Do you want to know what is really fun to do at 2 a.m. when you're half asleep and it's below freezing outside? Change the battery in the smoke detector in your garage. Last night or technically this morning, I was woken up to a high-pitched beeping. I wasn't sure at first what the noise was coming from. I only knew where it was coming from: downstairs. Thinking that it was the security system beeping because it lost its cellular backup signal yet again, I got up and went downstairs to turn it off and to wait for the inevitable call from ADT. However, the "b6" signal wasn't flashing on the alarm pad like it normally does when the cell signal vanishes. It said "STAY" and nothing else.After a few minutes of walking around in circles trying to figure out what the beeping was coming from, it finally hit me; it was coming from that stupid smoke detector in the garage. Every other smoke detector in my house is hard-wired, i.e. tied into the electricity, except for the one in the garage. It operates off of a 9 volt battery. Getting to it is real fun. It's right above my treadmill, so I have to put the ladder in front of the treadmill and lean out over the panel area to reach it. That's probably not the safest way to change the battery, but at 2 in the morning, it's the only one I've got. I was too tired and too cold to fold up the treadmill and move it so I chose the leaning method instead and prayed that I didn't fall.
Luckily, I didn't fall or turn into a popsicle. However, when I came back inside, I couldn't find my cocker spaniel Bella. I spent probably 10 minutes looking for her and finally found her shut up in my walk-in closet. Apparently, she had been so scared by the high-pitch beeping, the ladder, and my cursing (hey, it was 2 a.m. and freezing in the garage), she had gone into the closet to hide. When I went to look for her in the master bathroom, I shut the closet door out of habit and inadvertently locked her in. After I freed her from the closet, I had to spend another 10 minutes calming her down and telling her that Mommy was sorry she scared her with that big, bad ladder and locked her in the dark closet.
Needless to say, I could use a nap today. I just don't think that I'm going to get it.
