Calling All Cars

Last week one of our smoke /Carbon monoxide detectors went off. It was around 10:00 on Saturday morning. The thing was LOUD and set all the other detector units in our entire alarm system to blaring, "CARBON MONOXIDE DETECTED!" over and over. Joel kept saying "Scarey!" and clinging to my legs, which made it very difficult to climb on a chair and turn off the alarm. I was almost 99% certain that it was a false alarm caused by a faulty detector unit, as we'd had an issue with this particular one before. I was still concerned, though. What if the detector was not faulty, and there was carbon monoxide lurking in our basement? Brandon said, "You know you'll panic about it unless you find out for sure," which is true. He knows me too well. I decided to call the fire department and find out what to do-which is what the instructions on the back of the thrice blasted detector unit demanded. I very apologetically explained the situation to the nice man on the other end of the line, and asked if they had a simple way to test for carbon monoxide, just in case. He said they have test kits in their trucks, and would be happy to send someone out to check our house. Imagine my surprise when this turned out to be a full sized fire truck, an ambulance, a police car, and the Fire and Rescue SUV! Four fully-equiped firefighters tromped through the house in their bulky gear to test for dangerous gases, and came out to cheerfully inform us that, as expected, there were no readings. Joel and I sat in the car parked out front, as we'd been advised to evacuate the premises. Brandon stood outside chatting with the officer. ALL our neighbors drove by and asked what was wrong. I felt completely mortified. Brandon was his usual collected self, and Joel-well, Joel was THRILLED! He loves his toy emergency vehicles, and kept saying "Look, Mommy, BEEEEG (big) fire truck!" I guess my embarrassment was worth Joel's delight...maybe.