Who ya gonna call...?

Ghostbusters?!?

Feeling a bit groggy tonight after this blasted thing kept us awake through last night. It's one of these devices that you hope never to hear in earnest and the two we have normally remain silently monitoring the house for smoke. Or for Heather burning the bacon (the only time I can remember the thing going off of its own accord).

But last night, around 3:30am-ish the detector demanded out attention with a warning the back-up battery was flat. It was all a bit surreal as its intermittent beep... beep... beep... slowly seeped into my subconscious. It was around then that I began to have a strange dream that Dan Ackroyd and Bill Murray were downstairs checking the house for spooks. And it was their ghost-busting equipment that was bleeping away every few seconds. Eventually I started to wake and I remember distinctly turning over in semi-lucidness and hoping that the Ghostbusters downstairs wouldn't be much longer with their all their bleeping business. As that thought was processed slightly more I realised that it was highly unlikely the real Ghostbusters were downstairs raking through the cupboards for paranormal activity.

So I was suddenly awake, and still not sure if the noise was just in my dream or not, and I had almost dozed back off when the noise started again. It took a few more beeps before I decided to get up and investigate and as I stood one eye open underneath the upstairs smoke alarm for what seemed minutes nothing happened, so I headed downstairs to check that one, this time followed by Samantha who was now also groggily awake. Still nothing. So we went back to bed... and it started again.

Long story short, this went on for a bit until I heard for definite this smoke alarm bleep as I was staring at it so I went off to fetch the step ladders - 4am by this time - and eventually removed the cover, disconnected the mains and removed the battery. But the thing wasn't giving in yet. Freakily, as I threw it into the corner of the bedroom and jumped back under the warm duvet, the thing beeped again. By now the Ghostbuster's dream was back in my mind and I was thinking we had a possessed smoke alarm. The green light was still on and as I picked it up it beeped again!

But that was it - it seems that even though it had no battery and was disconnected from the mains there was enough charge left in the thing to generate a couple of last gasp bleeps.

By this point I was wide awake and so was Samantha. I saw 4:30am on the clock before I must have dropped off again, and then all too soon the proper alarm was going off and it was time to get up for work.

So, who you gonna call? Bob Geldof and his Boomtown Rats I think, 'cause I Don't Like Mondays either.

Public Safety Announcement: This has reminded me we really should check these things more than I do. If yours haven't been checked recently, give it the once over when you're next passing it... I'd hate for Dan Ackroyd and Bill Murray to keep you awake like they did us.