That was $2 worth of AA batteries well spent.

Apparently the ventilation in my house needs improvement...I should be asleep right now, but the beeping of my CO Detector ruined that opportunity, so instead I'm sitting here by the front door, which is the only thing I could get open to let some fresh air in. Doesn't look like it merited a 911 call or anything; it went silent about 2 seconds after I opened the door. In any case, though, I'll just sit here for a while and let some nice, fresh...absolutely frigid...outdoor Alaskan air in. May as well drop an email to my landlord about it while I'm at it; see if they have any ideas what the hell caused that, and any advice they can give on keeping fresh air in here without having to freeze my balls off.

I'll probably wind up getting to bed around 3:30 at this rate. Good thing today was my last day of school for the week.


UPDATE: Okay, so first and foremost, I'M STILL ALIVE, so that's one for the plus column. Landlord said to call the gas company and get them to come out and measure the CO levels...I did, and they said not only do they not do that, but that because that was going off (which it wasn't; darn thing was silent all night), I needed to call 911 instead, and the call ended at that.

Well, that was annoyingly unhelpful.

To sum this morning up in a word....

OOPS!

After breakfast, I decided to get myself checked out at the VA to make sure I wasn't experiencing CO poisoning, since I had no clue what the symptoms were and was too tired to think of checking them online.

They got me checked out, found I was fine, and sent me on my way. So that's good.

OOPS #1: FALSE ALARM.

On the way out, I decided to swing by the library to get some books for a paper I'm working on. As I went down the exit ramp onto the highway, I lost control on some black ice and wound up in a snow bank. No damage to me or the car, and getting out was a piece of cake, but still, a bit embarrassing.

OOPS #2: IMPROMPTU FIGURE SKATING.

Things at the library went just fine. Got to the parking garage, paid for a parking space so my car wouldn't be covered in snow, went in, got my books, came back out...then I remembered that UAA parking is only pay/permit enforced on Mondays through Thursdays.

OOPS #3: $4 DOWN THE TUBES FOR NOTHING.

Then I got back home, and finally a thought crossed my mind: if the CO detector were really alerting me to unhealthy air, shouldn't it have been more of a BEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEP and less of a BEEP............BEEP...........BEEP?

Looked it up online with the manufacturer, and it turns out my first hunch with it last night was correct: It didn't go silent because I let fresh air in, it went silent because while there was fresh air coming in, I took the time to swap the batteries out. The sporadic beeps were, as I suspected, a low-battery alert.

OOPS #4: ALL THAT WORRY OVER A FLAT BATTERY.


So, in summary, all is well in my little home...except for me, because while I can function fine for a few hours after a night with less than usual sleep, after that I start to get pretty groggy.

OOPS #5: ENGAGE KAZUAKI MODE.

**THUNK** Zzz...