Today’s find: RF Interference

Just the other day, I learned that a good friend of mine does not own a garage door opener.

O, what a lucky man he is.

I say that somewhat facetiously, of course, having punched the “open” button on my remotes thousands (nay, tens of thousands) of times through the years.

Can’t imagine how worn out my back muscles would be today, had I not been benefiting from all that LiftMaster magic.

What’s up? My passcode doesn’t work anymore…

Then inexplicably last week the remotes stopped functioning. Two of them , anyway.  A third device worked just fine.

Little did I know it, but I was about to descend into Garage Door Opener Hell.

I literally spent hours trying to troubleshoot the issue over the next two days, chatting with the expert reps at two different OEMs.

I scoured YouTube for fix-it videos, too.

Every promising “solution” turned out to be a rabbit hole — with no actual quarry in sight.

This much I did learn, however: It’s a “known issue”.  It even has its own subhead on one OEM’s website:

RF Interference

Certain electrical devices can cause interference. This can include almost anything that is plugged into an electrical outlet or uses a battery. Please keep in mind the device can be brand new, or it can be an item that has been in use for quite a while. The item may also continue to work properly as far as you can tell. The only problem with the item may be that it has started to emit interference.

‘Et tu, Brute?’ More remotes, inexplicably on the fritz…

Small consolation, that.

And the OEM’s proposed work-around? Essentially this: Unplug or disconnect everything I own, until I unmask the culprit.

Very much a first-world problem, I suppose. But you’ll forgive me for beginning to feel a bit like Job, inclined to wallow in this door-induced episode of sorrow and woe.

Except that Job turns out to be infinitely wiser than Yours Truly. We learn as much, in the first reading at Mass on Sunday — when Job is given his own “door” issue to ponder:

The Lord addressed Job out of the storm and said:

“Who shut within doors the sea, / when it burst forth from the womb; / when I made the clouds its garment / and thick darkness its swaddling bands? / When I set limits for it / and fastened the bar of its door, / and said: Thus far shall you come but no farther, / and here shall your proud waves be stilled!”

Job hears — really hears — the Holy One. Job listens for the wisdom to be found in God’s voice. And what’s the takeaway? That perhaps some mysteries truly are impenetrable: “Who shut within doors the sea?”

Or to put things another way, perhaps it’s not such an affliction when I’m asked to “unplug everything.” Rather, it might simply be a gently-disguised invitation to experience grace…as I wait for another door to open.

No LiftMaster magic for me…

…until I replace the old (working) wall-mounted button…with a fancy new ‘smart’ one.

Let us pause now…to recall that we are in the presence of the Holy & Merciful One.

IHS