This afternoon after I got back from my very liberal church I noticed that the woman that lives upstairs and her husband/boyfriend were both sitting on the steps. This was very unusual because I only seem to see them when there is a possibile threat of a house fire. It seems that she is slightly paranoid of a house fire occurring. I think something bad happened in her past involving a house fire. She seems to be constantly on the lookout to prevent one. So you guessed it there was the possibility of a house fire.

Apparently, the smoke detector on the first floor was going off. She tried with no avail to contact the people on the first floor. She couldn't reach them because they were not home. She even tried calling the landlord to see if he could come by to open the door and turn off the alarm. She couldn’t reach him either. Her one option was to call the fire department.

I felt this was silly because there was no sign of smoke. Besides, I had heard their detector go off last night. It was obviously a case where their battery was running low. I did tell her of my suspicions. She told me that she was just afraid that if she left to where her and her husband/boyfriend were going to that the house would be gone by the time they got back. The poor dear. I felt sorry for her. So there she sat on the steps wringing her hands.

I went inside and ate my lunch and checked back every now and then to see how things had progressed. Eventually, the fire department and two female police officers arrived. I met them at the inside landing. I told them I felt that this was all just a case of the batteries running down. I also told them I had been there for two hours and not once did I smell smoke.

At first they wanted to break down the door. Then they went back outside to talk to the woman. Somehow she convinced them or maybe they convinced themselves that it was all just a false alarm and that there was no need to break into the apartment.

Anyway, I honestly believe that the presence of the fire department helped to ease the mind of the woman upstairs. The fire department’s presence I believe made her feel that everything was going to be ok. She was more relieved and calm after they had arrived. Just after the fire department left she and her husband/boyfriend merrily left to what ever destination they were headed to before the fire alarm went off.

As they were leaving I told them I would buy the people downstairs a battery for their alarm. As you can imagine the alarm was starting to make me a little antsy. I wanted to get out of there. Besides, I needed a battery for my own smoke detector. I was going to buy a 2 pack Duracell and split it in two but the sales lady told me they had a buy one get one free sale on generic batteries. I felt this would be a great deal. They’d have their own pack and so would I.

When I got back home I caught my upstair neighbor’s disease. I found myself anxiously peeking in and out of the front door wondering when the people downstairs would arrive. I was going to leave a note with the batteries attached to their door but decided against it.

I feel that leaving a note would in essence be tantamount to saying, “You’re friggin alarm was driving me crazy! In fact so crazy that I had to leave this freaking house and spend my own money on batteries to quiet that god damned thing!”

In the end I felt leaving batteries was more anonymous and less confrontational. I noticed that when they arrived the beeping of the alarm stopped and the batteries were gone.

I hope they’re not mad at me or retaliate against me. Then again maybe they think it was left by the woman upstairs who’s constantly afraid of fire. I think that would make more sense to them than the very odd woman who avoids eye contact and doesn't say much.

WHAT I’M WEARING: Right now I have on a pair of light blue pajamas with a cloud design on them along with blue fuzzy slippers.