This morning I fixed a thing. It won’t get me my own reality show, like “Ice Road Garage Door Fixers” or “Naked, Afraid, but Kicking Butt,” (and, for the record, I was not naked), but it did make me feel pretty cool.
My kids had a delayed opening this morning for reasons that surpass understanding (all I’m saying is that we’ve gotten significantly woosier as a society since I was a kid). I had just had kind of a disappointing phone call so I was feeling a little sad. I had put my car in the garage to avoid yesterday’s snow, so I took it out to drive my son to school. When it came time to close the garage door… no go. The light wouldn’t flick on either. The power to the garage was gone.
I tried flipping the circuit breakers. No dice. I tried pulling on the door, but it wouldn’t budge since the motor was dead. I imagined the many heating dollars flying out my open garage door into the frigid air. (The garage isn’t heated, but it adjoins the house). I thought of whom I could call. My ex was probably already at his business. I’d seen my neighbor across the street leave earlier in the morning. There was no one else. I’d have to start by digging up the name of an electrician while the cold seeped into my house through the poorly-insulated garage wall.
And then! Eureka moment: unhook the garage door from the motor mechanism and pull it down manually. I looked to see what was holding them together. It was a little bolt. I took it off without even using a single tool. Today the garage door bolt, tomorrow the world.
These little victories make me so happy. They help me fight the sense that I’m alone in the world with no one to handle problems. Because I’m not alone. I’ve got me. And I’m pretty awesome.