Tuesday, July 16, 2013

My Neat Freak-ness Pays Off

Got up, showered, dressed, made the bed, did my hair and just as I was starting to put my make-up on BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP ... BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP ... BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP ...

The CO alarm in my hallway was going off and waking up anybody in a 1km radius.  It scared the living daylights out of me. That alarm is loud! How happy am I that it didn't go off in the middle of the night? Ridiculously happy.

I pulled the alarm out of the plug in the wall and unplugged the battery. Once the alarm stopped and I could hear myself think again, I read the instructions on the alarm and it seemed it was telling me I needed to get out into fresh air and call 911. Not exactly great timing but I figured I'd better do what it said even if I was pretty sure there was no way there could be a gas leak and now I would be late for work.

After calling 911 and explaining the situation, I took the food compost out for pick-up and before I could get back to the bathroom to finish putting on my make-up, the firemen were pulling up outside my building. Ten minutes later they were gone. Five of them came in, one with some kind of machine to read gas levels (I guess) and they tested everywhere. The fireplace, the bbq, the vents, the drains, the water tank. In the end, it seems this high humidity (I don't think it's that humid but apparently others feel differently) played a mean trick on the CO sensor and set it off.

Now, if you're ever planning to have 5 unannounced firemen (although when are firemen ever expected in your home, unless you're putting together some kind of fundraising calendar ;) hee, hee!), you'll be pretty glad to have made your bed and have everything in the house in its place. No dishes in the sink. Counters tidy. Cushions placed just so. Bed made. Clothes put away. Etc. I can certainly tell you I was very relieved there were no unsightly dishes sitting around or a messy bed to be looked upon by complete strangers. Believe me, I was pretty happy that my neat freak-ness finally paid off.

So yeah, my house was clean and there was no gas leak to worry about!  But then I realised I had 5 people tramping through my house in their big fireman boots and now I will have to clean the floors. Also, this made me 3 minutes late for work.

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