March 13 - “A faint, electronic, beeping sound”

I woke up at 4:30 yesterday, which would have been 3:30, I guess, were it not for the beloved Daylight Savings Time. Spring forward and all that. There is a brief story related to that topic - not one that Chris is particularly fond of.

 

Around 5:30 I was sitting at my desk reading a novel I have been trying to finish. All of a sudden I heard a faint, electronic beeping sound. I assumed it was an alarm Sam set on her phone, although I couldn’t fathom why.  But she never answered its insistent call. And it was one of those alarms that gets louder and louder as the listener continues to ignore its pleas. I thought it strange that she wasn’t responding to it.

 

Soon the racket was so loud that I was afraid it might wake up Chris, and I knew she wouldn’t be happy.  Sure enough, just as the noise stopped as suddenly as it had begun, I heard the distinctive rattle of the door to our bedroom. And before I knew it, Chris was at my side. I figured she was worried about Sam taking so long to kill her alarm. But no. Instead she quite calmly, but firmly, asked, “Why did you set the alarm for 5:30?” 

 

In that instant I knew what had happened. The night before I had done my twice yearly, Daylight Savings Time task of resetting all the clocks. Somehow I had managed to also push the alarm button… on the radio next to our bed. When Chris woke up and tried to turn on the lamp to see how to turn off the alarm, no light appeared. See, that lamp is on a timer keyed to my phone. It can only be turned on and off using the app. It took her a while, but she finally figured out how to push the snooze button.

 

Racing to her rescue before the alarm could resume its annoying whine, I struggled with it for way too long before I was able to turn off everything. I double-checked the remote connection with the phone and the lamp, and it worked just fine.

 

Soooooo … Oops. Oh, well. At least we know the alarm works. I apologized profusely, of course, and encouraged Chris to get some more sleep. She assured me that she would. No feet on the ground for this girl (except for required bathroom breaks), before 7 a.m.

 

Psalms 46:10 says, “He says, ‘Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth’”

 

Father, thank you for reminding me that as amazing as technology it, it still only works best when it is connected to its human. Kinda like us with you. Amen.