Date: 2017-06-29
From: Knoxville, TN

To: Knoxville, TN
Miles today: 0.0

6/29/17, Knoxville, TNMiles hiked: 1250.8, Miles to go: 929.0In case you're wondering, today's picture had nothing like o do with the post. Honey-do list chores continue during my zero days. I had a funny thing happen. We have a detached garage that sits about 20 feet behind the house. The garage door has an ancient Sears garage door opener. When we moved in, the previous owners left only one ancient remote control for the opener. We had to end up replacing the receiver on the garage door opener and got enough remotes to put one in each car and one in the kitchen so we can open the door from in the house. Despite its advanced age, the garage door opener has worked fine until I went to open the door yesterday and it would only go up a foot before going back down. I went to investigate and took the garage door remote with me. To make a long story short, we had a broken spring on the door. I had to release the door from the opener and get the neighbor kids to help me push up the 15 ft wide wooden door that weighed a ton so Marguerite could get the car out of the garage to go to work. In the end, we were able to get a garage door repair company to come and fix it. During all the excitement, however, I managed to set the garage door remote down somewhere. I looked all over the garage and all over the house to no avail. No garage door remote anywhere. Marguerite came home from teaching chemistry lab and helped me look. No remote. At this point, I was beginning to get a sick feeling that I may have set the remote down on one of the cars while trying to get the door open. It was not on either car, so I figured it had probably sat on the car as one of us drove off until it went around a sharp turn somewhere and the remote flew off. This morning when we walked the dogs, I looked along the road and in the ditches. No remote. We finally decided that the thing was gone for good. Marguerite and I had also been talking about how we need to replace our ugly mailbox with a newer, prettier mailbox. I was running to Lowe's later and decided to figure out what I'd need to replace the mailbox and post upon which it sits. Unfortunately, we have two yucca plants planted at the base of the post. So, I was examining the yuccas to see how I was going to dig a new post hole without getting stabbed to death. And what do I find down in the yucca? The remote of course! Well, at least part of it. The cover was missing. I went digging down in the yucca for the cover which, of you've ever dealt with a yucca you'd know, is a very painful endeavor. Those leaves are sharp!  I eventually found the cover and was able to put the remote back together. Examining the remote, it appears that I indeed did place the remote on one of the cars during the door crisis. Whenever the car backed out of the driveway and turned onto the street, the remote tumbled off into the street. The beaten up appearance of the remote body suggests that a vehicle then ran it over. It must not have been a direct hit since the remote wasn't crushed. Instead, it must have been a glancing blow that sent it shooting into the yucca, where it awaited discovery by me. Upon reassembly and testing, I was amazed to find that the remote still worked! The remote has been returned to its rightful spot with only a few chips and scratches to commemorate the Grand Remote Caper. Nothing like this ever happens out on the trail...