The winds of change

Codella garage doorWe are fortunate to live in northern Utah. There are many things we really like about our neighborhood and proximity to jobs and loved ones.

Something we didn’t know when we purchased our home here last summer is that we’re in the over-the-mountain-down-the-valley wind tunnel.

We have endured two very powerful windstorms here in the past five days. You can watch some video footage I shot of the storm on Thursday on YouTube.

On Thursday last week about half of our neighbors lost their shingles and fences. Some lost windows and large play sets with play houses, swings and slides. Windows shattered. Play sets vanished into quick air.

My wife saw a canoe in a pine tree just down the street. A friend of mine this weekend was able to remove his kids’ large trampoline out of the top if his neighbor’s tree. These things just don’t normally happen.

The weather pros said we had 106 mile-per-hour winds in our area. And the wind blew from 2 to 10 a.m.

Yesterday we only had a one-hour sacrament meeting at church. The men spent the rest of the day out in the neighborhood cleaning up and hauling debris to the dump or one of several makeshift dumping grounds.

I’ve lived through a tornado and hurricane in Houston, Texas in 1983. What we endured as a family a few days ago was every bit as dangerous and crazy as a hurricane or tornado.

And the school district didn’t even close school on Thursday. They did on Friday, however. It’s a good thing because most in this community didn’t have power Thursday or Friday.

I do have something to be grateful for, however. The wind bent our 2-car garage door into our garage, folding and pushing it up against the back of our truck. So, after filing an insurance claim at 6 a.m. on Thursday for at least a half-dozen needed property repairs, we got a new 2-car garage door on Saturday.

Can I tell you how much I love this new garage door? I never knew I could love a garage door, but it’s true!

It’s so quiet that it no longer signals to those of us inside the house that someone has arrived. Not even our dog can hear it, get excited or bark. He doesn’t even know the car is here until people walk in the door to the garage.

The opener on the wall by our door came with a motion sensor AND tells you the temperature of the garage. How cool is that? I love that whenever I walk out the door, the lights turn on automatically.

And we now have a transmitter in our room that tells us whether or not the garage door is down. If not, we can just push a button and close it from the comfort and warmth of our bedroom.

I love that the garage door is now insulated and wrapped twice in steel to prevent another buckling from a crazy windstorm.

I love the smell of our new garage door. I love the panel of windows at the top and the natural daylight they let into the garage.

I just feel so giddy and happy and safe every time I go into our garage.

So, thanks to the December 1st windstorm and our homeowner’s insurance, along with some unexpected cash out-of-pocket at Christmastime.

At least I can now say, “I love our garage door!”

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