Tuesday, August 23, 2011

IBA #183, 72, & 77


# 183 - Do you feel starting a blog has improved your life or added one too many things on your plate?

I enjoy my blog; it gives me a sense of “someone cares what I do each day”.  That being said, my hear skips around and does a happy dance when I see people are actually seeking my blog out!  I do not know that it has “improved my life”, but it definitely gives me something to do other than stare aimlessly at the computer all day long.  When I reach the “one too many things on my plate” stage, I will most likely end one of my blogs (I write two on Blogger and a third intermittently on another website).  This is the blog I am most likely to keep though.

# 72 - The signs that I am getting older...

First, teenagers annoy the ever-living snot out of me!  We happened to run into a group from one of the area high schools the other day while out getting lunch (McDonald’s…I know, I know…).  This group was particularly “annoy-some” with their bubbly “like, oh my god!” attitudes.  It might be a phrase deemed “early-90’s Valley Girl”, but these girls had it down pat…to add to the “bubbly” factor, this was a group of “Show dance & Choir”.  I have never heard of it, so I guess it’s like Glee, but they do Dance competitions too?

Anywho, besides the “teens bug me” thing…my glasses (contacts ) prescription keeps getting a touch stronger every year or two, it is much harder to lose weight now…I did a low-carb diet about 9 years ago and the pounds just melted off, now they are just slowly trickling off.

The last sign I am getting older?  My pets that I got as an adult (as opposed to the ones I had as a kid) are getting old!  My cat, Frappy, was the first pet I got after “becoming” an adult, I got her as a kitten soon after I moved in with my (now ex-) husband, she will be 12 years old this year (sometime around September/October)!  In addition, on September 12 of this year, my dog, Rosie, will turn 10!

# 77 - The bell rang and…

While not really a “bell”…I did have a ringing experience this morning!  This was, of course, due to the stupid ‘panic’ button on the remote for the alarm in the house.  There are four buttons on the key fob remote to control the alarm with, ‘away’ and ‘stay’ on the left, they set the alarm in either mode.  ‘Away’ gives you more time to get out the door than ‘stay’ does and includes much more “beeping” while it is counting down the 30-60 seconds (I forget what we had it set at).  The right side of the buttons though, here is where my issues lie!  The top button is the ‘off’ button and the button just below it is the ‘panic’ button!  The only distinguishing mark is that the panic button is a different color (on most of the key fobs)!

This morning, while I was occupied in the other room, my other half grabbed a fob to let the dog out, like every morning.  He pressed a button and went to let the dog out.  Unfortunately, he pushed ‘panic’ instead of off!  This, to me, is worse than just forgetting to turn the system off first.  At least then, you can run down stairs, enter the code (twice) and be done with it! 

With the panic button, you have to still go down and do the code thing, but then you have to sit there and wait…  Our system has a built-in two-way radio system that connects to the alarm company (rather than cutting off access to the phone in case, you need to dial 911 or something too).  This was a great idea when we first had the system installed 4 years ago!  They responded quickly, even though it has always been a “stupid button and fat thumb” moment for us, I could see the value of the button.  However, in the years since we put it in, service via this two-way system has been getting slower and slower, meaning longer wait times before someone gets on their end of the radio!  I once had decided they got me putting my code in and were not going to respond, came up stairs (after waiting 5 minutes by the alarm panel), and was getting ready to get into the shower when I heard a “Hello?” coming from my front door!  I had to run downstairs, naked, to tell them I was all right, pushed the button by mistake, and please do not send anyone, along with our code and all that.

Today was not as bad…the wait time by the panel was only a few minutes, but still too long if there had been an actual emergency.

No comments:

Post a Comment