farmdoc's blog post number 38

It may not happen in your life, but it certainly does in mine. Everything is going smoothly, my spirits are buoyant, and then – bang – something unexpected wrecks everything. About 3 a.m. last Wednesday I was sleeping soundly and, I think, dreaming about something delightful. I can’t recall what – maybe baking the perfect sourdough loaf, or bicycling up a steep hill without puffing, or blocking up a big log without my chainsaw getting stuck. Anyway you get my drift. Then, suddenly, a piercing short screech. In my dream or in the real world? Then another, and another. Every 48 seconds. Precisely. Fully awake, I realised the battery in my bedroom’s smoke detector was dying. All the smoke detectors in this Mole Creek house are wired into the electrical circuit which never has outages because it is a stand alone power system. But the detectors need batteries in them nonetheless. Like wearing a belt and braces. I didn’t have a spare battery, and removing the dying battery doesn’t stop the screeching. I tossed and turned and pulled the doona over my head, but sleep wouldn’t return. That afternoon I bought and installed a new battery, and glorious silence resumed. I hope that’s the last time I hear from a smoke detector for a while. Probably not though, because I have a habit of burning my toast.