Alarming

About a month ago we had a security system installed at the house.

The other morning, it backfired a bit. In my sleepy state, I opened the basement door to let the dogs out - without disabling the alarm first.

The system no doubt started to do a warning beep - but in the basement I couldn't hear it - particularly because one of the dogs was noisily lapping water.

As I headed upstairs, the system started to blare an actual alarm. I deactivated it and it stopped blaring.

Then came the phone call, from the monitoring service, asking if we were okay. Sure, I said, all good. "Did you receive a password," the lady asked.

Well, she had me there.

So, following protocol, she sent the cops. Who were perfectly nice. But the city charges 100 dollars for false burglar alarm calls!

They were nice,
but what a price!

But it's not all bad that this occurred:
Now I've memorized the secret word.