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Around 4am, the smoke detector right outside the bedroom door went off. I think I almost had a heart attack, given my fear about fires. It continued to go off erratically for some time. Mike thinks something in the wiring shorted out and it was actually triggered by its own demise. (The smoke detectors in this house are hardwired with battery backups.) This unit is right at the junction of two sides of the ceiling, where there is currently a crack growing thanks to the drying soil and shifting ground under our house. That might not have anything to do with it really and it could just be a case of wiring worn old by the heat and time. But none of it makes me feel good.
On the list of things I don't know anything about would be smoke/carbon monoxide detectors. I just have the amazon page open and let me say that as a person who has a job reading product reviews, the reviews for these sorts of products seem extra crazy. I'm tempted to just stop by the fire department over by the grocery store and ask them what I should buy.
The weather has shifted just slightly. (Though I suspect that is the reason my ears hurt and my head feels like it is full of steel wool.) They hope it will prevent any new flares in the Bastrop area fire. They are out counting homes and businesses. Every day I see something new in the paper or through the internet about some business, some place that was lost. I think they have found all buy one missing person and so far I've only heard of two deaths.
The other night there was some conversation about what the next ridiculous economic disaster might be. Someone suggested student loan debt, and I really think that is a significant thing. Especially for the people just getting out of college & saddled with tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt. I can't even imagine the crushing weight of that. Someone I know pays half her monthly salary towards student loans and wonders how she's going to send her own kids to college. It's an impossible burden now, these crazy debts.
Mike and I were profoundly lucky. He had a good scholarship, I had some small scholarship money and a ridiculous job that paid for school. We wouldn't have been able to buy a house otherwise I think.
On the list of things I don't know anything about would be smoke/carbon monoxide detectors. I just have the amazon page open and let me say that as a person who has a job reading product reviews, the reviews for these sorts of products seem extra crazy. I'm tempted to just stop by the fire department over by the grocery store and ask them what I should buy.
The weather has shifted just slightly. (Though I suspect that is the reason my ears hurt and my head feels like it is full of steel wool.) They hope it will prevent any new flares in the Bastrop area fire. They are out counting homes and businesses. Every day I see something new in the paper or through the internet about some business, some place that was lost. I think they have found all buy one missing person and so far I've only heard of two deaths.
The other night there was some conversation about what the next ridiculous economic disaster might be. Someone suggested student loan debt, and I really think that is a significant thing. Especially for the people just getting out of college & saddled with tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt. I can't even imagine the crushing weight of that. Someone I know pays half her monthly salary towards student loans and wonders how she's going to send her own kids to college. It's an impossible burden now, these crazy debts.
Mike and I were profoundly lucky. He had a good scholarship, I had some small scholarship money and a ridiculous job that paid for school. We wouldn't have been able to buy a house otherwise I think.