The Dust Alarm

This morning, I thought I would get up a little earlier than usual so I could take a peaceful shower before the kids woke up. It was great, I didn't have to hurry out. I even had hot water the ENTIRE time. ( Many mornings, the water heater doesn't work that quickly and takes forever to heat the water up. Since I take a shower after Guy in the morning, the last part of my shower is an ice bath!) It was so nice to not hear screaming over toys or doors slamming. I got out of the shower and was drying off when that dreaded sound for all mothers of sleeping children went off...THE DOORBELL!!! It was 7:20 a.m.!!! ( Whoever invented that blasted doorbell did not have small children who needed to sleep. I can't think of a more obnoxious invention than that. What happened to just politely knocking on the door???) So, needless to say, my tranquility was over. I was only in a towel , and walked to the door. I looked out the peephole and saw that it was the building maintenance. I opened the door and he said," I am sorry Madame. The control room is showing that your fire alarm is going off." I told him that there was no fire here, but he said he had to check anyway. He came in and looked up at the ceiling at the "alarms". I hadn't even noticed them before. I told him I hadn't heard anything, and he said that I won't hear anything, the control room will hear it. What???!!!! Anyway, it turned out that the "alarm" in my room was going off. The only way I could see that was that a red light was on. I asked him why it went off and he didn't know why. He said, "I don't know Madame, probably just dust." (Okay, does anyone else see a problem with a FIRE alarm going off because of dust in it???!!!!) He cleaned it out, reset it and left. By that time, Elizabeth was screaming, and Jeremy was crying because he didn't know what was going on. I realized when I walked the man to the door to leave that my hair was wet and sticking up everywhere and I was still in just a towel. By that time, I was thinking all I really need right now is some coffee with a stiff shot of something in it. Then, I realized....I can look on the bright side....in a country where almost nothing works, at least the fire alarm does work ...just maybe not for fire.