Be It Ever So...Frustrating, There's No Place Like A Hardware Store

 What you see is a photo of a part, something I thought I needed when I walked into the hardware store hours earlier, and something I paid for and took with me.

Something that I didn't need.

You see how smooth it is inside the one end?

A dead giveaway it was the wrong part. It should have been threaded...nope, it wasn't. 

I don't know if you've had the opportunity, the pleasure, the incredible experience of putting in your own sprinkler system. I've done three, or at least, put in one and worked on two others. When they work, they're wonderful. When they break down...not so much. The problem is, fixing a sprinkler system is not difficult, for the most part. You can replace a broken part, swap out pipes, all fairly easily. 

What's frustrating is going to the hardware store with a list of parts I need, then buying everything I THINK I need only to find out, I need something else.

Then, to add insult to injury, you go back to the store, get another part/more parts, come home, try and fix the system, then find out you were not done after all--you still have to go back to the hardware store for yet more stuff.

Now, keep doing this pattern over and over again all summer and you have a blueprint on how to fix/maintain a sprinkler system.

Years ago, when working on another broken part, I had an idea. I thought about buying a van and loading it up with every sprinkler part anyone could ever need. Then, I would drive up and down neighborhoods on weekend mornings so when people working on their sprinklers could buy the parts from me instead of making trip after trip to the hardware store. Good idea...probably not cost-effective.

Still, I sure wish someone would do that when I work on my sprinklers. I'd use that service for sure.