The torture of beeps

When I walked into the house this afternoon at 4:00 p.m. with the kids, Faith heard this strange beeping noise. Because it wasn't 4:00 a.m., the normal time when these things happen, it took me awhile to figure out that it was the fire alarm upstairs beeping every 10 seconds or so.

Must be low battery backup, I figured, so I tried to find a 9 volt to stick in the thing. After grabbing one from an extra fire alarm, then pilfering one from Blake's remote control car, I figured either all my batteries were done, or I was too short to actually get the battery into the right slot in the stupid alarm. I'm just tall enough to unhook the thing from the ceiling and pop open the battery compartment while standing on our kitchen stool. But, beyond that it's all touch and go until I lose feeling in my arms.

So, after 20 minutes of incessant beeping I gave up. I figured I'd pick up new batteries when I took Faith to horseback riding and George could fix it when we got home.

Ahh....the best laid plans. Once George actually got home, and could read the back of the smoke alarm, he figured out that the beep signalled an "alarm malfunction". And, because the darn thing is wired into the house (and has a battery backup), it was going to keep beeping. Arrghhh.

So....to the Internet! And yes, after 7 years, the alarms spontaneously start beeping so you are driven mad until you replace them. Great safety feature unless you're trying to get your kids to bed and not lose your mind.

But, I had a brilliant idea that all the fire alarms are probably on the same circuit, so we could turn off the breaker and then, no more beeping! George was skeptical. But, and to quote him, "You were right." (I'll repeat that...I was right!)

So, we now have our backup fire alarm sitting on the bookshelf upstairs, the wired fire alarms on the main floor and basement working on battery backup, and the grating beeps are silent. (Also, no lights in the basement, but, you can't have everything.)

Tomorrow, it's a trip to Crappy Tire for 3 new alarms. Here's hoping the other two don't start beeping tonight.