In the wee hours of Thursday morning, I was awakened from a short-couch nap by BEEP! Then another. BEEP! No regular pattern, just odd intervals. It had stopped when Hick got up around 6:00. I forgot to mention it to him. It was obviously one of the smoke alarms slowly (and irregularly) dying.
Around 10:00, I was in the boys bathroom, and heard it again. I had thought the BEEP was coming from the smoke alarm there in the hall. But it didn't sound that close. When I came out, I paused to lean over the stair rail, listening for the smoke alarm at the bottom of the 13 rail-less stairs. Of course that bleepin' BEEPer wouldn't make a peep.
No sound the rest of the afternoon. Later in the evening, when Hick was home, it started again. Hick said it was in our bedroom! No way! He had been in there with the door closed when it started, and now it was no louder than before, with the door open. And in a totally opposite direction of our bedroom.
I thought it was the kitchen smoke alarm. After all, that one gets the most use. Not that I burn down the kitchen every night, but that's the alarm that always goes off when I cook something in the oven, then open the door.
Over the next several days, the BEEPs grew more frequent, but still came at irregular intervals. I finally convinced Hick to take out the battery of the kitchen smoke alarm. Which required a trip to the basement to get the short stepladder thingy that my mom gave us one Christmas. Now the battery is out. The BEEPing has stopped.
I feel so liberated, able to burn up whatever food my heart desires, before Hick gets a battery to replace the 9-volt that died.
That had to be irritating! What is the ETA on the new battery?
ReplyDeleteWhenever Hick remembers to buy one. He was just in Lowe's yesterday, and forgot! We have a drawer full of AA batteries, but no 9-volt. I refuse to pay grocery store price or convenience store price, and I'm not going in Walmart.
Deleteyou don't keep a replacement battery handy? Here is Aus, smoke alarms are supposed to be hard-wired into the house electricity network, yet the darn things still need batteries and still beep when they are dying. I thought hard wiring would mean no batteries, but I was wrong.
ReplyDeleteWe have a drawer with spare AA and AAA batteries, which are the ones we use the most. None of the rectangular 9-volt batteries. Since the boys and their toys moved out, we only need them for the smoke detectors. I guess when SOMEBODY last replaced them, SOMEBODY forgot to mention that he used the last of the 9-volt batteries in the drawer.
DeleteWhat is the purpose of hard-wiring the smoke alarms if they still need batteries? Is it a backup system, in case the power goes off in a fire?
Probably.
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