As soon as the work crew left my house, I sank into my favorite living room chair and kicked off my shoes. The work I’d hired them to do in the dining room was finally finished. Leaning back, I planned, “Tomorrow morning, I’ll wipe away the construction dust on my kitchen counters and living room furniture. Then I’ll return things I had to remove from the room so the work could be done.”

Hours passed and dusk began to settle over the countryside. There was still dayglow in the sky, although the sun had set nearly an hour earlier. I got up from the chair to return a cup to the kitchen. Not wanting the cup to be stained by the last few drops of tea in it, I turned on the sink to rinse it out. Not a single drop of water came out of the faucet.

I suddenly remembered that I had turned on the water hose while the workers were still here, and I had forgotten to turn it off!  The realization made me shout, “Oh no!” Although I had a new well dug several years ago, and the drill rig went very deep, I have a low output well. It can run dry if I turn on a tap and leave it running constantly for over two hours. I’d started watering the garden at least four hours earlier.

Usually all I had to do when this happened was wait an hour or two and then go to the basement to turn the pressure pump back on. But running my well dry has happened so seldom that I forget in between times how to turn it back on. What I don’t understand is whether the switch moves to the off position when the pump kicks off, or if stays in the on position. I’ve been told the words “on” and “off” are printed by the switch, but there isn’t a light by the pump so I’ve never seen them. None of this wouldn’t be a problem if the pressure gage would go up when it is turned on. Unfortunately, there is no immediate way for me to know if I made the right decision or not! This has me not knowing what I’m doing.

My garden is inside of a plastic-covered hoop building, so I need to irrigate the plants each day. When I set up my irrigation in spring, I have to attach the drip tape to a headline, then attach the headline to a pressure regulator, then attach that to a 50-foot hose that has an easy on/off connection (for lawn mowing) to the last 25-feet of hose which is then attached to a water timer that is then screwed onto the outdoor water spigot.  The water timer is important. When I turn it on to water the garden, it stops the flow after a set time, thus preventing me from forgetting and running my well dry.

Every year I have problems with my irrigation system. No matter what I do, one connection or another leaks. I’ve tried many different things to prevent this. This year, whenever I tried screwing the water timer to the spigot, it leaked badly and soaked directly into the foundation of my house. My solution was to just leave the water timer off. I would have to trust my memory to turn off the hose.

During the 1970’s, my husband, Arnie and I took a Dale Carnegie course. We were taught several methods to help us memorize things like lists, and to compliment people by remembering their names. I don’t have a problem when it comes to remembering a long list of groceries when I go shopping, but to my great shame, I have insulted many people by not remembering their names. Tell me a family story and I will remember it forever but tell me your name and I’ll forget it before you leave the room. Ironically, I once told someone, “I took the memory course by Dale…I can’t remember his name!”

However, I felt confident that I had a trick that would help me remember to always turn off the water hose. I decided to not allow myself to take off my shoes when I returned to the house unless the hose was turned off. I water my garden in the evenings, and during the summer I really like to slip off my shoes at the end of the day.

On the day I ran my well dry, I turned on the water hose before the work crew went home. Then I became distracted by things to do, and when I finally sat down, I slipped my shoes off…and forgot the water hose. It sounds strange, unless you know the whole story, but I’ve been telling people that my well ran dry because I took my shoes off!