Ok, Saturday night was a little...bright.Around midnight, an alarm starts sounding off somewhere in the house. It is LOUD! I finally track it down, and our Carbon Monoxide /Explosive Gas monitor is flashing 217. (whatever the hell THAT means!) I hit "reset," and the damn thing goes off again and again. While I'm desperately trying to find the owner's manual, my husband takes out the batteries so it will stop piercing our eardrums with it's killer screeching. He says, "ok, so the alarm goes off...now what the hell are we supposed to do?" um...I have no clue.
Owner's manual: CALL the fire department.
the firechief: "what seems to be the problem?"
me: "the alarm is flashing, but I don't smell any gas."
the firechief: "get everyone outside and wait for us."
me: "uh...ok"
Now before you all start getting too excited, there was no gas leak. There was no carbon monoxide reading in the house. There was no fire. The firetruck pulled up to our house with lights EVERYWHERE! Flashing, swirling, blinking like it was having a massive seizure...all at midnight on our quiet little street. I have no doubt you could see this mother from space! It was BAD.
The firemen go searching through our house with little monitors, checking outlets, gas lines, the attic...they come back to say they have found our problem. Plugged in next to the monitor is a Glade Plug-in. Yes, that's right. The glade plug-in emits a small amount of gas, and over time, the monitor picks that up and alerts the entire neighborhood that you are "faking it". I don't really have a clean house, I just try to fake it with Glade plug-ins. Niiiiiice.
me: "so I got you out in the middle of the night for a Glade plug-in?"
the firechief: it appears that way, ma'am. Have a good night.
me: "uh....ok"
* these pics are from my camera phone...we loaded up the three munchkins and damn dog into the van while we waited for "the gas" to be aired out. No problem though, we just plugged in our DVD player and had a midnight party.
Just look at those eyes!!
Ok, so I'm going to take a guess here and say that didn't give your neighbor other reason to want to get to know you? Go with a Glad spray, I guess. I'm a "faker" too. But, I'm laughing because it was you and not me!!!!
ReplyDeleteaw, winning friends and influencing people, that's my LM
ReplyDeleteThat's what I'm always afraid of. I'll call out the emergency people and it will all be for nothing. Oh well, it really is better to be safe than sorry, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteMy brother in law says those plug-ins are major causes of fire because they heat up and cause electrical fires. Too funny though that it was putting off gas that your carbon detector picked up! Too funny!
ReplyDeleteThis is hysterical!!!
ReplyDeleteYou faker! Hee/hee...
I used to work in a bookstore that shared a wall with a bank. One morning we came in and the whole bookstore had this horrible burning/chemical smell but no smoke or flames to be seen so we freak out thinking it's seeping in from the bank. It was Saturday and the bank was closed. The fire trucks came and the bank manager was called and traffic was stopped and it was...a fluorescent light ballast in the bookstore basment.
ReplyDeleteOh no... LOL. For all of us out here in blog-land however, it's a great LEARNING EXPERIENCE. (As you know - I'm always using that line on my kids.) ;)
ReplyDeleteGlad everything was ok though!!! (I do know 2 families that went through this for REAL and were not ok...)
lol. at least you have an exciting story to blog about :) your kids are adorable :)
ReplyDeletei bet your neighbors were LOVING YOU this morning. lol... seems like you get yourself into trouble every day!
ReplyDeleteI am so damn glad to know that!!! I can only imagine how freaked out you were when those alarms went off!! Had the smoke alarm go off like that before when the heat came on for the first time that year...it always is when your sleeping..why the hell is that?
ReplyDeleteGuess the neigbor guy saw you all in your P.J.s that night!
Hell, I'd drag those guys out anytime, if meant I wouldn't have a stinky house, lol! That is hysterical.
ReplyDeleteThat picture of the baby with the binky is BEAUTIFUL!! Amazing!
THANK GOD it was nothing serious. Could you imagine? I'm glad everyone is safe! Eh, I fake it too. LOL
ReplyDeleteWe were at my inlaws a few years ago and the fire alarms were going off, as the fire dept was leaving calling it a false alarm he said sometimes spiders or bugs get in there and can set them off......sure enough my father-in-law unscrewed everything and out crawls a tiny spider, little bastard.
ReplyDeleteWow! I wouldn't have known what to do either.
ReplyDeleteWhich reminds me...need to check the smoke detectors...