Our lake home is over 40 years old and so are the garage doors. My brother-in-law, Warren, has been wanting to replace them. Last week we planned to do it. He had already ordered everything and it was delivered to the house. I thought we were doing it together, but he had me help demo and then said he’d only need help now and again. I decided to insulate the garage and put up 1/2-inch plywood on the bottom four feet and then slat board above the plywood so we would have ease at hanging items. I called the Cook Building Center and they had the plywood and insulation. I asked for it to be delivered in the next few days. They showed up that afternoon with everything and placed it in the garage.

I needed to go to Menards for the slatboard. Slatboard is very heavy. I tried to find it on my own, then saw a guy and he said it’s in aisle XYZ. I went over there – he didn’t come with me. I found the board in four different colors. We wanted the white. Someone decided to put 10 black panels on top of the white ones. I unloaded them all and put them in the correct spot. At least four people who work at Menards walked by me – no one offered to help. I then loaded up eight white panels and after I checked out, I asked if someone could help me load them into the truck. “Absolutely,” he said. I waited and waited and waited – finally went to the truck and started loading them. I could barely lift them and then the cart kept moving each time I pulled one off. After one of them, the cart started going down through the lot. I took off chasing and fortunately caught it before it hit anything. I’m sure it was a sight to see. I asked one employee for help and he said, “Yeah, they don’t want us helping people load.”

I was so frustrated I forgot to tie it all down. No issues though – well, until I got on Highway 53 and stopped at the stoplight. I sped up and two of the panels slid off the top and out the back of the truck. I pulled over immediately, flipped on the hazards and ran out to get the two panels. I had to keep waving people off. Apparently they were not used to seeing someone in the middle of the highway trying to pick up a slatboard. No one bothered to stop and help, but at least one guy rolled down his window, was laughing saying, “I just did the same thing – sucks.”

The whole trip took almost 4-5 hours. When I got home, my brother-in-law thought I had stopped off at the bar. I just shook my head – he had no idea. Well, he saw what happens at the Building Center, then he went to True Value in Cook and Jake or Joe showed him exactly what he needed and then explained how to install it. Sometimes you can get stuff cheaper at the big stores or online like Amazon, but you don’t get customer service like you do at our local stores – think of that next time you decide to shop elsewhere.

We did get everything done. The new doors are phenomenal – Warren did a great job installing them.

Then, on Sunday, we had 50-mile-an-hour winds. One of the first things we did when we started moving back here is cut down all the trees that were dead or looked like they could fall on power lines or the house. I felt we were in good shape. Boom! At 2 p.m. we looked out and one of the spruce trees snapped and hit the power line. We saw sparks, then the top of the tree was burning. The power went out. I tried to call out, but now the cell phones didn’t work without the internet. Fortunately, the fire went out on its own. I finally got a hold of Lake Country Power… well, the automated service. I thought let’s hang out at The Landing and then power will be back up when we get home.

Wrong – it was 2 a.m. before they restored the power.