An Alarming Morning

"Many of us have heard opportunity knocking at our door, but by the time we unhooked the chain, pushed back the bolt, turned two locks, and shut off the burglar alarm - it was gone". - Author Unknown

The "moms" stayed fairly late last night - a sure sign of a successful evening. By the time I did some modest clean up, completed a business call (one of the mom's clicked into business mode when she got home and called me) and tumbled into bed it was going on 1:00 A.M. It had been a long day and I was tired - though not the aching fatigue I often feel after hosting a dinner party. Merv has been in Maine since Saturday so as I do when I'm sleeping in the house alone, I armed the alarm and went to sleep. I hoped to sleep in a little bit this morning but it wasn't meant to be. I woke up early, bleary eyed and thinking about what things I should do this morning before the arrival of Claudia, our cleaning lady. I don't like to leave Claudia with a big mess and I didn't get around to hand washing the things that can't go into the dishwasher. I also stripped the bed and made my way to the main floor laundry room. What I didn't do, was turn off the alarm. Of course, I remembered that when the alarm started shrieking. It's not the first time I've made that mistake. So I moved into the office next to the alarm box and awaited the voice from Alarm Force that would soon demand that I identify myself. I know the drill. It's not like I do this all the time but I have done it three times in the last month. Pretty embarrassing. The Alarm Force guys are usually gentle with me. They ask for my I.D. number (long ago lost), then ask me to disarm the alarm with my code while they stay on the line. That I can do. But this morning, the monitor on duty was anything but gentle. He would have done well at Abu Graib.

I really have to find a way to remind myself to turn off the alarm before I go downstairs so I've been thinking about getting a small door pillow like the ones that hang on a baby's door saying "baby sleeping" only mine would say "alarm on". Mind you, without my morning coffee first, my brain probably won't even process that message until the sirens start wailing.