I kind of smell like burnt toast this morning.For some reason I didn't notice that the kitchen was flooded with smoke until much too late. The toaster popping-up mechanism thing hadn't worked, and had made a burnt offering of my breakfast.
I leapt up on to a stool to shoo the smoke away from the smoke alarm with my pyjama top, fearing the wrath if I woke up the girls with the alarm. Thankfully, I finally realised that the alarm had been turned off, so I was going to get off scott-free.
Want to know why we surreptitiously turn off our alarm? Because in our unit alone, there are five or six, including one in the kitchen. Because you need that many in a unit. One goes off, and then triggers the rest.
Eeeeeeep!Eeeeeeeeep!Eeeeeeeeep!Eeeeeeeeeep!
It is a truly horrible noise, and it's been known to go off in the middle of the night as well, for no apparent reason. The alarms are amazingly old. I think they're actually powered by coal. And they're also hugely oversensitive. If I walk past a box of matches in the supermarket, they go off. If a cowboy sparks up a Marlboro in Arizona, they go off.
Eeeeeeep!Eeeeeeeeep!Eeeeeeeeep!Eeeeeeeeeep!
Every once in a while some alarm guy comes around to check them, after we continually complain that they go off for no reason. They get cross that we turned them off, give us a little lecture, turn them on again, give the box a little pat, and put on a serious thinking face,then say, "yep, should be right now."
Then several hours later:
Eeeeeeep!Eeeeeeeeep!Eeeeeeeeep!Eeeeeeeeeep!
And out we go again, to turn the dumb thing off.
3 comments:
It is quite annoying isn't it... thankfully ours are battery operated and never inspected. the one in my kitchen is the same way...look at it wrong and it goes off. i have one in the basement that goes off after i open the dryer!! they are quite a nuisance....
Something is wrong with our smoke alarms. They randomly beep that loud intermittent beep that is meant to indicate low battery. however, it does no good to change the battery. It's particularly annoying when it happens to our bedroom detector at 2 AM...
Beth and Tracy, yes they are just a nuisance and rarely work properly. Tracy, yeah I know the intermittent beep thing too. It's a slow painful torture.
Post a Comment