haven't posted for so long. Busy busy, I suppose.

Here are some of the things that have happened since I last posted...

• Family vacation to a cabin in the mountains near Saluda...
  
  
• On the first day of the vacation, did the Bakery Ride with Zach and Heath. Hit a muddy patch and crashed my "new" road bike. Bruised a rib and got a pancake-sized bruise on my hip. No pain, no gain.
  
  
• Every time I have laughed for the past few weeks, I have had to hold my rib to reduce the pain. But that looks ridiculous, and makes me laugh all the harder.
  
  
• Helped get Brandon and Megan packed up and sent off to their new home in Ohio. It is cool to see them following God's leading (but we'll miss them!!!).
  
  
• Got Zach packed up and sent off to NGU for his senior year. Cathy, you're my only bike buddy now...get that Townie dusted off!
  
  
• Went to Cherokee Bluegrass Festival this past Saturday with a friend. We've been going every year in August since 1994. Good stuff.
  
  
• Been watching a lot of Olympics lately. Likes: cycling, soccer, swimming, track events, sychronized diving. Dislikes: synchronized swimming (sorry, this has got to be the cheesiest sport ever).
  
  
• Cathy and I are digging Craigslist...sorta like eBay but MUCH more convenient. It's fun converting junk into cashola. Attic, here I come.
  
  
• We've been visiting First Baptist Simpsonville a lot lately. This church is doing a lot of things well, but in particular they have a thriving Sunday School. There are those who might turn their nose up at Sunday School as being old-fashioned, but to me it is an effective discipleship mechanism that guarantees that the majority of attendees are getting solid, deep, structured Bible teaching on a weekly basis. I realize now that I've really missed that.

Well, that's all for now. Hope to have more posts soon. Ciao.

Bikes

Ever since I was a punk kid, I have loved bicycles.

When I was a wee lad, in the early 1970s, the cool bike for young boys was a Schwinn Stingray, complete with banana seat, chopper-style handlebars, and knob gear shifter. But, Mom and Dad unfortunately were big Consumer Reports readers, and they deemed this design to be hazardous. So, the first bikes for David and I were matching Schwinn Typhoon coaster-brake single-speed bikes. They were red, and looked a lot like the one shown to the right. Kinda retro looking now, but definitely not what a kid wanted when Stingrays were all the rage...

When we got older, Mom and Dad upgraded us to matching copper-colored Schwinn Calientes (just like the green one shown). These were the classic, "10-speed" bikes, with front and rear derailleurs, drop handlebars, the whole nine yards. Despite the fact that the steel frame weighed probably 35 pounds (that's a lot), I put many a mile on my old Caliente before getting my driver's license. Back then, a bicycle represented freedom, my only means of getting more than a couple miles from home.

David and I used to enjoy riding on this rails to trails path, which went from Washington DC all the way to the Blue Ridge mountains, and passed through our hometown of Vienna Va.

Fast forward to adulthood. In 1988, when I moved to Greenville, I bought a blue/white Nishiki Prestige sport-touring 14-speed from Sunshine Cycle Shop on Pleasantburg Dr. This was my first truly decent bike. Although at the time I didn't know what "Tange 2 double-butted seamless Chro-Moly lugged frame" meant, the guy at the store told me it was a good frame. So I bought it, and put probably less than 50 miles on it in the first ten years I had it.

Around the year 2000, some guys at work introduced my to real "road riding". I bought a helmet, clipless pedals, "fruity bike clothes", and a bike computer. Since then, I have put over 1,000 miles on the ole Nishiki.

I also got into mountain biking somewhat, and bought a Trek 3700... I'll do another post sometime about my various mountain biking adventures...!

This year, my son Zach got into road riding, and bought a sweet steel-frame Lemond bike. This bike made me realize that my 20-yr old Nishiki, though a great bike, was getting a bit dated. So, after hunting around a bit on Craigslist, this week I bought a "new to me" road bike!

The new ride is a 2007 Felt F75. Check out the glowing review here. For you tech geeks: 58 cm aluminum frame with Wolf TT carbon aero fork, carbon seat stays, Ultegra rear derailleur, 105 front derailleur and brifters, Shimano 600 compact crank 175mm, Shimano R500 wheelset, 12-27 Ultegra cassette, Felt racing saddle.

[Reality check - I'm 200 pounds, so the lightweight nature of this bike would mean more if I were to drop a few pounds!]

Anyhow, rode it for the first time this morning with Zach, on a brief 10 mile loop. Survey says: awesome! The frame felt light and responsive, but not "stiff" as I feared it would compared to the forgiving steel frame of the ole Nishiki. And the biggest difference: fingertip shifting!!! Oh my, it will be hard to go back to downtube shifters...

So in summary, this has been a great cycling week for the family... Last week of the Tour de France, new bikes for Brian and Cathy (check out her new Townie!), and a great group ride with Sarah and Zach this morning.

Life is good!

Answers

OK, here are the answers to the Simpsonville SC historic architecture/buildings quiz!

Old building, corner of Main & Curtis
The Elegant Gourmet, corner of Church St. and College St.
Original First Baptist Simpsonville church building
Old gas station, now Teal Automotive
Woodside Mill chimney
Stone house across from First Baptist, on East Curtis St.
Woodside Mills baseball park, W. Curtis St.
Simpsonville Seniors Center, W. Curtis St.
Hunter House, College St.
Wade Fowler House, E. Curtis St.
Temple Baptist Church, W. Curtis St.
New First Baptist Simpsonville sancutary, Church St.
Three Generations Boutique, Main St.
Old Simpsonville Elementary school building
Old Simpsonville library, Academy St.
Cannon Memorial Chapel, W. Curtis St.
Old house, corner of W. Curtis St. and Maple St.
Old Burdette building, corner of Main St. and Curtis St.

Quiz

OK, today's blog is just for fun...

As you know, I like old houses, old buildings, architecture, and Simpsonville history. So, today I went all over Simpsonville, taking closeup photos of some historic Simpsonville buildings and structures.

So, see how many of these buildings you can recognize from the closeups!


(PS - True story: when I got back to our house, I got "detained" by one of Simpsonville's finest, who had received a phone complaint about some strange man riding around town on a bicycle, taking pictures! Guess they thought I might be a terrorist, ha!)

House

We love our house.

Ever since the early days of our marriage, Cathy and I knew we were "old house people". We're the type who slow down and gawk when driving through the old section of any town we travel through. And its why we are completely delighted with the 96-year old house we live in.

So today, I thought I'd give you a little history of our old house.

Our house was built by Wade Dexter Fowler. Wade was born on July 1, 1863, and grew up in Laurens County. He married Mamie Jones, but she died in 1899. At some point, he remarried, to Nannie Hunter Stewart. In 1911, he bought the plot of land on which our house sits. We assume, although we're not sure, that he built our house sometime shortly afterward.

From the old documents shown in this post, we know that Wade Fowler was the president of the Bank of Simpsonville, and also was president of Simpsonville Realty Co. When the Great Depression came, the Bank of Simpsonville went under. (The other bank in town, Farmer's Bank, was reportedly one of the few banks in the country that did not lose any money, and stayed open). Wade died on May 31, 1931. I always wonder if the stress of losing his bank (and all his clients' money) had anything to do with it!


Wade's second wife, Nannie, lived in the house as a widower until her death in 1949. I believe it was at that point the house went to the Todd family. Clara Mae "Macie" Todd lived in the house for the next 50+ years. Her nephew, Sammy Todd, lived with her in the 1990's. Sammy used to sit out on our front wraparound porch in his pajamas, waving to traffic (not sure why, but that was his thing!).

Macie passed away in Feb 2003 at the age of 87, leaving Sammy as the sole occupant of the house. Sammy had a medical condition which required him to wear an oxygen mask, but he also smoked cigarettes. One day, his cigarette ignited the oxygen line and blew up the tank. This started a fire, which was quickly put out by the Simpsonville Fire Department, whose fire station is about 500 feet from the house! Sammy survived the incident, but died a couple months later in the hospital (not sure if it was due to complications of smoke inhalation or not).

The house was bought by a Todd family member and her husband, who actually lived on Pliney Circle near the house where we raised the boys (and where Brandon and Megan are now!). This couple renovated the house to repair the smoke damage. This renovation included replacing the plumbing, wiring, heating and air conditioning, and windows. Some of the plaster walls were taken out and replaced with drywall, and others were patched. Instead of trying to clean the smoke and soot off the original beadboard ceiling, they put in new drywall ceilings throughout. On one side of the house, some walls were moved and reconfigured to make a master suite: bedroom, walk in closet (room), and master bathroom with attached laundry room. The original trim was re-installed, and the heart pine floors were refinished.

Before the house officially went on the market, we bought it from this couple, and have been continuing the renovations. I have tried to find out more information about Dr. Fowler (as he is sometimes listed in old documents), but it is certainly hard to find. Our neighbor, Frances Barnett, was kind enough to give us an old photograph of Wade and Nannie (and some other ladies) sitting on the back porch of the house. Since Wade died in 1931, I assume this picture was from the 1920s...

In any case, we are thankful that the Lord gives us so much more than we deserve. This is our "dream house", and we don't plan on moving again, unless the Lord has different plans!

CD

Woo hoo!

Big news this week. My band Last Road's CD project, which took most of the winter and spring, is finally done. This week, our first shipment of CD's arrived, hot off the presses from these guys in Nashville Tennessee!

Our new CD is called "Highway 81", and contains 13 original songs, all written by band members Benji Merritt and Dave Snyder. You can listen to some sound clips here.

Here's a summary of the tunes:

• Gospel tunes
• Get Away From Me
  
• There Is A Promised Land
  
• Did I Please You Today Lord
  
• This Thing Called Sin
• Set A Place At The Table
• Hard-charging bluegrass numbers
• Made In The Shade
• I Don't Like Cold Rain
• Grandpa's banjo
• Ansley
• Medium and slow tempo ballads
• One Foot In The Mill
• Bluegrass Broken Heart
• Knoxville
• Highway 81

We sent some promo copies of the CD to some bluegrass-friendly radio stations, including WNCW in Spindale NC. Every Saturday, for 8 straight hours, WNCW plays bluegrass music on their show, Going Across The Mountain. Today, they played at least 4 cuts from the CD on the show, about one per hour!!! I've been listening to this radio program since getting into bluegrass 15 years ago, and it was really cool to hear my own band getting airplay along side the "big bands" of the genre.

If you are of the bluegrass persuasion, and like traditional bluegrass with strong vocal harmonies and good songwriting, give our CD a shot. If you are interested in getting a copy, leave me a comment and I will get in touch with you.

I guess its true - hard work pays off!

Science?

Science!

For most people, that word brings back bad memories of stinky high school chemistry labs, impossibly difficult physics tests, and nerd-boys with taped horn-rimmed glasses. (For some people, like me, it actually reminds me more of a 1980's Thomas Dolby tune..."she blinded me....with science!" But I digress.)

I have a lot of respect for science, scientists, and the scientific process. Scientific breakthroughs are responsible for a great deal of the modern comforts we enjoy. Science helps us understand the huge world around us, and make sense of our physical world.

However, science has its limitations. Science, like anything else, is good at what its good at, and not very useful when used outside its limits. Wikipedia describes the scientific method this way:

Scientific method refers to the body of techniques for investigating phenomena, acquiring new knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge. It is based on gathering observable, empirical and measurable evidence subject to specific principles of reasoning.^[1] A scientific method consists of the collection of data through observation and experimentation, and the formulation and testing of hypotheses.^[2]

The key words there are observable and measurable. Science is your tool if you are wanting to measure the temperature at which Dr. Pepper boils, for example. Or the stress-strain curve for Silly Putty. Or the chemical composition of the plastic keys on my laptop. If it is measurable and repeatable, science can help you understand it.

However, science is NOT an appropriate tool for all areas of knowledge. For example, I love my wife, Cathy. I am 100% sure of this, and there is evidence to prove it (I hope!). However, there is no scientific method for measuring how much I love her. It is a real, emotional quantity, but science measures the physical not the emotional. In the same way, science cannot measure the spiritual (faith, hope, love) or the historical (origin of mankind, the world, etc).

This last point, using science to tell us about our historical distant past, is a great problem among scientists today. I believe that a lot of the work going on today that is passed off as "science" involves scientists attempting to use science to "prove" things it can never prove.

Take the evolution-creation debate. Believers in evolution claim that science is on their side, since a majority of scientists today believe the (ever-changing) theory of evolution to be "scientific fact". In fact, all we can do today is measure and study physical clues and phenomena (rock strata, levels of chemicals in the atmosphere, etc) and then make guesses (hypotheses) about what happened in the past to cause what we see today. Evolution and creation are two hypotheses about what happened long ago to cause the evidence we see and measure today.

For example, an evolutionist and a creationist look at the same data, say rock layers in the Grand Canyon, and each comes to a different conclusion. The evolutionist would say that these layers were deposited over many millions of years, very gradually. The creationist might argue that these layers were deposited suddenly, in a massive global weather event (flood, perhaps?). Same observations, different conclusions.

The reason two people can look at the same thing and come to radically different conclusions is based on their worldview. A worldview is like a lens through which you see the world; it colors everything you see, based on the lens. The evolutionist has a secular worldview: there is no God, there is no supernatural (only the natural), and so science can be used to explain everything. The creationist has a Biblical worldview: there is a God, He operates in both the natural and supernatural realms, science can be used to measure the natural world, but only God can open our eyes to see the supernatural world.

I read a news article the other day that really floored me. It was one of the best examples of sloppy, non-scientific "science" that I've seen in a long time. As in, "I believe X, and I'd like to prove X, so I'll set out to find evidence of X, I really think I'll find some...whoah, look, here's evidence of X!" But since this post is so long, I'll give you the details another day...

Peace out.