Came home yesterday to the fire alarm chirping again after I just replaced the battery middle of last week. Hit the tester/reset button and that seemed to get things back to normal. But just incase it was picking up something else I went to the furnace room and replaced the battery on the carbon monoxide detector too. It did bot go off (which was a relief) and I tested it, and the ear piercing shriek it emits was well and truly horrifying. Glad to hear it. Hard to miss anywhere in the house. So besides a potential low battery I don’t really know what set it off again yesterday evening. The fire alarm that is. No smoke, no smells, nobody had made bacon, or had a too hot shower where the steam from the bathroom could collect around it. I don’t know. A mystery to me.
Here we are, Monday morning, kids are at school, I’ve walked the dog in mi us seventeen weather, and I’ve done a weekly grocery shop. I can put the kids laundry in the wash, and vacuum the house if I feel like it. I can clean the sink & kitchen, and the upstairs bathroom too. I have some work to finish, and then I can start proofing my report before I send it away for review. The day is as busy as I make it.
Domestic Duties Monday is off and running. Technically, now that we have the dog, whom sheds like he has alopecia just waiting to happen, I need to run the vacuum about the house almost every single day. Not to mention the grit he drags in on his fur from walks on the street with my wife. Hair, grit & dander are ever present here now. No escaping it! I’ve cleaned the kitchen, and the floors. First batch of laundry is in the wash, with one more to go. Then dryer time, and if I still have any get up and go, I’ll fold it all and put it away. But I have paid work to do inbetween getting all these household tasks done. I have an Excel sheet with my name on it, with a whole batch of data points I need to graph out, and put into a marketing document for easy consumption.
Up next, either today or later on in the week, toilets, sinks, and the tub itself. Towels, and floor mats, bed sheets and hand towels from the kitchen all need to get done soon. It’s a never ending battle. Costly one too, when you think of how expensive detergent, fabric softener, and static sheets are these days.
Now, I don’t consider myself much of a prepper, but I do have a gas powered generator, and now a battery power bank for my computer(s). I often think of getting the house a solar panel & battery combo so that no matter what time of year it is, we can have power at our finger tips should anything happen. When you consider just how volatile the US is with 45 back in as 47, I think it best we be prepared for anything strange. Extra food in the pantry, full gas can(s), and power source(s) if we get left to our own devices during something big, or drawn out. I have two medical kits here, fire extinguishers, limited external power sources, and lots of rice & pasta, but I’m not going to build a bunker, or anything like that. We have bottled water in a few spots in the house. I just don’t want to be caught out totally unprepared for either extreme weather, or the US doing something dumb. Does anybody else have this creeping urge to do this sort of stuff as they get older? I was “devil may care” for forty years! Not so much any more. Likely why we have all the fruit trees, and berry bushes on our property!
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