My new flat has lovely high ceilings. Like the ones you find in old houses. Probably because it is an old house. Trouble is, some doofus has put the smoke alarms up there, on the faraway ceiling, where I can't reach them.
Yes, I realise that they are up there so the smoke can reach them, and then they can blurt out a warning message that the house is in danger of burning down. I get that. Smoke alarms are important. Go buy yourself one, if you find yourself alarmless. But...they are beeping at me. Constantly. They have been beeping, in fact, since before Christmas. By my calculations, Christmas was a while ago now. I think they want someone to change their battery. I get that too. Battery changes are important. Otherwise they won't work. Go buy yourself one, if you find yourself batteryless.
But...I can't reach them, to change theirs. I have no furniture to stand on. At least, I have no furniture that it would be wise to stand on. Even if I did, a chair would not be sufficient. A desk to put the chair on, would also be required, along with a reasonable sense of balance. And probably longer legs. None of which I have. The job requires a ladder. Typically, the flat didn't come with one.
I have been unwisely standing on one of those flimsy fold up garden chairs so that I can poke the alarms. (Please don't try this at home.) My poking device consists of an old badminton racket with a long thin piece of metal that broke off of my clothes airer, taped to it. I have to stab the reset button thingy with this implement, while trying not to wobble over. It's a delicate procedure. Especially when wobbling over is something that I am very good at...hmmmm... And if I do this last thing at night, this action only has a limited effect. Invariably the beeping resumes in the wee small hours.
Yes, I have tried burning things. Beneath them. To exhaust the battery. But to no avail. Maybe they don't have enough battery left to read my smoke signals, only enough to complain that they can't. Sometimes they go quiet. Just for a short while. Until I get my hopes up...
They have some sort of banter thing going on too. One beeps, and the other answers. Kinda like birds, chirping to each other, but kinda not like that at all. For some reason, the one in the kitchen chirps louder. Guess it must be the mummy bird... It's quite draining, listening to that constant beeping. Not draining on the batteries though, it seems. How much longer can they last? What if I run out of juice before they do? What if I go completely mad? Maybe they aren't actually beeping at me, but laughing at me...yeah...I thought I detected a slight mocking undercurrent in that last shrill exchange...
I can see the headlines for this predicament too. "Woman's brain fried by fire safety device." Spontaneous combustion is a real phenomenon, isn't it? Surely that would set them off...
If they weren't radioactive, I think I would've smashed them into tiny pieces by now. Except of course that I can't reach them to do that...
There is actually a bird nest in the roof. They make a lot of noise too. Breakfast is early in this house. But they are birds...and I like birds...so that's a racket I can live with. If my assumptions re the avian growth cycle are correct, they will leave the nest soon enough anyway. If only they would take the smoke alarms with...I reckon they would be able to reach them...
Oh well. Let's cheer ourselves up with another RBP (or Random Bug Photo, in case you missed the introduction in my last post). This is the gentle art of wooing, stick insect style;
I yelped with delight when I saw these two acrobats yesterday. I yelped in fright first though cos I nearly squished them. I went to grab the rope they are dangling from as its function is to hold the gate open so I can wheel my bike through it. Obviously they found another purpose for the rope. Ain't they sweet. And they're still there. They have now progressed beyond the hand holding stage, but I won't be posting a picture of that. Bugs have a right to privacy too. Even though they have chosen quite a public place to be private...
No comments:
Post a Comment