What A Day! Part 1: The Garage Door

The day started out beautifully. Having gone to bed minutes after tucking in the children, I awoke refreshed and renewed... after hitting snooze just twice. The children woke with ease and every one got ready within reasonable time.
The boy surprised me with his ability to open the car door and get himself into his booster and his sisters followed suit soon after. Well, except Nature Girl. She likes to be the garage opener in the morning.
I haven't told you about the garage yet.
Though it is an automatic door, there is no mobile door opener, so I have to open it, pull out the car, run back inside and close it by again pressing the button on the wall. I have to wait to make sure it actually closes because it has a tendency to pop back open. "An historic problem," the letting agent (rental company) tells me, but the owners have been reluctant to fix it. Then I run through the house and out the front door to get into the car.

Not my garage door, but it's green, so close enough. 
Photo by CaryWaynePeterson via Flickr

Today, as I was buckling my younger daughter, Nature Girl hit the "open" button and after a moment there was a terrible crashing sound, as if a glass door had just shattered. I turned sharply with the expectation of seeing shards scattered over the garage floor, but it was just a spring. Well, a very big spring; the one that opens the garage door. It had snapped off the door and made that terrible clatter. The door was open a few feet, but hardly enough to get the car through.
I regarded my clean hands for a moment, then pushed on the mud-splattered door. It wasn't easy, so I tried the button once more to see what would happen. It closed. Good. I pressed it again and it began to open. It stopped in the same place. I approached it again wondering how the he& I would get my children to school. I pushed it with vigor this time and managed to get it all the way open. Perfect.
With the method I previously described, I got it closed, got in the car and got the kids to school on time.
Great then! The day went on, I emailed the agent and the garage will be attended to, finally. I laundered the British way, discovering that those heated towel bars work brilliantly on sheets if I crank up the heat! I can hardly wait to snuggle into clean, fresh sheets tonight. But wine first. And I'll go on. In my next post...