So, last night sees Our Heroine comfortably tucked up into bed reading a book, thinking "gee, the sprinklers have been on an awfully long time, haven't they?" A certain amount of fuss and an hour later and we find that yes, indeed, the sprinklers were on an awfully long time -- largely because I couldn't get them turned off. Turning off the irrigation system didn't stop it. Pulling the power to the irrigation system didn't do it. Unplugging the system, nope, still not turning the whole mess off.

Whaling on the piece of plastic pipe for that section of the lawn with a Mag Light? That finally did it. Huzzah.

As a preventative measure I left everything turned off and unplugged, to be dealt with come the weekend when I could mess with it with plenty of daylight. This whole problem having occurred just after the sun had set.

So tonight finds Our Heroine just about to tuck down into bed to read a book for a bit before turning in -- it being nearly midnight and all -- when what does Our Heroine hear but the sound of sprinklers turning on! Aieee! In horror Our Heroine fetches a flashlight and goes out to find (cue scary music) the stupid sprinklers have somehow turned themselves on! How? It makes no sense! The controls for the system are turned off, unplugged -- and the outlet the controls were plugged into is switched off. There is NO POWER to the system. How does it turn itself on???

Personally, I blame it on the fridge I got from slothman. Or, rather, the angry ghost of some Indian that used to be sleeping peacefully in his backyard who is now haunting the refridgerator and is irked his enforced, unintentional relocation. Anyone know a good exorcist?


(Yeah, I got the sprinklers turned off again. But I'm sensing that tomorrow I'm spending the day disassembling the system. And testing every single water shut-off valve for the house that I can find to see if there's some way I can shut off the landscaping, but not the bathrooms. *grumbles*)