At 11:05pm one started beeping. This time it definitely was those three beeps saying the battery is low. Again I went to the hall to listen for it to do it again to see which one it was, couldn't figure it out because it wouldn't go off again. I waited for almost 30 minutes, but nothing. Went back to bed.
A little later it went off again, don't remember the time. This time I was sure it was the one in Riley's room, we've had troubles with that one in the past. I got a new battery and as I was getting ready to replace the old one, it started going off. Yep, this was the problem one. Quickly replaced the battery and it seemed to stop.
Then it beeped again and stopped. And again and stopped. It did this several times, sometimes one beep, sometimes several. As I grabbed the detector it would go off or on, depending on how I held it. I guessed there must be a short in it somewhere - as I said we've had troubles with this one before. I left it dangling and it seemed to be fine, so I went back to bed saying I'd look at it in the morning. It went off once more, just a few beeps, then nothing.
Finally, around 1:20am, it went off and just wouldn't stop. I tried using duct tape to hold it in a certain position, but that didn't work. Well, it did for a few minutes, then didn't. Both Marci and I were very frustrated cause we didn't know what to do. Marci called the non-emergency number, I talked to the lady and she said she'd send a fire engine over. I asked her to please tell them not to have lights or the siren going - there isn't a fire, it's a faulty smoke detector and we just don't know who to call. She said not to worry and laughed.
They showed up - looking tired, I think we got them out of bed - and looked at the detector. Fortunately, it's doing it's crazy thing, which is always nice when someone else is looking at it. Then he unplugged it from the house. I was shocked the other alarms weren't going off! I asked, "Doesn't uplugging that one make the others go off?" He said no, and that we have a faulty smoke detector, to just get a new one.
I was SURE if you unplugged it the others would go off - I know it does when you take out the battery. Talk about feeling stupid! I apologized and told the guys I felt bad for getting them out here, they were really nice and said no problem.
So finally at 2am I got back to sleep and got up at 5:30am, and surprisingly, I feel really good. Now I just have to find a new smoke detector.
Oh, and through all of this, Maddie stayed asleep. ;)
