Happy New Year! In true Harris Home fashion, we had our first manic managed moment of the year happen at 1:30 a.m. on New Years Day. I share this story to help me laugh it off and to provide some tips in case this situation ever happens in your house! It involves ignoring my husband’s advice, which I now regret, cold weather and the fire department!
After arriving home at 1 a.m. after a fun New Years Eve out with good friends, I convinced my husband to please turn on the heat. One Phoenix area plus is that heating a home is only needed for a few short days in our so-called winter months. He asked me weeks ago to have a heating and cooling expert come to check out our heating system before that rare first cold day arrived. I got busy with holiday stuff and with the 75 degree weather all through December, I kept putting it off.
So this morning around 1 a.m., my hubby gives in to my heat demands and the heat goes on. Unfortunately, 20 minutes later so did each and every smoke alarm in our home. Imagine that loud obnoxious chirping, but 10 of these alarms ringing in unison. It was definitely manic and we couldn’t figure out how to manage the problem as nothing seem to shut them up!
Our heating was fine. No smoke, just built-up dust particles that tricked the smoke alarms into thinking it was smoke. Finally one hour later, we called the fire department in desperation! They came to the house and showed my husband how to completely dismantle the first smoke alarm. After they bid us a Happy New Year and departed in their big red truck, my husband went to work taking down each and every smoke alarm. Not a fun job and now it was close to 3 a.m.
A very nice heating and cooling expert came to the house today to finally do that maintenance check that dear hubby told me to schedule weeks ago! All checked out fine and now my husband has all of the alarms back in place, so we are calling it a night.
Lessons learned that may save you from a similar…and very loud….situation….
1. Have your heating and cooling systems checked by a pro. Believe me it is worth it!
2. Run your system in between seasons so that dust particles don’t accumulate to the Harris Home levels!
3. If all of your smoke alarms go off and won’t shut off no matter what, first make sure that there is truly no fire and then take each one down. Not fun, but our local firefighter told us that was the only way and he was right.
4. Keep your sense of humor and know that these crazy experiences are all part of being a manic, but managed family.
My friend, who was with us last night as each alarm sounded off, said it best when she told me that our night had been a blast and you know it is a real party when the fire department has to come out! That made me laugh and helped me to keep it all in perspective!
And I am trying very hard to dismiss the notion that because the year started out with a tricky situation, there are more to come! Oh no, instead I’m telling myself that it was a good experience in turning a manic situation into a managed one by working together with my husband.
….And oh yes, I should have listened to him to begin with and called the heating expert weeks ago! That is the 4th lesson learned!
Hoping you all had a very Happy New Year with only managed and marvelous moments!
