D'oh moments

I keep having these "light bulb" moments where I realize that my approach to a problem is all wrong and the answer is simpler than I realized.

Maybe everyone has that.  Or maybe I am slower to see the best answer.

For example, the irrigation.  Once again, one of the sprinkler heads broke off in the lawn.  This is the hazards of having two big dogs that like to run figure 8's in the grass.  Sometimes the sprinklers take a direct thrust from 80 pounds or more of turning canine.

I noticed this 4 days ago when I had neither the time nor the energy to change the sprinkler riser.  I turned off the irrigation, resigning myself to hand watering everything until I could fix the problem.

It wasn't until today, when I was watering trees (which are always hand-watered) that I realized I didn't have to forgo the automatic watering on the orange jubilee if I just shut off the times for the lawn.

D'oh!

I want a visible red nose on one of my outdoor lighted deer.  I had a set of small oval bulbs I bought last year to use, but the oval bulbs didn't fit in the sockets of the small LEDs on the deer.  I rigged up a contraption but it burned out quickly.

A small red LED bulb was a partial solution, but it just wasn't bright or large enough to satisfy me.

This year I found some nice round LED bulbs.  I took the strand apart and tried to wire just one of the bulbs to a plug.  But it kept burning out.  I had a white strand that I could swap a bulb in, but the white round bulbs would ruin the pattern of lights on the reindeer.

For some reason, it occurred to me to try the round bulb in the socket of the small LEDs on the deer.  It fit!  It lit!  The easy solution. But it took way too long for me to consider trying it and cost me a disassembled light strand.

D'oh.

These are two examples that happened just this weekend.  I have these moments at least once a week.  And when I do, I swear you can see the cartoon light bulb above my head.