Being a stay at home dad gives me the ability to do home repairs when they come up. Today was a new one for me. The bracket that the connects the garage door opener to the garage door decided that it wanted to fall off today. Well, not fall off, more like one of the screws ripped out of the door.
TW left this morning and before she made it to the expressway her “low oil” indicator light came on. So she came back home to let me know and to switch cars so I could go buy and add oil to it later.
When I went to head to the store I saw a screw laying on the floor of the garage. After a brief Sherlock Holmes moment I found where it came from. I figured that I could just go to the hardware store and get a thicker screw and that would take care of the problem, I was heading there to get the oil anyway.
TK and I made a quick run to the store, I grabbed what I thought I needed and headed home. For those of you who haven’t heard the Northern Illinois and Chicago area is prepping for some of the hottest weather so far this year and today didn’t disappoint. Once we got back from the store I had to wait for TK to take her nap, it is hard to focus on repairs and a toddler at the same time.
Once she was asleep I grabbed my tools and headed out to the garage. The garage was already warming up and unfortunately I couldn’t open the door and work on it at the same time. To there I am in a hot garage sweating buckets and working on reattaching the arm to the door.
The larger screw didn’t work, it tore out right as the door started to rise. I started to look online for other ideas, it turns out they sell a reinforcing bracket that would take care of my problem. Now, since TK was sleeping I couldn’t just run out to the store and grab it, and I didn’t have enough on me to buy it if I could. So it was time to get creative.
First I figured that I would have to move a support strut I order to accommodate the reinforcing bracket. That didn’t take too long. But then I started looking at the existing bits. I had a couple of self drilling screws and was looking at where the bracket attaches to the door. I figured that I could move the bracket half an inch or so and drill some new holes and attach the bracket there.
Sounded like a good idea, so I got to drilling. Everything worked out, I even added an additional screw just in case. Now that I came to this brilliant conclusion I have to move the support strut back to its original position. That went quicker than when I first moved it. So an hour and some change and a gallon or two of sweat in a hot garage later, and everything is back to normal. I’ll be buying the reinforcing bracket over the weekend to have on hand I case this breaks again.
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In an earlier post I talked about our dog and how well he tolerates living with a toddler. He has endured hundred of pokes, hair pulls, pulled tails, accidental kicks, tugged ears, and who knows what else. Through it all he has remained gentle and caring towards TK. On an occasion or two he has don’t some growling but nothing more severe. I love Muttley as much as I love TK, and am so happy that he has remained as gentle and loving as he has.
The poor dog has a skin allergy, we took home to a vet a couple of years back and he said that it was probably a contact allergy related to grass pollen since it showed up on the skin on his belly first. The doctor said we could spend thousands getting it officially diagnosed and treated or we could buy medicated shampoo and wash him regularly. He said that the treatments may not work or might work temporarily but the regular shampooing would keep the pollen off of him and that would keep the reactions from occurring.
Since then we have bathed him twice a week from spring to mid-autumn, we don’t worry about the winter because the grass is usually covered with snow and there is no pollen to worry about. He isn’t a fan of the baths but he puts up with them, he usually has a pathetic look on his face while in the tub.
This year we have been busy trying to potty train TK and I was getting a bit lax with Muttley’s baths. He had a pretty big flair up a couple of weeks ago, he had licked and scratched a couple of places pretty raw. I had to start with baths twice a week about two weeks ago, he endured them like he always has with a sad look on his face. TK has even tried helping.
I’m happy to say that his skin has cleared up and the itching has stopped. He is the happy pup he has always been and I can go back to washing him once a week. I’m sure he’ll appreciate that.
He is still one of the greatest dogs I have ever had.
The Dairy of a Stay at Home Dad 