2010- 500 Most Interesting Photos

Kristin at our Thursday night family Christmas get together, always held Christmas Eve Eve.

Taken at a family Christmas gathering. (photo by A.L.Garrett)

Old stretch of US Highway 178 between Liberty and Anderson, SC. Many accidents occurred along that old stretch of road and deep curve in the backwaters of Lake Hartwell- some of them fatal. They finally got around to re-routing the road to go above the Lake. This is the same curve where a car of Clemson students left the road and died when I was a kid. (So, let's see- 35-40 years later they finally fix it?) The area is growing up rapidly, but the bridge remains showing the old road path.

Overseeing people at 18 different locations scattered across the country can be quite a challenge, but with the right tools and a little "encouragement," employees can be motivated to work, even while the boss isn't looking. I use various remote management tools for monitoring my employees, but I continued to view logs showing me that some employees were "cheating" and going to social sites for hours at a time, when they were supposed to be working. With a little creativity, I came up with this, which displays on their computer if they try to go to certain non-work related sites while they are supposed to be working. It sounds a horn at their location, and it sends me the ip address of the offender. The odd thing I discovered is that the employees most subject to "goof off" were the ones who whined at the end of the week that they didn't have enough time to get all their work done (even though they were granted the same amount of time as everyone else). This picture, along with the words above, stopped all problems with the offenders. I only wish I'd thought of it sooner. :) (thinking of this picture because I get requests for it every Halloween)

Kolton is distracted by anything and everything at the mall. When he starts walking, we'll be running to keep up with him. Kolton and Kristin.

Divorce is seldom easy for a child, and if anyone ever tries to tell you otherwise, don't believe it. Taken shortly after Kristin's mom and I divorced. Kristin would cry and cling to me when it was time for me to get ready for work, begging me not to leave, terrified that I might not return, and making me promise to come back. It was a very difficult time- for both of us. So many times I wished I could have taken her place to protect her from going through this pain. (A good parent would gladly do anything possible to protect his/her child from being hurt this way, if only it were possible.) Eventually, Kristin overcame her separation anxiety and fear, and things got better, but this is a chapter of our lives that we still rarely talk about. I'm glad that happier times were ahead for both of us. (1994)

July 4, 2010, taken at church, just before the service began. I portrayed Thomas Jefferson, writing down his thoughts in draft form as principal author of the Declaration of Independence. In researching the part, I was amazed at how overtly religious the Founding Fathers were. That's not what they teach in Public Schools today. I'm not quite dressed here, but this is basically the way I appeared on stage, minus the smile. I managed to keep a solemn, studious, thoughtful look throughout the entire production and service. (Maybe Jefferson should have had a beard that matched his hair, or vice versa. lol) For those not familiar with American historical figures, such as Jefferson, this may help: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Jefferson