Smoke That Alarm

I just spent six hours on a frustrating search-and-destroy mission. It started when I awoke an hour earlier than usual to the beep of a smoke alarm with a low battery. The beep wasn't very loud, and it only chirped once every ten or fifteen minutes. But it was enough to prevent me from falling back asleep. So, I sighed, flung the covers off and stumbled to the kitchen.

I never actually hit this, or any other smoke alarm with a hammer. However, the image does illustrate my frustration at trying to change the batteries in multiple smoke alarms that all seemed to be beeping at me all at the same time.

As I was making coffee, the alarm beeped again. Luckily, it was the kitchen alarm located directly above where I was standing - or so I thought. The beeping already had me so on-task that I replaced the battery before the coffee had finished brewing, As I poured myself a large mug of magic elixir, I congratulated myself on accomplishing an onerous task before I had even had my first sip of coffee. I was on point, and it felt good, surely a great start to a productive day

That should have been my first hint. Never, ever do anything that even remotely resembles thinking or deciding before caffeination. As I trundled towards my morning sipping and contemplation spot, it beeped. The new battery had not worked.