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Travel
To Infiniti And Beyond…
08 months ago
This round of car buying went much better than our last two. We’re fans of consumer reports and had become interested in the Infiniti G25x even before we drove it. But we spent a few exhausting weeks test driving everything on Greenville’s Motor Mile just to make sure it’s what we wanted. For some reason test driving cars is just exhausting. Eventually we had narrowed it down to a few cars, and then permanently settled on the Infiniti G25x. It’s a rear wheel drive sedan with automatic all wheel drive. There are, of course, a ton of other features. The car handles like a dream. We have yet to find anything with seats as nice as the leather we had in the MINI, but these are the closest we have come across.
Historically, we’ve been very stupid about these things – I will definitely not go into detail there. However, I will tell you the smarter things we did this time. I’ll start by saying our philosophy may be different than most. For starters, we share one car and have no interest in owning two cars. Since we own one car it needs to be very reliable. And I can’t imagine throwing down enough money to buy a car without it being something we will feel safe in and something we will enjoy driving.
Leave Room For Nature: The Georgia Guidestones
01 year ago
Georgia Guidestones : America's Stonehenge
I’ve wanted to see the Georgia Guidestones since I first heard of them years ago. If you’ve never heard of them, this is the gist of it. Elberton, Georgia is the granite capital of the world. An anonymous group of conservationists from outside the state commissioned the work under the pseudonym R.S. Christian, and it was erected on March 22 1980 at the highest point of Elbert County. The project involves a time capsule buried six feet underneath an explanatory tablet to the East of the guidestones and the guidestone monument itself, which is a made up of four upright granite slabs, a center column, and a captstone. The upright slabs and capstone hold 10 guiding statements for a better world, translated into multiple languages, both modern and ancient. Starting North, going clockwise, the languages are Hebrew, Sanskrit, Hindi, Chinese, Egyptian Hieroglyphs, Arabic, English, Babylonian Cuneiform, Russian, Swahili, Classical Greek, And Spanish.
Yellowstone Trip
01 year ago
The Grand Tetons
Maybe we’ve failed to post anything for 5 months or so, but we’ve actually been busy for a change 
We’ll try to post some updates over the next few days.
For starters, in late July we went for a 10 day trip to Jackson Hole WY, Grand Teton National Park, and Yellowstone National Park. The entire trip was extraordinary. The weather was 40 degrees cooler than the misery in South Carolina, and the sky there is huge. It’s a different planet. In all, the party totaled 10 people: my aunt and uncle, Will and I, my parents, my brother’s family, and my cousin and his wife.
The Secrets to a Successful Marriage
42 years ago
by Will
in Animals, Asthma, Cats, Health, Marriage, Multiple Sclerosis, NuVox, Telecommunications, Travel, Will & Sara, Work
Will & Sara at McPherson Park in Greenville, SC
As of today Sara and I have been married for 9 years! It’s been a long road and I can’t believe all of the things we’ve seen, said, and done. Some days I feel like we’ve always been together and others it feels like no time at all. One thing is for sure, I am the luckiest guy in the world.
On January, 19th 2001 we piled into Sara’s white 1991 Mitsubishi Montero with Ben Chabot and his then fiance Caitlin and drove to the Little Wedding Chapel in Easley, SC. I remember our family and friends packing into the woefully small chapel and laughing with us through the next 30 minutes of comedy gold.
Highlights:
- Meeting the minister minutes before the ceremony in his bright yellow plaid suit and matching bowtie; (un)fortunately(?) he wore a robe for the ceremony
- Sara’s mother thinking that her father had already, “given away the bride,” but not heard it as he is somewhat deaf and whispering very loudly while crouching and tugging on him to sit down
- Sara and I being forced to stand and bend uncomfortably over the kneeling bench we asked be removed several times. That’ll show them! We’ll stand and bend over you uncomfortably!
- The operatic rendition of the lords prayer with trademarked country twang played on a cassette deck that had the entire chapel in peals of laughter by the end
- My botching of my vows, “with this ring I be wed…,” WTF was I thinking?
- Being trapped with my Grandmother Byrd during the reception who I believe was still convinced that I was either gay or had impregnated Sara and was forced to marry her; I still cannot understand how these conflicting ideas can occupy the same place in anyone’s head…
- Sara being trapped during the reception with a mutual friend who had been gone all summer and was desperately in love with her
- Sara’s Dad is the spitting image of Norm Abrams. I’m not kidding. My Grandfather Wayne is quite the furniture builder and artist and was convinced we had no small celebrity on our hands and felt compelled to introduce himself and discuss his love of the New Yankee Workshop. Both men are slightly hard of hearing so the conversation went something like this:
Grandfather Wayne: “I’m Hugh, Will’s grandfather.”
Sara’s Dad: “No, I’m Sara’s dad, Jerry.”
Grandfather Wayne: “No, I’m Hugh, Will’s grandfather.”
Sara’s Dad: “No, I’m Sara’s dad, Jerry.”x20 or so until Sara walked up and straightened them out…
- Being pelted by birdseed so hard it left marks and Sara shaking birdseed out of her over styled hair for about a week after
- Leaving the wedding with Ben and his fiance to head home for champagne
- Champagne had been left in the freezer by someone and exploded into champagne slushy
- Going to Nick’s Tavern to drink with some friends when your freezer is full of champagne slushy
- Getting almost too drunk to consummate your marriage and finally managing it way too late above the heads of your best friend and his fiance who for some reason were spending the night
Welcome to Collier-Byrd.net
02 years ago
by Will
in Certification, Cisco, Education, Health, Juniper, Multiple Sclerosis, Networking, Travel, Website
Welcome to Collier-Byrd.net. Sara and I have been meaning for awhile to put up a web page to collect photos for family and write about our various interests but I can be a terrible perfectionist and spend way too much time getting something suitable before I ever (or never) get around to using it.
This time I’ve decided to try something different and put up a WordPress site, start posting, and we’ll work out the bugs as we go. I think we’ll actually get use out of the page this way and work on the non-content pieces when I have time.