the torture of big d

someone is torturing big d. there must be some secret plan, somewhere, with the intent on bringing him down. the previous owner of our house was a firefighter. and we all know how crazy fire fighters are about smoke detectors. we have one everywhere. every room, every hall....

a couple of weeks ago we woke up, in the middle of the night, to that annoying chirping sound from the smoke detector. it was the one in the hall, right outside our bedrooms. chilly had woke up and shut his door. big d, being nice, got up and tried to fix it. instead, he ripped the thing off the ceiling and shoved it in a towel and kept it in the bathroom. problem solved. the next day, he stuck a new battery in it, and hung it back up.

the next night, while fussy wasn't sleeping, i hear the same thing. i hit big d and tell him that it is at it again. he gets up and sleepily goes into the hall, listening. nothing. so back to bed he goes.

then again we hear it. it's a different night again, and he's replacing batteries to another smoke detector. he tells me the dog woke him up and then he heard the chirping.

then last night. blissfully asleep, i wake to the same chirping noise. big d grumbles and gets out of bed. i start dozing a bit, fussy is on my arm. the next thing i know i am shocked into reality by this big bang. it sounds like big d is really upset and has taken a hammer to the smoke detector. (my first conclusion always seems to be what i probably would have done in his place) i keep listening and realize it is really just the ladder being put up in the kitchen. we have vaulted ceilings. the smoke detector is completely out of reach unless you have a huge ladder to climb. i am wide awake wondering what is going on, but pretty sure he is replacing the battery. i hear the ladder again, i hear the garage door. finally a few minutes later he comes back to bed and tells me that "he is so mad because the dog woke him up". apparently the dog woke up big d to get him to turn off that horrible chirping noise.

the crazy thing is, all the smoke detectors now have new batteries. if we had been smart, and changed them all at once, there would have not been the nightly wakings. but for some reason, you sort of forget the fact that they need replacing during the middle of the day. which brings me to my question. why do they only chirp at night?

i guess they only chirp at night because they are, in fact, evil little things, bent on torturing poor big d.