Rant: Attention Home Owners

Um, did I miss the memo? The memo explaining that your garage door has to be "maintained" monthly. Ok, so I've learned this the hard, er...expensive way. When I tried to close my garage door this morning (the boys and I had been out all morning enjoying the aftereffects of Gustav: a ton of wind and freakishly cool temperatures--I'm talking 73 degrees here) it groaned and jerked and the next thing I know, it was hanging all crooked and wouldn't budge. A couple of the wheels were off the track, one of the tracks was bent, and the cord that winds up had come off its wheel and started winding around the bar across the top. Yikes.

$250 bucks later, I have learned that part of what contributed to its problem (aside from the fact its a cheapo builder-model door and opener) is that we haven't been "maintaining" it by "lubing" it each month. Lube is another really gross sounding word, and I heard it way too much today. According to my Repair Man (who was thankfully NOT a perv), no one is aware that they are supposed to be "lubing" their wheels, spring, and chain each month to keep everything working properly. (That is unless you have "self-lubing" higher-quality stuff. Then you're off the monthly maintenance hook, I guess). I'm supposed to go look for some junk called Liquid Wrench.

So now you've got the memo--go lube yourselves (or at least your garage doors) and save yourselves the cash and the headache.

And I love that my group of Men seems to be multiplying everyday: I've got my Tire Man, my Garage Door Repair Man, my really, really incompetent AT&T Phone Man. It's like my very own Village People. Oooh, should I drop a match on Jeremy's Barry Manilow collection so I could add a Fire Man to the group?