Today is Friday. Fridays are supposed to be the best day of the work week and consequently a good day as we look forward to the next two days off. At 9:00 this morning I see a missed call and voicemail on my phone from an 800 number. Since I am with kids from 8:20 until 12:00, I had no time to investigate the unknown call. At lunch I run and heat up my lunch and sit down to catch up on some paperwork. I grab my phone to check for unread email. I instantly see the lingering voicemail that is patiently waiting for my attention. I call into the voicemail and hear that it’s ADT- our alarm company. Instant panic! I immediately call back because I can’t decipher from the message if there is an emergency or if they are trying to renew my contract. I call the company back and get immediately placed with a person because I chose the option ‘your alarm is currently going off’. The lady is very calm and tells me that my fire alarm is going off and either there is a fire or the unit is low on batteries. I hang up on the lady, hit the door, and mad dash home! Well, I work 1.5 miles from home so I was on the scene in 4 minutes flat. I rush in the door and frantically rush two flights of stairs to find a calm house, no fire, and starving pugs- what’s wrong?! I climb back down the stairs and actually look at the alarm unit to see that it says “low-bat” which obviously means the house was never on fire and the fire detecter is simply out of batteries. I call ADT and tell them to call off the armed forces and head back to work. I was back on campus within 10 minutes. My lunch was waiting on my desk, still warm. I was able to get a little work in and prepare for my afternoon meeting. While the event was highly dramatic, I handled things in record time and it barely put a snag in my day.

Moral of Post: When the alarm company calls and offers that your house is either up in flames or experiencing a battery short, it always pays to be proactive and get yo butt home!