Sal Spends a Lovely Fall Morning at UkeToberFest

On Sunday, October 19th, a bunch of intrepid Cleveland Jumping Fleas got together for the second annual UkeToberfest!  At last year's event our fingers were stiff from the cold, so this year we picked a location where we could have a fire.  Luckily one of our members is an experienced fire maker and made us a wonderful warm blaze. 

Thomas building the fire.  His efforts were greatly appreciated!

Fleas began to arrive, and to munch on doughnuts and drink coffee and cider.  After much pleasant conversation about ukuleles and all manner of other things, we took the traditional group photo with Sal. 

Sal hangin' with the Fleas in the beautiful East River Park in Olmsted Falls.

The traditional "silly" shot of the group. As usual, it's hard to tell which is the silly picture, and which is the serious one.  ;)

After the photo session, the Fleas gathered in the pavilion to play and sing.  There were a couple of individual and small group performances, but mostly the whole gang played and sang together.

The Fleas happily playing and singing.

The incorrigible banjo uke section.

Despite the chill in the air, a good time was had by all.  Looking forward to next year's UkeToberfest!

I've Been Hampered By a Railroad

Today the Cuyahoga Valley and West Shore Model Railroad Club held their Annual Spring Open House.  I thought this would be a perfect Sal photo op -- a chance to get some fun photos of a very small ukulele (Sal) with some very small trains!  So I bungie-chorded Sal's case to my bike and set off for the 5-minute ride to the re-purposed depot where the club meets. I was going to spend some time there with Sal and then continue riding to work.  Unfortunately, the universe had other plans...  There are train tracks between my house and the depot, and sometimes a train stops there for a very long time.  I suppose you know where I'm going with this.  A train was parked on the tracks.  I looked to the right -- the train was blocking the next street in that direction.  I looked to the left -- same sad story.  I waited for a couple of minutes, then decided to take some photos of the frustrating situation.  I parked the bike at what I thought was a good angle for a picture, got out the camera, stepped back, began to push the button, and CRASH -- the bike fell over!  (I had a suspicion this could happen, as the bike was parked on a slope leading up to the tracks.)  Luckily Sal was completely protected by her thickly padded case.   After waiting a bit longer, I realized I'd have to start the trek to work or risk being late.  So there was no Open House for Sal and I today.

The second action shot in Travels with Sal!  The falling bicycle!

Irony Alert!  Sal and I were prevented from seeing the model trains by a real train!  It stretched really far in both directions, making a bicycle go-around and an on-time arrival at work impossible.

As I rode home from work, I decided to stop at the depot -- even though the Open House was long over.  Sal and I will be returning -- there will be another Open House in December -- but I wanted to take pictures at the depot today, and doggone it, I did!  We couldn't go in to take photos with the model trains, but there were some interesting shots to be had outside.

Sal hanging out on the old caboose on the depot grounds.