What a weekend!  It was my high school 40th reunion weekend!  I went up Friday night (okay - Friday afternoon - I skipped out of work early...) and took Dave out to dinner.  Then I went to a informal gathering at the local brewery and met up with people that did not have name tags on.  My name-memory isn't great in the first place, and then to try to place names on people that I knew 40 years ago????? Not happening!  Luckily, Mike Hilton took me under his wing, and pointed out everyone (and I mean EVERYONE - he knew who everybody was!!!)  I admit though, I spent most of the evening talking with Susan Tangeman.  I haven't seen her in forever, and it was nice to catch up.  

Saturday, Dave had to work a couple of hours, so after he left, I decided to pull some of the really tall weeds in his front yard.  Once I did that though, you could see the medium-tall weeds.  So...they had to go.  And, you guessed it, once the medium-tall weeds were pulled, you could see the rest of the weeds.  I was still pulling weeds when Dave got in - much more than the couple of hours he thought he was going to have to work.  He helped me in the yard until Cindy showed up and we went for a walk and a talk.  Whew!  The three mile walk we did was much easier than pulling weeds!

We went down on the river trail below Dave's house.   I can't decide which of these pictures I like best.....

And I found a bumble bee on a thistle flower.

Then it was off to the reunion.  Susan was taking pictures for the group, and grabbed one of me....

And of the group - with Thompson Peak in the background.

Then the fun ended, I came home and did the laundry, cleaned house, etc. on Sunday afternoon.  I also worked with AJ to finish up the garage.  Even the stuff in the center is out of there now (the washing machine is out on the street with a "free" sign on it.)  

So today, for my day off, I did dump runs of the stuff we pulled out of the garage.  I finally remembered to take a picture on the next to last load.  We hauled off at least four trailer loads from the garage since we started cleaning it, but I think it was more....

But it was all worth it.  This is the view into the garage from the kitchen now....

I got bangs!  (I have a lot of grey hair too.  I like to think it's just the light in the kitchen, but I know better.)  I like it, it's been a while since I've had bangs.  Now to see how they do for workouts and yard work!  My new 'do' is just in time, too.  I'm off to Susanville this weekend for my 40th (!?!?!?!?) high school reunion.  (Not the real reason I got a hair cut, but it's nice that the timing worked out.)

It's been a hot summer so far, with the added fun of our AC being out.  The first week it was out, we hit 106.  The swamp cooler just doesn't keep up at that temp, but it's better than nothing.  So far, the repairmen have been here 4 times, each time with 'the fix', and each time, it isn't 'the fix'.  First it was the thermostat, then a couple of other other items that it wasn't, and now it's the compressor.  The unit is fairly new - we put it in in January, 2013 (after the last one caught fire in the middle of the night.)  I'm looking forward to some cooler temps this next week - highs in the 90's instead of the 100's!

AJ is still trying for the elusive first job, and isn't getting anywhere (without going to food services, etc.)  So....he's embraced my plan for cleaning out the garage wholeheartedly.  Here's what greeted me when I got home last night - just waiting for me to go through and say what to toss and what to keep:

But here is what the inside of the garage looks like:

Progress!  Unfortunately, it seems like it's always two steps forward, one step back.  All the treasures that Ralph is finding as we clean out boxes are ending up on the clean shelves of the shop or in the house.  One step at a time, I guess.  Right now, AJ and I have at least three dump runs scheduled for Monday (I took Monday off - but it was supposed to be for kayaking...) to get rid of what we've pulled out so far.  We still have two more walls of boxes, and stuff in the center to go through, but....it's looking better!