Yes, I know, I should be unpacking. But this I must share.
You may recall that we've already taken care of battery changes for two smoke detectors in the new house.
And yesterday, after the movers came, another one went off. Cripes! How many of the damn things do I have in the house.
I looked around the family room where the chirping was coming from and saw the culprit: a smoke detector attached to the beam across the top of the ceiling. And this room has a high beamed ceiling, so that's quite a height. A tall friend was with me, and she tried standing on the stepstool and was a good two feet away from even brushing the beam with her fingertips.
Last night -- my first night in the house -- I heard it chirping all the way in the bedroom, so ended up shutting a convenient door separating the bedrooms from the rest of the house.
Tonight, on the way home from work, I stopped off at OSH and bought a ladder. A six-footer. That oughtta do it.
And, indeed, it does -- the shorter ladder wouldn't have done it. But I climb up there (having to move some boxes to secure the ladder, I take note that if I come crashing down, I'll land on four glass-pack boxes) and change the battery in the detector. It's a very old detector and it doesn't even test properly, but I can't get it off the beam entirely (still can't find my drill), so I just seat the new battery and wait for the blissful sound of chirplessness.
Chirp.
(Didn't I go through this before?)
I crank up my metaphorical antennae and try to triangulate the precise source of the chirping. Near the detector, but lower. Near the window. Is it outside? (I check outside. It is not.) Back inside then. Near the window. Right near these--
--boxes. Labelled "CDs." I recall that (a) my mover packed everything; and (b) I had thrown an old smoke detector in the drawer with the CDs. Once I knew what I was looking for, it was pretty easy to find. Sure enough, there it was, wedged in the second CD box -- that damn thing must have been chirping away in my storage cage for weeks.
1 comment:
My hearing has gotten bad enough that I don't know which of the 5 smoke detectors in the house is chirping, so I make it a habit to change the old batteries for new at Halloween / time change once a year.
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