The Halls

Have I mentioned how much I love the new Built to Spill album, You in Reverse? Well, go get it, cuz it's awesome.
But it's probably the last time you'll hear me talk about it, because soon, the new Tool album will be out, and then, everything else will be secondary.

When I came home thursday nite, I hit the opener to 3rd stall garage door, and it started like normal. Then halfway up, it stopped, and I could hear the opener try to reverse, but the door still stayed there. So I went in to investigate, and hitting the button anymore still did nothing. So I detatched the door from the opener, and opened it myself, parked the bike, and started to look more closely.
The nylon gear inside had no teeth left, they had all been ground to dust inside the opener.
Neat. My opener committed suicide.
So I didn't want to have to order one, and wait, so I called all around this morning.
None of the expected places (home depot, menards, sears) actually had any on hand.
So I called a couple local garage door specialists, and only a few were open. The one that claimed he would almost certainly have some on hand (but had to call the service tech who would actually do the service to make sure he had it on his truck). I said, "yeah, but I have to leave, and I'm not sure if I'll be back by 3pm, when you say he's available".
"Plus, I just wanted a price, I'm not 100% sure I want to buy it from you"
"Yeah, no problem, but the service tech has the prices, I don't. So he'll be able to tell you when he calls you to see if you're back yet"
Fine.
Ann and I go to the YMCA to watch the girls dance recitial.
Funny sidenote, their dance instructor is the daughter of Cindy Wanek, of Wanek's of Crete, a local furniture store who used to always be on TV commericals. Brush with local fame.
The recital ends, and I swim with the girls for awhile, but leave early to get this guy's phone call and figure out what to do.
When I get home, the guy is in the driveway.
Great, high pressure sales now.
Sure enough, after he inspects it, he assures me I need to have the nylon gear, several pulleys, and all the track wheel replaced. I told him to take a flying leap, I was only interested in replacing the gear so it would work again, and if it needed anything else, I would go buy it and fix it myself.
He said that was fine, and he went back to his truck and came back with a box, and said "here, you didn't get this from me"
It was the nylon gear I wanted.
"Seriously? Thanks man."
"No problem. I'll put it all back to gether for you for $20"
"Deal"
Maybe that was the end goal all along, but he was quoting me prices for the gear at $60, pulleys at $30 each, and a set of rollers for $110. $20 to get it working again and put together by someone who was much less likely thanb me to screw it up is well worth it.
Now it all seems good, and he said "you should spray all those rollers and puleys with silicone spray", which I did, and all seems good now. I can go to the hardware store and gets new pulleys if necessary, but we'll see.
I'm just happy it didn't turn into a $200+ unexpected expense, which it seemed it was going to be at first.