Just seeing that purple stuff that you slather all over the white PVC pipe followed by smelling the strong aromatic oder of the glue takes me back decades.
And these are not necessarily good memories.
They're memories of frustration, mostly, and taking what seemed like endless trips to the hardware store.
My wife told me yesterday that an irrigation pipe had broke and water was flowing down our sidewalk. I should have investigated last night, but I didn't. For some reason, I thought the break had been higher up, or on someone else's line.
Nope--it was ours. The connection had held true through sixteen years of pressurized summers and freezing cold winters--all in all, a pretty good run--had broken. And for some reason, that weak spot in the pipe decided yesterday was a good day to separate.
Tonight my oldest and I took upon us the challenge of home/yard repair. I also wanted to show my son how to fix PVC pipe. After all, he may be moving out and getting a home/yard of his own and he'll need to know this stuff.
The worst part was digging the hole. I had to go down several feet to reach the pipe. We took a trip to The Home Depot and purchased the required parts. I showed my son how to primer then glue the joints--showed him what I was shown back in the 1980s when irrigation water systems were installed on our street. Before that, we had watering times and we tapped into water from a reservoir uphill as it flowed downhill.
Pipped in irrigation water is wonderful, but fixing pipes is not. I remember constantly fixing the system my mom and us kids put in years ago. The most frustrating part was running out of one thing you needed--ONE THING--to complete the project. Then you had to go back to the hardware store for that one thing. No matter how much planning you did, you'd always have to go to the store--sometimes making several trips.
We finished up late. We'll test it tomorrow. Hopefully, I still remember how to properly fix a pipe--just one more joy of home ownership.
