Angel Whispers

Alarmed Again

I'm wondering if there's a name for a phobia of alarms. Before my move I wrote about a rather long winded, annoying yet comical incident with the smoke alarm at the house.

Six months later I found myself confronting a similar situation in my new home. I have endured having a new bathroom and kitchen fitted by two different workmen at the same time. Anyone with any sense wouldn't have done that, but then I've never claimed to be sensible. During procedures the kitchen carbon monoxide alarm had to be removed.

Upon completion, the said alarm was deemed useless and disposed of amongst the sacks of rubbish. Several days later I returned home from a day out and could hear a faint beeping noise outside which I could not locate. Thinking it was something to do with a parked car or someone's house alarm I thought no more about it. I always keep bedroom windows open and during the night I woke several times and could still hear the faint beeping.

I decided next day to conduct a thorough search in order to find the irritating noise. Upon opening my dustbin the sound increased in volume and it was then I remembered the faulty alarm and realised the unpleasant task of searching the bin to find it was unavoidable. Thankfully it didn't take long to find, but it didn't matter what combination of buttons I pressed the beeping would not stop. In fact it became increasingly louder which resulted in me having to bring it into the house so as not to draw attention to it.

I tried for ages to turn it off but all to no avail. At times it stopped and I'd leave it in the hope the problem was solved, but sure enough once I sighed with relief it started its wretched beeping again. No amount of brute force would prise it open to remove the batteries so in the end I had to search out my tool box and apply my engineering knowledge to shut the damn thing up. In other words I smashed it with a hammer then went in search of a waste bin as far away as possible from any housing just in case it decided to start up again.

I'm reaching the point where alarm bells go off in my head every time I see or hear any kind of alarm which is quite alarming in a way.