Daryl left last week for the UK, and I'm trying to find a buyer for his fabulous, fun car (2004 Volvo C70 convertible, black, 5 speed manual transmission, 37K miles). Several friends have come for test drives, but no takers yet. Yesterday a friend in the neighborhood called to see about her husband coming to take a look in the evening.
Since I can't make a long story short, here's what happened:
Before they arrived I went to the garage to back the car out and put the top up -- a convertible is not much fun in the sleet. Push the garage door button. Motor runs, door lifts maybe 2 inches, then stops. Hmmmm, maybe I didn't pull the car in far enough on Sunday. No, that's not the problem. Push the button. Door goes down 2 inches. Maybe I should push the button three or four times and that will fix it. No. How about holding it down for a few seconds? Aha, actually went up a few feet then nothing.
Hey, let's bother hubby on Skype with this. We connect, he is not ironing, and I describe the problem, making dramatic garage door motor noises and gestures intended to indicate measurements. Surprisingly, he cannot diagnose the problem from 6,000 miles away. But I have clearly made the case that this is HIS side of the garage, and I promise I did not do anything to the garage THIS TIME. (I may have severely bent the garage door track on the side when I ruined his last car, but that was almost 18 months ago. Statute of limitations has run on that.)
I make multiple trips up and down the basement/garage stairs trying to answer his diagnostic questions. No, it is not locked. No, I can't manually lift it more than 2 or 3 feet.
On about the 5th trip I finally spot it: Yes, I know, someone with a clue would've seen this on the first trip, but I make no claims about my mechanical abilities. I am the same woman who cursed at the gas pump for my failed multiple attempts to get the diesel nozzle into an unleaded tank. Who knew they made them different sizes just to prevent idiots like me from ruining their engines?
The wheel thingy at the top of one side is hanging by a wire and is off the track. That can't be right, but I don't know what it means. Fortunately at this point, the hoping-to-test-drive friends arrive. The husband takes one look and says, the spring is missing on this side. So we look for it, sure enough it is under the car and it is broken. Very thankful no one was hurt when it ricocheted off the track and into the garage.
Sooooo ..... no test drive. I hope they don't think this means God has closed the door on their buying the Volvo. Garage door repairs scheduled for Saturday.
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