Own goal

My week has felt a little like Australia’s World Cup campaign: full of hope and excitement, then a disappointing setback that leaves me questioning what went wrong. Just four days after installing the ratgdo on my garage door, the very device that promised to unlock a new world of smart home automation stopped working. For those four days, it felt like a victory. The garage door responded to Apple Home, and I enjoyed the satisfaction of integrating yet another piece into my ever-growing smart home puzzle. Then it all came crashing down.

Today, the garage door stopped working, and I suddenly found myself wondering whether I had scored an own goal. Had I pushed things too far? Had one tweak too many finally broken something that had been working perfectly well before I started tinkering? Every smart home enthusiast knows the feeling. The line between innovation and self-inflicted frustration can be remarkably thin.

Like a defender watching a ball trickle into the wrong net, I replayed every change I had made, searching for the moment it all went wrong. The good news is that, unlike football, technology usually gives us another chance. The garage repairer will be out tomorrow, and I am hopeful this own goal can still be turned into a comeback victory.