A mechanically challenged person (like, say, me, for example) will sometimes tend to accept inconveniences that a real craftsman would handle in his spare time. Like during a commercial or between innings. Someone who knows plumbing could probably do whatever it is my toilet needs doing while reading Stephen Hawking with his other hand. Or at least Robert Fulghum.

So that’s why I put up with a recalcitrant garage door remote for lo these many months. I’ve had it five years, and I’m pretty sure it worked okay when I first moved in here. Gradually, and almost imperceptibly, it stopped working quite so well. A few months ago, when I was suffering the worst of my bout with tendonitis, it got really bad.

The only way to open the garage door was to point the opener directly at the door and squeeze the recessed button with both thumbs at the upper left corner, pushing up and in at the same time. Sometimes I had to perform this ritual several times, while standing two feet from the garage door, before it would open. It sort of defeats the purpose of having the device in the first place.

Then over the last weekend I heard a rattle from inside the remote, and it wouldn’t work at all. I had to go to remedial measures, opening the side door to the garage and pushing the button inside the garage to make the door go up and down. So I googled “garage door remote” and found not only that they are cheap, but also that they’re easy to program.

So I ordered two of them, and yesterday they arrived in the mail, and today my life changed totally for the better. All I have to do is tap the button and the door goes up. I’m keeping one in the house and one in the car. It works from inside my front door, and it also works from the end of my driveway. For the first time, I can tap the button as I’m pulling in, and by the time I get to the garage, the door is open and waiting for me.

Now, if only I’d had the new remotes last spring when my wrists and arms were suffering so, I’d have had a much easier time coping with the pain. If I’d been the slightest bit mechanically inclined, I could have done it. But the thing is, it took a complete breakdown for me to get desperate enough to try something. If I could still use the deadly force of both thumbs on the old remote, I wouldn’t even have the new ones yet.