Door lessons

One of the doors in my office tends to slam. It’s done this for a long time. Years? Sometimes people catch it to soften the blow. Mostly, it just shuts loudly.

During an in-between moment this week, I decided to see what could be done.

I took the cover off of the door closer, noted the manufacturer’s name, found some documentation on how to adjust the mechanism, and now, the door shuts much more quietly.

Some lessons were learned:

• 20-minutes of attention can fix a two-second annoyance that occurs a hundred times a day.

• Some door closers can sweep quickly and then latch slowly. With adjustments for each. Those are nice features.

• Detailed manufacturer’s information can exist — even for decades-old products.

• Between big projects, sometimes it’s fun to find a small thing to fix.

• Finally: some people tend to notice changes and improvements, and others tend to be generally oblivious.