I have lived in my condo since 2016, and believe the one constant (other than a regular special assessment) is a building issue that requires a service call happening on a holiday or long holiday weekend. If you are planning a party with invited guests, the elevator goes down, or it’s late on Christmas Eve and the kitchen sink drain clogs requiring an industrial auger, or in today’s case, Memorial Day weekend and the building fire alarm (with strobe lights and sirens or course) goes off. And doesn’t stop. For hours. We have had intermittent issues with it over the years, but generally it is a consistent chirping on the lobby level attributed to a poor or broken landline connection. This certainly annoys the residents living on the lobby level, but those above the second floor are blissfully ignorant of this. Today was similar. I noticed it when I was leaving the building at 10ish, and thought I had fixed it, at least enough until a service-tech could come after the holiday on Tuesday. Arriving home mid-afternoon I realized it was still chirping and had been since I left. I was told later it started at 4:00 am. Contacting our building manager, we agreed that the best we could do was get a tech there on Tuesday, after the holiday. The chirping was a nuisance but tolerable.

Nursing a gin and tonic at 7ish, I was watching TV when the calm was shattered by the drone of the sirens outside my 8th floor unit. I hurried down the stairs to assure it really wasn’t a fire. Nothing, just the alarm. At this point I contacted the building manager for our account info and called the “Hotline”. Working my way through the cue, I was finally able to speak with a tech who suggested I access the main panel and push a “disarm” button. I asked it he had my number to call me back if we got disconnected. I needed to take the elevator to the basement to access that panel and knew my call would get dropped. He said “No, I would have to call back.” I love customer service. After finding the necessary keys and opening the boxes, I studied the mass of stuff and found a tiny button that read “Aux-reset”. I pushed it several times and the beeping upstairs seemed to stop. Hallelujah I thought. Apparently, my assembled 2nd floor friends (also annoyed by the noise) were at the lobby keypad and were pushing buttons too which helped the cause, or so it seemed. All was quiet, so we all went home.

At about 10 pm it started again and this time we could push all the buttons we wanted and nothing would change. Getting off the elevator on the lobby level, my lobby friends were there on the alarm keypad trying to get relief. I hurried to the basement again to attempt stopping the noise. I called again and got in the cue-again. While waiting I studied the hieroglyphics of the instructions hoping for inspiration., but for a novice like myself it was pointless.

In the lobby again, we continued to wait. There were four of us now to commiserate the situation. Rather than a tense and uncomfortable vibe, it was a group of convivial people making the most out of the situation. One of them is actually my mom’s new neighbor, the other a new resident and the other a long term one. Derrick ( mom’s neighbor) became indispensable. As we waited and chatted, he got up from his seat by the alarm keypad every 15-30 seconds to disarm the alarm. Sometimes it might go quiet for a minute, causing us all to think it was over…then the sirens started again. The long term neighbor, Brian smiled and went down the hall to his room. He knew there was nothing more he could do. As we waited for help on the phone, the three of us, myself, Derrick and Laurent, spent the time introducing ourselves and giving brief bios, all the time Derrick continued jumping up and disarming the alarm. Laurent recently graduated from Utah State and moved to Salt Lake City to work at one of our hospitals. After a while, she said her goodbyes and went down the hall leaving just the two of us. As we continued waiting for the promised call, I came to the sad epiphany that my phone was on “Do Not Disturb”. Nothing showed on my screen, but checking voicemail, there it was! Shit! I confessed this to my new friend Derrick-he promised to keep it our secret. I called and talked to the tech. Because I didn’t answer, he closed the ticket. I obviously apologised profusely and he submitted the ticket again. He would be there in 30 minutes. It was now 1:00 am. I thanked Derrick for his help and said he show go home. He had already mentioned that he had just gotten home earlier that day (yesterday at this point) from a 4-day cruise on the Mexican Riviera and was still pretty wired and was happy (willing is a better term) to stay to the conclusion. I was grateful, because he continued jumping up and disarming the alarm.

John arrived and got to work. He is our regular guy that services and inspects the system, so he was definitely the one for the job. It took time but he determined the problem was a complete failure of our panel and would need replacement. He powered the system down and the noise stopped. It was beautiful. It was 2:00 am. Thanking him, I went back to the lobby. Derrick was there; we smiled and gave a fist-bump.

As big a bother as this was, I was appreciative for the experience. There was no fire and no danger which was most important, but it gave me the opportunity to visit at length with some very nice neighbors that I really didn’t know. They are all extraordinary and a welcome addition to our little community.

Happy Memorial Day!