Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

Well, this was my week for seeing old guys.

I have to say the drive up to Greenville was fairly awful. I forgot that leaving Columbia on I-20/I-26 at 4:45 was not a good strategy and then it was rainy and misty the whole way and when I hit the road work near I-85, it was like they forgot to put lane markers on that stretch, or put them in with slate grey paint. Then I-385 ran out and the Greenville traffic jam started.

Anyway, it was a good thing that my ticket said 7:30 but the show didn't actually start until 8:30, or I would have missed the first hour..

Seger was in excellent voice, with no signs of the medical issues that postponed this concert from the start of the year. He has one of the best catalogs in rock, and he had the audience rapt from the first song ("Old Time Rock & Roll") through the last brauva performanc of "Rock & Roll Never Forgets" (which I missed capturing due to battery issues). This is his last tour, and if you can catch a show somewhere, you definitely should!

It may be a long long while from May to December, but with January, we get a whole new year to make a new start. Why not welcome 2019 with a Pawleys Island wall callendar? You can get this year's Sunset Theme here:

or look at all 15 available designs here.

After not being able to go last year due to scheduling issues, I was afraid that this year would be a bust as well, since it had rained all day Friday, and was just starting to drizzle again as we pulled into the Gardens. Fortunately, that quickly petered out, and the rest of the night was rain free (though the ground was saturated as I found to my squishy discomfort a few times I steppted off the paths).

The basics of the festival stay the same year after year: Lights in a garden full of beautiful trees and sculpture, but they change it up a bit for each new edition. In particular, this year the boat full of glass balls was new as was the Hogwarts train setting.

I learned something interesting about taking pictures of LED Christmas lights: Even though these are not "blinking" lights, if you push your shutter speed high enough, you may well catch the instant when they are off. This did not happen with the old incandescent bulbs. I'm not sure exactly what the mechanism is. I would have said they go on and off 60 times a second with the AC frequency, but clearly in some pictures one strand is off and another is not.

One thing the preceding days of rain did do was keep the temperature at a comfortable level. There have been years where I could barely work the camera because my fingers were numb, but not this year!

There are two days of the lights left: Saturday 22 December & Sunday 23 December. If you are in the area, you definitely should go. Tickets are at https://www.brookgreen.org/.

(If I get the time, I may go back and add some videos of the train setups).

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Longtime Fort Jackson Boulevard staple Julia's German Stammitisch has moved from the old motel behind Cross Hill Market and to Sparkleberry Crossing in the old Za's location.

The State has the details, which include the fact that the Fort Jackson Boulevard space will be occupied by Moctezumas Taqueria which is moving from 506 Beltline Boulevard.

Schnitzel on!

(Hat tip to commenter Jimmy)