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Fun
I currently reside in North Augusta, South Carolina which is just across the river from Augusta, Georgia. In the past, I have also lived in Aiken, Clemson, Charleston, and Greenville in South Carolina; as well as, Indianpolis, Indiana, and Charlotte, North Carolina. I have two Labrador Retrievers that take up a lot of my time, but they return it with love and devotion. Jack, my first Lab of almost 14 years, passed away in March, 2010. Ike and Harry are the two dogs I have now and they are a lot of fun and very mischievous.
Ike is an English Yellow Labrador Retriever and is a marathon swimmer and sleeper. Harry is a chocolate Lab that I took in as a foster dog. His previous owner was moving to Florida and could not take him along, so he did what any good dog owner would do, sentence him to the local animal shelter. I was contacted by a local Lab rescue group and asked if I could keep him for a few weeks, until a permanent home could be found for him. That was three years ago and he is still with me, I think he has found his permanent home.
My friends, Michael and Jo in Wrens, Georgia have a cabin and a pond on 200 acres and the dogs love going to visit there more than anything else. I also buried Jack there after he passed away. It is a place of peace and relaxation and I love spending time there. I also like spending time in Oregon. My friend and brother, Thom Wedge, is from Oregon, and I try to go out to visit he and his mom as often as I can. I feel very fortunate to have families on both coasts. I am also on a new Christian faith journey that began in Israel in July 2008 and will be posting more about my story and my 2008 trip to Israel in the future, so check back here for updates.
Politics and current events are things that I follow very closely and I am usually reading, listening to the news or to talk radio and try to stay very informed.
I write and maintain the website 787sc.com. It is a site dedicated to my love of commerical aviation and to help promote Boeing's massive investment in South Carolina.
I also love biking, hiking, dog walking and going to the gym and basically trying to stay as active as possible.
Travel
Travel is not something that I thought I would ever be able to do, but it was something that really held a lot of mystique for me. I always wanted to go to these far off places I had seen on TV or had read about. I grew up in the VERY small town of Williston, South Carolina and wanted to one day be able to fly on an airplane. I really did not care where, I just knew I wanted to fly and see something different. As a kid, my grandparents took myself and my sister camping very frequently, but it was always to Lake Marion in South Carolina. That was our pattern, so I never really thought I would travel very far outside of South Carolina. I did not make my first plane trip until I was a student at Clemson University and it was a bit of a ridiculous trip and an indulgence. I flew on US Air from Greenville, SC to Charlotte, NC and then changed planes and flew on to the far away destination of Myrtle Beach, SC. It was a stupid waste of money, but I finally was able fly on a plane.
I took a job after Clemson with a company called ACS, which is now owned by Jack Henry & Associates. It was a job installing teller systems in banks. I had already got it into my head that I would work in the banking industry, but the thing that appealed to me most about the job was the fact that I would be able to travel to community banks in locations all over the United States. My desire to travel soon turned into something that was a part of my daily existence.
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I kept a journel on what types of aircraft I flew on and the airports I had visited. Soon both lists were very long. I turned into a complete road warrior and suffered from many of the bad things that come along with that lifestyle. Too much eating, drinking and letting the job run my life, but on the bright side, I got to travel everywhere. I made it to places like Tokyo, Guam and Saipan, as well as just about every state in the Union. For someone who thought he would never get to fly on a plane, I certainly put that desire to rest.
In recent years, I have gotten to do a little more travel at a slower pace and have traveled to Israel and most all of western Europe. I also have many close friends in Denmark and have been there many times.
I still keep track of what kind of planes I fly on. My goal for many years was to fly on a Boeing 747 and I was able to do that a few times with British Airways and El Al. My new goal was to fly on the Airbus A380 double decker, super jumbo. In July 2010, I flew an Air France flight on the A380 from New York to Paris and it was great fun. The adventure continues.
Work
As I mentioned previously, I spent many years working in the banking industry installing software and guiding banks through conversions to new systems. It was fun in the beginning, but soon it was running my life, mentally, physically, and spiritually. I felt like I was on a carousel that I could never get off.
In recent years, through circumstances and necessity, I have left the banking world behind and have tried to work on things that are more creative and also things that I enjoy.
I have taught myself how to write apps for the iPhone and the iPad. I have starting writing a few apps and it has been a great experience to turn my love of Apple into something productive and creative. I am also working on building up a web hosting and web design business. Web design allows me to express myself creatively and it also gives me a chance to incorporate some of my photography, another passion of mine. There are links at the top of this page to photography, web design, video, and my iPhone apps where you will find more detail on the things I am working on.
I also will be adding a blog page to this site soon.