By Susan Govern
BEEP! Wait for it – – – – BEEP!
Waaiitt – – – – BEEP! UGH! I thought it was that one…but now it sounded like the other one…UGH! Why does this always happen just before bed? (Or worse – in the middle of the night.)
Bet anyone reading this can guess what the above paragraph is all about – if you guessed a bad battery beeping in a smoke alarm then you win.
I’m sure many of you can relate to the scene. Just as you are getting ready for bed, you suddenly hear a high-pitched BEEP from somewhere in the house. Then starts the guessing game – which smoke detector (or carbon monoxide detector) was that?
Some of you may avoid this “game” by remembering to change all the batteries in all these devices on the same day each year – like Labor Day or Memorial Day or on the night we switch the clocks (back an hour or forward an hour).
Every year for several years now my husband and I have said we are going to pick one memorable day and do just that – change all the batteries at one time and do it again in a year. As the saying goes – “the best laid plans of mice and men…”
And so, since we have not selected a special day, we follow the habit of changing the batteries only when they beep to let us know they are going bad. This usually happens at bedtime or at 2 or 3 a.m. (with it happening at 2 a.m more often than any other time for some reason).
Scared awake by the high-pitched BEEP, we stumble out of bed and listen. It’s a single BEEP, not a continuous one so we guess there’s no fire or dangerous carbon monoxide level that has set off a detector. Now it is time for the most frustrating game in the world – guessing which of our detectors is about to die. Standing below the ones in our hallway by the bedrooms we stare up at the ceiling and wait. BEEP! Aha…that sounded like it was coming from the front foyer.
Ok, taking up our second position, while one of us stays in the hallway by the bedroom detectors, we again wait. BEEP! No I say to my husband, it wasn’t from the ones in the hallway. He answers that it sounded like it came from the downstairs family room. Off he goes to take up a third watch and listen position.
BEEP! I hear him quickly walk back to the stairs and come around the corner of the hall to see him staring again at the foyer detectors.
He says it’s definitely one of the two by the front door, but which one – smoke or carbon monoxide? And so we wait.
BEEP! With a groan, I go back down the hall to the bedrooms and look up. I could have sworn that beep was from right above me. My daughter sleepily opens her bedroom door and suggests in an annoyed tone (and using some unpleasant language) we should remove the batteries from all the detectors until morning.
I’m about ready to agree with her when another BEEP is heard. Once more I hear my husband return to the downstairs family room. After a couple minutes of some noise and the sound of rather unpleasant grumbling coming from downstairs, he comes up carrying two detectors. Setting them aside on the dining room table he states we should all go back to bed and he’ll change the batteries in the smoke detector and carbon monoxide detector in the morning.
Relieved to have this mystery solved, we all say goodnight and return to bed. Finding a comfortable spot and snuggling under the comforter, I closed my eyes and begin to drift back to sleep.
BEEP!
I only wish I could print here the words that came out of my mouth.
