What's broken now?

The most aggravating and petty things in my life seem to revolve around mechanical devices. For instance I have a stubborn sliding glass door which leads out to my back porch. In case you do not have one of these or do not understand how sliding glass doors work, I will elaborate...

When we first moved into our newly built house here in Paradise, the sliding glass door slid smoothly with only light pressure. Like most folks, though there are two doors involved in these ingress/egress devices, we only used one of them to go in and out. About 3 or 4 months ago, it became obvious there was a problem with that door. It became difficult to slide open or shut. Not wanting to go through the hassle and expense of replacing the door, I looked into what might be going wrong and what could be done about it.

A sliding glass door has a roller assembly, usually at the bottom. Some have two, mine has only one. This assembly is often cheaply made somewhere in China by some poor soul being paid a the equivalent of a $1 a day. They are bound to break down eventually. They are, therefore, replaceable. Using Google, I located not only detailed instructions but also a two-part video: Part 1 and Part 2 . I found these weeks ago. Maybe months. I still have not fixed the stupid thing and Faye has begun using the previously ignored door to go in or out. Therefore, it is still on my "To Do" list. Just below "Win the lottery... any lottery."

But that is not the point of today's post. No, today's post concerns a car. A not so old (2008) Buick. Faye's Buick. A fine car. Still having hints of that "new car" smell. But things break, especially mechanical things. I drove her car to pick up "dinner" at Cap'n D's and realized that the left rear door lock knob did not drop down as it was supposed to when I put the car in gear. "How odd," I thought, "I wonder if it is locking?" It wasn't. But I could push it down manually and that would lock it. When put the car in Park, the knob went up and the door unlocked. It is a petty annoyance. You become so used to the convenience of auto-locking doors that something like this bothers you, though, so I made an appointment at the local dealership to get it repaired.

That is where I am headed this morning.

Damned mechanical devices!