My Cannondales stable of bikes

I never have taken a picture of all three of my Cannondales which I enjoy riding so much. I got them out of the garage and set them up in front of my house and here they are.

The first bike on the left is a Cannondale full suspension Jeckle 800 Mountain Bike. It built like a tank and can run over about anything that can be found on a rugged Mountain trail. I don't ride this bike much anymore as with my handicap left leg I just can't ride the bike as it was meant to be ridden.

The Bike in the Middle is my first Cannodale that I bought back in 1994. I rebuilt it in 2005 and converted it into a touring bike with European butterfly handlebars that I really like. It cost about as much to convert it as it would have if I bought a new one. The only thing orginal on it is the frame and brakes. This bike is fun to ride and I ride it a lot as it so comfortable to ride. However it is a few miles slower under most circumstance than my road bike on the right end. I injured my leg while I was in the process of rebuilding so I have not ridden it on any tours. May not ever get the chance to do now.

The red bike on the right end is my Cannodale R 2000 Road Racing bike and it is fast. I have ridden it on many bike tours in 15 states. The first year (2005) I did about 6,000 miles on it before getting injured,(not on the bike)I guess you can say this is my favorite bike as it like driving a sport car and handles real well. Although it is a racing bike similar or just like the Cannondales they used in the Tour De France I use it only for touring. I admit in some tours I did enjoy racing some with other that I was with on the tours. I won some and lost some.

It been almost four years since my accident that shatter my left leg and left me unable to ride a bike as good as I once did. Although my injury did not stop me from riding my bikes I can't ride none of them nearly as well as I once did. I have moved to a new home where the roads are hilly as heck and these is really testing me on the bike. I have never been good on hills but I can't avoid them now. The bad things is I can't stand on the pedals anymore to get that extra boast going up hill. Having to set down all the way up a hill now make going uphill extra hard but I am doing it.

The Cannodale Jeckle has hardly been ridden since 2005 and I guess I might as well sell it as I can't ride it the way is was meant to be ridden.

A nostaglia bike ride this past weekend

Last weekend I took a nostagic bike ride around the neigborhood I grew up in back in the 1950s and 60s. The picture here is what by today standards could have been called a mall. It had a country store, barber shop, beauty shop, a clothing shop and not sure what else. It was in the barber shop that I got my first hair cut as I was preparing start in the third grade of school in 1950 . The Barber shop was called McManus Barber shop and is where I got all my hair cuts until I moved away in the late 1960s.

This picture is right beside the mall so to speak is where the McManuses Lived. This is also where I had my first motorcycle accident racing to beat my wife back home. I would guess this was back in around 1965. A little boy ran out in front of my and to keepfrom hitting I had to put the brakes on real hard to try to miss him. I got stopped in time but I also fell over and spit my left arm through the joint. Long time in healing.

This is the home I grew up in. I lived there from 1948 to 1962 with my family. It was a little crowded at times.

In 1962 I got married and left the nest. This is a recent picture and it looks like the house is not lived in anymore. Not much has changed except that the lot is getting over grown with trees and shrubs.

The picture below is of a very old oak tree, It is located just behind the house I grew up in. I climb this tree hundreds of times. At the very top of the tree I could see the town of Lancaster which was about 2 miles away. I once was hanging from a limb upside down about 25 feet off the ground and fainted. I woke up lying on the ground but was not hurt, miracles do happen.

This my favorite tree and I wish I could buy it and move it to where I live now. The home I am living now is about six miles away.

This is a picture of Lynwood Methodist church that I attended when I live on Lynwood Drive. It was in walking distance of our house.
Since moving back to Lancaster last year I have attended this church several times. My wife and I plan on splitting time going to this church and to the church she attend in Elgin when she growing up in Lancaster. This churh still looks pretty much the same as it back in the old days.

This is Lynwood Drive, the road that led into town. The Town is about 2 miles away at this point. I have ridden this road probably thousand of times on my bike while growing up. I have enjoyed the bicycle ride around my old home place and riding this road again was a real treat. I think the last time I rode a bicycle on this road was back in 1959. A lot of teenager to day have there own cars now but back thenI had only a bicycle to get where I wanted to go.

This was a very nostagic bicyle ride that brought back a lot of memories. I continued on riding my back to town on the very road picture above which is two miles from the point I took this picture from.

Now comes the bad part about my nostagic byclce ride. As I rode though the town I turn by the old courthouse and then BANG, I ran over some debri and got a nail in my back tire which went flat as a pancake. It usually only takes a few minutes to fix a flat but in this case a few minutes was not in the cards. I use a CO2 bicycle inflator to pump the tire back up. The inflator malfunction and I was only able to get about 25 pounds of air pressure in the tire. These narrow tires need 120 pounds of pressure. Lancaster does not have a bike store anywhere that I am aware of and I sure did not look forward to walking home. I can't go to a service station as the valve on my inner tube are presta valves and no service station has a pump that can pump up a tire using presta valves.

I knew of no one that I could call for help on my cell phone so I reluctantly decided to try and ride my bike bike home which was 8 miles away.

I was sure it would only be a matter of time beforeI had a blow out. I rode very slow to avoid a pinch flat and I did make it back home safely without having another flat,

Bad thing about riding by myself is I know no one in lancaster to call to help me if I get into trouble. Be glad when we sell our home in Charleston so My wife can finally get up here for good.

Bicycling across Kansas

This week the bicycle ride across Kansas it taking place. In June of 2005 I did this bike tour and love and hated it. It was the most grueling long distance bike ride I had ever done.
The last four days of it was all hills and bad weather. I wasn't used to riding up and down steephills one after another and rains and wind was horrible along with lighting, hailstorms and whatever you can imagine..

In spite of the exhaustion that I experience particularly on the last day I still want to do this bike tour again. In spite of my leg handicapped I believe I could do it if I train for it. For now I will have to be contend to read about the good times everyone is experiencing this year.

Kansas is mostly flat in the west part of the state but the easter half is nothing but long steep hills. It is thrill going down them sometimes reachingf 55 miles but uphill I sometimes was as slow as 5 miles hour, just barely fast enough to keep my bike upright. although I have done a lot of bicycle tours in about 15 states this one is probably my most memorable one as is tested me to the limits of my abilites. It ain't easy for this old man in his sixties to ride 600 miles in little over a week not counting 200 or so miles I rode the previous week.

I sure like to do some more tours and plan on trying some once I sale my home in Charleston and my wife joins me living in Lancaster full time again.

The pictures make it look like the weather was always good. Goes to show you pictures can be deceiving. Well we did have good weather for the first few days but after that it was terrible. Temperatures was as low as 50 degrees to a high of 105 degrees.

Riding around the city of Lancaster SC

Last Saturday I did another bike tour of Lancaster. I like riding around the places I used to ride back in my early teens. I also rode my bike around what is left of the Old Cotton mill which most of it has now been torn down. The Late Leroy Sprngs who built the orginal mill and is said to be still be buried under where the old clock tower stood. If he is still there he cover by a lot of old bricks that have been left by the destruction of the tower and cotton mill. Grave is not marked and probably it best that it isn't for now but I do hope sometme in the future it can be marked if they ever make a park where the old mill stood as Lancaster is supposed to do.
My bike computer did not work so I have no idea what the distance was that I cycle but it was enough. I took a few pictures while riding around the old mill and the town.

Mac's Grill use to be here and I ate a lot of hambugers there. The best there was. Bicycle in picture is just one of the bike's I have and ride.

Renovation of the old courthouse is starting to look good now

The Guard Shack leading into the old Cotton Mill. Past by the way many times going to work there.

Notches cut into tree by mill workers I presume. Don't know why.

Been extremely busy since weather has turn warm.

I just realized it been a while since I made my last post. When the weather turn nice I started working outdoors putting in fruit trees, flowers and planting grass where I always had mud when it rain. I was just bursting out all over with work plans in the yard and just havn't had time for anything else.

I also took my first train ride on the L&C railroad and enjoyed that a lot.

I still have a lot to do in the yard and that is eating in to my computer time which I really need to spend less time on anyway. I hope everyone is enjoying themselve now that it is turn warm

My woodturning art reception

Last thursday I had my reception for my art work at the springs house in lancaster SC. I was very apprenhsive about the turnout for it. The turnout was great and so I have to say the reception was a huge suscess for me. I was very pleased how everyone responded about my woodturnings.

Now that it is over I need a rest. Now instead of trying to create enough work to put in my art show I can concentrate more on the artistist work to my woodturnings and not on how much I make. Not that I neglected the artist work but I don't like working under pressure meeting a deadline.

My work will still be on display for all of April at the Springs art council.

Today is a very special day for me. It is my birthday but also it is the day of the start of my woodturning show in Lancaster SC. The reception starts at 5:30 Pm today. I will have on display my work at the Springs house in Lancaster for all of this month.

I have done some shows and demostration before so this is not exactly new to me so what is so special about this show.

Well for one I have never done a show in my home town of Lancaster. This is not just showing my work before strangers but it showing it to my friends and family most of which have never seen my art work. I wonder how they will react to my being a artist or maybe attempting to be a artist is a better word. Will they think I am good or not? Of course I know I am good but the question is what will they think?

The Idea of doing a show in my hometown of Lancaster started three and half years ago. when if first came up it was just after I injured my leg bad. I though then I would never be able to turn again so doing a show as for as I was concern could never happen. I was cripple and the pain my leg was so bad that my life center around my leg.

Well mircalously I have been able to start turning again and for the past six month or so I have been busy making new work to put in the show. I just hope it they will be well received and my reputation as a turner will be enhanced in my hometown. Lancaster will become my home again and will be center for doing my art work instead of Charleston.

I am also hoping that this show will give me a big boast in reestablishing myself as a premier art turner that I had lost due to my injury and inabilty to turn wood for so long.

Although my blogger is intended to show mostly my photography and woodturnng I like to occassionally add a little about my bicycling since it is my favorite sport.

For the past few days I have been to Charleston and had the chance to make my first bicycle ride for 2009 and I hope it just the start of many more bike rides. I have a home on James Island near the ocean and that is usually my starting point for a bicycle tour. I have ridden on James Island and Folly Beach hundreds of time but it been a while since I last done that. This weekend it was like riding it for the first time. The weather was beautiful but just teasy bit cool especially riding on the beach.

In all I rode 42 miles in three days which I used to ride the same distance in about 2 1/2 hours. Well I am not as good as I was once plus I am terribly out of shape. Riding my bike did make me feel a lot better more like I used to feel.

I also rode on the West Ashley Greenway for the first time in about two or three years. It is a old railroad bed turn into a walking and bike path. It will be part of the East Coast Greenway bicycle path that will run from Maine to Florida. I had hope to ride it all the way one day but that is not likely to happen now. I should be thankful that I can ride a bicycle at all now because of my injury to my leg back in 2005. This put a end to m active life style but I am trying to recover some of it back.

Today I going to attempt to ride my bicycle downtown Lancaster on part of what was my paper route back when I was a teenager. This will be the first time since I rode a bike downtown since around 1958 or 59. I know I can't ride the entire route as I can't even remember where all my route went.

I hope to publish more stories about my future in cycling.

Three woodturning that I have just finished

Cherry Fluted Bowl
Competed March 2009
Aproximately 10 inches diameter by 4 inches high.



































These are two pieces that I just finish. They are made out of spalted Elm and Walnut Trim.





I have done several pieces like this in the past few years. One is very similar to one that I saw on the web or it is similar to mind. I Don't know which. However not sure I will sell either piece but just used them for display and perhaps take orders for pieces like them with some minor changes.

Well it getting closer to my art show in April. It is to run for the entire month of April. The reception will be on April 2, 2009 which happens to be on my birthday. Maybe that is a good sign.

I do not know the time the reception starts. Hope to find out that soon and then I will post it.

The show will be at the Springs Art Council building at 201 W. Gay Street in Lancaster SC 29720. Their web page address is as follows.

http://www.lccarts.org/contact.htm

Everyone reading my blog is invited to attend. Hope their will be a good turn out to see my work.

A visit from some new friends

Last week was one of the best I have had while staying alone in Lancaster. I went out twice to eat out with some very dear high school classmates. To add to this yesterday I got a surprise visit from some wood Carvers out of Charlotte, Spartanburg and a little town called Silver Street near Newberry SC. I have never met any of them before not even online with the exception of one person who happens to be a good friend of mine.

They had heard about me from my friend that lives In Silver Street and had seen pictures my works on my blogs. So they came to my home to show me some woodcarving tricks that I had mention in my blogging that I wanted to learn to do. I am very interested in doing more woodcarving to my woodturnings. The really big difference between wood carving and woodturning is that the wood is revolving it is being carved out and wood carving the wood is stationary and uses different tools to cut the wood with.

I ended up doing some woodturning demonstration for them and we got to do a little woodcarving. These were a great group of guys and we intend on doing this again in March but this time it will be a planned event and I will be better prepared.

I forgot to take any pictures so I don't have any to post.

It snowed today where I live. I was going to start back woodturning today but I took a snow day off. Maybe tomorrow I will get back to turning.

These are pictures of my home and studio where I do my woodturnng. It great to live out in the country.

Photography a subject I enjoy yaking about

Photography is a subject that is of great interest to me, I love photography. I just read somewhere on the internet where someone cited that a well know celebrity was aloof. I am not going to say who that was because it really doesn’t matter. It did remind me of the time I spent in the summer of 1975 at the Maine Photographic workshop while I was taking some photography courses there.

The Maine Photographic workshops always have some of the best photographer’s instructors and that is why I went there. While there talking some courses in photography I was invited to eat lunch with one of the instructors along with a couple more students. This particular instructor was not one of my instructors and I never heard of him. We had lunch over several days together and I really enjoyed those times. Later I was invited to see his photographic works and his photography blew me to pieces. His photographs were exceptional and I thought to myself this guy should be famous for his works deserves it. His name was Arnold Newman and he indeed was famous as a photographer, I just didn’t know it.

One of the other students that I had become friends told me Arnold had commented that I seemed to be aloof. I wondered if that was supposed to be a compliment or what but did not think anymore of it until recently. That is were this story comes in. I look up in the dictionary what the meaning “Aloof” meant. I not so sure now that Arnold was paying me compliment. The definition of aloof is as follows: “chilly, distant, remote, reserved, standoffish, unapproachable, uncommunicative and disinterested. I have never though of myself being that way. I must admit that until I get to know a person better I am often times quiet until I feel comfortable with him or her. I don’t remember if I was that way back then but I can’t believe I was but for him to say that I must have been.

I started to wonder more about him and did some research on the internet about him last week. He is without question a very famous and well known photographer a lot more than I knew back in 1975. He died in June of 2006 at the age of 88. He was well known for his portraits of famous people. He was quoted as saying that he did not like photographing celebrities which is sort of ironic as he was sort of a celebrity himself.

In all the years since 1975 I never heard a lot about him and until now I just didn’t know of his fame as a photographer. His photographic works however did inspire me to learn how to be good at photography. I later open my own studio up for a time. Life however led me to pursue other interest which led me to moving to the coast and to live my dream of sailing my sailboat cruising on the east coast. I did a lot sailing doing things that I thought was to daring for me to ever do.

I am glad in some ways that I did not know who Arnold Newman was when I was in Maine back in 1975. I got to know him as just another human being who gets into his pants the same way I do who happened to be very good at photography.

I went on to study photography from other well known photographers. Some of them were Rock Gunn, Bill Stockwell who were exceptional famous wedding photographers, Peter Gowland , a famous glamour photographer to name a few. Rock Gunn and Bill Stockwell has since past away. I took courses from other famous photographers but I having a senior moment as I type this and can’t remember there names.

I never made it into the big time of photography but I did succeed in accomplishing a lot of what I love doing in photography and had my own studio until the call of sailing took me away from it.

Storms Clouds over the Horizon

Well this is my first post for 2009 and I hope as I am sure most of us do that this year will be the turn around we all are wishing and praying for.

Last night while I took my two TT's (Tibeten Terriers) for awalk I saw the most beautiful sunset that I seen in a long time. These clouds was marching by much like soldiers marching in a parade.

I was mesmerized by watching them when I realize that I should take some picture of them. By the time I got my camera and got setup I had miss the best of the lighting as the sun had set to low in the sky. I was only able to get a couple of shots before the colors in the clouds was lost. Anyway this picture gave me a good reason to make my fist post.

I have not done any woodturning now for about three weeks because of Christmas and New Year break that I took. I think today I will start back to work and start making more turning for my April woodturning art show in Lancaster.

There will be times when you will be in the field without a camera. And, you will see the most glorious sunset or the most beautiful scene that you have ever witnessed. Don't be bitter because you can't record it. Sit down, drink it in, and enjoy it for what it is! ~DeGriff

Swapping Art and work in progress

Picture at left is a vase that I am working on. It not finished but I thought I would go ahead a post it. In this picture I have it mounted in wood chuck jaws on my lathe putting a finish on it.

I am making this for a artist friend I met a few years ago on another blogging site I have and we became friends. She is also a avid bicyclist which makes her really special. Cyclist are special people you know and when they are a talented artist as well you can't beat that excluding me. I am not special and never have been.

A few weeks ago she send me a message about getting one of my woodturnings. I made a deal with her that if she painted a special picture I had in my mine I would make a vase for her in exchange for making her vase. She wants to use it to put her brushes in that she paints with.

This picture below is taken just after I took it off lathe and before I started to putting a finish on it. I will post the completed vase as soon as it is done.

The story about the picture she is painting for me is on myspace blog if you like to read it. The address is

http://www.myspace.com/sandlapperadventures

I will also post the picture she paints for me and give her full credit for doing it. You may want one of her paintings, she is good.

Added 1/12/2010
This deal never went through. I completed my part of the arrangement but the artist that was gong to paint my picture did not do her part. I received a number of emails on different occasions from her stating she was going to start on my painting soon but soon never happen. I wish she justwould have told me she wasn't going to do it. I could have sold this vase several times but kept it out of my inventory just for her but that is no more.









Another vase in the making. I have it mounted on the lathe using a steady rest so I can remove the wood from inside of the vase.

I will be trying to use new techniques in making this vase. I hope I can do them right and not screw the vase up. Will take me time doing them. Be next year before i finish this vase. That is right around the corner you know. Got to slow down now for Christmas, family is coming and I am not allowed to do any turning after they

arrived.



This is the finish vase from above. I didn't do all the details to it that I intended. I felt that to do this may ruin it so I changed the design slightly in a direction that I was more comfortable with.

Althought I started this piece last December it represents my first finish piece for 2009. Yepee.

I also got a small studio setup to photograph my work. This is also the first time I used it to take pictures of my work. I still have to modify it some to get the results I am after.