Boat Blogs and Garage Doors.....

Boat Blogs are hard. Who would of thought? Let me explain, blogging to me is more than just a rambling diary of mundane occurrences in my life. I see it as commentary on things that I have become passionate about, subjects that fire me up and I need to get out in the open. I need to find it interesting once it is on the computer, if not why should you read it? The Boat Blogging environment in itself contradicts this philosophy.

When I am on the boat, my perspective changes. It is where I love to go to ultimately relax. A Bacardi and Coke, a sunset and warm weather and the stress of everyday life disappears. A morning coffee on deck watching ducks and muskrats cruise the river and the day starts tension free. A beer and friendly, casual conversation far from the troubles of the world and I get lost in the moment. Emotion for that pressing blog subject matter wanes until it is but a mere sliver of light in the back of my brain.

And then sit down to write a blog and there is no passion, no urgency, no feeling that I’ve got to get this off my chest. I started twice in the last month. Both times I wrote for about an hour and what I ended up with was rambling dribble about simple events that were neither interesting or socially relevant. Being at the boat puts me into such a mellow state of mind that blogging becomes near impossible.

I’m going to try it again soon, maybe change tactics some and try to write shorter less poignant material. In the mean time I’ll keep the really deep stuff for writing elsewhere. Like today, writing on lunch at work.

“OK”, you say, “so what is making the old Microe passionate this fine day?” Well it is things that mess up my boat time! As you can probably ascertain from the comments above, I hold my boat time near and dear to my heart. It is one of the few places where I feel I can totally decompress. So when something un-expected interferes with my boat time, I get extremely frustrated (or in laymen’s terms, “pissed!”).

No I don’t try and spend every minute on the boat, there are many planned things we do that eat what might be boat time, like parties, piano recitals, weddings, trips out of town, etc. And I can deal with those because I have made a conscious decision to make the sacrifice. It is those un-planned things that really turn my crank.

Last night had the potential of turning into one of those un-expected interruptions. You see the 4 day Fourth of July weekend is a day away. I planned on heading from work to the boat both today (Thursday) and tomorrow (Friday) and stay as much as possible, going back to the house for only an occasional planned event like T-Man’s piano lesson, a bonfire Saturday, and maybe a party Tuesday.

So last night we thought we would head to Mug Club for awhile and see what is all going on with all of our friends. After lots of good conversation and a couple of beers, we headed home. Upon arriving in the driveway the garage door won’t open. At first I’m thinking the battery in the remote, but then I notice it trying to open but not going up but about 3 inches. I go inside think something is stuck in the track but nothing is. I hit the wall button and the door acts jammed and the top panel has buckled where the opener attaches.

Now at this point I would have just walked away except Sweetpea’s car is in the garage and I am planning major boat time and she needs her car. So I need to get the door open to get it out and my plan of heading straight to the boat won’t be interrupted.

I disengage the garage door opener and try lifting it by hand. But the door goes up crooked and a two rollers fall out. The track on the left side is bent?! I try to push it back down and it is jammed. I get the T-Man to help but the door won’t cooperate. I remove the hinges from the top panel and leave it hanging from the opener, (the car will clear it). We manage to the door high enough to get the car out. Mission one accomplished. Now we need to get it back down to secure the garage. It goes down cocked, jams and more rollers fallout. It is about this time I see the culprit. The tension cable on the right side is broke, The only way I can get the door down is cut the left side tension cable, so I do. fwing!!!!!!!

By this time the door is free, completely…. No rollers are on the track, the bottom 3 door panels are laying on a garbage can and a stool attached to nothing, the top panel is hanging from the opener. T-Man and I lean the bottom three panels back into place and are able to put in a couple of rollers to hold it up. I put the top panel back in place and hammer the bend back out with my fist. I’m able to get the hinges back on and the top rollers back in so it isn’t going anywhere. The door is now in place and the garage is secure and it is after 1:00 am.

It is still broke though, won’t go up, I may need to replace the whole thing this time. But the cars are outside and repairs are going to wait for quite awhile. You see it is boating season and I need my boat time!

L8r microe

PS. There were no tantrums, no tools flung, no swear words, and most of all no injurys to any persons (the door is another story) during this incident. See boat time works!