I'm So Tired of Being Alone

Last night when my kids and I got home, we realized that when we left, the garage door had closed most of the way and then gotten stuck on top of a flowerpot. Since the garage door lacks the reversing action, the power was dead by the time we got back. It was super frustrating, and I didn't know what to do about it, so I used my tried-and-true strategy of sleeping on it.

I awoke early in the morning with an insight: maybe I just needed to reset the fuse in order to restore power to the door!? I crept down to the basement with my flashlight and tried it -- but to no avail. I didn't know what to do. After I took my son to school, I went over to the neighbors to ask for help. So far I haven't identified any neighbors at this house like I had in my old neighborhood: People (mainly dudes) who'd come over and fix things whenever I was in a jam. I tried a different house than the one where I struck out last time, but she just gave me the name of a company to call. Not what I was hoping for, but I was pretty desperate, so I called.

The dude on the other end of the phone was not the helpful type either. He told me that he couldn't work on a door that doesn't reverse or have photo sensors. I said I really needed to get it working again and he said to detach the cord and pull it up manually. I didn't understand what he meant by "the cord" and I started to get upset.

I went into my room, both to cry, and to try to figure out the next step. I decided to call a handyman who'd previously done work on my house. I was hoping I could remain calm when I talked to him, but I ended up breaking down on the phone with him, which was embarrassing, but effective. He came over within the hour, and was up on a ladder trying to help me as I recounted my story about waking up early with the insight that I needed to reset the power, but I'd tried that, and it hadn't worked. And then we both glanced over at the mechanism for the door on the ceiling, spied a little black button, pressed it, and voila! Up went the door. I was super relieved. I thanked my knight in Carhartt profusely and off he went.

Back in the kitchen doing dishes, my inner jukebox pulled out the perfect song to express how I was feeling through this ordeal:

I'm so tired of being alone
I'm so tired of on-my-own
Won't you help me girl
Just as soon as you can?

And I realized that I've been basically alone with my homeownership for the five plus years since I left my marriage, and I'm tired of it. In this, too, I want a partner again, because:

I'm so tired of being alone
So tired of being alone
So tired of being alone
I'm so tired of being alone
So tired of being alone
So tired of being alone
I'm so tired of being alone
So tired of being alone
So tired of being alone