Fall Bike Ride And Veterans Day

A late afternoon ride to a big park in Lombard. They have a nice playground, pool with water slide, disc golfcourse, sledding hill, lots of open space, and a Veterans memorial.

I moved my music related stuff into the newly painted sun room/music room at the front of the house. We have been here for twenty one years and this room has languished as we never decided what to do with it. Last week I pulled everything of the room and called Todd and asked him if his pai ters cou,d strip wallpaper and paint the room. Lee put up crown molding and it was done all for about $1,200. It looks nice and the acoustics are wonderful.

Sunshine and Ukulele Acquisition Syndrome

 

I woke up this morning to sunshine after a few dreary days. It does change and improve my attitude to see sun. This really is one of my issues with Chicago in the winter time - clouds. I can deal with cold better if there is sun to go along with it. I just looked up the stats. On average Chicago gets 189 days a year that are sunny or partly sunny. The numbers are the worst from October through April where Chicago sees sun less than 50% of the time and some months about 30%. Looking at Denver for comparison, it sees the sun 245 days a year. Their worst month is February but even then they have sun over 50% of the month. We are planning two months in Denver in 2016, I'll compare the sun and temperatures and snowfall and report back!

Ukulele Acquisition Syndrome is closely related to Guitar Acquisition Syndrome or Gear Acquisition Syndrome. According to Wikipedia:

Gear Acquisition Syndrome (sometimes Guitar Acquisition Syndrome, both abbreviated to GAS) is a term used to describe an urge to acquire and accumulate lots of gear. This term commonly associated with:

Guitarists (tend to acquire guitars, guitar amplifiers, pedals, effects processors)

Keyboard / synth players (tend to acquire keyboards, synthesizers, samplers, effects units, etc)

Drummers(various drums, percussion, drumsticks)

Audiophiles (amplifiers, headphones, speakers, etc)

Photographers (cameras and its parts - bodies, lens, mounts, filters, flash, etc.)

Bike accessories (racks, lights, fenders, etc.)

The term "GAS" was coined by Walter Becker in 1996 in his article G.A.S. in Guitar Player[1] as "Guitar Acquisition Syndrome". The term started to be frequently used by guitarists and spread out to other musicians who were familiar with similar tendencies. As it no longer concerns guitars only, GAS is now commonly backronym

GAS shouldn't be confused with collection.

I must be serially afflicted because I see in this definition my behavior as it relates to photography, biking, and ukuleles. I also realize I suffer from Information Acquisition Syndrome.

My basement is full of photo equipment dating back to about 1972 and I promise I will wade through it and only keep what I need. My bike has everything it needs, but I can always use new bike shorts or shoes and why not a mountain bike while I am at it? Ukuleles? I've got five and I think I am satisfied. Two sopranos, one koa from Ko'aloha and one plastic from Outdoor Ukulele. Two concerts, a travel Kala and one for home a beautiful Ohana. One tenor from Mainland Ukuleles with a big sound and a low G. Related is the kazoo and the keyboard and a few gadgets and lots of books!

I admit I have a problem. But, the next ukulele is always beautiful or sounds wonderful or.... I can justify all of them, except probably the first one I bought and the last one I bought. My only disappointment is the plastic one from Outdoor Ukulele with a buzzing C string that won't go away.

I suppose this syndrome applies to wine, and cookbooks, and travel, and power tools, and bourbon. I am in trouble.

 

Austin

Sharon and I are climbing out of Austin piloted by Captain Dave. We came in Saturday afternoon and have had a wonderful visit with old friends since our arrival.

 

We stayed with Deborah and Duane Campbell in Pflugerville. It has been years since our last visit. I drove through here in 1996 or 1997 on my way from visiting my father in Houston. That would be 18 or 19 years ago. Neither us remember. I do know that I flew in and out once before through Austin Bergstrom Airport. I do know that Austin has grown and changed tremendously since I was last here. In one regard I feel they paved paradise and built, not a parking lot, but miles of tollway. The concrete contractors have made out like champs.

As we were approaching Austin on Saturday I was getting nostalgic about Austin, central Texas, and the hill country and wondering why I didn't want to move back here. I've got generations of ties to Austin and Texas. Now I think it is a great place to visit but I don't need to live here again.

On Sunday Sharon and went exploring from Pflugerville, up through Hutto then Taylor and then toward Georgetown and then into Round Rock where we ate brisket and beef ribs at Salt Lick. I had wanted to go to Louis Mueller's in Taylor but they were closed on Sunday. Taylor is looking sad, progress has passed it by. Round Rock is booming and mostly unrecognizable, but I did manage to drive down Chisholm Trail and across Brushy Creek where we got a glimpse of the round rock. Between the heat and the dryness we remembered why we live in Glen Ellyn rather than Austin. In the evening we drove to south Austin to Strange Brew for an evening of music from Trout Fishing in America and Dana Louise and the Glorious Birds. We all had a great time.

 

Monday saw us taking it easy. Sharon did some work and we went shopping with Deborah. Sharon and I drove to Beverly and Rebecca's home in the afternoon for a very nice visit and catching up with each other's lives.

Tuesday. Sharon spent much of her day working. Me? Reading. Sharon made an awesome cheese cake while Deborah made charro beans and rice and we headed back to Beverly and Rebecca's. Pete and Audry Deckinga joined us and we had a marvelous time taliking and dining and drinking. Rebecca introduced us to Miracle Seeds. Ever tried them? Quite an experience with changing taste buds.

Wednesday and departure day. Sharon and I went shopping. This time to Burnet Road and Karavel shoes where I got some Clark Waves and some orthopedic inserts. I turned it over to a sales person there and she seemed to know what she was doing. I feel these should be comfortable to work in. We shall see. Our next stop was at Fiddler's Green to shop ukuleles. Wow! They have a great selection of many stringed instruments. I now have a new one, an Ohana concert ukulele with a solid cedar top and rosewood body and it sounds great.Thankyou Sharon.

Caught Me!

Sharon commented the other day that I had not blogged in a while. My reply, "Yep, not since October 6th." I am past due.

Random thoughts. This summer has been the best for my pond. The water lillies have bloomed more than in the past and have produced more leave. Also, the balance in the water between nutrients and waster, and bacteria, and plants, and fish must have been just right. I have not had to clean the filter as much as usual and have had little or no algae. Everything just kind of came together. Next spring I will learn if and baby goldfish survived their parents appetites.

The house and yard are another matter. I was on top of the yard through the spring and early summer but slowly let it get the best of me. I suppose I just do not enjoy yard work as I once did. (Did I ever?) There are also house projects that have languished. I am back to doing laminate right now and hope to finish the laundry room in a couple of weeks. Perhaps then I can take on the front room. In the meantime, there are winter preparations to do - putting down the storm windows, checking gutters, pondering the state of the chimney, firing up the snow blower and moving everything around in the garage.

I've been practicing the ukulele quite a bit but, I have not been good at practicing my singing. Shame on me. I do better singing in the car, perhaps I should drive more so that I can sing more. I got my old clarinet refurbed. My mother bought it for me in 1960. We went to a music store in downtown Houston to pick it out. I can still play - but it will take me a while to get up to speed and beyond just scales. A Benny Goodman I am not.

On the neuropathy front, I had been improving quite a bit but for the last few days. My fingers are really bothering me and my feet are not far behind. My new symptoms of soreness in my arms is bothersome also. The soreness is in the muscles and tendons above and bellow my elbows. Melody, my Naturopath recommended castor oil wraps and heat. Have I done it? No. I do have the castor oil so I am part way there, and I did get out the heating pad this evening.