Tonight's story.....
I'll begin tonight's story with the conclusion of events. It's about 10 pm. and Raoul, the city water department night emergency man just left the estate moments ago.
Homeowners everywhere cringe at those words, water department night emergency man. Raoul had to come out to help me locate the emergency water shut off valve. I knew where the meter was in the alley, but the valve was in an odd position and buried under dirt so it was difficult to find.
It's strange how I can trace tonight's final calamity directly back through a series of seemingly inconsequential steps. That's the way the world works, one small step for man, one broken water system for mankind.
Several months ago, I was putzing around in the storage shed where the sprinkler system controls are housed and I decided after all these years to finally take the time to program the sprinklers to do exactly as I wished. No easy task as we have 12 different stations in the system. But with persistance and some computer skills I got the task completed, or so I thought. I could never get the first station to come on, either manually or automatically, so with some previous sprinkler management experiece under my belt I decided that a valve must be stuck. A diagnosis that was confirmed tonight when I saw a large pool of water under the huge Afghan Pine in the front yard. A valve not only stuck, but now apparently broken.
This discovery led me to the next stage on the road to further troubles. This is the second law of homeownership, I have found. Once a problem is discovered, at least one more major problem will arise out of the first. And so it was to be. Having found the large pool of water I decided to run the sprinklers once more for the night and then shut off the water to the entire sprinler system using the master cut off valve in the back yard. I have done this many times with no problem....until tonight. As I turned the valve inward a fine spray of water from the valve stem quickly turned into a major spray, the more I turned, the greater the volume of water. Trying to mitigate the damage I backed the valve back out to open where it had been, at which point the whole valve and gasket assembly basically fell apart, sending out a massive spray. The only good side of this was that on a hot night it felt pretty good to be soaked.
With some experimentation I turned the valve to a point where the spray was somewhat manageable and then I found time to curse....a lot. This is the point that I decided I'd better figure out how to turn the water to the estate off and found that the valve was not to be seen. Knowing when one is in trouble is the first step towards recovery so I phoned the City of Midland night emergency operator.
And this is how Raoul came to be at the estate. I have to humbly say that I apologize for all the times I've cursed the City Water Department because Raoul came quickly, was very pleasant and calmed my fears about leaving the spray running all night. Apparently he's seen a lot worse and we both agreed that since the spraying valve is in amongst the trees, they could use the water.
So tomorrow I must find a sprinkler repairman and be prepared to shell out significant dough for above and underground valves. But that's tomorrow.....Fiddle Dee Dee.
PS: what is the first law of homeownership? It is...."just when everything seems to be running smoothly......it won't be for long".
The next day...., it is now Friday morning, the birds are chirping, the water is shut off and Henry [seen above] is busily fixing the main sprinkler cut off valve. All is well, almost, at the estate. However early this morning as I drove to a V.A. doctors appointment in Odessa while searching the yellow pages and calling 2 or 3 sprinkler companies I thought I was in trouble. I thought I was in for more "roofer" type treatment. All very nice but the earliest they could get to my urgent problem was, "sometime next week". Until I finally called Alldredge Gardens. They are not the biggest in town for no reason....they found time to send someone out, that would be Henry. I will pay a little more for their services, but it's worth it to have good prompt service.
I'll begin tonight's story with the conclusion of events. It's about 10 pm. and Raoul, the city water department night emergency man just left the estate moments ago.
Homeowners everywhere cringe at those words, water department night emergency man. Raoul had to come out to help me locate the emergency water shut off valve. I knew where the meter was in the alley, but the valve was in an odd position and buried under dirt so it was difficult to find.
It's strange how I can trace tonight's final calamity directly back through a series of seemingly inconsequential steps. That's the way the world works, one small step for man, one broken water system for mankind.
Several months ago, I was putzing around in the storage shed where the sprinkler system controls are housed and I decided after all these years to finally take the time to program the sprinklers to do exactly as I wished. No easy task as we have 12 different stations in the system. But with persistance and some computer skills I got the task completed, or so I thought. I could never get the first station to come on, either manually or automatically, so with some previous sprinkler management experiece under my belt I decided that a valve must be stuck. A diagnosis that was confirmed tonight when I saw a large pool of water under the huge Afghan Pine in the front yard. A valve not only stuck, but now apparently broken.
This discovery led me to the next stage on the road to further troubles. This is the second law of homeownership, I have found. Once a problem is discovered, at least one more major problem will arise out of the first. And so it was to be. Having found the large pool of water I decided to run the sprinklers once more for the night and then shut off the water to the entire sprinler system using the master cut off valve in the back yard. I have done this many times with no problem....until tonight. As I turned the valve inward a fine spray of water from the valve stem quickly turned into a major spray, the more I turned, the greater the volume of water. Trying to mitigate the damage I backed the valve back out to open where it had been, at which point the whole valve and gasket assembly basically fell apart, sending out a massive spray. The only good side of this was that on a hot night it felt pretty good to be soaked.
With some experimentation I turned the valve to a point where the spray was somewhat manageable and then I found time to curse....a lot. This is the point that I decided I'd better figure out how to turn the water to the estate off and found that the valve was not to be seen. Knowing when one is in trouble is the first step towards recovery so I phoned the City of Midland night emergency operator.
And this is how Raoul came to be at the estate. I have to humbly say that I apologize for all the times I've cursed the City Water Department because Raoul came quickly, was very pleasant and calmed my fears about leaving the spray running all night. Apparently he's seen a lot worse and we both agreed that since the spraying valve is in amongst the trees, they could use the water.
So tomorrow I must find a sprinkler repairman and be prepared to shell out significant dough for above and underground valves. But that's tomorrow.....Fiddle Dee Dee.
PS: what is the first law of homeownership? It is...."just when everything seems to be running smoothly......it won't be for long".
The next day...., it is now Friday morning, the birds are chirping, the water is shut off and Henry [seen above] is busily fixing the main sprinkler cut off valve. All is well, almost, at the estate. However early this morning as I drove to a V.A. doctors appointment in Odessa while searching the yellow pages and calling 2 or 3 sprinkler companies I thought I was in trouble. I thought I was in for more "roofer" type treatment. All very nice but the earliest they could get to my urgent problem was, "sometime next week". Until I finally called Alldredge Gardens. They are not the biggest in town for no reason....they found time to send someone out, that would be Henry. I will pay a little more for their services, but it's worth it to have good prompt service.
