And the Beep Goes On...

Have you ever listened to a smoke detector beeping non-stop for 22 hours? No? Well then I feel sorry for you. Because I did, starting at about 4pm Monday and continuing until about 2pm yesterday. It wasn't the first time the thing went off (actually multiple "things" since it was more than one detector. A veritable symphony of detectors all going at once) it had been sporadically beeping for almost a week. The first time it went off was about 2am one night last week and I don't know if it woke me up or I happened to wake up and hear it but it set me off on a panicked run around our apartment doing the ever reliable sniff test. I finally fell back asleep after reassuring myself it was a false alarm and we wouldn't need to evacuate in the dead of night carrying Riley, our phones and one mismatched pair of shoes. You know you'd always go for mismatched, seasonally inappropriate footwear at a time like that. It kept on going off at different times of the day until the climax of 22 hours of mellifluous high pitched beeping. I couldn't get enough! In fact I still hear beeps in my head even a day after it finally stopped. Honestly, at least five times now I have stopped and listened, convinced the thing started up again. But no, it was just the beeping in my head. Carry on. It turns out the place next door, currently for rent, had a new system and batteries installed and they didn't work quite right. I can attest to that. The management company came yesterday after I involved the council noise complaint line, and the guy shut off the system and removed all the batteries. So yeah! Beeping over but Boo! Now I have to worry that our neighboring flat will actually go up in smoke and no detectors will be working to alert me to the fact we need to grab our dog, an old sweater, one photo from 10 years ago, some useless safety item like a fork and high tail it outside. So it's a trade off - no beeping interrupting my every thought mixed with the possibility of an alarm-less fire. Not sure which one could wreck my sanity first...

But in other news, we just got back from a weekend in Italy. Bologna (with day trips) to be exact. And let's see, Riley got a new wardrobe. It's still freezing here. Apparently every beef product in this country is actually made with horse meat. Dave's studying up on life in the UK and I need to start studying pronto. We're hitting the beach next month. Riley needs a fur cut. It's Valentine's Day tomorrow. I am on a stupid diet. And that's it. More to come...