Review: Kaisar Garage Door Replacement

The week before Labor Day weekend was a little crazy.  I came home around 9pm from pickleball league on Wednesday night, with intentions to pack for my trip to Minnesota with a 5am flight out the next morning.  My garage door had opened just fine, but when I tried to close it, it suddenly got stuck.  The two wheels on the bottom panel of the door had come off the track.  My garage door was pretty old, in fact it was the door that came with the house (built in 2000), so about 24 years now.

However, I was in a rush to get the door closed since I had to leave for a flight in less than 8 hours, so I frantically tried to fix the wheel/track/door myself so I could just get the door closed.  Unfortunately, the axle for one of the wheels was off the bracket, and there was no way to get it back in without completely removing the bracket.  As I tried to fix the door, it just got worse and worse.  A lot of it has to do with the door being old and a poor design.  It also had to do with my ignorance and not having the proper tools to keep the door held up while I worked on it.  As a result, my door looked like this after an hour of making things worse:

As you can see from the pictures above, all of the door had completely fallen off the track on both sides and by the end of the night, it was only hanging by the motor at the top of the garage and a single wheel on the left track.

I was extremely stressed out and couldn't leave my garage in the shape it was, so I canceled my flight out to Minnesota.  I woke up at 6:30am on Thursday morning to call garage door companies in my area.  I started with Kaisar Garage Doors & Gates because it was a company I used in the past to replace my motor and fix a bent panel.  They were really affordable and did a good job, plus the house actually came with a Kaisar garage door that had lasted some 20+ years.  When I called Kaisar, they told me that they could come out 10am.  I really wanted to the door fixed in the same day so I could possibly still make my trip out to Minnesota.  So I called up another company called A1 Garage Door Service, which was also one that my friend Jenny had given a good review on Yelp.  A1 told me they could come between the hours of 11am-3pm.

I got a call from Kaisar that an appointment had canceled, so they came to see me even earlier at 8am.  The salesperson's name was Scott and was there to give me an estimate on the price and work required for the door.  I wanted a full replacement of the door.  Scott first just wanted to help me get the door off the motor and track so that it didn't cause any damage or possibly fall off and hit my car.  So he helped me detach it and move it outside safely for free.  He said he could have charged for something like that, but he was just a normal human being who wouldn't want that on his own garage and it was a fairly simply task to do (with my help holding the door and pushing it away from the car as it fell down).  He told me a full replacement (door, tracks, springs) would run me around $1700 and that the earliest installation would unfortunately not be until the following week.  He also did a very interesting but cool thing, which was refer me to a friend who might be able to get it replaced same day had I really wanted it fixed in the same day.  However, it wasn't going to be an established company, more of a private practice, so I was hesitant.  Still very honest of the guy, which I loved.

A1 proceeded to come by at around 11:30am.  The technician did their measurements and then asked me to come out and hear the estimate.  He called a salesperson at the office and put them on speaker phone.  They were not short and to the point and kept asking me silly side questions about how I like the service or is so-and-so treating me well.  The salesperson on the phone finally gave me a quote for a full replacement (door, tracks, springs) and told me a price of $3700!  He even said he gave me a $500 discount.  The technician who was live in person started nodding his head and said afterwards "not too bad!".  I felt like this was a sleazy company and the price felt very marked up.  I think they were trying too hard to present "pleasant" customer service and make me feel like I was getting a good deal and treated well.  I told them I would think about it, and then the salesperson on the phone started asking me "what are the things your thinking about"?  Inside my head I was like, "I really don't have to answer that", but to be friendly I simply responded with things like "time of installation is going to be important for me".  They finally left but there was no way in hell I'd use them as a company.  Now I just really want to talk to my friend Jenny and learn about her experience with them.  How did they earn such a good review from her?

With the garage door off the ceiling and stowed away to the side safely, my garage was completely exposed.  I decided I could still make my trip to Minnesota, so I booked a new flight on Delta for $400 that would get me there at 1am on Friday, effectively only missing a half-day of my trip.  It was an extra $200 to make it out, but sometimes this shit just happens and you gotta pay the difference to make up for emergencies.  I then put all valuables from my garage into the house and backyard.  I texted my neighbor, telling them my situation and if they could help watch my garage for me while I was gone for some 5 days.  They actually agreed to help by having her son and nephew park their cars on my driveway during the weekend (instead of in the street) to help make it look like people where at the house at all times, which was really nice!  I would eventually reward my neighbor and her family with some cookies from Nosh Tucson, which is a bakery my friend Tina owns.  I then took a rideshare to the airport so that my garage would be occupied with my car all weekend and give an illusion that I was home all the time.

I proceeded to go to Minnesota (for the rennaissance fair and to witness my friend proposing to his girlfriend of 8 years) and while I was nervous leaving my house with the garage door open, I felt somewhat safer knowing that it was being watched by friends and the neighbor.  I also have a camera for the cats inside the house, so I would know if someone made it inside and past the locked door.

The installation for my garage door wasn't scheduled until Friday of the following week, but Kaisar knew of my situation and called me on Tuesday and told me they could install it on Wednesday since an appointment had fallen off!  They came and got it installed in about 2 hours and I was so happy to have a brand new garage door.  This one also has a much better wheel and track design, so the chances of it falling off the track are not so easy now.

In the end, it also only cost me $1600, which was really close to the ball-park estimate that Scott had given me.  I then picked up some paint and supplies from Home Depot for about $100 and painted the door later in the week.  We're finally back up and running!

I would 100% use Kaisar Garage Doors & Gates again.  It felt nice to work with a company who just seemed really down-to-earth and honest.  And I can't complain with the price either!

Time for another Fitness/Health Trial

We all do it.  There are times we get unhappy with our weight and we try adding or changing our lifestyles or diet in attempt to lose weight quickly.  In the past I've tried paleo, but I didn't like how it excluded so many things I could eat, including drinking beer, which is something I struggle to give up and simply don't want to.  I'm "fit-ish" and relatively healthy, maintaining an active lifestyle where I go to the gym regularly and workout from home when I can't.  The problem has always been in my belly because as I've gotten older, my metabolism has decreased and it's not like I've stopped eating and drinking.

Today's fad?  Intermittent Fasting.  You'll recall last year I saw an advertisement for this app called Fitcoach that I bought into because it pitched to me a daily 7-minute workout that I could add easily in addition to what I already do: lift about two times a week and some form of cardio the other 5 days.  Well, turns out the app also has a method to help you keep track of intermittent fasting, so I figured I'd give it a try because I hear it actually works.

Another reason intermittent fasting sounds attractive is because it seems doable.  Waiting another 2-4 hours to eat breakfast isn't too bad at the beginner level.  And I still want to be able to eat a variety of foods without restriction and you know I'm not giving up beer anytime soon.  So yep, I want to see if this works.  My goal is to try 12:12 for the month of August and if it goes well, I will step it up to 13:11 and go from there.  It's currently August 1st and last night I weighed in at 189.4 lbs. 😩

In related news, I have stepped up my physical activity lately.  I'm playing basketball during the summer (when there's no bowling and the kids at the U of A are gone so the courts aren't as crowded), I tried learning some sand volleyball, and I just bought a pickleball paddle and am trying to get into that! Expect another update from me soon!

APA City Tournaments

9-Ball APA City Tournament (Jun 1-2):

The first City Tournament for APA was for 9-ball.  I had taken a few years off playing 9-ball because I don't like the format as much as 8-ball, but I decided to join back up in the fall of 2023 because I wanted to participate in more side tournaments.  I joined a team that had a lot of newer players (skill levels 3's and 4's), so I was coming in as a 5 and the highest skilled player for that team.  It was actually kind of sad, they tried to recruit many players but no one wanted to join them because they thought they were "bad".  But in reality, they were just inexperienced and needed some coaching.  I brought my friend Matt to play with us that session and since he was a skill level 8, that really helped improve our team's competitiveness.

While we didn't have a great fall session, we ended up drawing the wildcard for the playoffs and ended up winning those, qualifying us for a chance in the Big Money Tournament.  Those are the tournaments where you win the first match, you qualify for cities and then if you win the second match, you win $1000 for the team.  Our team never expected to make it this far, but they played well enough at Big Money to give me a chance.  I just had to beat the best player in APA in a sudden death match to qualify us...but I actually won against him and sent us not only to Cities but we ended up winning the $1000 as well later that night.  My match against Ronnie and beating him in a higher level tournament is probably my greatest achievement in APA to date, no joke here are his 9-ball stats:

Anyway, the City tournament didn't go as well unfortunately as we were knocked out in the second round.  The spring roster had changed a bit and we added some new players that I didn't really think we needed to.  They were added because our team captain wanted to make the team stronger, but I sort of feel like we should have just rolled with the team that got us there.

9-Ball Bracket (pre-play)

It also didn't help that I didn't win my match in the only round I played, despite jumping out to a 10 ball lead against a skill level 6.  I knew if I lost, the team would lose, given the remaining players we had in the match, and that's exactly what happened. :(  I'm still playing for this same team during the summer, but Matt and I have thought about starting our own team come fall, since we have a lot of players from the Tuesday team now interested in playing Mondays.

8-Ball APA City Tournament (Jun 7-9):

The next tournament was the following weekend, this time for 8-ball and my Tuesday night team I captain where we've had basically the same core playing for over a decade.  Unfortunately we did not have Anthony, arguably our best player.  But we actually would end doing really well without him...

8-Ball Bracket (pre-play)

Our first match was on Friday night and since the tournament is a modified-single elimination tournament where you are guaranteed to play at least two matches, I knew that losing the first match would not really hurt us.  We ended up winning and I didn't even have to play, my team got it done in the first 4 players.

We left the pool hall at midnight Friday and had to be back at 10am on Saturday for our next match.   That match ended up going to sudden death, but I only had to beat a skill level 3 in one game to advance us to the next round and fortunately I got that 1 game.

On to the third round, it was win or go home.  We played a strong team and were also able to beat them in the first 4 players, again leaving me in a situation where our team advanced I didn't even have to play.  I was really proud of how well the team was playing.  We went out to Shogun for sushi after the tournament to celebrate not only our team's performance, but Frankie's birthday.  It was a good weekend so far.

On to the semifinals, just two matches to go.  It was a back-and-forth match and would end up going to another sudden death match.  This time, I would need to win two games against their skill level 5 in order to advance.  The first game, I started out really hot, running 6 of my 7 balls but leaving a tough bank shot on the 15-ball that I would end up missing.  My opponent played a good safety and I was unable to convert on the next turn.  The table was pretty much wide open for him after that, and he shot well enough to run out, ending the game in 2 innings.  A disappointing outcome and we were knocked out of the tournament.  Crazy, I ended up playing on 2 games the entire weekend, not even a full match.  But that was the position I wanted to be in, as the anchor for our team, I was just unable to get us the win in the semifinals when we really needed it.  The team we lost to would end up losing in the finals, but they were also facing a very good team as well.

Even though we lost again, I was still really proud of our team and how everyone performed.  It was a great run without one of our best players.  I really hope one of these years this team will make it to Vegas, we're now running on 13 years together without making it.  But I still have hope and I'm always thankful they've stuck with me as their captain for all those sessions.  Crazy to think about it's been that long!

Bowling Rolloffs!

I last updated in January that our bowling team had made quite the turnaround in the second quarter of our season, going from 23rd place to 1st place and qualifying our team for the championship rolloffs at the end of the season!

Those rolloffs took place last Thursday against 5 other teams, with our team having a chance to win at least $200 and a maximum of $700 based on placement.  All the teams bowling in the rolloffs were really good, in fact we had to face the team with the best bowler in the league (226 average, bowled a perfect game earlier in the year).  Our team also had the lowest average and highest handicap going into the night, but that didn't stop us from putting up a solid 900+ team pins each game for a total of 2,770, which was good for 3rd place!  Our team is listed in the picture below as team #38, "538019" and we won $500 from the rolloffs.

A quick story about the team name.  We started the season as "Poker 'n the Gutter", a name I created because our bowling team likes to play bowling poker where you draw 1-2 cards for bowling spares and strikes and then make the best 5-card poker hand at the end of the game.  During bowling, there is a 50-50 raffle that goes on each week and Brandon had been playing every week but never won.  Avi and Susy would occasionally play.  About a month ago, Susy decided not to play, so i figured I'd give it a shot since she wasn't.  And low and behold, I ended up winning.  Brandon was hysterically jealous and ended up changing our team name to the winning ticket number "538019", which is why our team name was changed.  And I was unable to change it before the end of the season no matter how many times I tried.

This was my first full season bowling in a new house over at Fiesta Lanes and it was difficult to adjust to the lane conditions at first.  I ended the year with a 196 average, which was lower than the 200+ I had been putting up the last two years at Bowlero.  Nonetheless, I had a great time bowling here.  It was so much fun bowling with Brandon, Avi, Shanna, and Dustin to start the year, and then when Susy joined I always looked forward to bowling night.  Her energy and positivity really did help us bowl better, and I think she was the true MVP of the team.  Overall on the whole season, our team took home $1500 collectively.  I'm gonna enjoy the offseason for the next 4 months or so and be back to bowl again in the fall.

Next blog entry will be to cover the City Tournaments for both 9-ball and 8-ball for APA!  Updates to come in June!