Girls and Garage Doors

One thing we noticed on our first trip to the farm was the quaint garage doors on "my" garage. I was looking forward to parking inside for the first time in about three years, so the lack of a garage door opener didn't bother me too much. I had, after all, had manual garage doors at my first house. This would be a minor set back from the comforts of staying in my car to open the doors, but its a detached garage so I'd have to be in the cold anyway.

At my old house, the garage door was a heavy 3 panel hinged model. Even though there was no opener, I never had a problem opening or closing the door. On the first trip to our new house, I discovered that the doors on this garage were constructed of a single panel that road up and down on the track. Essentially, the garage door kicks out at a 45 degree angle and then has to slide parallel into the ground into the garage above the parking spot. No Problem!

In and out all weekend the garage door and I got along just fine. Of course, that all has to change on Monday morning, the first day I have to negotiate this feat on my own. Because the house is far from settled, and I'm still living out of boxes, I was running late.

To open the door, there are two hasps on the inside of the garage that have to be turned so they are parallel to the track. On the outside of the door, two pegs have to be undone. Easy enough. Dan had showed me that the easiest way to proceed from here was to grab the cable that runs along the front of the door and pull on it to get the door off the ground. From there, I just had to grab the door and push it over my head and slide it into place. No problem. Pull out the car, put the door down, and head off to work just in the nick of time.

Not to be the case. Lifting my arms above my head, I grabbed the bottom of the door and pulled as hard as I could. Nothing. Okay. Try again. Thank goodness. The garage door started moving. Continuing to pull the door down, my hands lost grip on the door as it screeched to a halt. Stuck. The door refused to move any further. A perfect 45 degree angle of garage door. Try again. Push the door all the way up and try again. With my palms face up at chest level I pushed with all my might to return the door to the open position. Nothing. Maybe even stuck more. "I do not have time for this!" was the only thought running through my head.

Palms down, I pushed down on the door until my tippy toes lifted off the ground. Finally! Movement. The door inched down a hair. Inched down is an over exageration. That door did not move an inch. Palms up, force the door back up. This time I had more success, I actually got the door the whole way open. Starting from scratch, I decided that the best approach would be to lower the door as quickly as possible to prevent it from getting stuck again. Nope. It lurched to a stop again in the same place, well maybe a few inches higer than the previous time. Not wanting to waste any more time, I left the door half open, headed off to work, and text Dan to take care of it.

Being my first day back to work, Dan had prepared dinner for me and text me telling me to let him know when I was nearing our place. I did so and was surprised to see I had a garage door opener waiting for me when I pulled up the drive. Dan was standing outside the garage with the door wide open waiting for me. As I pulled in, he pulled the door shut behind me.

Morning number two, having seen Dan close the door effortlessly the night before I was optimistic that I would have similar success without a repeat of the previous day. Not so. Have you ever seen the movie "Ground Hog Day"? If so, you can understand the sheer frustration I felt as Monday's events played out again nearly exactly as they had the first time around. Again, I left the door open for Dan to deal with later. This time the text suggested that he lubricate the rusty old track.

Unlike the first night, Dan was not waiting for me when I returned from school. I pulled the car in and renewed my fight with the door. Seriously! What does this door have against me? Knowing Dan would be home soon, I left it for him to deal with again.

When Dan pulled into the drive and saw the door standing agape, I got a phone call from him from the driveway. "Get out hear and learn how to shut this garage door." After protesting a bit, I reluctantly put my shoes on and went out. "Show me what you are doing," Dan instructed.

I reached up and tugged at the door prepared for my usually struggle. It slid down without a fight.

Are you kidding me!? "You did something. What did you do?" I asked Dan. His buddy who witnessed the whole episode laughed. "Julie," he said, "I'd be the first to rat him out, but he didn't do anything other than call you."

The damn thing has worked without issues ever since.