Open the Garage and Seize the Day

I had a run-in with Newsie yesterday. For those of you who think the name sounds vaguely familiar, he's one of the individuals at the infamous condo board association meeting Roomie and I attended months ago.

I was on my merry way to Target and Cub Foods for the usual weekend errand running. I pressed the button on my remote garage door opener. It opened. I backed my car out. I pressed the button. It would not close. I thought, "oh well, my battery's dead." I got out and pressed the switch on the wall. Nuttin' happened. I tried pulling on the chain overhead. No dice. I looked at the damn thing trying to figure out some way for me to close the door, but really, I am too short to see anything that's on the ceiling. Hmmmm.

I see a person dumping stuff into our garbage bins - the bins are located right near my particular garage door. As he's dumping into our bins, I assume he's a resident in the building.

Malek: Excuse me, do you happen to know anything about garage door openers? (thinking to herself: I think that's Newsie!)

Newsie: Not really. What's wrong?

Malek: I can't get the door to close and I've tried everything I can think of.

Newsie: I'll take a look. (Newsie proceeds to press the same switch on the wall Malek did. Newsie then looks at the machine and pulls out a pin and a bolt.) Okay, well, now we can at least close the door manually. (Newsie pulls the door down.) Why don't you try opening it to make sure you can.

Malek: Okay. (Malek gives it two big tugs. Nothing happens. Emits embarrassed laugh.)

Newsie: Just give it a strong jerk when you first pull on the handle. (Malek tries again and succeeds.) There you go. Okay, well, do you know who to call to get this fixed? I can give you his number.

Malek: That would be great. Thank you so much for all your help.

Newsie: Why don't you give me your number so I can call you with the info? I have to meet someone right now, but I will call you later in the morning to give it to you.

So, I gave him my number, and he did call me later in the morning. Oddly enough, I ran into him two more times that day. I know Roomie's going to kill me for saying this, but even though I didn't think so before, Newsie's kind of cute; plus he can be nice, too.