shilo
08-01-2007, 05:32 PM
just a bitch, no need to respond.
ok, so we woke up this morning to the fire alarm system for the WHOLE house going off. all 8 of them at the same time. shrieking loud, sam freaking out, cat's running like they were posessed, etc. i wasn't scared tho, i was stymied b/c i'd just talked to my neighbor yesterday who was going to be out of town. the same thing happened in her house yesterday morning and she'd asked me to keep an eye/ear out. turns out the system is linked in to the city public safety department, and since she'd warned me that 3 trucks had showed up at her house w/ full lights and sirens, i knew enough to call 911 myself and let them know it wasn't a real emergency.
so the public safety department sends out a truck anyway to help us check/reset the system. they couldn't find anything wrong. but one of the firemen happens to mention that only two things set off the kind of system we have. 1) smoke/fire - nada. 2) water movement in the sprinkler pipes and maybe it was related to the giant construction/redevelopment project going on across the street, but that they hadn't received any notification about anything from the city or the developer.
so i spend half my morning trying to track down a number for the construction office. chat with the nice office guy who says he has to check with the foreman and get back to me. great. go out, run my errands, get home, message waiting "we haven't done anything with the water mains yet, but we did get notification from the city that there is a water main out in another part of the city." funny thing is, i knew about the watermain b/c when it burst last thrusday, it flooded my parents whlole neighborhood halfway up the driveways and the giant (30x10x10 foot) pit is still dug up on the main drag to get to their neighborhood for repairs.
so i track down the number for the city public works/water department. again, talk with a very nice office lady who says she has to leave a message for the city water manager to get back to me. so he finally does just now. and guess what. they were futzing with the valves in preparation for stuff over at the construction project at the exact times both our system and the neighbor's system went off and he's sure they are responsible. and that also, they've now pieced it together and the office building across the street also had the same thing happen at 3am two nights ago.
really, you need to be doing this at the crack of dawn knowing it may cause these kinds of problems? the city must send out 2 or 3 letters a week with updates on the redevelopment project noise and traffic abatement, etc that are basically worthless, but this one they don't even bother to warn us about? nor do they bother to warn the fire department so they won't be getting all these calls? sheesh.
i feel even worse for my neighbor. it cost her $200 just to have someone come out and shut off her system for the two days b/c she didn't want it going off until she got home and could get someone in to diagnose the problem and repair it. well at least we know it's not broken now. sigh. gotta love buraucracy.
lori
Sam 5/19/05 How lucky I am that you chose me.
ok, so we woke up this morning to the fire alarm system for the WHOLE house going off. all 8 of them at the same time. shrieking loud, sam freaking out, cat's running like they were posessed, etc. i wasn't scared tho, i was stymied b/c i'd just talked to my neighbor yesterday who was going to be out of town. the same thing happened in her house yesterday morning and she'd asked me to keep an eye/ear out. turns out the system is linked in to the city public safety department, and since she'd warned me that 3 trucks had showed up at her house w/ full lights and sirens, i knew enough to call 911 myself and let them know it wasn't a real emergency.
so the public safety department sends out a truck anyway to help us check/reset the system. they couldn't find anything wrong. but one of the firemen happens to mention that only two things set off the kind of system we have. 1) smoke/fire - nada. 2) water movement in the sprinkler pipes and maybe it was related to the giant construction/redevelopment project going on across the street, but that they hadn't received any notification about anything from the city or the developer.
so i spend half my morning trying to track down a number for the construction office. chat with the nice office guy who says he has to check with the foreman and get back to me. great. go out, run my errands, get home, message waiting "we haven't done anything with the water mains yet, but we did get notification from the city that there is a water main out in another part of the city." funny thing is, i knew about the watermain b/c when it burst last thrusday, it flooded my parents whlole neighborhood halfway up the driveways and the giant (30x10x10 foot) pit is still dug up on the main drag to get to their neighborhood for repairs.
so i track down the number for the city public works/water department. again, talk with a very nice office lady who says she has to leave a message for the city water manager to get back to me. so he finally does just now. and guess what. they were futzing with the valves in preparation for stuff over at the construction project at the exact times both our system and the neighbor's system went off and he's sure they are responsible. and that also, they've now pieced it together and the office building across the street also had the same thing happen at 3am two nights ago.
really, you need to be doing this at the crack of dawn knowing it may cause these kinds of problems? the city must send out 2 or 3 letters a week with updates on the redevelopment project noise and traffic abatement, etc that are basically worthless, but this one they don't even bother to warn us about? nor do they bother to warn the fire department so they won't be getting all these calls? sheesh.
i feel even worse for my neighbor. it cost her $200 just to have someone come out and shut off her system for the two days b/c she didn't want it going off until she got home and could get someone in to diagnose the problem and repair it. well at least we know it's not broken now. sigh. gotta love buraucracy.
lori
Sam 5/19/05 How lucky I am that you chose me.