I have a total of 11 fire alarms in my home. It seems a little excessive to me after taking time to count them yesterday, but I suppose that one day I may be thankful for each and everyone of them. I am thankful for my home and the security that I feel knowing that my home is equipped with gadgets such as fire alarms to help protect my family in the case of such an emergency.
I have a question however. WHY IN THE WORLD DO THE BATTERIES IN FIRE ALARMS NEVER GET LOW IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DAY???
I mean really, it is always in the middle of the night that the incessant BEEP BEEP BEEP rings loudly and then by the time you get woke up and realize what the BEEP BEEP BEEP came from you have missed its origin and are forced to either get up and seek out the culprit hoping there will be some sort of sign of which of the (newly discovered) 11 made the noise.
So at 3:30 AM we are up, standing at opposite ends of the house waiting for the sound to go once more. But is it that easy... NO! No more sounds, beeps, chirps, nothing. So do you go back to bed? Check for a fire? It wasn't the actual alarm, but what if it malfunctions and that was all we were getting? And we knew as soon as our eyes closed again the BEEP BEEP BEEP would return to taunt us. So we noticed after walking all through the house praying that the kids would not join the party that a few of the alarms blinked.. some green, some red. Where is the instruction manual to these things? No where to be found I can tell you and it is the only instruction manual I don't have. I still have instruction to the strollers and baby carriers that I know longer own, but the fire alarms, the machines that protect my family from sure death, nope.
BEEP BEEP BEEP! Yeah, it is the hall by the kids room. I hope they don't wake. So balanced on a chair at now 4:20am my loving husband opens the battery compartment and great a 9 volt. Oh yeah those are laying all around. Couldn't be a AA. No those are all over the place easily found in the battery drawer or any toy in the house. Luckily, I had bought a variety pack of batteries at Sam's and there were 2 in it. Hooray!! But now that the old one is out we can't get the new one back in. Attributed partly I am sure to it being before 5am and standing precariously on a chair at a bad angle trying to be quiet so as not to wake the kids or worse set the alarm off and send our boy into hero mode saving his sister and feeling of doors for heat and the dreaded backdraft.
Finally we are back in bed around 5am vowing to change every battery tomorrow and then every 6 months or at clock change time whatever they recommend.
And as it always is... at 6am a little earlier than usual I hear at my bedside, "Mommy, I need some juice a biscuit and the remote control. Mommy it's cocka-doodle-doo time to get up. Why are you still sleeping?" Umm..... never mind buddy I am coming!
Moral of the story... fire safety is important! Change your batteries regularly or look like crap and be really grumpy every 6 months!
2 comments:
So, the fire alarms in our house are apparantly wired into the electrical system. I assume they have batteries, for backup, but as of yet (almost 2 years) and no beeping. :) But I can DEFINITELY relate to your story...been there.
Hope Kindergarten Day 1 went well. Email me pictures!
I tagged you in my blog...play along if you wish! :)
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