An Unintentional Turn On

 

 

Wet. 

 

Not as in damp or moist, more like drenched, sopping, soaked. You could even quite accurately say saturated. 

 

But I guess that's what happens with a turn on. Or I should say when you turn yourself on. And you, apparently, like it so much you decide to do it frequently. Sometimes more openly in the afternoon. But also stealthily, in the dead of night when there's less of a chance of being caught. Always outdoors. Right in the side yard, as a matter of fact.

 

Continuing despite Hubs' diligent attempts to rectify the situation.

There are repercussions, of course. Not only will we have to pay the price financially, but we have also done a pretty good job of aggravating the neighbors in the process.

As unhappy as those neighbors are though, I have to admit that I am not ashamed. Actually, due to a lot of their deliberate behaviors, the reckless disregard of others during the year of covid, I figure they have more to be embarrassed about than I do. Even now.

I suppose I should start at the beginning. Which was at the end of last month, still spring according to the calendar, but summer according to the blazing heat. We had made the customary adjustments to our lives. I'd stopped, as much as possible, heating up the kitchen with the oven, preferring to cook dinner on the grill. We'd closed up the house and had the air conditioning running 24/7. Hubs had turned on the sprinkler system to keep the lawn from getting too brown. I'd also started making more no-bake, refreshing, frozen desserts.

 

 

Brownie Crusted Mint Ice Cream Pie

 

 

At the time, Hubs had gone through his surgery and it went pretty well, he was recovering and already off of the pain meds. My car issue had been resolved without us having to take out a second mortgage on our house. The contractor was coming to work on the siding of our chimney that the woodpeckers had damaged and although I wasn't looking forward to that bill, I was glad to at least know the holes in our siding would be repaired. All told, I was feeling fairly optimistic. 

 

Big mistake.

Because as soon as I start to breathe easy, you know full well the sky is about to fall. 

As I said, Hubs had the sprinkler system going and because it had been so hot, the lawn was pretty dry. Distressed, actually, and starting to brown a bit. In the late afternoon one day, he turned on the system. We have different stations so although each section is only watered for a few hours, the entire process takes many hours. On this particular day Hubs decided to just turn on the front and side stations, leaving the back for the next day.

Later that evening I was watching TV and realized that I was hearing water running. Worried that we had a toilet issue, I went to investigate. Eventually I figured out that the side sprinklers were still on. That can't be right. 

I called to Hubs and he confirmed that they should have shut off hours ago. He checked the sprinkler system box, which was correctly set to the timing Hubs had designated, but the side sprinkler heads were still happily spouting away. Hubs tried to shut the heads off, no change. He tried to shut the whole system off, no change. He even unplugged the sprinkler control box but the water just kept coming.

It was turned on, it liked it, and it was not going to turn off.

 

Eventually, in desperation, Hubs had to go down to the basement and shut off the water supply to the whole system. 

 

 

 

 

Fast forward to the next day. Hubs turned the water to the system back on and we sheepishly peeked out the front door. No rogue sprinkler heads had risen. Hubs turned on the back sprinklers and before we went to bed we checked to see that the system had done its job and shut itself off. All was well. 

 

Or was it?

 

I got up the next morning and was just leaving the kitchen with a cup of coffee when, guess what happened. You know, right? I could hear water running. I didn't bother checking toilets this time but ran right to the front door and saw exactly what I thought I'd see. The lawn was drenched, sopping, soaked. You could even quite accurately say saturated. The sidewalk and the driveway were being used as a bird bath. The neighbor's yards had puddles and the water trail ran down the street and probably half way to Chicago.

 

Sometime, in the dead of night when there was less chance of being caught, those determined side yard sprinklers had turned themselves on and were happily doing their naughty thing right through to morning.

And Hubs and I? We were decidedly unsatisfied.

 

 

Brownie Crusted Mint Ice Cream Pie        

                                                      ©www.BakingInATornado.com

 
Printable Recipe

Ingredients:

1 cup frozen whipped cream topping

1/2 tsp mint extract

1 TBSP chocolate syrup

1 tsp baking cocoa 

1 container (48 oz) mint chocolate chip ice cream

8 brownies, homemade or store bought

20 chocolate covered mint cookies

12 Andes mints

 

OPT: additional cookies for decorating

 

Directions:
*Thaw frozen whipped cream topping in the refrigerator, per package instructions. Place 1 cup of the topping into a bowl and mix in the mint extract, chocolate syrup and baking cocoa. Cover and refrigerate. You can refreeze the remaining frozen whipped topping in the container.

*Grease a 9 inch pie plate. Mash the brownies, then press firmly into the bottom and partially up the sides of the pie plate. Freeze.

*Place the ice cream in a large bowl on the counter.

*Chop the mint cookies and the mint candies. Once the ice cream is soft enough to work with, mix the cookie and candy pieces into the ice cream. Spread evenly into the brownie crust. Freeze for at least an hour.

*Pipe the whipped topping onto the pie. Decorate with additional cookies if desired. Freeze at least an hour. Store any leftovers in the freezer.