WHAT GOES AROUND, COMES AROUND - EVEN SPRINKLERS;

I once lived across the street from a woman who watered by hand almost every morning.

She'd come outside, wearing nothing but a threadbare, white T- shirt and the smallest shorts known to man - and woman - ready to soak her lawn. She'd haul hose, pulling hard, leaning back, slipping, struggling to keep her balance. Then she'd attach one of several sprinklers, leave it on the lawn and go up to the house to turn on the water ... and so the show would begin.

Somehow the sprinkler always hit her with a solid blast - eeeh! She looked equally surprised every time - ohmigod... it's so cold... I'm so wet... my t-shirt is... well, never mind. She'd sprint to turn off the water, move the sprinkler, turn on the hose and wouldn't you know it? Eeeh! There was that icy cold water again spraying all over her.

She'd flip and twist and turn, bend and run, hop and skip, but within a few moments she was thoroughly soaked, looking equally surprised every single day.

Jokes were made. How could she not know that everyone within four blocks had full view of her front-lawn acrobatics and that her slight clothing soon became see-through?

The kind thing would have been to drop a note telling her that she was the laughing stock of several households. But she moved.

And there's this: life has a way of getting back at you. The other day I was on my lawn - which is baked to a crisp, feeling and looking like about a thousand tiny hedgehogs are standing shoulder to shoulder out there - trying to set a sprinkler a friend had lent me. It was one of those simple ones that sway back and forth, predictably. Problem was this one went forth - then vertical - then forth.

As I'm trying to figure out how to set it, I'm also getting soaked jumping around like an idiot. I'd turn a screw and get blasted in the face. I'd flip a lever and get soaked trying to run away from the thing. Fully dressed, within minutes I was drenched to the bone, sending silent apologies to the woman who was the butt of my morning jokes for an entire summer.

Sprinklers, love them or hate them, most of us need them to keep our lawns alive through hot Inland Northwest summers. On pages 10- 12, Pat Munts tells you everything you always wanted to know about sprinkler systems and watering. Our resident treasure hunter brought back an unusual souvenir from her latest vacation on page 4, and on page 19, Shannon Amidon talks to people who've had farm animals for pets, even though they live in the city.

Next week we visit a local man who has a train track running around his backyard.

Did I ever get the sprinkler to work, you ask? No. I called my friend later and he said, "Oh, yeah, it may have been broken when I lent it to you."

Pia K. Hansen

Home Editor

piah@spokesman.com

(509) 459-5427

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