Alarming

It's been a long day at home, with the internet that I'm stealing going in and out sporadically. I'm waiting to get legal internet and a telephone so we can buzz people in from the comfort of our apartment.

Yesterday the fire alarm began beeping every few minutes to let us know the battery was dead. I found this a bit suspicious since it had been beeping when I first moved in, all of 13 days ago, and they said they had fixed it then. I got in contact with Kevin the company guy, who in turn gets in touch with our manager Wellington, who in turn contacts Alex the super to fix things. I first emailed Kevin at 9:40 am. When I hadn't recieved a response I had Ciara contact him at the same time that I did, around 2 pm, and we got a prompt phone answer that it was being taken care of and soemone would be right over. By 5:30 I was nervous, and so I called again, and sure enough Kevin was shocked and said everyone had gone home and that Alex was in a meeting. I asked him to ask Alex, who lives in the building, to stop by after the meeting and take it down.

I went out with my friend Joy and when we got back around 9, the beeping was still going and Kevin was no longer responding to either my emails or phone calls. Joy, no taller but far sassier than I, got on our step-stool which meant she was still a good 2 feet from the ceiling, and began hitting the alarm like a pinata. After a few good hits the battery came out, but that didn't stop the beeping, and after a few more swings the entire alarm was hanging by a few wires and had given up it's screams for life.

When Kevin emailed me back around 10 pm to say that he was really trying to fix the situation I told him it was no problem, but could he send Alex by tomorrow to fix the hole in our ceiling?

So Alex just came and we had a nice little laugh as he took down the alarms (we have to be careful for the next week or so not to set any fires). In the next few hours the Time Warner guys should arrive and I can't wait to see what kind of fiasco will occurs, but Alex gave me his direct number so he can be here when they drill through our wall.