What is that BEEPING Noise...


 It was your average, ordinary Saturday here in the Poconos.   Does such a thing exist?  Maybe.  Maybe not.

It does seem like a typical, albeit COLD day.  (Bfth, you live in the Pocono Mountains you should have expected this...but I didn't.)  It's a day of average, ordinary things.  Getting up, having coffee and watching CBS Saturday Morning.  With the holidays around the corner, I write out a few Christmas cards. (Yes, I still do that.)  And then it's off in the frigid air to run a few errands.

The hubby and I go out together.  I drop the cards at the post office.  We head to Ollie's to shop because I have a coupon that is going to expire before Christmas and I could use a little retail therapy.  I was happy to see my favorite cashier, Shavonna on duty (for reference:  https://bfthsboringblog.blogspot.com/2024/11/pocono-adventures-in-weather.html).  We shop around, picking up a few things that aren't necessary, but... Then since it's close by and we're out, we go to Weis Market because I need onions.  (Fascinating, I know.)  We are thrilled that the store is not crowded on a Saturday morning (how is that possible).  We pick up a few things and head home.

We aren't home long before I realize that I am running out of photographs to send along with my holiday cards. (Yes, I'm too cheap to pay to make photo holiday cards, but I do send holiday cards with a photo...which I am sure gets tossed by the end of the calendar year if not sooner.)  I place my second photo order with the local CVS (which is much less chaotic and a lot friendlier than the one I go to in NJ) and the order is filled in under an hour.  

The two of us head out again.  We get the photos and then head across the street to Dollar General (which I prefer over Family Dollar because of the staff, particularly the woman with pink hair who is always friendly and happy to help...is it any wonder I enjoy shopping in the Poconos?).  Again, we pick up a few things and head home again.

Errands run; everything's done.  It's a cold afternoon and I am ready to have a bite to eat then settle in with a good book (currently reading Elin Hilderbrand's Winter Stroll, the 2nd in a series of holiday books which seem perfect for the season) and/or to catch up on the latest episodes of Elsbeth and Matlock (Carrie Preston and Kathy Bates are my kind of women).  I'm sitting at the island counter with a piece of chocolate cake. (Side note:  last weekend we attended our friend's annual Friendsgiving party.  It is an amazing annual event.  Because they know me so well and despite having a huge crowd of people, they always make sure that I can have something allergy friendly for me to eat.  This year I was presented with an entire cake!  It is/was delicious.  Could we have better, more loving friends?)  My husband was on the phone. (Probably extolling the virtues of Rosie to his mom. For reference:  https://bfthsboringblog.blogspot.com/2024/12/my-husbands-new-girlfriend.html,) After a stressful week, it's time to relax when...

...Beep, beep, beep...

What's that noise?  I stop eating cake.  My husband gets off the phone.  The house is quiet.  Minutes go by and then:  beep, beep, beep.

Where is it coming from?  Could it be one of the smoke detectors in the house?  Usually smoke detectors have a more annoying alarm and they don't pause for so long.  We stand in the living room, waiting for it to happen again and figure it out.  Minutes pass and it beeps again.  It seems to be coming from the hallway.  We wait in the hall way.  The minutes pass.  And then:  beep, beep, beep.

There are several things on the wall that it could be (and they are all right on top of each other).  Could the Nest thermostat battery be dying?  Unlikely.  There is the mystery button, which a neighbor told me alerted you if your oil tank was running low.  The last time we checked the tank was just about 50% full.  Could it have dropped?  We go the basement.  The gauge still reads 50%.  

We go back upstairs and wait.  Then:  beep, beep, beep.  It's the house security system that was left behind.  We never used it.  The previous owners had told us they never really used it.  We have never paid for the service as we have our own security system.  But clearly that's what it is.  What do we do?

The previous owners left us phone numbers for all the providers they used.  I find the one for the security system and call.  The phone is answered, but no one says anything.  Finally, I say "Is this x?"  Whoever answered hangs up.  I try again, this time saying, "I'm looking for x security company."  Again a hang up.  Great!  So now I start researching the company on line and try to find a local number that should work.

Then my husband calls out that he thinks he's found the problem.  Using the security code that I recommended (the same security code that the previous owners had used for the side door, but we have changed) he managed to figure out that the garage window monitor battery was dying.  Who knew we had a garage window monitor?!

We go out to the garage.  There don't seem to be any sensors in the windows.  So what the heck is going on?  Then my husband spies a "box" on the wall opposite the windows.  He gets a step ladder and goes up to investigate.  He is able to pry off the cover and sees inside 2 lithium 3.6 volt AA batteries.  Not the standard that you have lying around the house.  He tries to pry them out.  No luck.  He goes and gets a pen knife and pries them out.

We go back in the house and wait.  And wait.  No beep, beep, beep.  For now (fingers crossed) it seems like we are in a beep free zone.

But then we went out for pizza.  We came back and were enjoying when what did we hear?  Beep, beep, beep.  Great!  My husband goes to the panel, enters the code and seems to get everything under control, again.

All is well until we are snug in bed, my husband is drifting off and I am watching a movie when...

Clearly this is going to keep happening.  So what to do?  Thanks to the internet (and my husband's tenacity for research), we think we know where the power source and battery backup are.  Disconnect both of those and we SHOULD be good.  We go down to the basement.  Hubby opens the security panel there.  (There are too many darned panels and "things" on the wall that we don't know what they do.)  He disconnects the backup battery.  He unplugs the main power source.  We go upstairs.  Both security panels are now dark.  No more beep, beep, beep.

Now we can sleep beep free.  And we blissfully do.  There's just one "catch."  The smoke detectors (and there are many) in the house are tied to the security system.  Do we buy new ones OR, do we replace the special batteries in the garage "box" and then plug everything back in the basement?  That's a question we'll be pondering for a day or two.

For now I'm just happy that there is no more beep, beep, beep.


UPDATE: NOT all of the smoke detectors are tied into the security system.  We found one that had been installed in 1992 and is dead.  We found 2 that were installed (or at least had the batteries replaced) in 2021 and DO work.  (How did we find out?  We manually tested them and got to hear the shrill BEEP.)

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