Preface: Let me just say RIGHT NOW that I went to Home Depot on Sunday and bought a new smoke alarm. Okay. And now that I think about, I think I'll go back and buy another one.
So! Like a good little doobee, on Saturday I was changing out the batteries on my carbon monoxide detectors and the smoke alarm. I changed the battery in the smoke alarm and pressed the test button, bracing myself for the ear-piercing, instant-headache-producing shriek, and instead what I got was this:
meeeeeeeeeeep ee ee meeeeeeeeeep
Whaaaa? That ain't right! I tried another battery, and still all I got was a pathetic little mewl. I never knew smoke alarms had a "crying kitten" mode.
Seriously, I thought when a smoke alarm was dying, it was supposed to beep, like, every fifteen seconds, to let you know it's on the way out. I had NO IDEA a smoke alarm could just give up the ghost without notifying you.
Whenever I read an article about a house fire where there wasn't any smoke alarm, or the batteries had been taken out of the smoke alarm, or .... waaaaaait a minute. I think I remember reading a couple of times about house fires where the smoke alarm was "non-functioning."
IS THIS WHAT THEY MEANT? When the smoke alarm gives out a little "meep" instead of a brain-damaging scream?
Because I always read those articles and go, "What idiots!" about the homeowners. Who on earth is TOO F*CKING STUPID to have a working smoke alarm?
Evidently, I am.
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1 comment:
Yeah, when your father-in-law and brother-in-law are both firemen and your husband grew up in that kind of household...you always have working alarms. Imagine how stupid we'd feel if our house caught on fire. You know, stupid and, well, devastated probably.
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