I'll just put this out in the car

4:14 p.m. Today's project was to get a new garage door opener spring to replace the one that broke last week. Praise the Lord that the Jeep was outside of the garage on the day when the door finally refused to go up again. Ugh.

While not exactly an emergency, being unable to park the car in the garage is certainly inconvenient and annoying. With our grandsons here, I had plenty of occasions to put items out in the car preparatory to taking short and long trips. And being the do-ahead kind of person I am, I put my ministry or life necessities, like my Bible, binders, craft samples, sweater or jacket, hand cream, clipped coupons, Mary Kay samples, inventory, customer orders, or even produce to give away, in the Jeep the night before church, Bible study or any other appointment or meeting. And the opposite applies. In from the car come the groceries!

Apparently I'm a slow learner, because I have walked out to the garage with arms loaded only to see: the garage! Good grief. Back into the house, get the keys, go around through the front door to the driveway in the miserable muggy heat we've had (and then rain), and stock up the car. It did make hiding a couple of bridal surprises for Heidi more handy. She wouldn't go out and look into a locked car any more than I normally would!!

The villain of the piece is one coiled spring, which Steve and I are praying is universal. Of course when we went to Lowes, we didn't find the brand of opener we have, and Steve wasn't sure the coils they had would fit. He's now checking some online replacement parts and I'll probably try to call or email the company when I can find time to help with the project. Meanwhile, when I went into the garage this morning to do laundry, it smelled pretty nasty--stuffy and stale, probably from being closed up with rainy damp air slipping in under the back door. An automatic air freshener taken from my office now has it smelling very much like Lysol "neutra-air."

We get so used to our conveniences that it's probably good to take a break and realize how the Lord has blessed us. Our last garage door was wood, swelling and shrinking with the weather, but still opened automatically. I grew up with garage doors that lifted up by hand, and were padlocked at night or when we went out of town visiting relatives. Burglaries were rare enough that locking the garage during the day was unheard of. And for the chronically disorganized folks of any generation whose garages were stuffed with junk, the cars had to sit on the driveway anyway!

I am praying that we will get our problem solved with a minimum of expense, and that God will "establish the work of our hands," as Psalm 90:17 puts it. On the plus side, while I wait, I'll burn some extra calories!