Kaia and Boogie this morning, trying to remember they like snow.
My only duty today was to go to Home Depot for a new mailbox, since the original was plastic and after 15 years it simply disintegrated in the mailman’s hand. I filled the bird feeders first and, in one of those strange coincidences, as I closed the truck door an alarm went off. My first thought, “What the heck is that?!”
Was it the truck? Nope … from somewhere in the house, so I went back inside to figure it out. Smoke alarm? Nope. Cell? Not even close (besides, the alarm was far too loud). Finally figured out it was the battery on my alarm system (because the panel said “Batt Low” – duh).
So I called the service and they confirmed the battery has outlived its three-year life expectancy by an additional three years, which is why it has been unable to recover from the Great Power Outage of Thanksgiving Day. I’m the dodo who never noticed the alarm board was giving me written notice of the battery’s defection, which is why it finally bellowed the message to me via the alarm.
Great, call around to five different Radio Shacks, each getting progressively both further and farther away, until one had a single battery left. But they’re closing in an hour. Pulled the dead battery (scary!!), bagged it and flew to the mall. Got my newbie, came home and installed it. Then ran the system test … completely forgetting it blasts the siren for a few seconds and I have cats. Heh heh, it was pretty funny … they rocketed through the house when that siren blew! Hah, hah, hah, ha, hee, hee, hoo!
But this reminds me of my first tornado experience in MO, when I was watching television and something kept beeping and the acoustics of the apartment made it seem as though the beeping came from the locked closet that housed the furnace and water heater, to which I had no key. I was just getting ready to call the building Super when I realized the sound was actually coming from the television.
Okay, for someone who grew up with the Emergency Broadcast System, which let the television viewer know in no uncertain terms that this was a test of the Emergency Broadcast System, it seems a little stupid to me to have MO’s weather-related EBS, home of the fast and furious tornado, be a delicate little "beep" from the same television that continues to show the regularly scheduled program. And yes, I know the EBS is no more, but I’m just saying think of another way to let people know about imminent death!
Someday I’ll tell you about my first experience with the tornado air siren (yep, I didn’t know what that sound was, either).
Was it the truck? Nope … from somewhere in the house, so I went back inside to figure it out. Smoke alarm? Nope. Cell? Not even close (besides, the alarm was far too loud). Finally figured out it was the battery on my alarm system (because the panel said “Batt Low” – duh).
So I called the service and they confirmed the battery has outlived its three-year life expectancy by an additional three years, which is why it has been unable to recover from the Great Power Outage of Thanksgiving Day. I’m the dodo who never noticed the alarm board was giving me written notice of the battery’s defection, which is why it finally bellowed the message to me via the alarm.
Great, call around to five different Radio Shacks, each getting progressively both further and farther away, until one had a single battery left. But they’re closing in an hour. Pulled the dead battery (scary!!), bagged it and flew to the mall. Got my newbie, came home and installed it. Then ran the system test … completely forgetting it blasts the siren for a few seconds and I have cats. Heh heh, it was pretty funny … they rocketed through the house when that siren blew! Hah, hah, hah, ha, hee, hee, hoo!
But this reminds me of my first tornado experience in MO, when I was watching television and something kept beeping and the acoustics of the apartment made it seem as though the beeping came from the locked closet that housed the furnace and water heater, to which I had no key. I was just getting ready to call the building Super when I realized the sound was actually coming from the television.
Okay, for someone who grew up with the Emergency Broadcast System, which let the television viewer know in no uncertain terms that this was a test of the Emergency Broadcast System, it seems a little stupid to me to have MO’s weather-related EBS, home of the fast and furious tornado, be a delicate little "beep" from the same television that continues to show the regularly scheduled program. And yes, I know the EBS is no more, but I’m just saying think of another way to let people know about imminent death!
Someday I’ll tell you about my first experience with the tornado air siren (yep, I didn’t know what that sound was, either).
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