Resonating Silence
By 9:00 this morning I was so glad it was Sunday.
The smoke detector from my basement with a 10 year lithium battery posted on it, had actually survived three years past its life expectancy. As my house used to be a rental, then vacant, then a HUD house just waiting for somebody to care about it again, this small favor is definitely miraculous.
On Friday, unfortunately, it had just about reached the end of its life and began "chirping" its swan song. This high-pitched intermittent beeping could be heard all through the house, and was giving me a headache and making the dogs even jumpier than usual. So I removed it with surprising ease from its mount in the basement and thought I did the right thing to disable it so the chirping would cease. Apparently not. It continued to chirp for 24 hours. Yoshi could hear it chirping alongside its silent "cousin" in a plastic bag I'd hung from the inside garage door knob, and refused to go outside through that door to the use the backyard.
By last night I had had enough, and I threw the bag in my garbage can, thinking that it would be better out there, and by Monday the whole device would have silenced and been carried away with the rest of the garbage. Well, then we had steady rain all night long that seeped through the garbage can lid and got the smoke detector wet. What had been a chirp became a continuous, high-pitched beep, like an 8th octave dial tone in my garbage can. It was even so loud that I could hear it from the top of my ramp, and I was thankful for the sake of my neighbor across the street that he is hard of hearing:)
But this left me at a complete loss. I would have hurled the plastic bag at the side of the house, or tried to dismantle it more methodically with a screw driver or something. But for some reason in the back of my mind I was fretting over what kind of chemicals might leak onto my hands if I messed with a lithium battery. So I called the fire department. He suggested I just smash it with a shovel--we both laughed at that. Then he told me some one would come to take care of it. Relieved, I thanked him and hung up.
It was a nice morning as I waited at the top of the ramp for who ever was coming. I guess it was unreasonable to hope for an inconspicuous van or car. An entire fire truck pulled up, though it didn't try to park in my driveway, which didn't surprise me! It's so heavy it probably would have rolled down the steep incline back into traffic:) Finally, they came and of course, a few good stomps of one fire fighter's enormous boots shut that monster up. The silence that followed rang in my ears like music!
They even fixed me up with one free smoke detector, and I was a bit concerned at how much of my unfinished house they saw. I assured them that construction is still going on. This is true; the place is very much a work in progress! And at least by the time they left my dogs and I could enjoy a blissfully un-screeching, un-chirping house and garage. All day has be delightfully quiet (except that Mary likes to bark at every single moving thing outside the window), and I've been decompressing from a stressful morning.
Ever since a childhood spent in and out of hospitals that are overflowing with mechanical beeps and blips of every kind that will make your heart skip a beat even to hear one across the room--I have had an aversion to any kind of beep. They cause my stomach to tighten, and I start to feel a little short of breath. Not to mention headaches--a constant part of my life--always follow beeps. In childhood a beep almost always meant a shunt malfunction, i.e. a crushing headache, i.e. an impending surgery. Now they just annoy the Hell out of me, and that is enough to make my head pound.
Thank goodness tonight everything will be back to normal, and every beep has been removed. With any luck the anxious pain my heart will also subside:) I'm so used to them, and I loved Michael so much, I tried not to let it show on my face just how much the "error" beeps from his IVs and other monitors bothered me. And most of the time I did a darn good job. But the memory of them now makes them all the more detested in my home. Thank goodness for the GRFD! I shall sleep soundly tonight:)
The smoke detector from my basement with a 10 year lithium battery posted on it, had actually survived three years past its life expectancy. As my house used to be a rental, then vacant, then a HUD house just waiting for somebody to care about it again, this small favor is definitely miraculous.
On Friday, unfortunately, it had just about reached the end of its life and began "chirping" its swan song. This high-pitched intermittent beeping could be heard all through the house, and was giving me a headache and making the dogs even jumpier than usual. So I removed it with surprising ease from its mount in the basement and thought I did the right thing to disable it so the chirping would cease. Apparently not. It continued to chirp for 24 hours. Yoshi could hear it chirping alongside its silent "cousin" in a plastic bag I'd hung from the inside garage door knob, and refused to go outside through that door to the use the backyard.
By last night I had had enough, and I threw the bag in my garbage can, thinking that it would be better out there, and by Monday the whole device would have silenced and been carried away with the rest of the garbage. Well, then we had steady rain all night long that seeped through the garbage can lid and got the smoke detector wet. What had been a chirp became a continuous, high-pitched beep, like an 8th octave dial tone in my garbage can. It was even so loud that I could hear it from the top of my ramp, and I was thankful for the sake of my neighbor across the street that he is hard of hearing:)
But this left me at a complete loss. I would have hurled the plastic bag at the side of the house, or tried to dismantle it more methodically with a screw driver or something. But for some reason in the back of my mind I was fretting over what kind of chemicals might leak onto my hands if I messed with a lithium battery. So I called the fire department. He suggested I just smash it with a shovel--we both laughed at that. Then he told me some one would come to take care of it. Relieved, I thanked him and hung up.
It was a nice morning as I waited at the top of the ramp for who ever was coming. I guess it was unreasonable to hope for an inconspicuous van or car. An entire fire truck pulled up, though it didn't try to park in my driveway, which didn't surprise me! It's so heavy it probably would have rolled down the steep incline back into traffic:) Finally, they came and of course, a few good stomps of one fire fighter's enormous boots shut that monster up. The silence that followed rang in my ears like music!
They even fixed me up with one free smoke detector, and I was a bit concerned at how much of my unfinished house they saw. I assured them that construction is still going on. This is true; the place is very much a work in progress! And at least by the time they left my dogs and I could enjoy a blissfully un-screeching, un-chirping house and garage. All day has be delightfully quiet (except that Mary likes to bark at every single moving thing outside the window), and I've been decompressing from a stressful morning.
Ever since a childhood spent in and out of hospitals that are overflowing with mechanical beeps and blips of every kind that will make your heart skip a beat even to hear one across the room--I have had an aversion to any kind of beep. They cause my stomach to tighten, and I start to feel a little short of breath. Not to mention headaches--a constant part of my life--always follow beeps. In childhood a beep almost always meant a shunt malfunction, i.e. a crushing headache, i.e. an impending surgery. Now they just annoy the Hell out of me, and that is enough to make my head pound.
Thank goodness tonight everything will be back to normal, and every beep has been removed. With any luck the anxious pain my heart will also subside:) I'm so used to them, and I loved Michael so much, I tried not to let it show on my face just how much the "error" beeps from his IVs and other monitors bothered me. And most of the time I did a darn good job. But the memory of them now makes them all the more detested in my home. Thank goodness for the GRFD! I shall sleep soundly tonight:)
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