Garage Doors

We have a love-hate relationship with garage doors.

We love that in a happy world you can drive up, push a button, and the thing opens. We love that it allows you to park your car within the privacy of your own home so that if you have forgotten something inside said car you don't have to get fully dressed to go get it (and we even put carpet remnants up to the car doors so you can do this without getting your feet cold either). We love that in this world of having too much stuff we can proudly say that our garage has our car like it should, and not just stuff like everyone else on the street whose garages are full of stuff. We love having a clear driveway because we only have one vehicle and it stays in said garage. This means that in the summertime my tomatoes get full sunlight and the world is a happy place.

However, there comes times when our garage door does NOT make us happy. Like when it comes off track and jams through the ceiling (that's happened a few times). Or like when the main spring breaks...

Sunday morning we had a slight opportunity to get to church early enough for the opening song and for them to announce my new calling (teaching R.S. once a month). We scramble to get everyone in the car and we hit the button and for a slight, blissful moment we hear the whirring of the electric marvel that is our garage door, doing it's duty and lifting, lifting...

Nope. not gonna happen. Today we shall NOT get our car out through our garage door.

You can't squeeze a sedan through a 6" gap no matter how much you stretch the laws of physics. Grrrrr... It's raining and cold, so we're not gonna walk with two kids.

We call up my mom and get a ride to church and inform our landlord, the Whitmers of the horrible plight (this will be the 4th time we've had problems with our garage door in 4 years). We get rides home from church from our friends. All our Sunday evening activities where we thought it would be cool to drive to were stymied. Our dear home teacher, Bro. Stanley looks at the thing after church, as does James, and they both see that there's no way it'll work.

Bro. Stanley has been itching to do some kind of service for us for a long time now. We have taken him up on the offer once in the last year or so that he's been our Home Teacher. Finally, we capitulate and agree to service, so Stephanie comes to get Luke in the morning to drive him to school.

I however, will ride my bike the 6 miles one way to work. It has been at least 9 months since I did this, but I NEED to do this to train for the half-marathon in May that I'll be walking. Lazy Marianne took about 1 hr. and 15 minutes to ride 6 stinkin' miles in a nice morning drizzle. My legs are sore now. Last year I got it down to about 45min. on a good day. I'm just not that fast at riding my bike. I got a ride halfway home so I only had 3 1/2 miles home, which took me 40 + minutes. Joggers were passing me up. From Autzen Stadium to my house took 19 minutes! I could do it in 10 before (Actually, it might be longer than 6 miles to work, now that I think about it).

I get home and they tell us that they can't fix the garage until WED??? I'll be on a plane to CT on Wed. !! They were supposed to at least come and help us get our car out Monday. Hah. that didn't happen. So today I get a ride because my little legs are not up for a 12 mile round-trip stress again. Oh look, it's raining. Even better...

I MISS TECHNOLOGY THAT WORKS!!! Whaaaahhh!