A Moment of Weakness

Life Goes On

Yesterday was a great example of how one momentary lapse in judgement can really cause a lot of heartache. When you last heard from us we were celebrating the accomplishment of finishing our sprinklers. But, as my friend, Colin, included in the comments, we may have won the installation battle, but the war with the sprinklers had only just begun.

His profound observation came to fruition much sooner than anticipated. Last week, Amber had some random guy knock on the door letting her know that he just shut off our water in the front yard because it was spraying every where. Judging by the wetness of the dirt surrounding the leak, it must of been quite a bit of water.

Our PVC cracked vertically down the piece that connected the rest of the PVC pipe system to the metal Backflow Preventer. To give you a shortened clean version of a long messy story, I spent all day Saturday sawing, measuring, and gluing. After two trips to the sprinkler store and having to rework my thinking as many times, I triumphantly slid the last two pieces of PVC in place just as the sun dropped behind the western mountains.

Everything fit perfectly. My measurements were exact. My cuts were precise. It all came together so nicely. In my moment of self-congratulatory relief I stood from my work and pulled the lever to bring all the water pressure back into the sprinkler system.

I stood over my accomplishment and felt pride swell inside me as I heard the water rush in to the pipes. Then, in a moment of explosive release I watched as my last two pieces I glued burst apart, showering me with a rush of wetness.

The moral of the story: wait for glue to dry before testing its strength.