Insert Swear Word Here
Wednesday, June 25th, 2008Well crap. It’s 10:48 and I’m WIDE awake. Wanna know why? Well, I’ll tell ya. Let me back up. I called up a friend of mine and talked to her while my daughter was in the shower. At some point towards the end of the conversation when my daughter had been out for a little while I heard three solid beeps. I have so many electronic devices in this house it was driving me nuts trying to figure out which one it was. Dar could hear it through the phone and my daughter was standing there starring at me to figure it out. I let it go until I was done with the conversation because it had stopped.
Fast forward to 9:30. My daughter and I are ready to climb into bed. I lay down on the trundle and start reading the local paper when I hear it again! So, this time I narrowed it down to the hallway or the bedrooms. I took down the smoke detector in the hallway and flipped it over. It says in the instructions on the back “If you hear three solid beeps that means combustable particles have been detected.” Great. I officially panicked – but internally as my daughter was worried and I had to be calm for her. She was asking a ton of questions and following me everywhere. I finally told her to stop following me and asking questions so I could figure out what to do.
I felt the ceiling, smelled all around…nothing. I took the carbon monoxide detector and carried it through the house stopping occasionally to see if it picked up anything. I held it to the ceiling, to the floor, in the garage, in the bedroom, etc. It read zero every time.
Called Mom and Dad.
Mom is NOT the one to talk to late at night. She ended up annoying me and I finally said “MOM! This is not the time!” and she hung up. Dad suggested I replace the battery and see if it stopped. Well, that’d be great if I kept a back-up of 9 volts but I don’t. As me for a AAA and I can give you 20. The directions on the back said it would be one beep if it was a low battery. So, he then said it was probably a defective smoke detector. I took out the batteries and set it on the table. Just about the time when I was ready to crawl back into the trundle I heard it again. Only this time I was able to walk into my bedroom and hear it. I took the batteries out of that one and set it on the table and took the one I had already ripped the batteries out of and put it back together and hung it in place of the bedroom detector.
Then I cleaned. Just in case I need to call the fire department. After all – there was that really hot fireman I met a year ago ; )
Now, I’m laying in bed wide awake in fear there is someting I’m missing. What if it really did detect something? My ears are ringing from pressing the stuipd test buttons on those things.
So, in the morning if you hear of a house fire – it was mine. If you read another entry from me- this post was all for naught and it was a malfunctioning smoke detector that will meet it’s maker next Tuesday on trash day.
Jenn