Snookered by the Garage Door

When I arrive home from work, the cats know because they hear the garage door open.  They often are sitting at the garage door leading to the house, waiting for me, when I arrive home. I imagine they did that tonight.  But, when I drove into the garage, I noticed the tire pressure indicator light was on.  I wished I had seen it before I got all the way home, but not so.  

I backed out and closed the garage door, and drove the mile and a half or so to the  Discount Tires Store where I trade.  When I arrived back home, I could hear Haiku mewing loudly at the garage door. She was not happy with me, and I assumed it was because of the false alarm of having opened and closed the garage door once, before I stayed home.  

She was waiting at the door to the house.  Crying loudly. Hmmm.

Garage Door Problems

So, the last weekend was a weekend of woes.  In addition to the plumbing problems, I had garage door problems.  When I returned home from the laundromat, the garage door would not open.  Oh, no. 

The worst part of that was that I did not have my purse, and I did not have a set of door keys with me.  I called a couple of people:  my cat sitter, and a friend who has a set of keys for my house.  My friend was not home, and the cat sitter called back after a while, and came over to let me in the house. I have two sets of house keys, so I took one set with me when I went somewhere, and will continue to do so. 

I had actually thought about that the previous week, when bad weather was moving in, and I realized that if there was a power outage, I would not be able to get in.  But, I did nothing about it.  Bad on me. 

On December 20, 2016, I left work for the afternoon, waiting for the plumber and the garage door repairman.  Well, the garage door repairman from Classic Doors  http://www.garagedoorslubbock.com/ came late in the afternoon.  I had told them I had a Genie garage door opener, but when he arrived, he did not have a working part for the garage door opener.  He asked me when I would be home on Wednesday.  I told him it would be late, I had taken off work today to get this fixed, and I was not going to do that a second day. He showed me he could open the door, with some effort, although I could not.  He said to lock the house Wednesday, and leave the door so he could get in and fix it on Wednesday.

After he left, I wedged a log in the door track so it would be harder to open.  A while later, the repairman from Classic Doors called me and said he arranged to get a part and could come back and fix the door. He did. That was very nice. I am thankful to have a working garage door.

Classic Doors gets an Aplus in my book!

Haiku in the Garage

Haiku likes to be in the garage when it is warmer than the house.  Even in the summer. She likes to be in the garage when it is warm, and the engine on the Vue is warm, and she can lay on the hood of the vehicle.  She likes to be in the garage when the clothes dryer, which is in the garage, is running and spews humid heat into the garage. It is like her sauna.

Haiku also likes to get on the top shelves in the garage, and stay on them for long periods of time.  So if I am needing to use the vehicle or go in and out of the garage from the overhead garage door, I have to prohibit her from going into the garage. Because once she gets on a high shelf, she does not come down on command.

I am in for the night. The garage is warmer than the house. The Vue hood was warm, and the clothes dryer is in operation.  Haiku is in the garage.

A Cat Scare, Or Taki in the Garage

When I arrived home Friday night, and opened the garage door, unfortunately, I saw the door to the house open, and Taki standing in the garage, facing the door.  Taki is always hesitant to go through a door that opens and closes. That, to me, is good.  I do not want her to be the escape artist Sake was and Haiku still is sometimes.  But this time, she was hesitant to return to the house.  I could see her start towards the door, then back up.  I  am sure the noise of the garage door lifting startled her, also.

I stopped the car before I got too far into the garage, and by the time I could get out and into the garage, Taki did go into the house.  I checked, and Haiku was in the house also. So, all was well. 

I need to double check when I leave, to be sure I have closed that door securely.

The Noise

I heard the noise at night.  I could not tell what it was or where it came from.  It sounded very much like a cat had knocked something over. I looked throughout the house, and even outside front and back. I could find nothing.

Until, in the morning.  A cable had snapped on the garage door. I could not open the garage door and get the car out. I called a repair service and they came shortly after opening.  The serviceman could repair the springs and cables, but not the garage door opener.  He thought he could be back the same morning to finish the job. He did. The door is fixed.