Adventures In Being a Single Home Owner

Just in case Saturday's debacle was not embarrassing enough, I had the chance for an encore performance on Sunday. Sometime around noon without explanation, the power went out. Normally I would assume the problem stemmed from the many construction crews who inhabit my neighborhood, but since it was Sunday I knew this was probably not the case.

I decided not to get too caught up in the problem since I was just about to head out the door and run some errands anyway. I finished getting ready, grabbed my purse and sunglasses and headed for the garage. Then it hit me... my car was trapped inside! With no power, I couldn't get the door open.

A few minutes of sulking later, it occurred to me that I had heard somewhere all automatic garage doors were required to have manual access (probably for shopping emergencies such as this). I walked outside only to find the handle and door locked. It was clear I would have to work on this from the inside in the dark. After I went into the garage, it didn't take me too long to figure out how to unlock the door. My new problem seemed to be the weight of said garage door. It appeared light enough, although required me to squat all the way down to the last frame and push the door up little by little.

Since there was little to do indoors without power, once again my friendly neighbors were out in front of their houses and lucky enough to catch spectacle number two of the weekend. My feet were sliding back and forth, jungle animal grunt noises were escaping from my mouth, and finally a slowly opened garage door revealed a frustrated home owner.

I quickly backed my car out of the garage for fear the door would come crashing down on top of it. Now all I had to do was close the door and I would be on my way. I was greatly mistaken in thinking pulling the door shut would be easier than pushing it open. I grabbed onto the two latches I had used to open the door and pulled with all my might. Instead of the door sliding down, I seemed to be lifting up. The door was actually heavier than I am to the extent that I could hang from the handles and it wouldn't budge.

I decided I should throw in the towel, lock the house door and go on my merry way. Clearly this garage door wasn't moving. If someone wanted to steal empty moving boxes and recycling, there was simply nothing I could do about it at this point.
Upon my return, I was happy to see the power was back on, it seemed I hadn't broken the garage door using it as a parallel bar, and my half used paint cans were still in place.


Addendum: After retelling my misadventure to my grandfather this morning, he looked at me and laughed for a good ten minutes. Later he told me all I needed to do was pull an interior cord by the opener switching it to A MANUAL SETTING. After releasing the chains, the door will just roll up without effort.
Ugh... awesome. At least my arms got a good workout.