What a racket!

I believe that everyone should have a smoke alarm in their house. However, I do believe that they should be easy to turn off and that people should not install them in places that are going to be in the path of steam rising when one opens the bathroom door. That’s what happened to me tonight. I’d just had a shower and came out of the door to the bathroom. I hadn’t wandered two metres down the hall way when I heard this deafening BEEP, BEEP, BEEP, BEEP, BEEP, BEEP, BEEP, BEEP. I looked up at the ceiling searching for where the alarm was. I couldn’t find it. That’s a tip for when you move into a new house, find out where the alarms are. As the incessant beeping continued I spotted it and reached up to push the ‘hush’ button. Nothing happened. I pushed it again, and again, a little harder. I pushed it again yet still the beeping continued. I must point out here that I am fully blaming the beeping for jumbling my brain, for I continued to push the buttons for about thirty seconds more, fully expecting a different result! In the end I gave up and reached up to remove it. I couldn’t reach. BEEP, BEEP, BEEP, BEEP, BEEP, BEEP, BEEP, BEEP, BEEP, BEEEEEEP! Still it went on. I ran down the stairs and grabbed a chair and raced up again. I climbed up and had a look at the alarm. ‘Slide to remove’ it said. That sounded simple enough. It wasn’t. It took me a full 2 minutes of cursing, threatening and pleading with the smoke alarm to stop, all the time tugging, twisting and tapping. At this time I was prepared to start hitting it with the chair to make it stop but with one last tug I wrenched the thing from its bindings. With in two seconds I’d removed the battery but still the sound continued. It took me a couple of seconds to realise that it was just the ringing in my ears. Now, 10 minutes later it is just subsiding. I might put the battery back before I go to bed. However, if it happens again I’m going to have the hammer ready!