Stranded at Home

For the second time in my life, I'm stuck in my own house because of garage door issues. As I tried to leave this morning, I pressed the button to open the door as I always do, but this time, it became stuck halfway up the track; several wheels would subsequently come off the track as well.

This basically means that I can't go anywhere; the door isn't up enough for the car to clear it, and even if I could get the car out, it's not as though I'm going to just leave the house all day with the door halfway open (not to mention the fact that I'm also gone tomorrow for most of the day and that repair places probably don't work on Sundays). So here I am, missing a rehearsal that was supposed to start ten minutes ago, and the garage door guy can't come till about noon.

I should mention that the previous time was far worse, because I had to miss a Joe Lovano concert in Dallas that was 1) free and 2) featured him accompanied by local legends, the Earl Harvin Trio. Back then, I was still in my rental house, and the experience with the door was one of the main factors that prompted me to buy a house at the end of that summer. I was eventually able to get the door open manually (but not until the concert was over), but after a while, it wouldn't even open that way, and I had to park in the driveway for the remainder of the summer. The landlord wouldn't fix the door because they'd "just spent too much money" on a termite treatment a few months before, and I knew it was time to become a homeowner at that point. But I still wish I hadn't missed that concert...

So hopefully the guy will get here on time and I'll be able to at least catch the afternoon portion of my rehearsal. And I'm just glad that this didn't happen last night on the way to my gig (which went well, by the way).

UPDATE: The door guy got here early, and it's just a bit after 12:30 now and I'm free from my "captivity." The repair only set me back a C-note (*whew*).

Don't try this at home: A man drove his car 310 miles in reverse in the Australian outback after his forward gears failed.

My favorite headline of this extended morning at home: Tattooed teacher teaches tolerance.