Blog
December 17, 2006 12:26 hrs
The world's oldest garage door opener
installer came to my house yesterday. It was all rather comical leading up
to his arrival. He'd called me to schedule the install last Monday. His
message on my answering machine was left in a geriatric voice. He spoke
slowly and clearly, but my mind immediately riffed on his name and he
became Forrest Gump. "Life is like a garage door opener, full of ups and
downs." When I returned his call, a woman that sounded even older than he
answered the phone. We set a date for Wednesday which he ended up
rescheduling the next day to due a prior commitment. He said the install
takes about 3 hours.
So Wednesday, which is one of my get-out-of-work-early days, I went home
and cracked the carton for the GDO to see if I was capable of doing this
task myself. Yeah, I am capable of doing it, but not in three hours.
Probably not in under ten hours. So I let it sit for Saturday, when
Forrest had promised to arrive at the crack of 10:00 am. And that was the
crack of dawn for me...the company Christmas party was Friday night, and
let me tell you, some of us closed the place down, one quite
unexpectedly...
I slept until 9:15 am on Saturday and then madly scrambled into clothes
and coffee---I had to have the old GDO removed before the installer
arrived. Taking it down myself would save me a whole $6.00!!!!! I was on
the third to last bolt when Forrest's truck pulled up to the garage. I
have never seen a man this old outside of a rest home in my life. And this
is who they send to install a GDO? Looks are deceiving. I was on the bolt
that once freed would allow the GDO to pivot down to the ground where it
would rest while I removed the bolts where it connected to the wall above
the door. He marched in and said he would have been happy to do that
whether I'd paid S*e*a*r*s for that service or not. I replied that I had
to do it myself. I was already feeling rather pathetic that I couldn't
install the new one myself, the least I could do was remove the old one!
As the bolt came free I commented that if I'd planned this right, the
opener would pivot down to rest on top of the ladder rather than dropping
like a stone to the ground. Forrest was impressed when it did just that so
I think I got some "helpless girl" points shaved off his assessment of me.
I know I certainly felt better.
Forest worked with an economy of motion I've rarely seen practiced. He had
a couple of sturdy saw horses and a 5 x 5 platform that he laid across
them putting him and his ladder at the perfect height to complete the job
with a minimum of ladder moving and body contortionism. He had all the
right tools meticulously arranged in three tool boxes. He even had his own
supply of bolts that are self drilling to use in place of the ones
supplied by the manufacturer of the device he was installing. He's been
around Manhattan forever, knows most of my neighbors, even the ones I've
never met and was wonderful to talk with. He gave me tips beyond what the
manufacturer puts in the instructions and even went so far as to say if I
followed their directions on one point, I'd be buying a new GDO from them
every couple of years. Shortly after I mentioned what I do for a living,
he asked me a technical question about telephones, faxing and computers
that I was able to answer and he was quite pleased not to have to go to
R*a*d*i*o S*h*a*c*k or B*e*s*t B*u*y to get his questions answered. All in
all our chit-chat turned a three hour job into a four and a half hour one,
but I think we both had a good time. I'll probably see him again in about
a month. There's two GDO's in the garage, both the same make, model and
year and the other one is beginning to show the same symptoms mine started
showing a few months back...
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