General Chat

The Alarm company guy arrived, at about 3:15 pm, when we'd been told to expect him "oh, around 1 pm".

He checked everything, discovered the battery (!!!) was failing, changed it, and left saying "everything would be good now".

There was no way we could have changed that very special battery, it does have to be done by a technician!


Sooooooooooooo ........ fingers crossed now :-D

Tess ............... we didn't have any pets, and it didn't disturb our very deep sleeping young daughter. Thank heavens!!

You must have been close to (or at) screaming point Sylvia.!


Before I "killed" my smoke detector alarm I though of throwing it out into the back garden, (But thought that it might "alarm" the neighbours (of which there are many!)

But taking a hammer to your phone would not have been a good idea. And off course, you couldn't throw it out the window.
Hope it didn't upset any pets
you may have had.

We once had a phone that acted up, and began to ring in the middle of the night.

When you live far from family, you always think "bad news" when that happens, so we both jumped and went to answer it. Absolute silence on the other end, hung up, rang again. We realised there was something wrong, not a real call or some kid playing games.

This was in the days before phones had jacks that you could discontinue, they had to be wired into the system.. The phone was also in the bedroom which was where the only jack was.

There was literally nothing we could do except put it out into the hallway as far away as the cord would stretch and then cover it with cushions.

It was on the other side of the wall from the bedhead, but we managed to sleep with a combination of the muffling of the cushions and putting our heads under the covers.

It was still ringing the next morning, it was before even the earliest of cell phones, so OH had to go to a kind neighbour and ask to use their phone.

It turned out to be due to something happening at an unmanned local exchange after the techies had traced it. I think it stopped ringing about noon!

At least it has already happened, otherwise in might have occurred in about three weeks time. Then................

Gosh Sylvia, you have had some recent misfortunes. Wonderful that you are able to laugh about it while having a good old moan. I reckon that a lot of laughter and a good few moans are good for you.

Hope that everything is more straight forward and easy for you in the foreseeable future.

I had a battery operated fire alarm (one of two). I had changed the batteries in the old alarm many times. However, when the "new" one went off in the middle of the night it woke me up as it was so loud. I know that it is supposed to do that if working properly. Came downstarrs to investigate - no fire - just an alarm with a "used-up" battery. Couldn't find any way to open alarm and remove battery and it was getting louder by the minute. In the end I had to find a hammer and hit it hard enough to kill it!

Now got a replacement.

Linda ........ you're quite right, we do forget how long we have had things. Plus they no longer make them to last. :-0

We bought this house in 1972, moved in in March. The previous owners took the fridge, stove and washer and dryer with them, though it is more usual to leave them with the house. We knew this, but we could only afford one item for move-in day, and that had to be the fridge because we were having friends help us to move, and they would need cold drinks.

So I know the fridge was bought in March 1972, the stove was bought either at the end of April or May 1972.

They lasted and lasted, the fridge was the first to have to be replaced ............ about 2007 :-0

Two men delivered the new one and were taking the old one out when the older man said "Gee, I haven't seen one of these for years!". That made the younger man, in his late 20s or so, look and then he said in amazement, "I've never seen one before!"

The older man followed up by saying "Of course, this one [pointing to the new fridge], won't last anywhere as long, 10 years will probably be your limit"!!!!

The stove had to be replaced the following year, then we had the kitchen re-done in 2010, and we kept them rather than getting new ones. They had no trade-in value, and new models were more expensive!

Oh dear Sylvia, you are having a bad time.I think we forget just how long ago it was since we installed all the various appliances.
I think I will have to buy a new microwave soon because the on/off button is becoming very temperamental. All of the kitchen appliances were put in at the same time when we put in a new kitchen, so no doubt they will all fail together

Sorry to hear what a time you’ve been having Sylvia. As Maggie said it can only get better. I’ve also had the old Flanders and Swann song going through my brain as we have had a few problems as well. In our case it was ‘Twas on a Monday morning the floor man came to call. The gas man didn’t come till Wednesday :-)

maggie ................

that is the positive!!

Caroline, 3 of us were standing within about 2' of that darn horn. We all 3 jumped and looked all around.

You'd think none of us had ever heard that darn thing before!!!

OH managed to forget to turn off the system first thing in the morning occasionally, then he'd go and set off one or other of the motion sensors.

More than once I woke from a deep sleep to find myself halfway to the door in the bedroom!

Ours doesn't have a voice, thank goodness!!!


Thank you Florence xx

Oh my! What a week you have had.So glad its all sorted now though but Hives? Gosh life really is unfair sometimes isnt it?

Sending healing hugs and thoughts to both of you and hope as from next Monday, a new week, all will be well for you both. <3 <3

Florence in the hebrides

I too had a good laugh at your expense sorry Sylvia....as for the loud horn blast...I always say if there's ever a fire in my house it won't be that which kills me...no it'll be woken up by the loud horn blasting away giving me a heart attack!! and the light shining into my face followed by the very loud voice kindly telling me there's a fire....

Sylvia - on a positive note - things can only get better! :-D

LaGooner ...................

That has been running through my head all week as well ............ especially after OH looked out the window and saw a Fortis GAS company van parked along the street :-D

We do have natural gas heating and hot water.


Thank you, everyone .......... I thought it might cause a bit of a chuckle, but the sympathy is very welcome.

One thing improving ......... the hives are slowly clearing up!

Reminds me of the old song It was on the Monday Morning that the Gasman came to call ;-) :-D :-D :-D
I hope it all sorts for you soon

Look on the bright side - you got it all done in a short space of time and before Christmas :-D

Hope next week is much better <3

:-0

And modern technology is supposed to make life stress-free :-0

On the flip side, Sylvia, and please forgive me, but I had to chuckle :-)

....... the following has happened, in more-or-less this sequence

1. OH fell and hurt his left arm, it has been badly swollen and bruised (not broken). but it hurts to use it

2. Our cell phone, used only when OH goes for an evening walk in case of an emergency, failed because OH pushed too many keys too quickly for some reason and it froze. The back has to be taken off in a twist and lift motion. His arm hurts too much, and my thumbs are too weak, so we leave it.

3. The wired-in smoke alarm in the basement decided that it was failing and began to beep 2 or 3 times in the middle of the night. The only way to turn it off is to switch off the fuse, so someone (OH) had to get up and go down to the basement., as well as checking that it really was a false alarm The upstairs one never made a sound.

4. We decided to turn off the smoke alarms at the fuse overnight, but this also turned off the bedside lights, all sockets and radio alarms in our bedroom ............ I needed a torch to move around.

5. The car battery failed just as OH arrived at the Recycle Centre last Thursday. One of the workers kindly phoned BCAA for him, and then let OH use the phone to phone me. One hour later, BCAA arrived, gave the car a jump start, and arranged for someone to arrive at the house the next morning to install a new battery. That duly happened, and no charge for labour as it is covered by our membership. Good result! :-D

6. Our motion alarm system start to malfunction, with an orange trouble light regularly lighting up on Saturday. Contact with the alarm company, their attempt to help over the phone didn't work, so a phone call was set up to determine timing for someone to come to the house.

7. OH goes to make that phone call on Monday morning, and the land line is not working. Neither is the cell phone, but we know how to fix that. Eventually manage that tricky operation, and OH didn't complain too much about the pain.

8. Wait 45 minutes on a help line to the Alarm company, decided to hang up and call the phone company. Arrange for a phone technician to come next day.

9. OH makes contact with Alarm company on Tuesday morning, technician will come next Monday afternoon.

10. Electrician who installed the smoke alarms arrives on Tuesday afternoon, points out that even wired-in smoke alarms are guaranteed for only 10 years, and he installed them 17 years ago. So they died of old age., the upstairs one doing it quietly while the basement one made a big fuss. He took them both down, so the fuse could go back to ON, and we could have bedside lights etc in the bedroom. Will return on Thursday.

11. The motion sensor alarm sounds while he is with us ............. 2 loud horn blasts less than 3' from where we are standing.

12. The telephone technician arrives less than 2 hours later ........ he actually arrives 45 minutes EARLY! :-0 . The phones are live, all lights green that should be on. I'm not sure he believed me that they had not been working before lunch! Leaves, but does give me his card in case it happens again.

13. Smoke alarm guy phones Thursday morning (ie today) to say he can't make it this afternoon, will come on Saturday morning about 10 am :-0

14. I break out in hives caused by stress!


I am so hoping that Monday will see the end of all this!!!