Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Broken Garage Door Opener @Solsticepublish

So today my garage door opener decided to stop working.  I reset the breakers in my basement and nothing changed.  Next I inspected the garage door opener and saw that it was not receiving power.  Following the cord back to the GFI plug I saw that it had tripped.  The plug is in the ceiling of my garage and it is about 12 feet high.  I used various poking devices to try to reset the GFI but it was no use.  That led to the part I feared and dreaded.  I would have to go on a ladder to get at it.  Ladders themselves do not scare me.  I happen to have a problem with vertigo and my balance is not good at all.  So the little orange light stayed on, as if it was laughing at me way down on the ground.  Finally I mustered up my courage and brought out the ladder.   The next problem was that the car was parked under the plug.  I tried to manually release the garage door in order to open it.  It would not budge.  The best I could do was place the ladder next to the car and reach over.  To complicate matters, the closest point to place the ladder was directly beneath the garage door opener.  I climbed the ladder and bent my body between the car and the opener.  It quickly became apparent that I would need to go to the top of the ladder to reach the plug.  That was right next to the opener and impossible to stand on.  The plug was also several feet over above the car.  So I had to put one foot on the ladder and one knee on the top of the car to get under the plug.  The ladder began to slide as I shifted my weight toward the car.  At last I was in position.  Then my vertigo started making everything move around.  I wasted no time.  I reached up and reset the GFI.  At least I tried to.  I pressed the button and nothing happened.  Again and again I pressed it to no avail.  Then I unplugged the garage door opener and tried it.  The GFI reset perfectly.  Then I plugged the opener back in and it tripped again.  I inspected the wires as best I could and they looked fine.  So I tried it one more time and the GFI still tripped.  Then I lost my balance and hung onto the car for dear life.  I don’t know if the ladder wobbled or I did but there was movement.  I contorted my body and managed to slide down the ladder, collapsing on the ground with the world spinning around me.  When I made it to my feet I called the electrician who did our wiring on our 2 ½ year old house.  He said he would be over.  After arriving he told me that my wiring was fine and that I needed to contact the company who installed the opener.  After calling my builder I was given the number of the contractor.  Upon calling him I found he only supplied the parts and I needed to call the service department.  By the time I was able to contact them they said it was too late in the day to come out.  So after all that I have an appointment for tomorrow morning.  And the story continues…

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