Raincharm’s Weblog

We have been back in the house for about 1-1/2 months now I think.
One of the last big pieces to get finished was the garage door replacement.
Our one piece wooden manually operated door was replaced with an articulating metal/vinyl electric door.

We don’t park our car in the garage even with an easy-open door, but you never know.

If we had tried we might have figured out our latest learning experience a bit sooner.

When the garage door guy was finishing up, he walked me through the operation of the door from inside the garage.

After that, the door stayed shut most of the time.

When the kids were home we did some major cardboard crushing  (floor protection pieces) and moved them into the garage for holding until recycle day. When it was time to move them to the curb, Rey and I took a garage door opener outside and attempted to open the door. No luck. It was pretty light, so I figured it did not have a battery and sent Rey inside to open the door with the handy button in the garage.

Rey got into the garage, but could not find the button at first.
Meanwhile, Carl (in the dining room above the garage) found the other opener, pushed the button, and we were in business.

Fast forward a few weeks.
Now we have a landscape type working to put in a French drain and replace our broken concrete sidewalk. He says he is used to the elements, but we are in a particularly wet and getting windy stretch, so I wanted him to have a place to at least get dry. I was going to get him an opener, so he could get into the garage at will.

I asked Carl to figure out which one had batteries, and leave it on the kitchen table for the contractor.
Carl called back to tell me that neither opener worked from outside.
They only worked when you were inside the garage.

Hmmmmmm. Could it be weak batteries?

When I got home I took both outside.
Even standing next to the garage they would not work.
I went to the inside garage door, still no luck.

Then I turned on the garage light, hit the button, and the light went on in the garage, and also in my brain.

The garage door guy installed the door, and motor, but he does not do electrical work.
The garage door opener is plugged into the light. When the light is off – no power to the door.

One more thing – almost there.

And this evening we went out to see the Wizard of Oz.
At the Sky Church screen, and the EMP (Experience Music Project)

Oz, on a really big screen

It is still a great movie, and when they had a brief intermission (when we reached the Emerald City) we went into the Myths and Magic exhibit, and saw the Witch’s hat, the Cowardly Lion costume (real lion pelts) and a Winkie Guard costume as well.

Now I had heard that you can play Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon along with the movie and it will track. At the end of the movie, Pink Floyd starts playing. We were talking about this with one of the workers, and he thought it would have been cool if Paul Allen showed up in the “Blue room” and had the Pink Floyd soundtrack as an alternative viewing. (Apparently the Blue room is acoustically separate from the Sky Church.)

This entry was posted on January 9, 2014 at 11:25 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.