PET PEEVE… OF LAST MONTH: CAR ALARMS 2

It started just after midnight. The downstairs neighbor’s car alarm went off. Then it went off again. I decided to peek out the window to see what was happening. Mr. Neighbor ran out of the house and circled his car to see what may have set the offending alarm off. The car alarm had been giving off single random beeps that morning and woke me up before my alarm went off, so I was not thrilled that Mr. Neighbor’s alarm had gone off full throttle so late. I put on my headphones and tried to go back to sleep.

Alarm went off again.

Mr. Neighbor shut off the car alarm, went back inside and it went off again a few minutes later. He repeated his run out to the carport to investigate — as if someone’s hiding between the cars or there was a rational reason the alarm was going off. His car doesn’t appear to be anything that is on the list of desirable cars to steal, so his repeated investigations made me laugh (because I was tired and that made it funnier than it probably was). I started to wonder if he had something in the car worth value because he was so diligent about it.

After fifteen minutes and several more car alarm invasions into my slumber, I was annoyed. After a car alarm goes off a few times in a row, and no person, cat or other animal is anywhere near the car, it should be obvious something is wrong with the car alarm, but all Mr. Neighbor does is let his car alarm scream to life… then he turns it off and stares at the car as if he knows the car is trying to tell him something, but he doesn’t have the key to the car alarm code to decipher it.

I, however, know the code and his alarm is trying to tell him, “I have a short! Please disconnect the battery and I’ll shut up. I promise!”

Unfortunately, the on/off scenario repeated every few minutes until 3:45 AM. On…off. On… off. At this point, I am bleary eyed and beyond annoyed. Yes, car alarms go off, it’s a fact of life, but when it’s obvious something is WRONG with the car alarm and no burglary is being attempted…if the only attempt to rectify the situation is turning it off and letting it come back on… well, let’s just say the soothing tunes I was trying to listen to weren’t soothing me enough.

Finally, at 3:50 AM, Mr. Neighbor went out and turned the car on and this ended the car alarm onslaught. I was ticked that he didn’t bother to think of that three and a half hours before!

Anyway, that’s my rant. I had two cups of coffee and a lot of green tea, so I made it, but I was really hanging by a thread. I haven’t slept well the last week or so, and last night didn’t help. I am running on fumes now, but I don’t want to take a nap for fear I won’t be able to sleep later!

Really, I don’t think that will be a problem…zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz