Where there's smoke alarms, there's the fire dept

Just a little bit of excitement here @ 21520 today (as if the debut of the umbrella stroller wasn't exciting enough!). This was the scene at our house around 11:15 this morning as the firemen left. I was trying to be all stealth and not blatantly take their picture. I suppose I could have just said, "Uh, could you smile for the camera so I can blog about this and document The Luhring Life?" They were very nice and probably would have obliged.

So I'm on a client call this morning when all of a sudden the sound of six, yes SIX smoke detector alarms pierces the air. I shout to the client that I'm "going to have to call him back!" and immediately call Brett so he can be a part of the excitement too (and tell me what to do). I am so bad in "emergency" situations. I'm on the phone with Brett while running around trying to find a ladder. I can only find his 8' one and lug it in from the garage. I drag it around to the six screaming devices and rip them all out off their brackets in an effort to just make the "eeee-eeee-eeee!" sound stop!

I finally restore silence to our house and call the fire dept. I tell them it's no emergency but the dispatcher advises me to get out of the house and wait for the firemen outside. I get poor old Sandy (who pretty much slept through all the chaos) up and she, Romey, and I wait outside for the truck. They came, inspected the smoke detectors, changed the batteries, gave me advice, and put the units back up. I felt So bad for having them come out in their long pants and heavy gear in this heat just to tell me that I'm in need of new smoke detectors (these are dated 1999...did you know smoke detectors expire in 10 years and should be replaced?). Thank you AVFD...you'll be getting another donation from the Luhrings this year- and not just for the sake of the free 10x13! :)