Adventures with the garage door

Sunday you will never guess what happened. We got up early to go to church so we could meet Mommy’s friend Lisa and her husband Joey for brunch in Dayton. We were all ready to head out the door but when Daddy pressed the garage door button, nothing happened (unlike when we came home after the Ohio Hurricane and it did open). Actually, the garage door went up a little bit but then went immediately back down. He tried it again and it did the same thing. Mommy suggested that he pull “the red cord” to release the door so we could open it manually. But Daddy could not lift the door and we were not sure if there was some reason we could not lift the door or if it was just too heavy. I actually was not thinking about the door at this point, I was already in the car with the door open wondering why we were not moving.

Daddy got the garage door manual out and Mommy went to investigate further what might mechanically be wrong with the door. Mommy looked up and realized that the spring on the door was broken! But none of us were sure what this meant. I was out of the car but still wondering why we were not making more progress to the outside world. Mommy and Daddy shared some tense words as Daddy was ready the warning labels on the door and Mommy got out her tools and began further investigation on what she could do to open the door. Mommy then “encouraged” Daddy to go inside and look up repair services in the phone book. Daddy is good at following directions and is also good at looking in the phone book so he and I did that and left Mommy to her tools in the garage.

I think we need a list of things we learn, because we had more “learning” that day both about garage doors and our reminders of our blessings. After leaving messages for three emergency services and talking to two then calling our neighbors across the street (Dave and Sharon), we learned that 1) springs break all of the time, especially if you use your garage like a front door as we do, 2) you can open the door manually but need help lifting it as someone pushes the button and 3) we are very blessed. Why do I add that we are very blessed? We are blessed for many reasons, but on this day it was because we were not rushing off somewhere and could not get the door open. We were blessed because we could call repair services and if needed, could have gotten it fixed on a Sunday. We have great neighbors like Dave and Sharon who came over immediately to help. We have good friends like Lisa and Joey who understand such circumstances and are willing to change their plans to see us another time during the day. On Monday we got new springs for our garage door too!