Here's something we don't have in Ukraine : a wonderful invention of civilization - fire alarms. Here'are a few characteristics of the fire alarms in my home:
1. There are three of them for 600 square feet.
2. They go off every time I start baking cookies.
3. They make an even worse sound than Erik's alarm clock and that is pretty bad.
4. Once they start beeping there's only one way to stop them which we don't yet know. So Erik ended up throwing one of them off of our balcony one time. It was still beeping in the forest next morning.
But last night our fire alarms surpassed all our expectations. They started beeping when we got to bed. We pushed all the buttons and took all the battaries out. They woke us up again : beep, beEP, BEEP! We got up and checked them again. To cut the long story short, it was a very long night. After waking up at least five times Erik completely disassembled them tearing them off the wall. He was going for the core: the device that made the beep. Here are some puctures of my walls and the alarms. By the way, guess what? The alarm is still making noises on the table. Bravo, inventors!
Here are a few thoughts of mine on fire alarms: for one, they don't really do anything about the fire, they just beep. Then, the beep is not heard by anyone but the people who are inside or very close to your apartment. Unless you are blind, you will probably see the fire before you hear them beep. And if you are asleep and you wake up to the beep, chances are it's already too late and now you have to figure out how to get out of your burning house without 4 degree burns instead of quietly dying of smoke poisoning. Take that, fire alarms!
5 comments:
Wow!
Sounds like a horror movie - keeps beeping even when not plugged in!
I'm wondering, do you pay for that stuff to get installed into your walls or the houses are already built with those brainchildren of terror?
=)
Very good one, Marina! Yes, one time jake made me some sandwiches in the oven and the fire alarm went off...... it was right next to the room where Maia was taking a nap.... we had a grumpy baby on our hands the rest of the day.... So, I share your feelings. Your post was very funny. At least your fire alarm doesn't have a sprinkler! Imagine that one going off when you're in bed.... or on a sleeping baby...
Oh, Ira, I would pay someone to take them out! Erik just rips them off the ceiling.
Anya, thank you for a graciously kind comment. Yeah, I'm happy there were no sprinklers. A cold shower at night would not have lifted my spirits.
I think the law requires you to have one every-so-many feet.
Please all of you: don't disconnect them. They have a purpose. Fires are much more dangerous in America because we build our houses like tinderboxes.
A grouchy Maia is better than no Maia.
Plus it's against the law to take it down.
Marina,
Thanks for the post on smoke detectors. It brought back fond childhood memories. I can still remember waking each morning to the ear splitting sound of "Little Smokey". (Yes, I gave our smoke detector a name.) It woke me every morning just in time to watch my mom scraping the black stuff off of the toast she had just burned. "Little Smokey" never failed us, but our toaster never seemed to toast bread without burning it, thus alerting "Little Smokey" and me that breakfast was ready. Thanks for the memories.
-Greg
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