Chirp

Last Thursday morning I awoke at 3:45 AM to the chirping of the smoke alarm. I tried to ignore it, but the chirp is designed to awaken you to escape a fire. Obviously, I was not successful at ignoring it and didn't need to escape a fire. After about 10 minutes I turned the light on and stood on the bed to inspect the device. I twisted it loose from its anchor and it was hard wired into the ceiling. I couldn't find a battery door. It continued to chirp at irregular intervals, sometimes every 2-3 minutes, then skipping 10.

I finally called the front desk and told them the fire alarm was chirping. A very nice lady came to my room and climbed onto my bed. She found the battery door, but was unable to open it and said she didn't have batteries anyway and that there was no maintenance available until 7 AM. I asked about a different room and she said none were available. Then I asked if there was one person in a room with two beds that would share. She laughed.

Great!

After she messed with it, it quit chirping. She said maybe that fixed it and left. I turned out the light and tried to go back to sleep. Just as I dozed off, it chirped. Then would not chirp for as long as it took to almost doze off again. The randomness of the chirps was as annoying as the chirps. About 5 AM I turned the TV on. The chirps were becoming more frequent and I thought maybe the TV would distract me and I would be able to catch some quick naps. I think I did manage some 5 minute sessions of sleep, but it was very light sleep.

At 6:30 I called back to the desk and told them it was still chirping and asked if anyone had arrived to fix the problem. NO.....not until 7. So I watched TV in a stupor. Then about 7:15 I realized it hadn't chirped for a while. The next time I surfaced it was 8AM. The smoke alarm was not chirping and I was late.

On the way out of the hotel, I stopped at the desk and asked how they fixed it. The person on duty didn't even know I had experienced a night of smoke alarm chirps!

I don't know why it finally quit. I speculate that the maintenance man came in at 7 and pushed some button that reset it. Hillary suggests I start carrying a battery with me.