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Remember two weeks ago when I told you that I had absolutely nothing planned for the week? That I was going to spend my days in quiet contemplation with a book or writing or just being? I was in a very good mood when I wrote that. Possibility awaited me.
Well, that didn’t happen. Practicality showed up instead.
You see, without any advanced warning, workers from the sprinkler installation company arrived– and began installing a sprinkler system in our front & back yards. A sprinkler system that we’ve tried to do without for all 13 years that we’ve lived here. A sprinkler system that we reluctantly decided to buy.
A sprinkler system that says to the world: yes, we’ve been assimilated. We are… suburban.
I remember when we first moved to this area we surprised our friends & relatives by voluntarily living like this. Suburban, that is. We’d always lived within walking distances of restaurants and grocery stores and parks. We’d been in high-rise apartment buildings and historic preservation districts and old-fashioned city suburbs. But never in exurbia, outside the ebb & flow of a city.
However, be that as it may, for the most part this has been a good way to live. I’ll admit that. Having space within your home and quiet outside your house is delightful. And Z-D loves to come back home from his workplace in the city to an area that is nothing like the city.
So if having a sprinkler system is part and parcel of this choice, then I guess I need to accept that caving on this subject might not be the worst idea ever. In fact, I suspect that come mid-August I’m going to think that a sprinkler system is the most brilliant thing that we’ve ever done around here.
Having come to the mature realization that: Resistance was futile.
THE SPECTACLED BEAN 
We will not have officially caved in to suburbia until we get a black lab and propane gas grill. Rebels to the end!!!.
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Z-D, you make me laugh. The black lab would be okay [if I wasn’t so allergic to dogs] but the propane gas grill would be too much for me.
Charcoal to the end, baby. Charcoal to the end.
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Charwood even! I’ve never been a true city dweller. Suburbia in some ways is so much more citified than the places I’ve lived the past 30 years.
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Zazzy, we’ve enjoyed living in different places, but this style of living has proven to be the best for us right now. And of course, now that I’m not going to be dragging sprinklers & hoses around the yard all summer, I really like it here in suburbia!
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I agree – we’ve done too much work to see it all blow up when I try to cook a couple of burgers.
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Yep. Not worth taking the risk. 😉
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Not having a sprinkler system in your yard is like not having cruise control in your car. You can live without it but it sure makes life easier when you have it. I’m envious.
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la p, that is a good analogy. I have no doubts that I’ll like it, but man-oh-man this sort of luxury does not come cheap.
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We have well water. Never water our lawn and only water new perennials.
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Margaret, well water would certainly cut down on the bills IF you ever needed to water your lawn on a regular basis. Interesting that you have well water– that seems unusual to me.
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I think charcoal versus propane is worth a debate, but sprinkler system versus none is a no-brainer :-). Enjoy.
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winsomebella, just about everyone has a propane grill nowadays. We seem to be one of the last holdouts clinging to the good ‘ole charcoal days.
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Seriously, this post made me laugh more than it should have! Or maybe I was crying? I feel EXACTLY the same way you do. And yes, our house came with sprinklers! Eek! 🙂
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Kristen, glad that I could make you laugh! Suburban life is just so different at times. And now, with the sprinkler system in place, I feel like we. are. suburban.
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You’ve been assimilated all right! We still have the traditional sprinklers; they are a LOT of work and I always get wet trying to get them in the right position. 😉
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Margaret, I know ALL about moving sprinklers around the yard to get the stupid grass wet. That insanity is what I’ll be giving up with this automated sprinkler system. So even though I resisted getting a sprinkler system, in the end it’ll be a good thing… I hope.
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After years and years of moving sprinklers around (and becoming an expert on all types of sprinklers and their watering patterns), I have to confess. I adore our sprinkler system – just marvel at it. Especially when we are under water restrictions and can only water on certain days from midnight to 5 a.m. Sigh. It’s wonderful. Hooray for you!
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philosophermouse, I imagine that I’ll love our sprinkler system, too. Good point about water restrictions. We don’t have them very often, but when/if we do our grass will have a fighting chance.
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Oh, you are going to love it. I wish we had an in-ground sprinkler system.
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Relyn, so far so good with the new system. The grass is growing and I’m not muttering about moving hoses & sprinklers around the yard. Seems like a win-win.
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We have a drought order here, after the wettest spring on record (yes, the wettest – we had a very dry winter apparently), and we’re not allowed hoses or sprinklers, only watering cans, so I’m truly envious. There’s this little gizmo you can get that the children love. It’s a sunflower on a bendy stalk and you hook it up to the hosepipe and it thrashes around under the power of its spray. Nope, can’t have one of those either 😦
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Polly, it seems so early in the year for you to have a drought. Yet obviously you do. Our droughts usually show up later in the summer or early autumn. Sorry to hear about your situation.
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