Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Rude awakening

Collapse
This topic is closed.
X
X
Collapse
 
  • Page of 2
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts
Previous 1 2 template Next
  • #1

    Rude awakening

    I didn't sleep well Sunday night -- I'm not sure why -- so I thought well, I'll just go to bed early Monday night and catch up. And it seemed to be working ... until ...

    *BEEP*

    *BEEP*

    *BEEP*

    *BEEP*



    I'm jolted out of a nice doze by this racket. It's the smoke alarm. No, it's not telling me the house is on fire. This is the noise it makes when it's telling you that its life is ending.

    Of course you couldn't die at 3 p.m., could you, you noisy bastard ... Nope, you opt to die at 1 a.m.

    I thought I'd open it and just take the batteries out. There is no battery 'door.' There is no battery compartment. I'm damn sure it's not hard-wired into the house, so WTF ... There's a doughnut-shaped 'frame' that's screwed into the ceiling first, and then the main body of the alarm is attached. I should add that I didn't instal the damn thing, so you can imagine the results ....

    It took me more than an HOUR to get main body of the alarm down -- with considerable violence, I might add -- only to discover that the ring ALSO makes loud beeping noises. And not one of the approximately two dozen screwdrivers fit the screws holding it to the ceiling.

    It finally shut up; I don't know whether it ran out of steam or whether my whacking it several times with various screwdrivers were responsible ...

    By 5 p.m. Tuesday I was a zombie. I came home, put a few perishable groceries that I'd picked up into the fridge, flopped into bed and slept until midnight, when I finally got up to have supper.

    And now I have to replace this devil's spawn.

    On the bright side, I'm definitely seeing the sense behind Canada's tough gun laws ...
    Last edited by Pixelated; 03-09-2017, 12:21 AM.
    Customer service: More efficient than a Dementor's kiss
    ~ Mr Hero
    Tags: None
  • #2
    Our smoke detectors are hardwired as well as having a battery. And of course they're impossible to reach unless you have all the lights on, a sturdy chair/stepladder--of course our ladder lives in the basement storage--and preferably a helper to steady the chair as you're doing the acrobatics required to get the damn thing unplugged (the wires connecting it to the socket are about two inches long, and the recess it sits in is about that deep). And they always die in the middle of the night...do these things have an internal clock or something?

    My dad's place has very high ceilings on the main floor, so getting to those smoke detectors is even more fun...why can't they be designed so you can use the poles/cups designed for changing recessed lightbulbs?
    "I am quite confident that I do exist."
    "Excuse me, I'm making perfect sense. You're just not keeping up." The Doctor

    Comment

    • #3
      The temptation to use a 12ga batterying device must have been almost irresistable.
      I am not an a**hole. I am a hemorrhoid. I irritate a**holes!
      Procrastination: Forward planning to insure there is something to do tomorrow.
      Derails threads faster than a pocket nuke.

      Comment

      • #4
        I think you want thicker wires than gauge 12 for charging the battery.


        .... Oh, that kind of 12 gauge?

        Nevermind...
        “There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged.
        One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world.
        The other, of course, involves orcs." -- John Rogers

        Comment

        • #5
          Quoth Nunavut Pants View Post
          I think you want thicker wires than gauge 12 for charging the battery...
          When I plug the 12ga connected to the battery into the wall socket...


          It'll get a charge Georges Leclanché will feel.
          I am not an a**hole. I am a hemorrhoid. I irritate a**holes!
          Procrastination: Forward planning to insure there is something to do tomorrow.
          Derails threads faster than a pocket nuke.

          Comment

          • #6
            Quoth Nunavut Pants View Post
            I think you want thicker wires than gauge 12 for charging the battery.


            .... Oh, that kind of 12 gauge?

            Nevermind...
            Too bad smoke detectors don't run on button cells. One common size is the 357.
            Any fool can piss on the floor. It takes a talented SC to shit on the ceiling.

            Comment

            • #7
              Absolutely ALL I can think about right now is this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tkY08MhfoU
              "Is it hot in here to you? It's very warm, isn't it?"--Nero, probably

              Comment

              • #8
                Maybe that's why my building got rid of the trash/incinerator chute?
                "I am quite confident that I do exist."
                "Excuse me, I'm making perfect sense. You're just not keeping up." The Doctor

                Comment

                • #9
                  Quoth Food Lady View Post
                  Absolutely ALL I can think about right now is this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tkY08MhfoU
                  The first half of that was absolutely me. The last half was only not me for two reasons: one, I live in a house, so there's no trash chute.

                  And secondly ... it turned out that I have probably destroyed a perfectly good smoke alarm that still had 5+ years of life left to it.

                  Because I discovered yesterday that the non-stop chirping wasn't coming from the smoke detector at all. It was coming from the CO MONITOR plugged in in the same hallway, about whose existence I had completely forgotten.

                  So I am now the proud owner of a new smoke detector AND a new CO monitor. Oh, and TWENTY NEW SCREWDRIVERS.

                  Don't ask.
                  Customer service: More efficient than a Dementor's kiss
                  ~ Mr Hero

                  Comment

                  • #10
                    And even worse, the CO monitor had directions on how to disable it. So I followed those directions.

                    But it's STILL CHIRPING ...

                    Quoth dalesys View Post
                    The temptation to use a 12ga batterying device must have been almost irresistable.
                    Trust me, it still is ...

                    Although at least now the damn thing's in the basement, so the beeps aren't nearly as loud. Question: would shoving it into the deep freeze harm any of the food in there ... ?
                    Customer service: More efficient than a Dementor's kiss
                    ~ Mr Hero

                    Comment

                    • #11
                      Quoth Pixelated View Post
                      Oh, and TWENTY NEW SCREWDRIVERS.

                      Don't ask.


                      I should drop my fire alarm down the chute just to see if that guy shows up. <3
                      Last edited by Food Lady; 03-11-2017, 06:35 AM.
                      "Is it hot in here to you? It's very warm, isn't it?"--Nero, probably

                      Comment

                      • #12
                        Hey it could be worse. At least you weren't drunk when you were trying to get it down.

                        About a month after I moved into my apartment, my housemate and I had gotten back from a very big day/night of drinking about 2am. The stupid smoke alarm decided 3am was a great time to tell us the battery was dead. It took us 30mins to work out how to get the bloody thing down because I was seeing double and he couldn't read the teeny-tiny instructions on the cover.

                        Managed to not break it, but it spent at least 3 weeks down before we remembered to get a new battery.
                        A good bookshop is just a genteel Black Hole that knows how to read. - Terry Pratchett, Guards! Guards!

                        Comment

                        • #13
                          They have instructions?
                          "I am quite confident that I do exist."
                          "Excuse me, I'm making perfect sense. You're just not keeping up." The Doctor

                          Comment

                          • #14
                            Quoth Dreamstalker View Post
                            They have instructions?
                            At this point I'd be more likely to call them "suggestions."

                            Trying to figure out now how to dispose of them. I wonder if the local fire department would take them ... I can't see just tossing them into the trash.

                            Especially the CO monitor, which is still beeping plaintively in the basement.
                            Customer service: More efficient than a Dementor's kiss
                            ~ Mr Hero

                            Comment

                            • #15
                              Oh em gee, Pix, you are def. one of my favorite people on this board.
                              "Is it hot in here to you? It's very warm, isn't it?"--Nero, probably

                              Comment

                              Previous 1 2 template Next
                              Working...
                              X