Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Insensitive Or Over-Reacting?


Hmmm Karma is a bitch
So David has been working two jobs one from 530a-7p then another from 7p-12a. He usually stops by after job #1 to eat and then heads out to job #2. Job #2 is a side job that he sets the pace for, so although he needs to get there, it is not like if he is late he is in trouble. He was leaving for job #2 when my smoke detectors started going off. I was a lil weirded out by that because we were not cooking or showering or doing anything that would cause that. David was pulling off so I had Mason run and tell his dad to come in right quick and see what was up with the alarm. David comes in and fans the alarm which causes it to stop and then says bye and heads back out. By the time he made it to the door the alarm starts going off again. He returns and removes the battery and then heads for the door again.
 I was shocked by his solution to the problem so I say to him "ummm, excuse me, but I don't think removing the battery is what one is supposed to do when the alarm sounds." He replies nonchalantly "the battery is just dead." 
"I'm no fire chief but usually the alarm is used to alert one of something. In my experience when the battery is dying the alarm will let off an intermediate screech sound every few minutes to let you know that." I inform him. This sound was clearly the alarm sounding. He looks at me irritated and says "Roc there is no fire so it must be the battery." "Or Carbon Monoxide?" I suggest. "Maybe" he says as he heads for the door. "Maybe?!" I yell. "So you're off to work while we all must just stay here and inhale the carbon until death?" "You are not going to die. If you are that concerned open a window." is his reply. "Oh okay" I say sarcastically "we'll just open the windows and go to bed and maybe the bad guys who broke in last month won't will come in and kill us. But don't worry about that head on off to work now. We'll see you when you come back or rather in heaven when you get there. We will all be waiting. Oh, since all my kids will be dead as well you can just give all my stuff to my sisters." He turns around not impressed and says "Roc its the battery." "Yes, David while I am sure that is the best case scenario, however it just seems like you would want to be sure" "Fine." he storms in and removes the battery again and says" I'll just go get a new battery". "Sounds like a good plan" I say. He returns less than 5 minutes later, pulls up hands Mason the "new" battery and pulls away. 
He was very fast, suspiciously so. I take the battery David has given Mason and place it into the alarm which immediately starts going off. I remove that battery and put it into another alarm which also starts to go off. I assume the battery in the second alarm must have been dead and now this new battery David just bought is making alarm #2 functional,  so it is picking up the Carbon Monoxide and going off. So I call David, he picks up I say "Soooo both alarms are now sounding. You still think it is just the battery because this battery is new?" He pulls back up comes in and says "give me the battery."Why?" I ask. He admits "I never replaced it. I lied. I just wiped it off and brought back the same battery. I really needed to go but I will go buy 3 new batteries." Which he did and all the alarms stopped. Turned out he was right. That would make the score:
Me 10000882. Him 3. 
Although he was right I still was mad because how could he be sure? What if we had all died in our sleep? I don't know about you but I take the possible death of my entire family seriously enough that I would make sure my guess that the battery was dead was a correct guess But that's just me.
So you decide. Did  I overreact or was he being insensitive? Keep in mind this is my blog!

5 comments:

  1. I see both sides but he should have replaced the batteries on a regular bases so it wouldn't have happen in the first place.....

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  2. I see why he didn't go into straight out "we're all gonna die mode". Men rarely do, especially when they sense no immediate danger. We women, however, since dead families is not really what we're looking forward to and all, tend to err on the side of just figure out what the hell it is instead of dismissing it/me and we're gonna die from toxic air and I hope you aren't too sad when you come back from work and find us all dead. So, insensitive? Yes. But practical? Still yes. I don't think you overreacted; I think he should have just gotten new batteries and made it easier on you both.

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  3. I've never heard of a constant alarm for low battery.

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  4. I'm with Mike.
    (and you)on this one.
    I'm surprise that bat shit crazy neighbor didn't call the fire department.

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  5. I don't know, I just don't know. But I do know of that constant BEEP every 30 seconds when the battery is low or about to die. That is Gawd-awful.

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