Tuesday

We took Toby to the causeway for sunrise this morning.

It was pitch black when we arrived about 6:30.

Soon enough, dawn. We walked between the bridges, about 2.5 miles. The temperature was in the low 70s so we had on long sleeves.

We took Toby home and went back for a longer walk for us. The temperature was still in the 70s, so we had a pleasant walk with a light breeze.

I washed the car, vacuumed, cleaned the windows and tires before lunch, putting off my sprinkler project until after lunch.

After lunch, we played fetch in the backyard; then Toby got in the shower with me so I could clean his feet. He was very calm and patient.

He has been really good today. The only time he acts like a jerk is when he needs to go outside to go to the bathroom. I wish he would just go to the door like most dogs. Oh, we’ll. At least he doesn’t go in the house.

After fetching, I started on the underground sprinkler repair. I used long screwdrivers to hold back the turf so that I could dig.

I found the pipe easy enough. I could even see the hole in the pipe. It’s probably been there a while. The 3 marks on the driveway where the water was leaking were dead on.

I tested the line to make sure and confirmed the problem.

I made one trip to Ace and two to Home Depot and watched 3 or 4 videos before I decided on the best solution and retrieved the necessary parts. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts on sprinkler repair, no two leaks are ever the same. This one occurred in a 1 inch pipe nowhere near a joint; no previous solutions would work, and no spare parts would fit.

So I had to cut out a section with the leak.

And splice it together with this contraption. The genius of this piece is that one end telescopes, so you can contract it to get it in line and then expand it into a coupler to breach the gap. The trick is to work quickly because the pipe cement dries in less than thirty seconds.

I’ll wait until tomorrow to test for leaks before covering the hole to give the new joints time to set before filling them with water pressure.

Miles walked: 9.6

Miles biked: 0