Ah, the silence.

An hour and a half ago, the fire alarm monitor in my office went off, and it has been beeping shrilly ever since. It makes a constant shrill beeping noise, and it would not stop! Also, it was a false alarm. No fire. The maintenance men were searching the area and reported that there was no fire, but it kept going on and on, beeping and beeping...

The alarm monitoring company called twice to let me know that they had an alarm and that they were sending fire trucks. I called the fire department twice to tell them we had a false alarm and don't send the trucks. The nursing supervisor was calling to check on things, the security guard was calling me on his radio, the maintenance men kept calling me and each other on their radios, so it was pretty hectic for a while, and the shrill beeping of the alarm was making me feel like my head was going to explode!

After an hour of the constant beeping, someone came in to give me a bathroom break - I can't leave the office unless there is someone else here to monitor the alarms - and I was so happy to escape to the quiet of the ladies room for a few minutes!

The beeping and the phone calls and the radio traffic was still going on when I got back, and finally one of the maintenance guys came in amd found the spot on the alarm to cover with duct tape to quiet the noise! Oh, is this not happiness?

I don't hear it at all anymore, so I think the electricians must have arrived to work on the alarm system. Whew!

It took a while for me to calm down from the crazy stress of having everything going off at once, and I was feeling pretty batshit crazy from it all when Axel strolled in, plunked himself down and started babbling about the trench he is digging in his yard to fix his broken pipe, and at first he was talking but I couldn't listen at all, what with the clanging in my head, but gradually I was able to breathe deeply and get my zen back.

I'm better now and I'm going to find something soothing to read, and pull out my peaceful, mindless, sock knitting, and just not think about anything. I am certainly not going to think about the cabled sweater vest I started for Kim, the one in which I had to pick back the entire set-up row for the cables because I am congenitally unable to read directions without first drinking a Ritalin milkshake.