I woke up for no apparent reason (usually able to blame husband's snoring, room being too warm, having to pee, or an odd animal sound outside) around 4:30 this morning. I got up in the predawn dark house of late October, made a small pot of decaffeinated coffee (blood pressure issues?) and booted up the laptop. First I go through FB and wonder how I can have so many updates on this page overnight. Then I check my emails and delete 90% as they are requests for money for politics or good causes. Then I read news headlines until I am thankful that my little corner of the world is still safe and quiet. After an hour or so of this self-flagellation, I head upstairs to where my PC sits and begin to work on photographs. It seems that the 30 I took yesterday of flowers and butterflies, which are still hanging around, are not very focused. I have to delete almost all, and am upset because I think that I used the tripod yesterday!
Then in the silence of this little office in which the only sound is the computer fan, I hear a chirp. Like a bird with its foot caught in something but is too shy to complain very loudly. Since it is coming from one of the spare bedrooms I accept that it is not some little wren caught inside, and instead, must be the smoke alarm. I. hate. these. safety. devices! I have spent days in the past trying to fix them when they become dyslexic. We paid a small fortune to have our basement freezer rewired about a year ago and also had the electricians replace all of the smoke detectors at that time as they needed electrical changes in plugs to install the newer versions I had purchased from the hardware store. I was told that these are 10-year devices. I was so relieved, because my experience has been when a device like this chirps, it is not a dead battery. It is a poltergeist.
Hubby is still sleeping and will never be awakened by the chirp...chirp...chirp which is so much worse than the drip...drip...drip of a leaky faucet. I, on the other hand, am getting an ulcer. So I put up the step ladder, unscrew the device, blow in the holes, and reattached it. Still chirping every 30 seconds! I cannot push the reset button until hubby is up as that will sound like the house is indeed on fire.
Do you think this has something to do with Halloween? I have not put up a single decoration this year. Nada. I am so over decorating a house that very few even see. Are the evil spirits upset that they are being ignored? Are they punishing me for lack of pumpkins, ghost figures and hanging plastic spiders? Chirp...chirp...chirp.
I think I need more coffee.
Oh yes
ReplyDeleteI am a predawn person
and so thankful daughter was with me
2 years ago
when smoke detectors went off
we could not reach
and her call to fire department
told her what to do
They were replaced
and so glad I was not alone
with the loud noise and no fire
just old device.
Pleased you are baking :)
When the one in our garage went off recently, it alternated telling us that if was "fire," or "carbon Monoxide." It's behaving now, but that sounded really odd.
ReplyDeleteI got one of those LOUD chirps at 4:30 in the morning last week that really ruined my sleep. Art was out running at the time. Weird thing is that it hasn't chirped (screeched) since! Our smoke detectors are about 8 years old. I've signed up with the Hawaii Red Cross who have a seniors program. They're coming in Jan-Feb to check our smoke detectors and replace those that need to be for free. Thank goodness!
ReplyDeleteOh, yes - the dreaded Chirp! Then, the hunt is on to see which one is making the sporadic noise. I've never climbed the ladder to change the battery. I wait until Bob can go up. Our hearing is getting worse so maybe we soon won't hear the chirping.
ReplyDeleteIt's the static ghosts ruining the old ionizer so you should replace the old things. I set-off the one in my room at 2 am when we had the first cold snap, because the dust smoked in the 1-year-old heater. I had to go without the heater n go buy a new one with no dust!
ReplyDeleteStill need to replace batts on the daylight savings time battery schedule before that annoying chirp begins because I also can't stand it!