The Smoke Detector That Wouldn't Die

Smoke detectors beep when the battery is dying, so you know to change it. But does it really need to be that irritating? And, if you remove the battery, isn't it supposed to stop beeping?

So I was having a dream that the smoke detector was beeping. I was at some warped version of my parents' house when my dad asked me to change the battery. So I brought the smoke detector down and changed the battery. Except it was an unusual smoke detector. It was a smoke detector on one side, and then a clock on the other! The clock was tricky to re-install, and I ended up attaching the clock face backwards, and it was ticking counter-clockwise. I had to take it apart again to put the clock face on correctly. And then it beeped!

BEEP!

And I'm like, wait a minute, I just changed the battery. It shouldn't beep! So I kept fiddling with it and...

BEEP!

There it goes again! And it kept beeping and I started feeling annoyed. At this point I started hazily coming out of my dream, and I realized....that my smoke detector was beeping in real life!!!

It was only about 6 a.m., about an hour before I needed to get up. Of all the godforsaken times it needs to beep, it beeps when I am trying to get what little sleep I usually get!

I got up, turned on the light, grabbed my chair... all the while it beeped annoyingly and loudly, and pulled it off the wall. Tricky - it's one of those smoke detectors that is also attached electronically. It has an AC plus battery! (So what is powering what?!?)

I took out the battery and figured I might as well install a new one, but couldn't get the the AC plug back in, so gave up, took the new battery out and was ready to go back to bed. When it gave a ghostly, battery-less beep!

So then I took the whole device and left it out in the living room dining table, washed my hands of the dust, and crawled back into bed for what would be a precious 45 minutes of sleep.

BEEP!

Suddenly I became acutely aware of all the sounds surrounding me. The crows cawing outside my window. The dump trucks picking up garbage. The faucet where I just washed my hands dripping.

Drip. Drip. Drip. BEEP! Drip. Drip. Drip. BEEP!

So I got back up and turned the faucet really tight. Then I grabbed the smoke detector and chucked it out the window.

(Just kidding... I wish I did).

Needless to say, today, I feel one hour short on sleep....