Attack Of The Killer Garage Door August 15, 2016
Posted by nrhatch in Health & Wellness, Home & Garden, Humor, Life Balance.trackback
Last week, just before I needed to head to the dentist to get two front composite restorations and a crown, the skies opened up.
Torrential rain beat down at the brisk rate of 2.5 inches an hour.
A real gully-washer!
When the rain let up for a minute, I made a beeline for the garage.
I pressed the garage door opener on the wall. The garage door swung up on command.
Open Sesame.
When I shifted the car into reverse to back out, I noticed the garage seemed rather dark.
That’s odd.
The door, exhibiting a streak of independence, had decided that it had waited in the up position more than long enough for me to exit the garage.
With silent stealth, it had come down while I was busy fastening my seatbelt and adjusting the radio and A/C. In its defense, maybe it was trying to keep the pouring rain, still coming down at record speed, out of the garage.
Determined not to give up, I pressed the garage door remote over the visor and watched the door’s ascent.
Going up.
Excellent. Great. Good. All clear.
I put the car in reverse, began backing out of the garage, and heard a strange sound ~ that of the garage door coming down on the roof of my Honda and holding it fast.
Crunch!
I was stuck half in and half out of the garage.
Not good.
I pushed the remote, hoping to convince the door to ascend for the third time in as many minutes.
Go up!
It ignored my request and continued its downward descent.
Not good.
Feeling like a sardine in a tin can, I tried again.
This time, the garage door ascended long enough for me to zip out of the garage and make my escape. (If you can call going to the dentist an “escape.”)
As rain continued to pour down, I called BFF to catch him up on the garage door’s escapade.
Four hours later, I returned home with a new crown and a significantly lighter wallet.
In my absence, BFF had checked out the garage door and concluded the door, not his wife, was at fault for the mix up. It had messed up.
Apparently the springs are lacking in tension. We’ll need to get someone out here to tighten them up.
In the meantime, when we want the door to stay up . . . we need to apply heavy-duty industrial clamps to keep it from coming down!
Now for the upside of that up and down day ~> my new crown is permanent!
Our dentist fixed me up in a single visit instead of installing a temporary crown and having me return down the road for a permanent install.
Aah . . . that’s better!
So, what’s up with you?
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Spirit Lights The Way 
I’ve had a similar experience, Nancy. Like anything, automatic garage doors are great, until they malfunction. 😦
Modern conveniences become inconvenient when they act in non-conventional ways. 😀
You nailed it Nancy!
Like dishwashers and washing machines that decide to flood kitchen floors without warning. BAD!
Oh no! Hope your roof is not too messed up. I love the convenience of modern technology…until it doesn’t work the way I expect…
My stalwart Honda survived the assault and battery without dent, scratch or complaint . . . thanks to the rubber gasket along the bottom of the garage door.
I’m glad the door came down on a car to get our attention. So much better than landing on a neighbor.
That’s good. So true, I’ve read horror stories in the newspaper involving children and garage doors.
Newer models have safety features to stop the descent if something or someone is in the way, but I’m not sure that those safety features work is the springs lose their elasticity.
Glad it’s fixed!
You had quite a day Nancy! Glad the dentist was helpful :).
Being in the dentist’s chair was a relaxing ~> AFTER the laughing gas kicked in!
Aah . . . that’s better!
What is a composite restoration? It’s the only dental procedure I haven’t had! My experience with garage doors is that one day they don’t go up leaving you carless until you figure out how to disengage the thingie and push it up. That’s when you realize that you need to work your arm muscles more. Hope the car isn’t too badly crunched.
It’s a filling on the front surface of the tooth . . .
The main advantage of a direct dental composite over traditional materials such as amalgam is improved aesthetics. Composites can be in a wide range of tooth colors allowing near invisible restoration of teeth. Composite fillings can be closely matched to the color of existing teeth.
Car’s OK.
Door’s spring has been tightened.
And my teeth look great!
Ahhh! I have veneers on my front teeth but I do have some of those composite thingies too.
My mouth is sort of like that garage door, when I go to the dentist. I’ll open wide, but when he starts poking around in there, I want to chomp down on him. Glad your car survived unscathed.
I can imagine your dentist’s Worker’s Chomp claim now!
You have to watch those sneaky garage doors! One time visit crowns are awesome. Of course, we don’t have them here in the sticks… yet.
It’s a great advance! And becoming more common.
A guy in the next chair over came in on vacation from Maryland to have his temporary crown re-cemented. He asked our dentist if he could just do a one day permanent crown instead.
Showing “advanced ethics,” our dentist said they would call the guy’s regular dentist to find out if the permanent crown had already been fabricated. If it had, he wouldn’t agree to make a one day crown because that would be “cheating.”
The guy left with a temporary crown re-cemented until his dentist could install the permanent (which had already been fabricated).
Dentists, ugh! It didn’t have many ups and down in my day. It was mostly flat. 🙂
I can hear your dentist now . . .
“I need you to remove that paper sack from your head.”
“What paper sack?”
“That paper bag over your head. It’s in the way.”
“In the way of what, pray tell?”
“I can’t get in there to work on your teeth until you remove it.”
“Well, I guess we’re at a stalemate, eh?”
Hey, wait a minute! Were you listening at the door with a pen and notebook?
Not at all! I was fleeing a crazed dishwasher and just happened to stumble upon your stalemate, mate!
Hope the car isn’t too badly damaged. Lucky it wasn’t one of those car-crushers in the scrapyards. 😊
The car’s OK . . . and, yes! I wouldn’t have sat in the driver’s seat to ponder the situation if my Honda was trapped in the jaws of a car crusher.
Run first. Think later.
Oh my word!!!! What an up and down day, Nancy! Hope your car is okay.
Thanks, Linda. The day shook me up . . . but I didn’t let it bring me down.
That was quite a day, Nancy. My mom ‘s garage door came down on her car too, but that was because she pressed the button too soon. 😯
I wondered whether “user error” was to blame, but realized I had NOT hit the button . . . especially the 2nd time when it landed on the car. So I was “in the clear.”
Automatic garage door openers are so nice … until they turn against you. I’m glad you didn’t get crushed. I might have panicked and run from the car.
I debated getting out of the car to assess the situation, but I was late for the dentist due to the rain . . . so I gambled. And won.
Whew! Those Hondas are good!
Those Nancy dentals are good too!
You had me worried there….
Glad it was a happy ending (although expensive) all round 💛
Thanks, Val. The garage door repair was reasonable. Less than a $100 to come out, give the springs a tune up, and inspect and lubricate the whole assembly.
My teeth cost a few dollars more than that . . .
I bet! But look at the smile you have now 😁
Perfect for photos ~> “C~H~E~E~S~E!”
I always found that when the roof developed a leak it was when it was raining.
Yes . . . leaks are sneaky! Lurking about in the shadows when the weather is clear, biding their time, waiting to announce their presence only after the deluge.
I hope your Honda wasn’t damaged too much?
Not a scratch on it! Thanks to the rubber gasket on the bottom edge of the garage door.
Enough to set your teeth on edge – maybe adding a sideways movement to all these ups and downs?
In the last couple of days we have had a garage door incident, where it transpires that when I clean the remote in a place completely remote from the garage, the signal manages to travel all that way!
Our remote travels quite a distance too, Col. Hope your garage door incident ended without serious incident.
That was a great up-down story, Nancy! I hope the crown stays down and the garage door knows when it’s supposed to be up.
I think we’ve got the garage door all sorted out . . . it’s been on its BEST behavior.
That kind of incident would send me into a complete panic. When something mechanical goes awry I rarely handle it well. Glad to hear neither you or your car were hurt in the incident!!
Even at the time, this incident seemed like a minor *blip* . . .
Now, if the garage door had barreled down and squashed the car with great force (and malice aforethought), I would have jumped into panic mode and stayed there until the Nitrous Oxide kicked in.
Speaking of being “hurt in the incident” . . . how is YOUR recovery going? I hope you’re feeling stronger every day.
Your comment about malice forethought gave me the image of the garage door being a large mouth chewing on your car!
Thanks for asking – my recovery is taking much longer than I hoped. I’ve been given another 5 weeks. Sigh.
Haha! That image is apt to appear in my dreams tonight.
Sorry your recovery has been slow going . . . but at least it sounds like you’re moving in the right direction. Keep it up!
Good for you for continuing on to the dentist! I might have been tempted to see the garage door malfunction as a sign that I needed to stay home. 🙂 I’m so impressed that you didn’t have to go through a temporary crown. I dread dental work; mostly how much it costs!
When I think of the Universe of things to spend money on, dental work isn’t even close to the top of the list. That said, the better our teeth, the more enjoyable our meals and our smiles.
At the time, it didn’t seem like a sign to abort the appointment, but (overall) it did feel like an Eeyore type of day. Until the Nitrous kicked in . . . then it was all good again.
On my way to the eye doc this morning for a retro of my prescription! Hopefully the garage door will abide.
Good luck! Hope the garage door, car, and traffic all behave.