Happy (Beeping) Mother's Day?


It's a day for celebrating mothers. Not necessarily women who have given birth, but to all women who nurture and mother.  And that means practically any woman who cares for anyone. 

 My Mother's Day was not going to be spent with my son as he is wrapping up his junior year at college. I told him this morning that we would celebrate when he packs up all his belongings and comes home in the middle of the week. My plans for the actual day were to go to church, come home and have coffee and cinnamon rolls and then relax. I was hoping that I could go outside and get some sun.  Some of that has happened (coffee and cinnamon rolls), some has not.  (Where is that sun?)

 What I will say is that my Mother's Day started out way too early and not at all in the way that I had expected. My Mother's Day started at around 2:30 in the morning when I woke up and I could hear a beeping sound. (Never a good thing.)  My first thought was that it might be the battery in a smoke detector that was dying. However, that was unlikely, as that exact thing had just happened last week while I was away in New Jersey.

 On Wednesday morning my husband had been awoken to the sound of a beeping, He went out to the living room to find that one of our smoke detectors chirping and obviously needed a new battery. It was, of course, the smoke detector that was on the ceiling. (We have very high ceilings.)  I don't know how or who put it up there because it predates us. What he did at 3:00 in the morning was move the dining room table and then put a step ladder on top of it to reach the beeping device. I'm glad I wasn't there to see it because it would have scared that piss out of me. (It scared the piss out of me on Friday when he climbed back up to take down the bracket that held the smoke detector.) We have decided to relocate it to a place with easier access because no way is anyone doing something like that again.  (Or at least that's what I say now.)

 Back to this morning, being either a good or bad wife (I'll let you choose which), I said to my husband (who was sleeping soundly), “wake up something in the house is beeping.” I'm sure that's exactly what he wanted to wake up to. (AGAIN!)

 I got out of bed to try and discover where the noise was coming from. It wasn't coming from our bedroom and it wasn't coming from the office across the hall. The noise seemed to be coming over from the living room/kitchen area. So I walked in there but could find no source. I walked into the family room and the sound was fainter. So I backtracked towards the living room again. In the hallway I realized that the noise was coming from behind the closed door that leads to the basement. This could not bode well. 

 I went back to tell my husband who was in the process of throwing on some clothes but the noise was coming from the basement. I went to go grab a pair of slippers because I did not want to go down there barefoot. 

 When we open the door it was clear that the noise was coming from there. We did a quick look around and could see that there was something blinking on the hot water heater. Definitely not a good thing. It was displaying a code and “check manual”. Back upstairs we went where my husband has all the manuals to everything in the house. Or almost everything in the house. The previous owners had left us manual upon manual for which we are eternally grateful. However the one that was missing was the water heater manual.  (Naturally.) Now what? 

 The obvious answer was to Google the error code and the brand of water heater. Sure enough it's a sensor that is detecting water or wetness. The wetness was obvious. There was some water on the floor. However if you recall earlier in the week (or maybe that should be the last week since it was Sunday by now) we had discovered water in the basement which we thought was coming from the hot water heater but which the plumber who happened to be there that day to do a spring clean on our HVAC system said that it was coming from the water filter that is by the hot water heater and not the hot water heater itself. (https://bfthsboringblog.blogspot.com/2026/05/monday-monday.html)  Obviously what he had done did not hold.

 At this point I had to run upstairs.  While I was there I could hear the beeping getting faster.  Then it stopped.  I went back down to find that my husband has managed to find the sensor that was alerting us to water leakage (thankfully NOT from the water heater) and pulled it off.  (I think he then dried the sensor and put it back on.)  With my help, he attempted to take off the filter, but it was stuck.  Sigh.  He positioned a bucket underneath it to catch the drip.  (The dripping is slow, but remember this has been happening for a LONG time.)


 We went back to bed.  Did we get back to sleep? Not really, but…

 I “officially” got up around 6 (which is when the heat turns on…I am so tired of the heat turning on…when are we going to get some warm weather?) and got ready for church.  My husband said he would call the plumber/HVAC company while I was out.  And he did!

 I thought I gave him the office number, but it turns out what we had was the owner’s cell number.  (Yes, we do that much business with them that we have his cell.)  He told my husband there should be level to turn off the filter, but guess what?  No dice. For now, we will keep the bucket and tomorrow the office will call us and schedule someone to come out.  (I’m hoping tomorrow.)  Apparently the filter isn’t really needed, so despite the fact that I just bought a bunch replacement, we are probably just going to bypass it with a piece of pipe.  Or that’s the plan for now…we’ll see what happens when the plumbing team shows up.

 And that has been my Mother’s Day thus far.  For all you “Mothers” out there…I hope you have a wonderful and beep free day…


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