What the BEEP?

Dan is a fairly stable man. Really stable, actually. That's why he's good for me, he never gets too riled up about things. But this week I have seen his feathers ruffled and the source of his anger, frustration, and obsessing has been from a most unlikely culprit, if you ask me.

You see, we have been plagued by beeps. Beeps loud enough to be heard throughout the whole house.

Beep!



Beep!



Beep!


It does get kind of annoying.


We tracked the beeps to our smoke detectors. Off of our hallway are the two kids' bedrooms and a bathroom. And in the hall there is a smoke detector and one in each of the kids bedrooms. The only other one is in our master bedroom. But the beeping seemed to come from the hallway.

So we got out the ladder and Dan proceeded try to change the batteries, but we didn't have the right size.

So I got some at the drugstore that night. Too bad they were the wrong ones. He tried pushing all the buttons, but to no avail. So all night... Beep!


Beep!


Beep!

Now it's also important to note that Luke has been having some weird fears lately. Like the door handle in Dan's car and the air vent and dry cleaner hook in the van. This mysterious beeping was causing Luke a little trauma too.

He heard it from the bathtub one day and demanded out! Crying and screaming, "Beep!"


So after the correct batteries were purchased, we replaced the old ones in every single detector. And right as Dan slid the last one back into place, BEEP!

Beep!

At night after the kids were in bed, Dan and I would sit on the couch to watch a little TV and he just radiated negativity.

"What's wrong?" I finally asked.

"Nothing."

"Is it the beeping?"

"Yes! Where is it coming from?! Why is it doing this? I've read online, Elise! People have this problems for months! How are we gonna get it to shut up?!"

He sounded like me when I talk about my emotional problems!

So I said, what he always tells me, when I am in the pit of despair and feel like I will never get out, "Don't worry! We'll figure this out! Everything will be okay."

But really, at every opportunity Dan was in the hallway on his ladder, poking, prodding, shutting on and off the power, disconnecting and reconnecting every single smoke detector.



But still, BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

Last night we went in the attic. We looked all around for any possibility of a culprit. And we found nothing.

The other important thing to note is that for some reason, the battery back up to our computer started making it's own beep a few days ago. Only not the intermittent kind, the long-drawn-out-never-stop BEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep!


We put it in the closet in the office with a bunch of blankets on top. But when you sit at the computer you can still hear it. Dan likes to pretend it was the wind whistling. Actually he doesn't like to pretend that, he has to.

Anyway, we slept another night with the beeps.

And then today while the kids were having their rests, Dan had had enough. He wasn't messing around another minute. He got the ladder back out. He turned off the power to the entire house. And he disconnected the smoke detector all together. And when his foot hit the second rung on the ladder,



BEEP!


We had spent countless time there in that hallway trying to figure out where the beeps were coming from. But then and there we were positive that the beep had not come from the hallway. I went in to the bathroom. I looked in the closet. I checked in the drawers. I looked in the cabinets. And it was there, under the sink in a basket full of random stuff that I found this,


And the mystery was solved. As I held it in my hands, it uttered the unmistakable and very loud, BEEP!


Dan resisted the urge to chuck it in the back yard, instead he changed it's batteries and put it in our closet. It's always good to have a carbon monoxide detector around.

So now, one down one to go. Dan's mood has noticeably improved and I think it feels good to have a win under his belt. Up next is the battery back-up. Right now I am voting that we take it in the backyard and smash it with a hammer, but we'll see.




And as a completely unrelated but noteworthy tidbit, Luke gave me his very first unsolicited "I love you" today. We sat on the couch watching TV and he reached over and patted my arm, and said, "Momma, love you."