This morning, were it not for a last-second glance at the rear-view mirror, I would have backed my car out of the garage without first opening the garage door.
I mean the transmission was actually in reverse.
I do have an excuse, of sorts. One of our garage doors has been broken for some time now, meaning it can only be operated manually. The other works fine. This morning, I hit the button that raised the working door, but spaced out on the fact that I was parked behind the other one.
Yet I was lucky. A fellow on Twitter tells me that he’s actually whacked two garage doors and his wife has done it once.
Anyone else want to confess?
(Update: Excellent … confessions are rolling in below and in comments; don’t be shy.)
(Update 2: A friend offers this twist: “I was driving to work one morning and saw that my neighbor had rammed through his garage door — from the outside, in. He must of been hammered and just crawled out and went to bed because it was still stuck in there. I turned around and went home and got a camera.”)
(Update 3: Here’s one I got via e-mail from a co-worker; doesn’t involve the garage but same general idea: “Rich backed into my van twice — in two weeks. First time he knocked out one of the headlights. The second time there was fluid leaking underneath the van. I forget what cracked. We laughed on the first one … but when I heard the noise the second time, I knew it wasn’t good.”)
(Update 4: This apparently happens a lot more often than I would have imagined prior to today, witness this Google search on “forgot to open the garage door.” It happened to the nation’s most popular president between Bill Clinton and Barack Obama: “I tell Abbey I’m going out for a drive. I get in the station wagon, put it in reverse and pull out of the garage full speed, except I forgot to open the garage door. Abbey told me not to drive while I was upset and she was right.” Heck, it even happened to Screech.)
(Update 5: From a former colleague: “My garage-door incident: Backing out — *on the way to get my van inspected* (2 weeks late) — I broke off the passenger-side mirror.)
