Oh What A Morning

I woke up this morning and found that the Weather Channel was right. 3-5 inches was expected and 3-5 inches is what we got. As always, there were drifts that made certain areas shallow while others quite deep. I had to work this morning so I figured I'd get the shoveling out of the way 1st thing. So at 6:30am I was out shoveling the snow, having a jolly good time. It was a thick, wet snow, so needless to say my back is feeling it now. After that I headed in for a warm boal of oatmeal, took a shower, caught up on the goings on online, then decided that it was time to finally leave for work. I did my normal routine where I push the garage button from inside, then get my shoes on, that way I don't wait for the door to open. It went halfway up and stopped. Okay, push the button again. It closed. Push it again and nothing. Uh oh. So I trek outside to the side garage door. Do you think I shoveled that area?? Heck no. That's where I put the excess snow. So much for that as I trudge through the excess snow. The side door is quite old so you gotta use some force to get it open. I get in the garage and push the button in there. It starts grinding with no action. I push it again, still grinding but nothing. Push it again, it stops. Hmmmm. What should I do? I push the button and use manual effort to get the door up and succeed, but only by so much. Yep, it's time to get the husband. Feeling bad, I wake David up on his day off. He recommends taking his car but it's covered in snow. He gets up. While I wait for him I decide to clear his car as much as possible, just to have a possible backup. All the while with the wind blowing the snow right back into my face. Still having a jolly time. When he gets outside we both inspect the door and end up getting it open enough to get my car out. I ended up leaving for work while he started to disassemble the opener. Once I got on the road I found the roads to be a sheet of ice. I got to work safely but driving on an ice skating rink is no fun.

I just got a call from David and he believes he's found the problem....a stripped gear. We're not sure if we'll be able to find the gear but we'll check it out later today. I have a feeling we're avoiding the inevitable. Throughout the past year we've been having on and off problems with our garage door. It will do the whole "close and open right back up" thing and we'll have to mess with it until it actually stays closed. In all honesty we've never found out what truly fixes it as everytime something else tends to "fix" it. Quite frustrating. In addition, within the past 2 weeks it's been acting erratic where I'm not sure if it will stay closed or not. I just never know. So even if the gear is fixable, I still wonder if it's just time for a new opener. And of course if we need a new opener more than likely a new door would be a good idea too. We still have a wood door that's showing it's age terribly. As always, time will tell. In the meantime we're not going to sweat it. You're probably saying, "Heidi, you, not sweat it?!" Yep, you heard right. Don't get me wrong. I want it fixed, but as I've found with so many things recently, things will be fixed whether you worry about them or not. I figured we'll check things out at Sears, Home Depot, and Lowes, but it's not like I'm going to be on a mission to fix this thing. It will be fixed, but for now I just want to enjoy our weekend, even if it's slushy and snowfilled.