On the Lawn at the Elks Club

 

This evening right after work I got a haircut, then Travalon and I went to the Elks Club for their monthly Irish session, only this time it was out on the lawn. They had been hoping to do this for the last few sessions, but it was always bad weather. Tonight, however, was perfect. We sat with some Shamrock Club buddies and listened to the music as the group of musicians ballooned to two dozen. Two even came on a boat! Since Travalon and I got there late, we had to sit with our backs to the lake, but we could see it reflected in the windows of the club. The red-headed flute player was there, and she came and talked to us a couple of times, and another fiddler also talked to me, someone I know from Moldy Jam. The really good mandolin player even offered to let me play his mandolin, but I'd rather play the fiddle at a session. I knew a lot of the tunes they played tonight, and the flute player said all day at work she was thinking about what tunes she would start. Just today I read an article that said those exercise programs for your brain don't actually do much to stave off senility, but what does work is playing music, learning foreign languages, walking, and learning new skills (like, say, Brazilian drumming?). So it sounds like I'm doing everything right, for once.

As we left, we saw a beautiful sunset.

Then on the way home we saw a train about to cross Commercial Avenue, so we pulled into a parking lot and watched it. I took some photos of graffiti, but it was kind of dark so not all of them turned out. Here are a few that did.

The engineer waved at me as he passed by. Then the train stopped, waited a bit, and slowly backed up. We passed it, but it was moving forward again, so we pulled into a parking lot on the other side of the tracks so we could see the graffiti on the other side. It was even darker on that side, so I didn't take any photos, but I noticed one that said "4 Adult Literature." Here I thought 4AL was "for a laugh," and then I saw one that said "4 All Locations," but apparently it can stand for all sorts of things!

Travalon had the afternoon off, so he went to Columbus and made a couple of train videos. One is an AmTrak, so no graffiti on that one. The other one went by very fast, so the screenshots will be blurry, but there are some really good examples of graffiti on it. Unfortunately some of them are partially blocked by a fence. I'll try to get screenshots soon - once again it got late, so there's no time tonight.

Famous Hat