Not for the faint of heart

The other night, I heard a loud but indistinct sound which seemed to come from the garage.  On initial inspection, however, I didn't see anything wrong like an fallen shovel.  It was only the next day when my wife said she couldn't get the car out of the garage that I noticed the tension spring on the garage door had snapped.  When the torsion (twisting) force is released, there's a huge twang, so that's what the sound was.

Fortunately, there's a garage door supply shop in the next town, so I went and got a replacement.  But replacing the spring means you have to wind it up with these large metal bars.  So imagine the largest spring in your house bring tightened up a couple of inches from your jugular: if this thing snaps, well, you're gonna have a bad time.

Fortunately, with a little help from my son, everything went fine.  Before winding, I spray-painted a line across the coil; after winding, you can see it went through six full revolutions.