Categories: uncategorized
Date: 12 November 2006 13:58:46
so, last night after a fabulous evening with my friend (we went to one of those paint-your-own-pottery places, where i painted a spoon-rest...i've always wanted one of those... then we got yummy food, headed back to her house to see her scrapbook of her recent trip to Europe), I stopped by the condo to drop off instructions for the handyman and window cleaner. Should have taken me 4 minutes, tops.
So... Open garage, pull into the garage...close garage door. No problem. Did my business w/ the notes for workmen - no problem. Finished my task in 3.5 minutes, ready to roll... open the garage door, no problem. Pull out of garage, put car into 1st gear, close garage door, start to pull away... PROBLEM! The garage door won't close.
So (a little history here) our garage door opener is about 10 years old... it's lived through at least 40 seasons (changes in temperature, etc) and is usually a *little* problematic about once a month....especially when there's a significant shift in temperature... for example, every spring it's non-functional for about 2 weeks in March... This evening must have been payback for the past 3 months (since I moved to the new house)
So I tried it again. No luck. It goes down about 1/4 of the way, then decides to go back up. No closey. Problem, because I can't just leave it that way in the middle of the night... too much adventure for my older neighbors. And, honestly, it's kind of rude to leave the garage door open at 10:45 at night...
...get out of my car, try to close it manually.... Up, Down, Up, Down, Up... Up... Up-Down... tiring....pushing that button with no results was causing a bit of stress. My neighbor's car (we share a 2-car garage space) was still inside, she's about 74 years old, and I dind't want to leave her stuck... so I couldn't really just pull the garage door down myself (unhook from motor) because she'd be in a pickle the next day.
Up, Down, Up, Down, Up, Down... no mechanical reason for this whatsover.
then i heard something.
...oh, poor dear... i had woken my neighbor with the garage door antics. (i scared her, too... she thought the door was opening and closing by itself, she didn't expect to see me. luckily this didn't cause a heart attack)
which turned out to be a good thing... because she moved her car out of the garage into the parking lot, we decided it was a chain/motor problem, she's going to call a repairman and see if it's a problem w/ the new garage doors recently installed (perhaps the installer didn't attach the motor properly) ...or, more likely, we need a new opener.
i know it's expensive, but I'd rather replace the motor now instead of having it stop working while I'm in the middle of a contract for this condominium... or, worse, after the new owner has moved into my old property. and, honestly, it's not safe for her to have to deal with such trouble on a daily basis - she often parks outside b/c the door won't open. part of the nice-ness of that condo is the garage... once you pull in, you're inside. so i've been wanting to replace it for a while now...
So left a note for neighbor (she had gone back to bed) and we'll get it all sorted out this week... but i just wanted to drop off a note for the workmen. ...should have been brief, quick, efficient... I can see that sometimes technology has other ideas for my time...
:)