Another Fix for My Uke Jones

I met my friend Do at Mt. Rub this evening for our un-scheduled hike tonight and she surprised me with this ukulele that her parents had gotten on a trip to Hawaii many years ago. It's a Harmony made of Mahogany and it's in very good condition. It had trouble holding a tune at first, but I tightened the tuning pegs when I got home after the hike.

I couldn't resist taking it on the hike with me. I fiddled with it for awhile, trying to get in tune, but just as I finished tuning one string, the previous string would de-tune again. So I had to settle for approximate tuning.

So, I started playing happy tunes. Our fellow hikers would smile as they approached us. At one point I realized that I was having trouble concentrating on what Do was saying and playing the uke both, so I stopped playing and just walked.

As I did this, we approached a father and son who were chopping up a tree that had been cut down-presumably for firewood. The man stopped and looked at us imploringly.

"Please, kind sir," he said. Do not stop your fine playing. It brings my poor son and I such joy and gives us strength to finish our work on this dark and forbidding evening."

I couldn't say no to a request like that, so I played my rendition of "All You Need Is love."

"Ah, sir, that is the ticket."

As I played, Do tapped me on the shoulder and told me to turn around. A crowd of hikers had stopped behind me to listen.

I shouted "All together now!"

They all joined in singing "Love, love, love" as one great voice. Soon a coyote sat down with a sparrow. An owl hooted and swayed to the music from a tree branch.

We all began marching to the top of Mt. Rub, singing loudly all the way. At the top, our voices echoed across the Inland Empire as lights flicked on in the valley below. The world seemed as if as one with one another.

I made a little bit of this up.