Safe and secure from all alarms...

Name that tune, friends. Answer is:  Leaning on the Everlasting Arms!!  Note, it says Arms in the title, not Alarms.  Perhaps some day I'll learn...

So here is where we begin our story with our security system.  Several years ago when our friends' house was broken into for the second time, we purchased and had a security system installed.  These friends live just one country block south and through the woods from us, so it was pretty close to home.  Jay works shiftwork which means he works nights occasionally.  Our friends bought a system and we decided to as well.  I have always been a fraidy cat, scared of robbers (as my Grandma likes to tell it) and basically anything that goes bump in the night.  The first year of Jay's new job was very hard for me.  Many, many nights I just stayed up into the wee hours because I was too afraid to go to sleep.  Now, we had the alarm system...Yes, that will make everything safe and secure.

Safe and secure from whom I suppose is the question.  Here goes.  With the security systems comes a fire/smoke alarm system and carbon monoxide detector and also a panic type code that we can activate by pushing a certain button to call for an ambulance (which we didn't realize until later, another story).  All of it is tied into the security system and when certain signals are received at the dispatch, they immediately contact the fire department and 911.  If it's just a regular breach of the security system or power failure, they will call us first.  We can always call them and report things as long as we call the number and give them our code.

We have a wood stove in the basement.  At times I will use that wood stove as an incinerator.  I will stuff it full of papers that need destroyed or shredded and set it ablaze.  Old bank statements and checks, in you go.  Cardboard boxes, tear them up so they fit and throw them in.  It has versatile features...heat the house/destroys personal papers and excess cardboard.  The trouble is when burning paper and cardboard, that sort of fire creates a lot of smoke.  Smoke that can reach the smoke alarm...

So I'm stuffing the wood stove full of papers and cardboard and shutting the door, opening the door, stuffing more, etc...when the alarm alerts and starts blaring.  I don't know why, but panic ensued.  I mean I'm standing right there and I know there is no fire or emergency, but I went ballistic.  Oh, crud, I thought, I have got to call the security company before the fire department is dispatched. (Does this sound familiar?)  So I find a phone, locate the number and make the call...all the while the alarm is blaring.

"Security Tech, may I help you?" 
"Yes, my name is Sarah W, this is our pass code, we do not have a fire, but the alarms are going off." 
"Ma'am, I don't see a signal at that location." 
"Can't you hear it?  It's blaring." 
"No, I'm sorry, we're not showing any signals from your address." 
"How can that be?  I'm burning papers in my wood stove and there's smoke and the alarm is going off.  Can't you hear that?" 
"Yes, I'm sorry, we are not showing anything." 

Then it hits me, as I look up at the alarm located directly in front of the wood stove, that is our OLD smoke detector that we left up there even when the new ones were installed.  I told her what I had realized and hung up, grabbed a ladder and shut the stupid thing up.  I haven't burnt excess paper in the wood stove since.  This security system saga will continue...but until next time, I'm leaning on the everlasting arms...