One of the cats came into the room where I working on a computer and really let me know that something was wrong!
She was meowing and carrying on like nobodies’ business, something this cat seldom does.
This particular cat is seen only a few times a day. When the water or food dish gets serviced she’ll come out, other than that she prefers only one room in the house.
The bedroom, and specifically the bed, is the favourite hangout for this cat.
I was out of bed early that morning, before the alarm was set to go off.
It turned out I hadn’t turned off the alarm clock.
This alarm clock gets very, very loud and the cat wanted me to fix it.
***
There’s something chirping in the house - don’t know where it is - I don’t know what it is. But every once in awhile, I hear a little chirping noise.
I know from experience that ignoring it isn’t an option.
Out in the shed in the backyard there is a little plastic box that can be hooked in line with a garden hose - you can set the timer circuitry in the box to control when your sprinkler will turn on and off.
We haven’t used this thing for years - it just sits on the shelf out in the shed. It’s not even in the way.
Because this shelf has been dedicated as the catchall shelf. Usually I just open the door and toss whatever it is on the catchall shelf.
When the pile gets so large that more stuff won’t fit on the shelf then I have to sort and store things properly.
But whenever I do that, I am always left holding that box that can magically turn on and off the sprinklers. I just can’t seem to find any place among the sorted stuff where this thing belongs. So it remains on the catchall shelf.
It’s not really in the way - so it shouldn’t be a bother.
But it is.
Because for some weird reason the little battery powered computer in this box gives a little beep every two or three minutes.
I am like one of Pavlov’s dogs whenever that beep goes off. I drop whatever I am doing and focus only on that box. I NEED to find it and turn the beep off.
So I dig it out from under the pile and rediscover what I should have remembered from the last time I dug it out from under the pile—it is sealed up tight to prevent water from the sprinkler getting inside and to fix it would take a trip to the house for some tools.
This always seems like too much work, so the water timer gets tossed back on the shelf.
So now I have the beeper/chirper thing in the house someplace. I have no idea where—I can barely hear it when it goes off.
I think it’s in the other room, so I guess the only way to figure this out is to move my laptop from room to room and work in different parts of the house for a few days. Maybe I will get lucky someday and it’ll chirp when I am sitting next to it.
***
Sure is quiet around the house now. Special K was always talking twice as much as I did. It seemed like I couldn’t get a word in edgewise. I was resentful about that for a while—until one day she reminded me that I’m deaf and was constantly asking her to repeat everything.
Take care of someone who loves you …..