Sis went to work with me yesterday morning and sat in for me in the office while I went to the funeral of my friend, Betty. Then she helped downstairs at the funeral dinner for awhile.

When we got home a little after 3 p.m., the smoke alarm/carbon monoxide alarm in our house was shrieking every little bit, proclaiming "low battery". Precious was cowering in my bedroom looking traumatized.  It must have been doing that for hours.

I had a 9-volt battery so I thought I could change it. It is attached to the ceiling. I got a step stool and got it unlatched from the top piece, but couldn't figure out how and where to open it to replace the battery. It didn't help that my knees are stiff, I am short, and have such a vision problem that I couldn't begin to see any instructions that may have been shown on the smoke alarm. Sis tried. She is a little taller than me, but she couldn't see any instructions either. In the meantime, every little bit, it would let out this loud shriek and the voice would again inform us that the battery was low. It is wired in electrically, but has a battery backup.

We knew of no one around close that we could call, so I called the hot line 211 and they told me to call the fire department. I did and told them the problem and that we were too old, stiff and vision-challenged to get up there and get it changed. They were very nice and immediately sent someone out to change it. Three cheers for our fire department! We are both pretty independent and try to do as much for ourselves as possible, but now and then something comes up that we just have to ask for help.

I was finally able to convince Precious that it was safe to come out from behind the bed where she was hiding.  She was terrified.