Rude Awakening

At 7am this morning the alarm went off. Bryan proceeded directly into the bathroom to get ready for the day. I sleepily pulled the dog closer for warmth (it actually got below 60 last night!) and tried to pry my eyes open but couldn't seem to do a good job of it. Then, it happened. A piercing, screaching sound started and I jumped out of bed like a cannonbal shot from a cannon. Bryan came running out of the bathroom naked with shaving cream dripping from his face. Apparently the smoke detector went off because we left a candle burning all night. A very LARGE candle. The wick got too long and it started to smoke. The entire living room was filled with smoke.

Bryan tried to turn the darn alarm off, but they don't make it that easy. You would think there would be a simple button he could push, but, alas, no button. That may have been because this house is a 45 year old parsonage and the smoke detectors were probably hand-me-downs even at that point (I know, I know, I should be glad they gave us a smoke detector at all). Anyway, he had to practically disassemble the wiring to get it to stop. (OK, he only took the battery out but when you are so rudely awakened it seems like it took FOREVER for that to happen).

At that point the dog was no longer so cuddly and I was already out of the covers in the cold, so I got up. I went to the bathroom to blow my nose, and along with the usual gook, a bunch of black soot came out. I'm not talking a little. A LOT! So, my guess is everything in the house probably has an invisible, or not so inivisble depending on its color, layer of soot now. I almost put a cotton swab up the dogs nose to see if she had soot in there, too, just out of curiosity. But she was traumatized enough with the smoke alarm so I thought better of it.

My thought is, if it took THAT LONG for the smoke detector to go off, I mean, long enough for my lungs and nose to filter the soot, if we had a real fire wouldn't I have burned up long ago? After all, the detector was only about 10 feet from the candle in the SAME room. I was down a hallway to the other end of the house sleeping. Maybe I'll go buy year 2004 smoke detectors instead of these 1960 ones.