I finally did it. I backed the CRV into the closed garage door, hard enough to break all four glass windows and crack the wooden panels and punch them outward in three places. Of course now the door won’t open and until I can get an estimate on fixing it and have the work begun, I can’t get the car out of the garage.
Fortunately the Honda is not damaged. The covered spare tire that hangs off the rear door took the brunt of it. After long minutes of colorful cursing, I swept up the broken glass and called a company that worked on the door more than a decade ago for the previous owners. Was surprised to find they are still in business. They’re sending a guy out to look at it this morning.
There’s some comfort in knowing a lot of people do this. But not much.
UPDATE: Three carpenters refused to tackle it, saying it would be hard to ever again insure the structural integrity. And a fourth one, who looked promising, said, well, he could fix it but it might fall apart in half a year. And he added that it would a lot cheaper to buy a new metal door, and he might be able to get me a good price. So, we’re mulling it. Damn.
THE TEXAS SCRIBBLER 
Don’t feel bad. This is one of the reasons I don’t park inside the front yard gate too.
This is my first garage, after years of carports, so it was bound to happen. I pushed it back together enough to get the door raised so I could get the CRV out and on the street and the door lowered again.
Now the challenge is to find someone to fix the broken wood panels and replace the glass. The fix-it guy I called said wooden garage doors are antique. They only sell painted and insulated metal these days, which I could do (though that would force me to replace the other door as well for a uniform appearance of the home’s facade) but I don’t much like their looks. I need to find a good, imaginative carpenter. The guy I used to deal with when I had rental property died several years ago.
Ah, but good, imaginative carpenters are a dying breed, you know. Well, I shall wait for the outcome of your search.
I think I’ve found one. An ambitious young Mexican whose English is not very good, which is not unusual in Texas, both the ambition and the English. So he asked me to text him. Writes/reads it okay, I guess. He’s due Monday at 4 to make an estimate.