Every year our volunteer Home Owner's Association manages a neighborhood garage sale with a cleanup weekend two weeks later. This gives everybody the chance to get rid of old or unneeded things and ultimately helps keep the neighborhood looking nice. For example, TQ decided to put a new rook of his house so he timed his work for this weekend so he could get rid of the old shingles. Others are trimming back their juniper bushes that have grown out of control.

Across from La Canada park there are dumpsters for general waste, green waste, rock/dirt and sheet metal. They also have a Salvation Army truck available for donations. As the dumpsters get full trucks come with new ones and take away the full ones, until everyone has made their trips.

I had one truckload of trash and another of donation items. As I made my way to the dumpsters I ran into Darin who decided to jump in the truck and give me a hand. When we got down there we emptied my truck and helped a few others lift their heavier items. Then we ran into Keith who had a clothes dryer and mattress set to get rid of but no truck. So we jammed to his place and took care of those items, having a beer upon completion. We then made it back home and noticed that neighbor Tim had a full truck but he was out of town. We grabbed Tim's keys from his wife and emptied that one. We ran into TQ who had a full truck of shingles and helped to empty that one. We followed him back to his place and helped him load up the rest of the shingles and dumped them. Back at Darin's house now, we headed upstairs and tore out one of his bathrooms. Off to the dumpsters and back again.

Finally we ended up on TQ's roof to nail in some tarps because his roof was now stripped and we were expecting rain. Most of the people I've mentioned in this note have been at my place attending a "barn raising" at one time or another.

It might sound like Darin and I were being very good neighbors yesterday (I suppose we were) but I'm simply logging the type of activity that goes on in this neighborhood all the time. There were some neighbors just hanging out at the dumpsters helping folks lift heavy items and others who had trucks that helped those without. I find that there are less and less "strangers" in and around this place every year. The currency around here consists of handshakes, smiles, "thank yous" and the occassional beer (okay, beers are not so "occassional").