To set the scene a little more, it was in the 20's here on Sunday, and with the sun high in the sky, the snow began to melt. I enjoyed looking up from the computer, looking out my patio doors and watching the crap on my deck drip down to the ground. :-) Of course, without the bright sunshine, everything froze up again overnight.
So here I am, running late. I'm yanking on my jacket, boots, hat, etc as fast as I can. I jerk open the door to the garage, hit the button to open the big garage door and turn out the light. Only the garage door isn't opening all the way. It would try to go up, not make it, go down again, try again to go up, go down again and so on and so on and so on. And I'm standing there watching this going, huh? Remember, it's only 5:30 in the morning and I'm not at my best till about 9. :-)
The first thing that had me perplexed was why the door wouldn't go up. The second thing was why didn't it just try once and give up? It was like the thing was possessed as it kept trying and trying. I hit the door button again, thinking that might stop it's wild attempts to open, but of course, that didn't help.
Eventually, though, during this noisy few minutes I figure out that the door is frozen to the ground on the right side. Great, I mutter. Okay, it might have been a slightly stronger word than that, but you get the drift. I turn on my overhead garage lights because the opener's lights are too dim, throw my bag and purse in the front seat and go to check out the situation. Sure enough, the seal is frozen in place. Since I've worked with engineers and former airplane mechanics for so long, I quickly knew how to handle the situation: Give the affected area a good swift kick.
I returned to the house, gave the button another push and the door opened. And somehow, I even made it to the EDJ on time. =8-O
When I arrived home Monday afternoon, I saw in full daylight what I'd kind of seen in the dark that morning. The rubber seal at the bottom of the garage door had been pulled loose by the opener's insistence on bringing the door up and the ice's insistence that it wasn't letting it go. It's still hooked in position by the attachments on either side of it, but it's definitely drooping in that one spot. Better yet, though, was the metal strip on the side just above the seal--it had been bent. Sigh. It was blatant in the sun.
