Beep

What was that? I turned off the faucet. It sounded like a smoke detector trying to tell me it wanted a new battery. I didn’t hear it right away, so I started messing around again. Beep. That sound is too distant to be the one on this floor. I sat down at the computer, to finish some things before driving to school.

Beep. That was definitely not the one behind me. I think. Could I hear an alarm in the neighbor's house? I stood up, turned around an stared at the one at the foot of the stairs. Does that little light always flash red? Beep. No. Not you. It doesn’t really sound like it’s coming from upstairs, but that must be it.

I laid down at the top of the stairs and kept a keen eye on that detector. Bleep. Also no? How can that be? I don’t have another one. Do I? I remember having an extra, but I thought I tossed it.

I started down the basement stairs. BEEP. No way. Oh, look here’s one, in a bin of duct tape, extension cords and the like. I opened it up and looked at the connecting wire hanging battery-less, then jumped to hear another beep. Holy cow, do I have, like, a detector on my water heater or something?? Is the house gonna blow up?? I zigzagged around, frowning at the furnace, water heater, and the beams above me. BEEP – I spun around – caught it! It’s not hanging parallel to the floor; it’s perpendicular, on a big beam by the stairs. I had my back to it the whole time I was downstairs. I laughed and pulled out the Duracell.

CNB wrote to tell me about a different kind of emotional day, at her practicum:
“I'm listening to audio clips of speeches from the likes of Churchill, multiple Roosevelts (Teddy, F.D. and Eleanor), Macarthur, multiple Kennedys (Jack, Bobby and Ted), MLK, Einstein and Barry Goldwater. Some of them have moved me
to tears. I know we are living in a time of turmoil, what with this war on terror. Somehow, the speeches of Dubya and Blair cannot compare and pale in comparison to these great people.

“. . .my quote of the day: ‘You must do the thing you think you cannot do.’Eleanor Roosevelt, ‘You Learn By Living’, 1960.”