Monday, July 28, 2003

The screaming started at 3:16am. I knew it was too early for my alarm to go off, but I threw my arm out to hit the snooze button as pure reflex. When the noise didn’t stop, I rolled over and took a look at the clock, which read 3:16am. At that point I realized why Annie was in a frenzy of barking - the smoke alarm was sounding.

All smoke alarms are loud, but this one, being integrated to the sprinkler system in my building, is louder than your average detector. The fact that there’s one in my bedroom makes it worse - it’s ear piercing. And if it’s painful for me, then poor Annie had to be in agony.

So I quickly changed out of my pajama pants into pants with pockets, did a quick survey to make sure the fire wasn’t in my own apartment (it wasn’t), grabbed my cell phone and keys, leashed up Annie, and we tore out of the apartment where our ears were assaulted by an even louder and more shrill alarm outside. At this point Annie wasn’t barking, she was whining - she was in pain. More than six hours later, my ears are still ringing.

Once on the ground floor, I put Annie in the back of the car and took the driver’s seat and started the engine. It was humid and stuffy in the car, so I wanted the AC on and the radio on to drown out the alarm.

At 3:25am, the #9 fire engine of our local volunteer fire department came rolling in followed by an EMT truck. At 3:32am, the second fire engine and EMT trucks rolled up, but they were quickly dispatched back to the station. There was no fire, but the alarm was still sounding. You know, that was a pretty good response time, imho.

Apparently, it was an electrical short. It took them about an hour to get the alarm off for good. I was back in bed by 4:12am, but I didn’t get back to sleep for the paranoia that I would sleep through my alarm. I finally rolled out of bed at about 6:20am.

I am a tired lady today. And a little cranky, but the additional reasons for that will be in the next post.