Smoke Detector Story - Life is in the simple things

Here it is. The story you have been waiting for.

February 9th-10th I was sleeping nicely. I had planned for this night to be a catch up from the previous weeks. The weeks were very rough with little sleep. That did not happen, nope, not a tall. So it is 1:30 in the morning and in my dream, there is a weird beeping. It was getting louder and consistent. I wake up, it was not a dream…the beeping is real, it is in the house. It takes me a second then I realize, the smoke detector is beeping. Oh but wait, there’s more. Two of them are beeping. I am very glad all of them were not, it was a lot easier to handle than constant beeping. At least this way I had 25 seconds of peace in-between the double beeps.

As everyone says “they always die in the middle of the night.” This is a true fact. I do not remember ever having a smoke detector die in the middle of the day growing up. Just at night.

So I am now pretty awake for being awakened by the beeping. I have a step ladder out and am upstairs messing with the alarm. The battery is dead. Logical explanation right? Wrong.

Kwik Trip run

after 1:30 in the morning and I throw on sweats, Ugg boots and my Carhart coat with an old highschool hat, grab my keys and purse and out the door I go. I hoped in the car and drive off to the Kwik trip. Oh, I should mention, I googled the closest Kwik Trip open 24hrs near me. I live in a small town and yes there are two Kwik trips but, a small town, I wasn’t sure if the general store would be open. Thankfully my favorite Kwik Trip in LC is open 24 hrs!

The distance from Kwik Trip to my house is less than a mile. Easily could be walked BUT it was very early in the morning when I should be in bed so I drive because I wanted to get back to sleep quickly 🙂

When I arrived at Kwik Trip, I walk into 3 people working and one person shopping. I ask one of them if they have D batteries they point me to where I need to go.

There are 6 detectors in my house. They are hardwired together and though only 2 are beeping I didn’t know if more would start beeping later that night so I grabbed enough batteries to replace all of them.

These people working at the Kwik Trip were VERY nice. They were smiley, sweet and nice. I was very much not expecting that for 1:45 in the morning.

Back to the beeping…

I get back to the house and with my pockets filled with batteries, I grab my big ladder out of my garage and carry it into the house. You see I have one detector on the main floor which has a higher ceiling. The ceiling is too high for me to reach with the step ladder.

After I drag that guy in I go back upstairs and change the battery in the beeping detector. It doesn’t stop beeping. So I go downstairs and replace that battery. It doesn’t stop beeping.

Throughout this fun night, I am texting my mom hoping I don’t wake her up but at the same time hoping she is awake to help guide me in what to do. I have never worked with hardwire detectors before! I didn’t want to electrocute myself or make a bigger problem with more beeping.

As I was sitting at my island in the kitchen googling what could all be going on I kept finding you need new detectors so call an electrition. Ok, I can do that. So I then google electricians near Lake City. I left a few messages at some and one person picked up. They’re open at 2 in the morning??? Nope…I woke the poor guy and his wife up. I felt SO bad!!

He tells me I need to go to Menards and get new ones. No problem, I can do that. I went downstairs and tried to turn the electricity off to the detectors so I could disconnect them. Nothing on the panel is labeled as smoke detectors.

Solving the problem

Ok now what? From what I was reading I can’t turn them off or disconnect them without turning the power off to them. So I sent my dad a text asking what to do…at 2:30ish in the morning.

I knew I would not get a reply for a few hours so I tried to go back to bed. This girl was so tired she actually fell asleep for a little bit with the beeping….I did say a LITTLE bit 🙂

5:30 rolls around and my phone goes off. My dad answered! He told me I just have to unplug the things…there is a plug…Yes, Google, that would have been wonderful to know 3 hours ago! How could I have missed that you may ask? Because it was 2 in the morning and I was half asleep. That is how 🙂

I get the two that were beeping unplugged have a few last texts back and forth with my dad then sign off and go back to bed.

Yup, you guessed it, there’s more.

Does it end there? Nope. My body will not let me sleep in. I don’t know what is wrong with it but It did not like me sleeping in. 7:50 AM and I can’t sleep anymore. I am exhausted I am done. Thankfully Mondays are my days of rest…kind of. This day I had an appointment that afternoon, a friend coming for dinner and staying the night as well as bible study that evening. I made it through the day but barely 🙂

Monday night I slept GREAT! I woke up Tuesday morning ready to go! That morning I went to work, came back home, jumped in the car and off to Menards I went.

I decided to replace all of the alarms at once. This way there would be no more bad nights for a while…Lord, I pray, please no. When I got back from Menards I ate lunch did a few other things then started putting up all 6 new smoke detectors.

Your ears ring after putting up that many CONNECTED smoke detectors. When they are all the same brand and model they link GREAT. When I attached another one the others all chimed in. I have four down and two to go…”Low battery.”

Yes…it still continues

Ok at first, no problem. I am planning to replace all of them and the low battery will be gone. WRONG! I replace all of them start cleaning up and “Low battery.” The talking detectors’ voice was very sweet but that didn’t make me any less annoyed. They are all brand new! Just unwrapped! I was now quite angered. At this point, I said nope, unplugged it (because I now knew how) and left that room without one for the night. I was just in Red Wing it was getting close to dinner time I was not going to drive back for ONE replacement. Nope, that would be tomorrow’s job.

The next day looks very much like the first. Go to work, come back, hop in the car and go to Menards. I replaced the bad one came back home, set it up walked out of the room and waited, waited, nothing! All is quiet all is well, everything works and is happy!

NOW is the end. I am very thankful I did not have anybody else staying the night they were beeping.

My hope for all of you is that you enjoyed this story of my life while owning a house. To all of you living alone, first-time homeowners or long time homeowners who are sitting at your computer or in your favorite chair reading this and reminiscing, I do not want another night like that one.

Ladies and gentlemen, I bid you all a wonderful morning, afternoon or evening. I am signing off for now. Until next time,