I was lazy last fall, and I didn't drain my sprinkler system before it got below freezing. I had several sprinkler heads break, and one of the valves broke too. When I turned on the main valve inside the house to the entire system a few weeks ago, some of the sprinklers had water coming out of them even though all three outside shut-off valves were turned completely off. Yesterday I tore the leaky valve apart, hoping I could simply replace the seat in it. Luckily, the old seat hadn't worn or broken, it had just come separated from the screw and fallen down the water pipe. I fished it out with some needle-nose pliers, used a new washer and screwed it all back onto the valve, then put it all back together. I'm lucky it worked too, because the valve is such an odd shape and in such an odd position relative to the inlet and outlet pipes, I would have had to call a plumber to replace it.

I went to a local hardware store to look for a new seat for the valve before I put it all back together, but they didn't have one that fit. I also checked prices on sprinkler heads, but I forgot to check exactly which type I needed before I went there, otherwise I probably would have just bought them then. After I had gone home and fixed the valve, I dug up some sprinkler heads to see what kind I needed, then went to Wal-Mart to compare prices. Theirs were much cheaper, so I started loading up my cart. I got eight ¼ circle coverage heads, one full circle head, and when I started looking for ½ coverage heads, I realized they didn't even carry them. Who the fuck carries all types of sprinkler heads except ½ circle coverage heads!? And this is a brand-new Wal-Mart Supercenter--you'd think they'd be well-stocked with everything. It's not that they were out of them, they never had any to begin with. There wasn't even a place on the shelf for them.

So I drove on over to K-Mart, and big surprise, they don't even carry sprinkler heads at all. So I headed back over to CJ's, but they were already closed for the day. It seems like whenever I need something in this town, I go through this big cycle of travelling to all the different stores, and circumstances end up just like this. Somebody is out of what I need, somebody else doesn't even carry what I need, and everybody else closes before I get to them.