When I came to, lying on my back and totally soaked by the geyser shooting out of the rabbit...
Okay. Wait, wait, wait. That didn't happen. Just kidding...but it could have if just one more thing had gone wrong.
I had finished my breakfast and was in the middle of a Suduko puzzle when I decided I needed to get outside and relocate the sprinklers that have been going nonstop since Monday about this time. I started to put my visor on, but said to myself, "No, it will only take a minute. I might just turn them off so I can mow tomorrow." That should have been the first red flag.
I actually did turn off one of the four sprinklers yesterday as I had nowhere to go with it. The hose it was attached to is one of the shorter ones and all the areas it can reach had been watered. Plus, it seems the 'powers that be' have decided they are bored with my efforts to trick rain out of them by setting up sprinklers and left me high and dry (so to speak) on Wednesday and Thursday.
Deciding to continue to water a couple of places in the back and side yards, I reset those two sprinklers and moved to the front to the area across the driveway...let's call that the badlands. I don't have a faucet out there, so I must use my longest hoses to reach the areas near the road. I moved a sprinkler to include an oak tree, but then decided to replace it with an impulse sprinkler to do a better job. So, walk to the faucet, turn off the water, find the impulse sprinkler on the end of the hose I turned off yesterday and put it on the hose in the badlands. Walk back to the house, turn on the faucet, walk back to the sprinkler to adjust it...several times...before I consider my work done. Head back to the house intending to walk out to the road to pick up the newspaper and put away the switched out sprinkler. I decided to put the sprinkler away before getting the newspaper so I wouldn't have to carry it out there and back.
When I came out of the garage, I noticed a spot that had apparently missed getting any water. It was a very small spot...a perfect place to use the rabbit sprinkler I have had for years, which, I think, had only been used to decorate...never to actually water.
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| The unwatered spot |
I pulled the short hose to the unwatered spot and hooked up the rabbit. When I turned on the water, however, there seemed to be something wrong as it was producing more spray where the hose was attached than from the top. Deciding that some debris was clogging it, I turned off the water, unscrewed the hose and then looked for the screwdriver that had been on the counter in the garage for a couple of months. It wasn't where it had been. No problem, I reached for one of several hoof picks (?) that were hanging nearby and figured that would be even better than the screwdriver. I went back to the rabbit and probed its innards for awhile. Something fell out, so I decided I had probably solved the problem. However, after hooking it back up and turning on the water, I saw it wasn't much better. Now, the stream of water it produced looked more like the rooster tail of water you see when a wave runner is operating. Turn off the water, unhook the rabbit, take it into the kitchen and look for more clogs.
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| That wascally wabbit |
This time I went to the laundry room and got a crochet hook...similar to the hoof pick, but smaller. More probing was futile...no more stuff came out. But, I held it under the tap, hoping the stream of water would help. I wonder why I even thought it might. So, I took it back outside, hooked it up again and basically nothing came out of the top. Hmmm. There is a small screw on top (you can see it in the photo), which I decided needed to be turned, so I went back in the house and got a small screwdriver from the kitchen. Back outside, with the hose turned off, I was able to loosen the screw the teeniest bit. I turned the water back on and it was, indeed, a little better...but, not good enough.
I went inside, in search of the missing screwdriver (the one that had been in the garage), but couldn't find it or another one that would fit into the head of the small screw. It suddenly occurred to me that the screwdriver was exactly where I had been looking in the garage, but behind the large pack of Coke that I just bought a few days ago. And, yes, indeedy, that's where it was...behind the Coke and under the wine bottle paper bag. So, I took it outside and, with it's larger handle, I had the torque needed to turn the screw. Which I did. And which helped. A fine spray came out almost all the way around. Just a little more, I thought...and leaning over the rabbit, I turned the screw just a little more. And that's when the whole thing came completely unscrewed and the water (which I had left on) came erupting out in my face like Old Faithful.
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| Old Faithful |
I was totally soaked. My hair, which I had just had "renaturalized" and styled yesterday, was now a little crispy (from yesterday's hairspray), and my clothes were wet...the front at least. Before I found the part that blew off, I imagined the lawnmower blade finding it and, as a final assault, whipping it into Wayne's truck or my car or a window...something bad. I guess I'm lucky it didn't chip a tooth or put an eye out since I was leaning directly over it.
The good news is that that when I did find the little dealie, I noticed it had threads on it and I was able to easily screw it back into the rabbit. The unintentional enema I gave it evidently cleared the innards of whatever was clogging it and bunny is finally serving a purpose other than decoration.
I already knew that my German stubborn streak prevents me from leaving well-enough alone. You have learned, no doubt, that I can make a long story about the simplest things. Oh, and by the way, I forgot to get the newspaper.
