Saturday, June 5, 2010

*Read At Your own Risk* -or- The Singular Case Of The Fire Alarm In The Nighttime

Shayne and I didn't sleep well last night. At some point, I became aware of the fire alarm randomly chirping, and it woke me up enough to be aware of it. I resolved to call building maintenance in the morning, put on my earplugs, and tuned it out enough to go back to sleep.

But it kept going. And it wasn't the normal chirp, either. There were occasional chirps, but mostly the fire alarm was making a repetitive beeping sound more like an alarm clock than its normal piercing cry. And I know because I have accidentally set off the smoke detector A LOT wince we moved in.

Well. At one point Shayne got up to use the bathroom and pushed the button to test the alarm. Yep, it still worked. But the faint beeping continued, just loud enough for me to hear through my earplugs. He puzzled over it for a moment before shrugging and disappearing into the bathroom for a little reading time. Wile he was gone, the beeping stopped. When he returned and closed the bedroom door again, we settled back into a fitful sleep which was presently punctuated again by the strange beeping.

When we finally awoke for the morning, or rather gave up trying to continue sleeping, I opened the bedroom door again. After a few minutes, the sound ceased.

"What was causing it?" We pondered the question together.

"Well, it's not the normal ring. It's something else. Could the weird ring mean it's detecting a gas other than smoke?" I hypothesized.

"Like what?"

"Well, didn't they tell us the smoke detectors were also carbon monoxide detectors? Could there be carbon monoxide of some sort in the air?"

"But then it's just in the bedroom. What's in the bedroom that's emitting carbon monoxide?"

"Hmmm."

We considered.

"Well, we both ate chili for dinner last night, right? I ate some and then you went and ate the rest." I asserted.

"So what are you trying to say?"

"I mean, You let a really stinky fart last night. It was bad. It watered my eye. And I bet I was farting too and didn't know it."

"You think my fart set off the fire alarm?"

"No, I wonder if OUR repeated chili farts combined set off the carbon monoxide detector."

"But how can that be?" He wailed.

"I don't know. But it's the only thing I can think of."

And maybe it was.

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