"You've been flocked!"

That was the sign in front of the local library up at the lake. Not only was that sign put out in front of the library's front door, but about twenty-five plastic pink flamingos were stuck into the garden around the library itself. Hence the meaning of you've been flocked!

The local garden club at the lake does that to businesses who have pretty gardens..... the pink flamingos were a nice kitsch-y touch, to say the least, and you could see people smiling (us included) as they walked down the path to the library's door.

Gorgeous weather up at the lake.... nice and sunny, bright and hot, with breezes blowing in the afternoons. The cats are so used to the lake cottage now, which is a good thing. They spent most of the days out on the porch, and the nights in the laundry room. Thankfully, the laundry room up at the lake is a large one, twice the size of the one here at home, so three cats can get quite comfy there.

Young Miss C and her mom drove up on Saturday morning and spent the night. C wants to spend more time up in her cabin, but she's taking an extra Spanish class during the month of June so she doesn't have to take it when school starts again in August. For the entire month of June, she'll be in school from Monday through Thursday of each week.

My husband took the sailboat out the day before C and her mom got there. It wasn't as pleasant as he thought it would be. There's no way to really be comfortable on the trampoline of that sailboat, and (of course) if you don't have enough wind to get where you need to be, then you're going to be stuck. So he was both uncomfortable and stuck on Friday afternoon.

He got a tow from one of the powerboats on the lake, and they brought the sailboat back to the boat ramp for him. I was watching from our back porch and I was wondering why he just didn't have the other boat tow him to our own boat dock. Silly me.... when I asked him that, he told me that he wasn't going to take that boat out again. Instead--- he's selling it for a different boat.

And what's that old saying--- the two happiest days in a man's life are the day he buys a boat and the day he sells the boat. The catamaran is now tucked away in our garage, soon to be giving some other guy one of the happiest days of his life.

One more surprise for us on Saturday night...... we had been outside on the property for most of the day when C and her mom were there with us, and when we all came inside late at night, we didn't think the house was as cool as it should have been. We just chalked that up to us being outside in the heat for too long, and we all got ready for bed.

By ten o'clock that night, after C was in her cabin and her mom had gone into the guest room, my husband realized that the air-conditioning vents were blowing out warm air instead of cold. Not a good thing, especially when the outside temperature is in the high 90s.

I looked through the local phone book and found three air-conditioning companies that said they had 24-hour service. The first two asked me to leave a message, which I didn't. The third number had a real person answering the phone. Not only a real person, but a real air-conditioning repairman who told us he'd be there in twenty minutes. (Out in the country? I can't even get that service in Clear Lake.)

Lo and behold, he was there in half an hour and quickly found the problem. Our air-conditioning unit needed a new part (which he had in his truck) and it needed to be topped-off with that liquid-stuff. Both of which he happily did, charging us nothing more than he would've charged had he come during the daylight hours, rather than eleven o'clock at night. I was never more happy to write out a check, and I even gave him a cash tip which surprised the heck out of him. (People don't tip workers down here like they do up north in NY.)

C's mom slept through the entire air-conditioning episode, and C herself was up and awake in her cabin, hammering nails into the ceiling so she could hang up her latest decorations--- plastic lights in the shapes of parrots and palm trees. Her cabin looks like you could host a party in there with three-seconds notice.

I delivered more pajamas last week to the shelter up near the lake, and when C and her mom came to the cottage, they had two shopping bags filled with C's old clothes for me to bring to the shelter the next time I go. I'm smiling when I say old clothes, because the clothes in those shopping bags are so gently worn that they look new. C has just grown so much these past six months that she had to go through her entire wardrobe to see what still fit. She's been the teeniest girl ever since I've known her, and has seemed to have filled out in the last year or so.

Hard to believe that she's 16 now, for goodness sake. And she's driving.... she got her license last week, after having her learner's permit since her 15th birthday. Today was the first day that she drove on her own in the car. And where was she going? To her summer school class. Before we know it, C is going to be getting into the car and driving herself up to the lake.