In A Jamb

It's just after the noon hour on Friday. Yesterday, around 3PM, I opened the front door to leave the house, and when I opened the storm door, the door closer broke. Specifically, the thing that broke was the bracket that attaches the door closer to the door jamb. Just to keep things simple, let's say that there are two ways to mount the jamb bracket to the door jamb, and let's call those two ways "horizontal" and "vertical." This will be significant.

I went to the basement to get my tools. I drove to Home Depot and I bought another door jamb bracket and six 4-inch long Phillips head screws. Back home, I scrounged for my electric drill, and a 1/8 inch drill bit, and a Phillips screwdriver, and a Phillips screwdriver bit to mount in the drill chuck. I drilled six deep holes in the door jamb for the new bracket. I got the bracket mounted in a vertical position, which is how the old bracket was mounted to the old door closer. Now I only had to attach one end of the door closer to the bracket and the other end to the door. This was a struggle—a struggle the door closer lost. The end of the closer broke off. It looked like it was made of black rubber, but it was not. It was black iron or steel, about 3/8 inch square, and I can't imagine how I was able to break it. I guess it had been weakened by years of use. I drove back to Home Depot and bought a pneumatic door closer (that's the long round cylinder) and I returned home.

I was already very tired, so I quit for the evening. I had spent 4 hours working on it. I resumed work the next day. 

Looking at the instructions, I could see that this new door closer required the door jamb bracket to be mounted in a horizontal position. This meant removing the six long screws, rotating the bracket by ninety degrees, drilling six new screw holes, and then installing the screws.

After two hours, I finished mounting the jamb bracket and the new door closer and all was good. Total time, six hours. That seems like a long time for such a repair, and it is, but it was the first time I had done such a thing, so I was learning as I went. Plus, two trips to Home Depot are included in the six hours.

But before I worked on the door closer this morning, I had to handle a piece of mail. It was a late notice that stated I hadn't paid my water bill and my water would be turned off in five days. The notice said to not pay by bank check, because it would take too long. The City has an online payment system, but I couldn't get it to work. So I had to drive to City Hall to pay the bill. I hadn't received the original bill, probably due to the new mail delivery person who I am sure delivers some of my mail to other addresses. I know this because she delivers other people's mail to my mailbox. Usually I just walk their mail across the street or next door or wherever their house is, but I don't think, when they get my mail, they return the courtesy. I think they toss my mail into the trash.

So I paid the water bill, and I told them that, in the future, I'd like them to email my water bill to me. And I told them about being unable to get their online bill pay system to work for me. They responded, "Oh, that doesn't work."

I momentarily wondered, if the online bill pay doesn't work, why do they keep it on their website? But I didn't ask them. They're government employees. They're supposed to do things that don't make sense. It's part of their job description.