hummingwolf: Part of a julia fractal in colors of fire and smoke. (Fire-flavored fractal)
hummingwolf ([personal profile] hummingwolf) wrote2004-11-27 11:20 pm

One last scare

A couple of hours ago I was feeling headachy and thinking this night would be a good night to go to sleep early. As I went to put some clothes in the washing machine before preparing for bed, I noticed a rather insistent BEEP-BEEP-BEEP, BEEP-BEEP-BEEP, BEEP-BEEP-BEEP. So I went through the house, wondering if some appliance or other was having a crisis. Nope, nothing that I could find. Opened the back door--sound definitely louder outside. Good, at least it's not coming from inside. Probably not the sound of my impending doom, then.

Listening out the back & front doors, couldn't tell where the noise was coming from exactly. Wondered for a bit if I should call the police, but figured that with all the other houses on the street being brightly lit, surely someone else must have called by now.

Heard the sirens, saw the lights of a fire engine coming up our street. Hmm, why is it stopping in front of our house? Went out to speak with the nice fireman. No, sorry, I wasn't the one who called you and the alarm wasn't coming from our house; but it is very loud here, as you might know if you weren't standing right next to your rather loud truck.

Well, the firemen left, not being willing to knock on every door on the street in order to find the source of the sound which neither they nor the police had located. Still, there was the BEEP-BEEP-BEEP, BEEP-BEEP-BEEP, BEEP-BEEP-BEEP going on, and after a few minutes I decided I knew which general direction it was coming from. Called the local police and explained the situation, then went back outside to make sure I hadn't misled them.

One street away, the fire truck went down the street. One street away, the fire truck went up the street. Then I walked down the alley toward the assembled volunteers and realized where the noise was coming from.

"You say there's a Halloween attraction here?" "Yes, there in the woods--you can see a circus tent through the trees."

A smoke detector at the bottom of a trash can under a haunted circus tent in the woods gave us one last scare for the season. The firemen were kind enough to remove the battery.

[identity profile] mystified13.livejournal.com 2004-11-28 04:53 am (UTC)(link)
Sounds like someone was trying to keep the neighborhood awake!

[identity profile] itsacountry.livejournal.com 2004-11-28 05:28 am (UTC)(link)
Jeepers. At least you found the noise. :) This reminds me of a story...

*fading-into-story-noises*

As a HS prank during my sophomore year, the seniors had about twenty of those personal alarms, the ones where you pull the pin and it squeals unbelievably loud, presumably to fend off attackers by being really annoying. They had arranged to pull the pins at the same time, and then hide all of the boxes. It was really pretty funny, classes were unofficially suspended because the entire school population was listening, then gravitating towards the closest noise in order to find a box. It was like an easter egg hunt, except instead of being proud to have found one, you now had a really loud box with no way of turning off the alarm. We were smashing them, kicking them, but the best was to put them in water. *BEEP BEEP BEEP (glug) BEEeeep buuuoooopp beep booop (silence)*

Good prank. :D

groovy story

[identity profile] heatherp8.livejournal.com 2004-11-28 12:37 pm (UTC)(link)
it was great to read this story and I enjoyed it.
But I'm sure it was no fun actually being there!
anyway - thanks for sharing.
I love a good story!

[identity profile] a3hourtour.livejournal.com 2004-11-28 03:59 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh my.
What a great Senior prank as described by itsacountry, though... in all my years teaching, I hadn't seen one like it. Clever, really.
Though the year the kids planted the tree in the football field was good too...
ext_3407: squiggly symbol floating over water (two)

[identity profile] hummingwolf.livejournal.com 2004-11-29 01:04 am (UTC)(link)
I don't think this nuisance was deliberate, though I did notice that the Halloween attraction was dismantled today!
ext_3407: squiggly symbol floating over water (8 months)

[identity profile] hummingwolf.livejournal.com 2004-11-29 01:05 am (UTC)(link)
Great story. :-) Thanks for sharing it!

(glug) boooooop
ext_3407: squiggly symbol floating over water (Fire-flavored fractal)

Re: groovy story

[identity profile] hummingwolf.livejournal.com 2004-11-29 01:06 am (UTC)(link)
Glad you enjoyed it! Being there was mostly annoying. I'm glad I managed to make something entertaining out of a wailing smoke alarm!
ext_3407: squiggly symbol floating over water (Iterations in green and gold)

[identity profile] hummingwolf.livejournal.com 2004-11-29 01:07 am (UTC)(link)
Yeah, her prank story is terrific. I don't remember anyone in my high school being that creative as a prank!

[identity profile] zoopownsyou.livejournal.com 2004-11-29 04:23 am (UTC)(link)
Dude....firemen.

Glorious day that must have been:)
ext_3407: squiggly symbol floating over water (Fire-flavored fractal)

[identity profile] hummingwolf.livejournal.com 2004-11-29 01:42 pm (UTC)(link)
I knew you'd like that part. ;-)