Monday, January 08, 2007
Oops 1 + Oops 2 = One Big Honkin' Oops
You know how two wrongs don’t make a right? Well here’s a fine example of how two boo-boos, independent of themselves, wouldn’t have caused much damage. But combined, turned into something we’ll be slapping ourselves in the forehead over for some time.
Remember in a previous post when I mentioned that our automatic sprinkler system had gone south? Well we found out why this weekend. Last week I attempted to troubleshoot the system. I even tried to manually turn the sprinklers on and off, thinking maybe they somehow got shut off or something. That did nothing. Stymied, I broke down and watered the lawn with a hose. (One of the most boring tasks in the world.)
Fast forward to this past weekend. We’re about to head off to my sweety’s sister’s house when she decides to fiddle with something by the main water shutoff valve. When she finally got into the car I asked her what she did, and she replied that awhile back she had tried to shut off the water to the house, and turned the wrong valve.
“Oh,” I replied. “Was this right around when the sprinklers stopped working?”
“I think so.”
“I wonder if that was it? It’ll be nice to have them working again.”
“Yeah.”
By the end of that conversation we were already on the main road, and we thought nothing more of it. Now fast forward to 11pm when we finally return to the house. I’m setting my stuff down when I hear the familiar yet weird vibrating noise of the water pipes under the house. “Hey, the sprinklers to the back yard are on!” I immediately thought, “Cool! They’re working again! Yay!”
That thought was immediately followed by, “Wait a minute… I set the timer for 8pm. Why are they still on??” I ran to the back yard and, holy shit, can somebody build an ark please? We’ve managed to flood the entire yard. I couldn’t believe it. Water everywhere. It was then I’d realized what we’d done. When I’d fiddled with turning the sprinklers on and off individually, I’d forgotten to turn one off. It turned out the valve my sweety had accidentally turned off some time ago was the main shutoff valve for the sprinkler system. When she turned it back on that morning, the back yard sprinklers started going. All. Day. Long.
So much for saving water this month. *another slap on the forehead*
(9) Comments • Permalink
Categories: • Home Improvement • I'm such a dolt