Chirp

Years ago Cousin Rachel (I think it was her) went over to visit our Grandma and Grandpa while attending school at USU. Grandpa was a bit frustrated and said that there was a cricket that had gotten into the house and was chirping all night long. She listened for it and could HEAR it! Following the chirping sound, she realized that the “cricket” was the smoke detector in the hallway in front of their bedroom, and that it needed a new battery! A battery change later, and the cricket was “killed”. Poor Grandma and Grandpa had probably lost a whole night’s sleep having to listen to that chirping smoke detector!

Last Thursday night I was awakened by a “chirp”. I tried to pry open my bleary eyes and pinpoint what exactly that sound was. “chirp”. What in the world? It was a little past 1:00am. Was it a bird? Was it my imagination? “chirp”. No, it’s the smoke detector. “chirp” I knew that smoke detectors chirp when they are low on batteries, so I woke up Josh to take care of it. Then we realized that the problem wasn’t localized to one smoke detector in our bedroom, every detector in the house was chirping. Visions of kids AWAKE and ALERT in the middle of the night make my blood run cold, so I quickly hopped out of bed to try to help in any way I could – standing there in a stupor, offering bits of useless encouragement. We found out that our alarm and Boo’s alarm were both chirping, so removed both to stop their friends from joining in on the chirping. The fun part about these fancy new alarms is that they continue to chirp at you even when disconnected! “chirp” Josh found some new batteries for both of them and we both climbed back into bed, thinking that we’d just connect them in the morning. 30 minutes later, “chirp…chirp” pause “chirp…chirp”. Josh wrapped them up in a towel and tossed them both into our closet, because the alarm has obviously got a mind and LOST it. Several hours later, just as I had finally gotten back to sleep, “BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP” coming from the closet. Is this thing possessed? All we can figure is the detectors wanted to be reunited with their ceiling and were angry that we hadn’t done so. So, like any two people would do when running on little sleep, Josh dismantled (broke) the smoke detectors. Take THAT!

Mental Note: Get that replaced.

P.S. Our camera was found in a car we test drove two weeks ago!