Please read Part One from Tuesday for the first half of this story.
When we left off, no one was available to change the batteries of the chirping CO2 detector except for me and I have a serious fear of heights.
I was trying to figure out what to do, but more chirping settled the matter. I went out to the garage, hauled the ladder into the house, and set it up under the PITA detector.
Now I actually needed to climb the thing. :-(
I knew one rung wasn't going to do it, but I hoped two would be enough. It almost was. I could kind of reach, but it was difficult to do anything because I needed to be a couple of inches higher. With great reluctance, I forced myself up to the third rung.
I tried to notice the direction each of the batteries was facing, but I was hanging on to the top of the ladder for dear life and reaching up with one hand to get the generic batteries out of the detector. They both fell before I could figure out which side was the plus, and which was the minus. Well, how hard could it be? I'd try one direction, and if that didn't work, I'd reverse them.
This was not a winning strategy.
First, I didn't realize there were red, plastic springs that needed to move into position with the batteries. The lighting in the hallway is terrible and I really didn't want to tip my head back very far because that's scary on the ladder.
Second, getting the batteries in at all was a challenge. They didn't snap nicely into place and the first one fell. That meant I had to climb down the ladder (gulp) and back up again (double gulp) once I retrieved it. All the while that PITA is chirping.
Third, getting the direction on the batteries right was supremely challenging. I must have tried half a dozen configurations before I finally found one it liked. A configuration, BTW, that I swear I had already tried at least once. Although maybe I needed the little door closed for it to stop that infernal chirping and I had it open in case I needed to change them.
Anyway, after a harrowing ordeal, the name-brand batteries were inserted correctly and that fussy SOB finally stopped chirping. Blessed peace reigned again in my house.
The ladder was returned to the garage, and it only took like an hour or two for my pulse to return to normal after I climbed to death-defying heights on the ladder.
Someone needs to invent a better backup system for these freaking things. It shouldn't be 1) so fussy about battery brands and 2) such a major PITA to put batteries in them. Whoever can fix this deserves to earn a fortune because this is beyond enough.
