An irritating, buzzing alarm signal went off just as we were finishing dinner tonight.
What was beeping? Could it be the microwave oven telling me something was ready? No, as I opened the door to check. It was empty. The toaster oven? Another blank. Nothing in there.
Aha, I thought, “it must be time to change the smoke alarm battery.”
” I’ll get the ladder if you stand there to help balance me,” replied my husband. Meanwhile the beeping became more insistent. He carried the heavy aluminum ladder across the house from the hall closet to under the alarm. This appliance was right above the entrance to the downstairs basement workroom. ” Please be careful not to get too close to the steps,” I warned. I couldn’t help thinking of our neighbor, Kevin, who fell off his ladder this summer and broke two bones in his foot. The poor guy spent two months on crutches.
When Harvey unscrewed the alarm cover the sound screeched again. But it was not coming from the ceiling, where the ladder was awaiting the job of installing a new 9 volt battery. So where was it coming from?
That’s when our search for the sound origin began. “Where else is there another smoke alarm? Or could it be the carbon monoxide detector?” There was another smoke detector in the hall outside the bedroom. But as we stood under that one, the beep sounded again from back at then original site. “It has to be the first one you tried,” I reasoned. And back we went, approaching the offending sound, determined that it would not keep us awake tonight, as it had done then last time the alarm sounded. Once again, up the ladder, alarm cap unscrewed, when the sound loudly bleated right behind me on a long counter separating the kitchen from the family room.
But there is no smoke alarm over here! This was getting tiresome, especially since we had a rented movie we promised each other we would watch tonight. I quickly spun around to where the sound came from and saw a cordless telephone lying there. “Boing!” Mystery solved. A phone that was begging for attention, hoping to be recharged, beeping to be placed back in its telephone cradle.
What a relief; a quiet, beepless house once again. Time to get the popcorn popped and the DVD player set up. It’s movie night!
MorristownMemos 
Comments on: "BEEP NO MORE, MY LADY…" (32)
Bleeping pain these devices are 🙂
Great piece, Ms. Morristown.
One question:Is that really Harvey up on the ladder?
Love Weep No More, My Lady! Read it in high school.
So glad to hear it was just the phone. Glad you got to watch you movie and enjoy some popcorn!
Glad you finally figured out where the sound came from. I can’t imagine a night filled with a nagging sound — no matter how small it may seem. To the rented movies … hope you guys enjoyed watching them 😉
It certainly makes you wonder whether being led by our electronics devices is worth the effort. But we wouldn’t be able to watch rented movies without our electronics, would we?
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I hate the search and destroy mission you have to go thru to find the nagging, irritating noise. Glad you solved the mystery without too much hassle. Good yarn, Ronnie.
Thanks, Judy. Those alarms are so irritating when the announce that they need new batteries. There must be a better way!
Yahhh … I’m going to tell you, if it was the smoke alarm, chances are it would drive you out of the house with the noise. We had a bad one for awhile in our former home – huge vaulted ceilings, to boot. And it only would misfire in the middle of the night – GROAN … Chris finally disconnected it for good. I feel your pain 😉
The noise is unbearable. Last time that happened I almost DID leave the house. It may have left me with acoustic trauma!
I was hoping it was a Little Nash Rambler.
That’s beeping away in the garage!
Oops! The word is aggravating.
Thanks for the correction; I always mix up th “a”and “e” spelling too.
Mmmm!! Modern technology, aggregating sometimes. Hope you enjoyed the movie and the popcorn.
Yes, at least there was a reward at the end of the experience.
The Smoke Alarm a/k/a Phone Screech. Another Hammer winner, everyone has a smoke alarm story, mostly because we are all so afraid of dying from carbon minoxide poisoning. My parents (my father) taped the smoke alarm with masking tape and prayed for the best. Good short prose, tight and light. We are all looking forward to your novel as well.
Thanks so much, Lisa. But after hearing all the elements of writing a novel at the Writers’ Conference Saturday I think I will stick to my nonfiction books and blogs.
Hope you saw a great movie after all that!
Maybe it was so good because of the relief we felt for solving the mystery.
Time to hear the beep on the microwave telling you your popcorn is ready! 🙂
That’s a happy idea, and eventually it happened exactly that way.
Too many machines go beep. I spend my life hunting down beeps. You can’t leave a beep unsearched for as it may be a very important beep. We’ve become servants of the beep.
“Servants of the beep;” what a great line. Thanks for your comment, Roger. ‘Hope you don’t have these problems in France.
Aaaah for the sound of silence…
That’s a beautiful sound.
Hahaha!!! Ronnie, my wife and I chased that same beeping noise for an hour one night…, and it was a smoke detector (1 of 4) and when we changed the battery in the first, another started chirping. I changed the batteries in the other 3 and there was still a chirping. Traced it back to the 1st detector and finally ended up taking the battery out and disconnecting it from the electrical circuit so we could get some sleep. Whatdyado when the technology that’s supposed to protect you destroys your sleep??? 🙂 Maybe you wee lucky that it WAS just a phone !!!
I WAS lucky it was just the phone. It was much easier putting it back in its cradle than it would have been to replace a battery in a ceiling smoke detector.
Mystery solved and no harm done. Hope you were able to have a great movie night!
That’s the best kind of night, in my opinion.
It’s positively scary that appliances now call us from any old hidden places. This is just not natural. 🙂 Great post re living in a technological age. 🙂
We are, whether we like it or not!