Sprinkler Blowouts For Wednesday, October 29, 2025

Here comes my first rant of the season — and I made it three whole weeks before I had to let one loose. My patience must be improving… or I’m just getting better at bottling it up until blog time.

After nearly 30 years in this business I’m still amazed at how quickly responsibility gets dropped at my front door. People screw up their forms or ignore the terms they agreed to, then act like I personally tripped over the mistake and caused the problem. They don’t cancel — my fault. They type the wrong phone number — my fault. They enter a bad address and someone else gets a blowout and our customer gets the bill — my fault. Apparently “user error” is now an industry I run single-handed.

Case in point: a customer submitted a request because they were leaving town. Great — except my tech spent 20 minutes hunting for the house, calling with no answer, and then I had to Google the name to find the correct address. Turns out two numbers were transposed on the form. By the time we figured it out it was too late to return that day, so we put her on the next pass. Her response? “You could’ve done it if you hadn’t typed the wrong address.” Seriously. I sent her a screenshot of her submitted form. “If I did that, it was a typo.” IF? The form doesn’t type itself, Karen.

That 30 minutes cost my tech billable time and me payroll — and yes, we’ll bill in accordance with the terms everyone agreed to when they signed up: you’re responsible for misinformation on your form. It’s in black and white. We run a business, not a teleportation service.

We’ve got about 10,000 readers — what do you think? Is this a post-Covid entitlement thing, a decline in basic responsibility, or did people always do this and I was just blissfully unaware? Sound off below. And if you’ve ever wanted to Gibbs-slap someone, I want to hear about that as well. Don’t be shy!

On a brighter note, Challis let me know last night that he’s ready to get back out there and take care of the customers he missed when he twisted his ankle — even if it means hobbling around on crutches to do it. Now that’s work ethic! Gotta love my nephew. If we could only get his brother Reese helping us again as well…….

Ben crushed it yesterday too, even after trekking all the way to Ola and Emmett. The poor guy’s reel came loose from all the bouncing on those cow-patty roads in Ola, but he still managed to knock out all but four stops on his route. After work, he swung by Jesse’s place (since they’re practically neighbors) and Jesse had the reel welded and patched up within 30 minutes flat. I swear, between the tools, the teamwork, and the fast fixes, I feel like I’ve got a full-blown NASCAR pit crew working for me sometimes.

Eddie wrapped up his route in Star without a hitch — and even got it done before his 3:30 appointment. If I could clone two more just like these guys, I’d finally be able to sleep at night… or at least before midnight.

Here are the routes for today:

Ben with “Leroy” in Caldwell and Meridian 83646

Lonkey Ln
Greenwing Street
Hanks Way
Conley Way
Waterbury Drive
Spicewood Drive
Chrisfield Dr
10th Avenue
8th Street Northwest
Storey Street
Linder Rd
Cairns Way
Silver Falls Ct
Nyborg Place
Waterfall Ave
Sparkling Pl
Chateau Dr

Challis with “Orange Julius” in Nampa 83686

Cottage Ave
Hillcrest Way
South Wildrye Way
Fall Place
South Skyview Drive
West Saser Street
South Aspen Grove Street
West Iowa Ave
Willow Creek Drive
Moose Creek Drive
West Deep Creek Court
South Middle Creek Dr
West Dewey Avenue
West Roosevelt Avenue
West Herron Loop
South Miller Way
West Roanoke River Street
West Redwood River Street
West Vin Santo Drive
West Cross Slope Way

Eddie with “Purple Rain” in Boise 83702

North 26th Street
North 25th Street
West Dora Street
North 18th Street
N 16th St
West Dewey Street
West Bella Street
West Brumback Street
West Highland View Dr
Wyndemere Drive
Arran Court
E Harcourt Rd
Burnside Place
East Braemere Road
North Sandpoint Way
West Thornberry Court
North Tiverton Place