The Return

A few minutes prior to leaving for San Diego, I lost my only garage door opener. I was carrying it from one car to the other car and during the short walk between the two cars that are parked about 18 inches apart, I lost it. Running out of time, I left without it.

I needed to drop off three of the dogs at my parent's house. MacKenzie was left behind because the last time she visited my parent's house, she attacked their Cocker without provocation. I put down lots of food and water for her and figured that she would be upset, but okay for two nights alone. Of course I worried about her the whole trip.

Returning home after the trip, the first odd thing I noticed was that MacKenzie was upstairs and reluctant to come down. The hissing sound in the back yard was a clue to what had happened. The water supply line to the back yard had broken and in addition to the geyser, half of the yard was under water.

I was worried about the Koi. Chlorinated water will kill them and who knows how many days city water had been pouring in the pond. I wasn't even sure that the fish were still in the pond. They could have swam across the lawn. It was too dark to look for them, so that had to wait until morning.

I couldn't turn the valve to shut off the water only to the yard, so I shut off water to everything, including the house. I was thirsty, dirty and didn't have any water. It was going to be a long night.

MacKenzie was busy while I was gone. She got into the closets, pulled the clothes off the hangars and chewed off buttons. Just looking at the mess exhausts me. I still haven't done anything about it.

Not having water motivated me to try and fix the line in the dark. Wading out to it, I went to work. There was a problem with the valve that shut off the water. It didn't entirely stop the flow. Sprinkler cement only works on dry pipe, not that I didn't try using it on wet pipe. My efforts were met with another geyser explosion. Defeated, I went back in the house to sulk.

At some point, it occurred to me to try a wrench to close the valve just for the yard water. (I'm a little slow when it comes to home repairs.) The wrench worked and that valve completely stopped the flow of water. Once I bled the water from the line, I was able to glue the lines together. I also was able to turn the house water back on. Things were picking up.

The next morning, I found the fish alive and well in the pond. I also found the garage door opener. It was on the roof of the car that I had used to drive to my parent's house, Lindsay's house, back to my parent's house and then home. My car also sat on the street for a few days with the remote on the roof. I can't believe that it didn't fall off or get stolen.

So, that's it. All is well again, except that I need to sew on buttons in all of my free time. Oh, and one other thing. The sound to my computer no longer works. I have no idea what crazy sounds my computer is trying to make anymore.