When my alarm went off at 5:30 in the morning, I wasn’t sure I wanted to get up.

Except for the faint sound of water running, the house was silent. After walking into the  kitchen, I heard the refrigerator running through a cycle, so I figured I had found the source of the noise. Great, I thought. Nothing to worry about.

However . . .

I walked into the laundry room, which geographically shares the same wall as the hose spigot outside…and sure enough, the noise was louder than ever.

Yep. My garden hose was on–full force–and had been all night long.

Since my mom stopped watering the garden the day before at 3 p.m., apparently.

I crept out in the near-pitch blackness and turned off the water. When I came back in the house, I changed my now squishy shoes….

I’ve learned a couple of things from this experience. First–always do a quick check around the house when anyone has been visiting–just to make sure nothing has been left out, on, etc. Second–buy one of those hose attachments that requires that you squeeze a trigger in order to make the water come out. I had never thought it was necessary, but now I see that buying one of those doo-dads would have saved me a real headache, a much higher water bill, and would have been better for the environment for not having wasted water!

So…I’ll be picking one of those suckers up this weekend, despite the fact that fall is here. I won’t be caught by this particular nasty surprise again!