The Aerie
It was another tiring day of unemployment for me. I did something in the morning but I can't remember what it was. That's the kind of day yesterday was. Oh, yeah, that's right, I had reading homework for one of my college classes. I drove my neighbor to the airport at 7:30 a.m., and afterwards I stopped at a Bruegger's, intending to have breakfast and hit the gym.
While I ate I started reading my homework, which is a part of my learning process that is usually very difficult for me. However the reading went so well that I stayed until I finished and ended up skipping the gym. I finished my reading and headed to the bank to get another printout of my June records for my accountant, who is working on my 2006 taxes. Unfortunately I discovered upon arrival that the bank's new lobby hours began at noon. Worse, I remembered getting a letter to that effect, so I had nobody to be annoyed at except myself.
I drove home for a quick lunch and to change. After lunch I had a meeting with a fellow who needs some part-time maintenance and break-fix for his small office network. Not my usual cuppa tea, but it might have some positive application to some other projects I'm working on, so I'm considering it.
Went home, changed out of my monkey suit, and set about some wrapping-up-the-week activities, and cleaning up my office. Then my spouse got home and shouted "The garage door isn't working again!"
Sigh.
The garage door opener has a quick-release catch to separate the pulley from the door in case something gets broken. Unfortunately the catch kept releasing, and when I went out to inspect it the catch was coming loose with every use.
So I started examining the broken garage door, in the subzero conditions of the garage, standing in the open door of the van and using the roof for a work surface.
Two hours later the opener chain was on the floor, the support bar was in pieces, my hat was full of nuts and bolts, and I had the greasy components of the quick-release-shuttle in my numb, bloody fingers. I headed off to the hardware store.
Nobody sells such things. I went to Menards and I went to Home Depot, and both of them looked at me like I was an idiot for wanting to replace an individual worn-out component of my garage door opener. Frustrated I returned home to scarf down leftover dinner, then back out to the garage. There, in the even deeper cold, I used a chisel and mallet to smash the shuttle connector: it had worn to the point where the catch had bent back so far that the connecting tab would slip out of the slot. Smashing that bent metal back into shape caused it to crack a bit, so it probably won't last long, but lacking any other options it will have to do.
Amazingly I reassembled the garage door completely, down to the last cotter pin and washer. The door works without the release coming apart, but now the door hits the ground and rebounds back up and the door opens again. I spent another half hour trying to resolve THAT problem, without success. Frozen to the marrow I headed back inside. To my delight, I found that Zout™ works really well to get grease off your hands.
By now it was 8:30, and my wife was quick to remind me that we were due to attend a performance by our friend Ellis at 9:30. I'd gotten up at 6:30 a.m. and it was now 9:30 p.m. and I'd spent the last four hours in the icy garage. I wanted nothing more than to curl up under the covers and lapse into unconsciousness.
Nonetheless I pulled some clothes on and we headed over to the remodeled Varsity theater in Dinkytown. Basically they had pulled all the seats out, put down a bunch of large carpets, and filled the space with squashy armchairs and couches.
Ellis and her wife and manager Terry were there before the performance, mingling with the crowd. They flew back from New York where Ellis has been recording, and are due to fly back to wrap up recording. I was very nice to see them again.
Ellis' performance was a lot of fun. Unfortunately I was not only very tired, but there were moving stage lights that kept shining into my eyes, threatening to give me a headache. To avoid the headache I would close my eyes, and being sleepy with one's eyes closed is tempting fate...
I didn't fall asleep, but it was a near thing. We straggled through the bitter cold back to my car at midnight and I finally got to pass out around 12:30... only to wake up at 7:50 to get ready for my all-day Saturday class.
Which is where I am now, blogging instead of paying attention. It's almost 11:00 a.m.and I haven't had any coffee yet. Sigh. This runs til 5:00. What happens after that I don't even know. Do we have plans? Will I be doing homework? Relaxing? Lapsing into unconsciousness? I don't even know...
Meanwhile my wife just called - she's trying to get the garage door to close and it keeps re-opening...
Sigh.
Posted by Albatross at February 3, 2007 9:27 AM | TrackBack