Tag Archives: burglar alarms

A Week’s Work . . .

7 Feb

. . .in one morning.

I had to take the cat to the vet yesterday, and Eddie wasn’t having any of it, thank you very much.

First off, it took me for-bloody-ever to get him into a carrier. Any carrier. He howled and clawed and carried on over the first two, so I had to find keys and boots to get the largest one out of the barn. That bad boy is big enough that our great-grandkids could set up a playhouse in there. While I am trying to wrestle with the cat, the dog is bouncing around, getting under my feet and “talking” up a storm. “What is she doing to you, Eddie? Are you OK?”

“Momma, watch out! Eddie’s mad!”

In the chaos Eddie jumped onto the dining room table and knocked over a glass of juice, so everything was on hold until I got that mopped up before it ran on to the carpet.  Once I managed to jam the cat into the carrier, I had to get out the door. Eddie weighs fifteen pounds and I’d wager the carrier is at least that heavy. And it is HUGE.  (I think it might be the one we had for Brinks, our beloved pit-boxer mix.)

It took me so long to get through the door that I set off the alarm, and then I discovered I’d left my keys on the counter. Dash around to get the house key – a two step job, as the actual key is located elsewhere – and of course, by the time I unlocked the door, the alarm company was on the phone, about ten seconds away from calling the cops.

And I still managed to get to the vet’s on time!

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An Alarming Situation

4 Jun

Or, don’t let your right hand know what your left hand is doing.

Shortly after I came downstairs yesterday morning I heard an odd triple-beep sound, which I attributed to the fancy, new smoke detector we got about a year ago. After a good bit of head-cocking and cussing, The Squire figured out it was the burglar alarm that was beeping, because the backup battery was dead.

He removed the battery and went off in search of a new one, which he installed. Apparently the new battery did not come fully-charged, but gradually built up steam when it was installed – much the way a cellphone battery works, I guess – so the system continued to beep.

In the mean time, we received a frantic call from Eldest Daughter, telling us she had gotten a call from the security system, saying they had gotten an intrusion alarm from us, had not been able to reach us, so were going to call the police. We had not gotten any calls from them ourselves, either on the land line or The Squire’s cell. While I was calling Vector, The Squire fielded a call from Mac’s wife, with the same info, as Mac is also an emergency contact.

We called Vector and explained the situation, and the woman said she’d put us off-line for 24 hours.

An hour later, the same thing happened. Calls from Eldest and Mrs. Mac, but no call from Vector.

And, rinse and repeat. The third time it happened I lit into the poor man who answered the Customer Service line. I explained that I wasn’t fussing with him, “but for Pete’s sake, don’t you guys have this noted on the computer?” If I understood him correctly, the information doesn’t show up until the next day! When I left Blue Cross in 1983 info was posted immediately ! Good grief!

So, at the moment it looks as if all is well. The panel is not beeping, and we haven’t heard from either Eldest Daughter or Mrs. Mac.

Or the cops.

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The Crazy Cat Lady

15 Jul

Saturday’s mail brought a notice from the County Police, warning us about excessive false alarms. Say what?

Well, late Wednesday afternoon The Squire had called a fellow from church to come over and feed the dog. This man has never had to deal with our alarm system, and…well, let’s just he’s a typical rocket scientist, and leave it at that.  There are two other people in the parish who know both the system and the dog, including the Godson’s mother.  There is a key hidden some distance from the house, and a “clicker” similar to a car fob, in the house. (No, I’m not  telling you where it is.) You have a full minute from the time you open the door to locate the clicker and turn off the alarm. Even if the alarm starts to sound, you can call the company, identify yourself and tell them everything is fine, and you’re good to go. If you do NOT call within five minutes, the company calls you, and then they call the police.

“Mac” located the key in the proper outbuilding, but couldn’t find the fob when he got in. He let the dog out, fixed his supper, brought him inside, and left, with the siren going all the time. Just as he was leaving, he heard the phone ring, but figured the call was for us, and let it roll to the answering machine.  In his defense – I guess – Mac didn’t know the alarm was “connected”; he just figured it made noise to frighten the peasants.

Which is why, when my husband got home from the hospital, the police were in the driveway, looking for a forced entry.

Our rector got married on Saturday, and a good time was had by all. I was supposed to read the lesson from Corinthians, but the trauma to my throat gives me coughing fits, so The Squire read it for me.  We have one really multi-talented family in our parish, and I think they could probably do the entire wedding by themselves. The father-in-law, the mother, and one son are professional photographers, and the dad makes and decorates the most marvelous cakes. All of them play musical instruments; you need a trumpet voluntary? Go it covered.

After church yesterday I came home and put on a little “skimmy” sundress. I had no intention of going outside (I consider summer simply a sneaky way to get me out where the bugs can reach me), but it was almost 100, and I figured I might as well stay as cool as possible.  The Squire, bless him, cranked the a/c to “polar” (68-F, for Pete’s sake!), so I pulled a polo shirt over my dress. Later, while I was in the den, he turned the fan to blow cold air in here. I went and got a moth-eaten wool sweater. And I was still chilly.

When I went out in the evening to feed the critters, I stepped into a pair of pink boots. Turquoise dress, black polo, baby blue sweater, and pink snow boots. In July.

Fortunately, we don’t have any close neighbors.

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