Smoke ,,, what smoke ?

I was quite pleased last week. One of those jobs I kept meaning to do and I finally got round to it. 2 smoke detectors had been sitting looking at me for 6 months. I ran out of excuses and did a few minutes of DIY. Thats about 50% of my allocation for the month.

2 new smoke detectors on the Victorian ceilings. I was pleased until precisely 4.41 am today. One of the new detectors decided to tell me the battery needed replacing. It was telling me LOUDLY every 20 seconds. I was sure the family upstairs would be getting vibrated in their beds and the old lady across the road would soon be calling the police about an alarm sounding.

Nothing else for it but to disable the alarm. Except of course the ceiling is about 14 feet above the floor. Nice morning for a walk in the garden to collect the extending metal ladder from the garage. Thankfully there was no lightning around at that time. The morning starlings and blackbirds obviously thought I was there to feed them so they got out their beds in the tree next door and descended in a noisy squabble and sat at the back door.

4.50. Alarm disabled. Birds fed and back in bed. I grumbled off to sleep wondering if smoke detectors were a good idea ,,,,,,,,

When I surfaced later I found I had left the garage door and the patio door wide open in my rush to silence that pesky alarm. New extra long life battery fitted in the alarm and back in service.

Next time I feel guilty about a DIY job I will suppress those instincts for another few months.