Wednesday, January 17, 2018

Well, dang it

My garage door is acting up.

I came home and it was up - and I know I punched the button to put it down when I left. And when I tried to put it down, it kept stalling. At first, I thought I had got it (partly) okay - it wouldn't close totally, but sometimes in the cold it WON'T - it hangs up (I also need to lube the tracks but I'm out of the "white lithium" that is recommended).

Then I realized it was hanging unevenly. Oh, crud. I wondered if I'd be able to get it open in the morning, and decided that (a) I had more time now, (b) it was marginally warmer than it would be tomorrow at 7 am and (c) I was thinking of it now.

So I shimmied under the door (One fault of my garage: there is only one easily-accessed opening; the "back door" region has been blocked off with a wall of cabinets). I managed to decouple the pulley system (had to use a garden tool and reach up over my car, which was parked in there at the time). I pulled the door MOSTLY down but it looks like one of the cables is wound funny, so either something broke or something is miswound there. I'll have to get the garage-door guy out, but I didn't have the energy to call this afternoon, and anyway, I can work it manually until I can get him out.

But yeah, not cool. Eventually I really need to get the garage torn down and rebuilt; it's old, it's wonky, and it's not in good shape, but I don't have money for it now. (And I want a garage, not a mere carport - both for security reasons and for "I don't ever want to have to scrape the windows" reason.)

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