The Battle of the Security System-- We Lost

We're losing it and Liz, at least, is losing a lot of sleep over it.

This past Saturday, the system started beeping for no reason. We tried to stop it, but couldn't for awhile. Finally determined it was on low battery. What battery? We'd never changed the battery in it during the 15 years we lived here. I always thought it was hooked up to the electrical system.

After some moving plugs around, we got it to stop. Things were fine until Tuesday, when it started beeping again. More plug moving and it stopped until night, then went off regularly about every forty minutes.

Unfortunately, the guy who had installed it, a friend, was on vacation in Florida but left several messages with him. Finally got it to stop again.



MORE FUN AND GAMES


Yesterday, when we got home, it was making a sound like "Bop", the sound you'd hear throwing a tennis ball against a wall. Now, this was every bit as annoying as the beeping. I eventually disconnected the sound box and things were fine.

The installer, Marty, called to say there was a big battery in the basement somewhere, and that it needed to be replaced. He said they normally need to be replaced after three or four years. We've been in the house for 15 years now. Definitely a long-lived battery, but not as long as Livermore, California's 107 year-old Centennial Bulb which I wrote about in today's Cooter's History Thing at http://cootershistorything.blogspot.com.

We still had no idea where this battery was. Marty had put the system in while the house was being built back in 1992. The following year, we had the builder complete the basement. This morning, Liz said that she had found where the battery was. It is by the bar and the builder had built a box around it. At least we're fairly sure that's where it is.

We'll know for sure when Marty gets back from Reno next week.

It's Got to Be There. --RoadDog