MacGyver Lives

Today really got off to a ridiculously horrible start, albeit slightly entertaining. As I walked out the door to go to work, I hit the garage door opener only to see the door move about an inch. Upon careful inspection of all the mechanical parts I could find, I noticed the cables on both upper corners of the door were disconnected, which certainly seemed like a problem to me. I called Chad, who was already on his way down to Wichita on business, so he called our always reliable friend Grant, who has the mind and knowledge of a mechanical engineer (seen here probably describing how he fixed a garbage disposal out of tube socks and a roll of duct tape).

Grant came to my rescue in minutes, and after a quick visual inspection he had identified the real problem--not the cables that I thought were broken, but rather the giant spring above the door that was completely severed (not exactly sure how I missed that one). Grant attempted to lift the door manually with no success, which made me feel a little better since I'd tried earlier and couldn't get it to move a millimeter. With the spring broken, even with the door dislodged from the track, the door felt impossible to move without the strength of ten...ordinary men. Grant thought maybe he just needed a Red Bull, but since he didn't have any energy drinks, he grabbed the floor jack and a piece of scrap lumber and got the door up a tiny bit. We shoved more wood underneath until we could get a 2 X 4 in there, and then made a little lever and got the door up a few feet. Once it got about waist high, Grant was able to use his Herculean strength to lift the door all the way up. He wedged the 2 X 4 in between the door and the driveway long enough for me to back the Escape out, and then we used the lever to lower the garage door slowly back down. It was quite an adventure!

Thanks to our dear friend, I made it to work for my 9:00 meeting and had my car for the rest of the day's events. Yea Grant!