“Hey Cyndi, this is Kathy. I thought you might want to know that your house alarm is going off”. Couldn’t get hold of Dan. I RUN three blocks to our house (anyone who has known me for longer than five minutes knows I don’t run. And I ran in heels. DOUBLE points.) On the way I call our friend Nick to see if he is close enough to come help me in case there is actually someone IN the house. I then proceeded to get home and go straight in, without even waiting for him. Yeah me. Fortunately it was an electrical problem that triggered it and not someone breaking in, but still. Yeah me. As I’m frantically trying to get hold of either our landlord or Kristina (who are the only two people with the code to shut it off), the group of workmen across the street start making comments about how loud it is, and if I had any respect for people I would shut it off, etc. Ya THINK? Had I not been otherwise occupied I would have called them some of my best names. Hmph. By this time our friend Ruth, who somehow ended up being the unfortunate soul who answered the office phone when Kathy tried to call and find Dan had gotten hold of him, and he was conveniently 1/2 hour away having an argument with the guard at the bodyshop where he was picking up our van. Some people have all the fun.
Nick and Dan (our friend Dan, not the hubby-who-left-his-phone-on-the-nightstand-so-I-couldn’t-call-him-and-tell-him-how-much-fun-I-was-having Dan) arrive, and proceed to cut the wires to the alarm box, so that at least the siren shuts off. About this time our landlord calls me back to let me know he’s on vacation in the mountains and can’t help me. I refrain from telling him that at this moment he’s about as popular with me as the workmen across the street. The siren is off, but the box with the keypad is making an ominous beeping sound, which makes me think it might start shrieking again. Nick and Dan tell me that it can’t-they’ve cut the wires, but in my current mental state, I don’t believe them. So Nick takes the ENTIRE keypad off of the wall, disconnects it and puts it on the TV. I feel better now.
I know by now some of you are thinking that I probably shouldn’t be allowed out without a chaperone. You’re probably right. And for the few of you who are wondering if our house is now unprotected, that’s the beauty of it. IT NEVER WAS. The alarm is not connected at the alarm company, so all it does is make a whole lot of noise, annoy the neighbors and bother Ollie (who considers annoying the neighbors to be HIS job and resents the competition).
So…how was YOUR day?
The View from the Mountaintop 