When I pulled into the garage after Maddie's appointment yesterday, Jesse was already home so the car was parked on the left side. It was just Maddie and I in the van. Maddie is on the driver's side. I quickly unbuckled her and carried her inside to tell Jesse about the appointment.
This morning I decided to take the kids to an indoor playground. I loaded all four kids into the van, but I had apparently parked too close to the right side wall yesterday. I couldn't walk around to buckle Jackson's carseat. I secured the babies and told Jackson to wait just a moment; I was going to back out of the garage and walk around to his side to buckle him in.
The right side van door was open.
I put the van in reverse.
I heard a scraping sound.
I drove forward to straighten the van out.
I reversed again into the driveway.
I put the van in park and walked around to Jack's side.
I buckled Jackson's carseat.
I pressed the button to close the automatic van door.
I heard more sounds of metal scraping.
I took the keys out of the ignition and began to investigate.
I could not have been going any faster than 2 mph. And yet I managed to catch part of the van door on the garage track. The automatic van door became completely misaligned and would NOT close.
I cursed a lot.
Jackson cried because he couldn't get out on his side and he wanted to go to the playground.
The neighbor came over and tried to help me shut the van door.
We were able to close it enough where there was just a small opening.
I covered Jackson in a blanket and drove to the dealership.
The van beeped loudly throughout the entire ride since the door wasn't closed.
Jackson requested I turn the radio up.
I drove through the service area at the dealership.
The service worker informed me that I would have to go to the body repair shop.
I drove to the body repair shop.
After an hour with four children, the repairman gave me the cost estimate:
It will cost $963 and take four days to fix the van.
I asked the repairman if he could close the door completely.
He bent some metal and pushed so hard that the van shook.
I cranked the van and was relieved that the beeping had stopped and the door was shut.
I vowed to never open the right side door again.
I drove home.
Once back in the driveway at home, I pressed the garage door opener.
The garage door got stuck after opening a mere foot.
I army crawled through the garage to determine the problem.
I was able to open the garage door by applying weight against the door.
I drove the van in through the garage.
I cursed some more and drank a beer.
Oh dear :(
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