It wasn’t pride (or shame) that got me out of my recliner yesterday and out into the yard to do some serious work. It was the garage door opener. The remote, that is. It stopped working.

It’s been balking and giving me fits for months, but I’ve been putting up with it because I’ve always been able to make it work, with a little extra effort. The garage door assembly came with the house, and as you know my landlord isn’t inclined to make repairs to anything that he considers a mere convenience. He flat out told me that if anything went wrong with the washer-dryer, I was on my own, so I knew better than to ask him about the garage door remote.

Still, when it stops working completely, the incentive to handle the problem goes up dramatically. As of yesterday, my solution was to leave the side door to the garage slightly ajar. And that’s what got me out of the house with the weed trimmer in my hand. The only way to get to that side door was through some of the highest weeds in all of the acreage. So I went out and hacked myself a path. It wasn’t the best answer, but it was the only one I had. And it got me some much needed exercise in the bargain.

Today, though, I took the remote apart and saw that it wasn’t going to be fixed. There was something rattling around inside it, and sure enough, a piece had broken. So I went online to try to figure out what to do. Little did I know how easy it was to order a replacement, and how easy it will be to program the new one to do what the old one does. Or did, before it stopped doing anything. I just open it up and flip all the switches into the same position as the old one, and I’m there. It wasn’t even expensive, so all I have to hope for now is that it gets here. And that it really does work that easily.