I pulled a Kate and the garden paid for it

I woke up this morning after hearing the boys making noise over the baby monitor and looked at the clock. Just before 7 a.m. I was very tired - a bit delirious. Boys playing. Must get up. Too tired. I started picturing the garden and the dragonflies that I'm obsessing about. I was thinking of how pretty it looked with the sprinkler running yesterday and I started thinking about the photos I took of the garden. Then it hit me. Hard. I had no memory of turning the sprinkler off. I turned it on at about 4:45 pm. It was now just about 7 a.m. No memory of turning it off. Crap. I must have turned it off, right?

I flew out of bed and dashed outside to the patio only to hear the whine of the well pump kicking into overdrive. Then I saw the reflection of water on the garden and the spray of the sprinkler darting through the air. CRAP! I raced out to the yard in my PJs to turn it off …squelch, squelch, squelch… yard flooded… shoes muddy… I grabbed the handle and turned it off.

I squelched backward a few steps and surveyed the yard. Much of it was a huge puddle. The well pump was clicking and groaning. And the garden - flooded. Damn. I was just starting to get the hang of things in the garden and finally had some green growth and I go and leave the sprinkler on for about 14 hours. Then I realized I had to tell Farmer B about the incident. He's an understanding guy, but is thin on patience when I have one of my many momnesia moments.

He got up around 9 a.m. and I waited for him to look coherent. I sat next to him at the table and said "Remember that episode of Friends when Phoebe and Monica started a catering business together and they catered an event for Monica's mom and when it all screwed up they referred to it as "pulling a Monica?" but then Phoebe felt bad and fixed it and then tried to convince Monica that 'pulling a Monica' could be a good thing?"

He stared at me. "What did you do now?" he said.

"I accidentally left the sprinkler on overnight."

"Oh my god - HOW long exactly?" he says.

"I dunno… at least 12 hours I think" I said as I under-estimated the actual time. "And I'm so glad that you're an understanding husband and won't try to chastise me or make me feel bad or lecture me because you know I love that garden and accidents happen. I'm just so glad you're cool about little things like this."

He sat silent for a minute and then said, "You pulled a Kate again, didn't you?"

Yeah, well…maybe I did. But deep-root watering is a good thing every now and then, right?