Tuesday, 12 May 2026

Wake, And Pillage

My own fault, I shouldn't have mentioned my fondness for Peanuts Cartoons, and  Snoopy sleeping on his doghouse. I've been a bit Peppermint Patty myself this week.
I'm not saying I did fall asleep, but afterwards, the friend sitting behind said "Bob said before the service that you had a disturbed night, and I noticed him squeezing your hand during the sermon" [oops! I didn't actually snore though]
The problem was that at 4.30am I was woken up up this random bleeping noise.
I tried to identify it
Not the smoke alarm - Not a phone
Not the new microwave [which is given to random bleeps, as part of its "childsafe" setting, which I cannot unset]
Not the washing machine - that plays little tunes
Not the insistent alarm clock - Not that wretched Alexa woman
What was it? - I decided I ought to wake Bob 

It was the carbon monoxide detector
When we check that, we get a single continuous alarm - not this cheep every 30 seconds.
Bob decided it was a battery alert.
He removed the battery, and opened windows and internal doors so there was a good air flow
And I made the obligatory middle-of-the-night-event recovery pot of tea [glad it was a warm night] On 
Sunday morning, Bob read the small print inside the battery compartment, which warns that after 7 years of use, this chirping will alert you to replace the unit. So that was OK, and we didn't die...
Bob has had his own sleeping issues of late, but a new memory foam pillow has made a significant improvement. He no longer has a pain in the neck in the mornings [other than his wakeful spouse]
... and Pillage? Not the Violent Vikings, but rather the whole medication routine which is now part of our daily sleeping and rising rituals. I am very grateful for the things which help
  • free meds from the NHS via our efficient local GP Practice
  • Tony at church, who recycles our pill packaging for charity
  • the health benefits which the pills provide
I am not so thrilled with the way the various tablets sometimes come from a different manufacturer- and so my Vitamin D pills [evening] are the same shape as the ones for my digestion.[morning] I have taken to drawing lines with a sharpie over the packing of the latter when that happens, so I do not take the wrong ones by mistake.
And the side effects of tablets are sometimes hard to manage
There is much historical evidence showing that Martin Luther [German Theologian] had digestive troubles. It is my belief that his doctor prescribed him omeprazole too...

15 comments:

  1. Ah yes. We've played 'hunt the bleep' at 3am... also carbon monoxide monitor. And I have the same issues will pillage, both when they change the packaging and also colour (ezomeprazole can be pink or yellow, 5mg steroids can be white or red...). As for side effects...excuse me a minute (I will be so glad when we have a downstairs loo)...
    I might try a memory foam pillow... my neck is 'tetchy' again...

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  2. RannedomThoughts12 May 2026 at 09:56

    Ditto: when I heard the beeping I assumed it was the smoke detector 'telling' me to change the battery, but no. Twas the CO2 detector. Which is sealed. So I put it under a cushion until I could figure out what to do with it. Eventually, driven almost insane by the faint beeping, I drove to the Recycling Centre where a very nice man with a very big hammer smashed it to bits and it beeped no more.

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    Replies
    1. That's a great story !! ๐Ÿ‘ท‍♂️๐Ÿ”จ๐Ÿ‘๐Ÿ˜‚

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  3. I sometimes think that the side effects from the tablets are worse than the very thing they are trying to help with. I am often tempted to have a weeks holiday from all medication.

    I think it's weird that these beeping warnings always seem to happen either late evening or during the night, are they programmed to annoy us do you think?

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  4. Perhaps if they went off in the daytime people would not hear it because they were out at work or something!

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  5. My daughter and I sing in a chorus and we went to a rehearsal last night. I can’t sing with my hearing aids in so I took them out and put them in their storage case. On the way home my daughter could hear a faint “almost alien” beeping but we couldn’t locate it. I opened my purse and got my phone out in case it was making weird noises and the noise stopped. We then wondered about the hearing aids because the case was right next to the phone and had been jostled. Sure enough, when I picked up the case the sound started again. I hadn’t turned them off so the were causing feedback when the microphones were too close together!

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    Replies
    1. ๐Ÿ‘‚๐Ÿ˜Š๐Ÿฆป๐ŸŽถ๐Ÿฆป๐Ÿ˜‚

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  6. I sometimes think nostalgically of the times when neither of us had any pills to take, but I suppose one must be thankful for some of them at least. As for dozing in church, I find it so peaceful when I go to Adoration for an hour every week that I often find myself drifting off. I think I should take a sleeping bag and hide in the church, and get a real night's sleep for once!

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    Replies
    1. ๐Ÿ’ค๐Ÿ’ค๐Ÿ’ค⛪๐Ÿ’ค๐Ÿ’ค๐Ÿ’ค

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  7. You've reminded me to check our Carbon Monoxide Alarm, we've had it a long time. I've just put my repeat in, only 2 lots of medication fortunately. I had a dreadful night last night, when I needed to be 'with it' today as took Stepmum for an Optician's appointment. We were in there for over 2 hours and she has to go back! Take care. Xx

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  8. That's a long appt. I went for eye test & new glasses today and was barely an hour. So grateful for free meds for over 60s. Bob is on so many and it would cost a fortune if we had to pay for them all.

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  9. I'm glad you were able to figure out what the beeping was and it was nothing serious. :)

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    Replies
    1. Yes, I'm glad it was a precautionary alert and not a genuine alarm!

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  10. We had the same issue with our carbon monoxide detector although it wasn't at night. We did have to have the gas switched off until everything had been checked out but they told us it was a faulty unit and replaced it for us.

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