it’s a bug….. (ger)

I’m out early to get a paper as is my habit on a saturday morning.  On my return, instead of reading it, I put it away - a pleasure for later when I have done ‘a job’.  Oh yes - today I make a start on the list.

My first task is to make some shelves for a cupboard in our porch.  Long overdue - fair play to Anniemay who has coped admirably with bags (assorted) falling from a temporary support. 

There’s a fair bit of sawing involved which always makes a mess so I decide to open the garage door and move my Workmate (a portable bench, not Anniemay) onto the front drive.

The garage door is an electric roll up type.  We had the original door replaced some time ago when the wind caught hold of the old up-and-over door as Anniemay opened it and took it up and over her head.
 
The electric door is not only safer, it’s also provides hours of fun for the children (28 and 30) who like to play Indiana Jones when they visit, by closing the door (from the inside) and then trying to get under and out before it closes on top of them.  My, how we laugh.  

The remote control has been unpredictable of late.  The door opens half way then stops.  Pressing the button closes it again. It sometimes takes half a dozen attempts before it opens properly.  Perhaps it’s not surprising…..  

….. it is Anniemay’s habit to leave the house by the garage door and throw the remote into the door pocket of her car.  One morning she returned from the gym via the front door, a little shamefaced.  She’d lost the remote.  We search the car but to no avail.  She goes back to the gym to see if it’s been handed in.  But no.  

A week later at the gym, she happens to park in the very same spot.  As she gets out of the car, she sees the remote lying on the ground.  It’s in a bad way.  If this was an old cowboy film, we’d put a stick in its mouth to stop it from crying out as we try and remove the bullets.

The remote has been run over and rained on.  It has suffered all sorts of indignities over the past 7 days.  She gathers up the bits and brings them home.  With the aid of superglue and gaffer tape I get it working again.  Of course this is only ever meant to be a temporary fix, but what with blip, I never seem to get round to buying a new one.

Back to today; I struggle to open the door. Eventually it sorts itself out and I sort myself out and get on with making the shelves.  

When I’ve finished (oh yes - job done and a line through Number 1 on the list) I’m unable to close the door.  

Hanging from the overhead track (which is the means by which the door is raised and lowered) is a cord with a red handle. I seem to remember that the purpose of this cord is to enable the door to be closed in the event of a power failure.  So I pull it.  

What I fail to recall is that a tiny green button, which I miss on account of it being tiny, is meant to be engaged first.  The door flies down the track and crashes to the ground.  Mercifully undamaged, but now disengaged from the track which regulates its progress.  This is not something I can fix.  Not even with superglue and gaffer tape.  It’s well and truly buggered.  It’ll have to wait until I can call the installer.   In the meantime I read the paper and get on with my blip.