Do it yourself

I think the year was 1981, maybe 1982. Anyway, it was at least 30 years ago when I decided to install a couple of garage door openers in the garage at our house. Since we have two doors, we needed two openers, which we bought at Sears. I remember thinking after the job was done, “Why, that wasn’t hard at all.” I wondered why I had not done it sooner, since it was such an easy job.

Well, one of them quit working (after 30 years) and I bought another one to replace it. Took me two complete days–one day to assemble it and another day to install it. There is one big difference this time: I am 30 years older. The trips up and down the ladder got more difficult as the day wore on. And every step up the ladder meant carrying about 30 more pounds of my own weight with me. So, yes, it was harder. We won’t mention the fact that at 80 years of age I had to be a lot more careful, knowing that accidents do happen. (Reminds me of a paraphrase of Psalm 14:1, “The fool has said in his heart, ‘I’m gonna climb that ladder no matter what'”).
I made it through the project safe and sound, but boy, am I sore. I’ve been falling behind somewhat in my exercise and walking program, but surely some of this up and down the ladder stuff qualifies as exercise.
It works just fine, thank you. This model runs on a belt, whereas the older one ran on a nine-foot long worm screw drive. So this one is much quieter. In fact, it has “Whisper” in its name. Too bad we don’t have tenants in an apartment above the garage, because the promotional materials for the opener said that was a real advantage for people living “upstairs.”
I made one great discovery by doing it myself. Now I know why I have been hiring people to do this kind of work. This may well have been my last major “do-it-yourself” project.