Wednesday, February 18…That Damn Smoke Detector (Peter Collier)

    I realize we’ve only been here a few days, but the weather has been accommodating so far.  High 60’s during the day, dropping to high 50’s at night.  Open the windows if it gets too warm inside during the day, put another blanket on the bed at night if it gets cool.  Even the rain on Monday night didn’t seem to affect the weather routine. No need to turn on the air conditioning or the furnace.

   This morning dawned a little differently…temps had dropped into the mid-40’s overnight which made for a chilly wake-up. Kim got up to take a shower, I pulled more of the blankets to my side so I could retain his body warmth and snuggled back down. But I shot up like bullet out of a gun when the smoke detector went off.  Didn’t even know where the thing was located but not hard to figure out…just follow the annoying beeps. At first, it seemed that the steam coming over the top of the bathroom door into the chilly air had set it off, but after some thought, I suppose it could have been the low battery warning. Whatever the cause, I couldn’t figure out how to disable the noisy thing. Grabbed a fly swatter to fan the steam away which proved to be ineffective…still beeping. Tried jabbing it with the fly swatter to no avail. Meanwhile, a dripping wet, towel-wrapped Kim hustled out of the bathroom, confused as to what was going on. I pointed to the smoke detector with the swatter and said I couldn’t figure out how to get to the battery.  Even without his glasses, he was able to open it and pull the battery.  Ah…silence!!  This scenario took less than 20 seconds to play out but it seemed much longer with the shrill Beep! Beep! Beep! rhythmically blasting into the quiet morning.

   I crawled back into bed until it was my turn to take a shower. Kim came in to say how cool it was in the kitchen/dining area. He mentioned turning the space heater on and I mumbled something about it not taking long to warm up inside once the sun got higher.  Kim walked away, saying, “Ya know, I see this as an opportunity”…soon the furnace was quietly humming, and the rooms were warming up very nicely. So now we know that the furnace works.  The only appliance left to check out is the air conditioner.  And Kim changed the battery in the smoke detector, just in case.

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   Hummingbirds are back!  Okay, so I only saw two this morning on separate occasions, but where’s two, there will be many. But they’d better hurry up because the female Gila Woodpecker made herself at home on one of the hummer feeders today. Stick tongue in, suck in the nectar, lean back and take a breather, repeat…over and over and over.   

   I’ve seen Gila Woodpeckers on hummer feeders over the years, and they don’t fly directly to it. Theymust recognize that they're too big for that. Today, it was fun to watch her problem solve how to get on our feeder. It’s hanging on the underside of a large tree limb.  She hopped along the tree branch and str-e-t-c-h-e-d out to reach the swaying feeder; when that didn’t work, she hopped as close to the feeder as she could and dropped down onto it.  It looked like a tricky move, but I’m assuming that if she missed the feeder, she’d use her wings so she wouldn’t fall.  Flying, it’s a bird’s superpower.

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   As the sun rose higher this morning, the wind got stronger. Flags on a camper down the road were standing straight out.  Had a hard time setting up the bird feeder camera…internet connectivity issues.

   In the past, I have voiced the opinion that the internet gets messed up on windy days because the radio waves are getting blown around. Kim smiled indulgently when I said it again today, but every source of internet was on and off all day. Audra up at the office told Kim the same thing; I think Audra and I are onto something. 🙃

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   Beautiful day as far as the sun being out but the wind made being outside a challenge, so we decided to go to the movies in Casa Grande.  Only two of the fourteen movies seemed worth watching, meaning only two weren’t scary, third in a series, adapted from a book I’ve never read and don’t really want to, or from the year 1959. Watched the trailers for GOAT (animated) and Solo Mio (rom com, maybe?)…couldn’t decide which to go to so we flipped a coin. Heads…GOAT, Tails…Solo Mio.  Coin was Heads, so then we just had to decide 3-D or Standard. Opted for Standard because it gave us more time to get there.

   Stopped in Eloy to get Piggy Cookies, and then into Casa Grande at Harbor Freight for wheel chocks, and Wal-Mart for a clock.  Made it to the theater with about a minute to spare, made it into our seats just as the previews ended.  Three or four other people were there besides us.  How does that place stay open?

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   Raining when we came out of the theater; Kim said something about not having the e-bikes covered. Nope, because it was sunny with no hint of rain when we left.  Didn’t look like it’d rained at camp when we arrived, so I quickly tied the garbage bag over the handlebars when we got back, in case the rain came later. **Which it did**

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   The rest of the evening was spent in the camper.  Not suitable for being outside. The nights have been cloudy since we arrived…Kim hasn’t set up his telescope yet. In fact, someone parked a camper over top of his cement pad back in the corner, preventing him from using it even if the sky was clear. Ryan and Felicia both said the camper should be gone soon; in the meantime, if the sky cooperates, he could always set it up near our camper in a pinch.

**Note: Today’s song title isn’t a mainstream song, but it is an actual song. It has lyrics and a melody…I listened to it.  So, it counts as a song for my purposes.**

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