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Post by mickthecactus on Oct 4, 2021 20:27:37 GMT
Our smoke detectors developed a fault and went off at 1am in the morning and again at 5am. I was more in danger of dying from a heart attack than smoke inhalation.
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Post by whatagain on Oct 4, 2021 21:06:51 GMT
Always so nice. I had it 3 times same night in a horel in Paris. 3rd time firemen came, so i dressed and evacuated, these idiots hfrom the hotel having told us nothing.
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Post by kerouac2 on Oct 4, 2021 21:40:01 GMT
Does the hotel offer compensation in cases like that? Complimentary cocktail coupon?
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Post by mich64 on Oct 5, 2021 2:44:53 GMT
Our smoke detectors developed a fault and went off at 1am in the morning and again at 5am. I was more in danger of dying from a heart attack than smoke inhalation. Are they battery operated or wired in Mick? At least you know they would do their job of waking you up! Glad it was a false alarm. Yes, that is how my husband feels when the tones go off in the middle of the night at the fire hall, even after 26 years. He wears a FitBit that monitors his heart rate, he has had quite a few nights in the red zone.
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Post by bjd on Oct 5, 2021 6:49:20 GMT
We removed our (obligatory) battery-operated smoke alarm over a year ago. We came back after being gone for the weekend and it was beeping away for no reason. And it also went off in the middle of the night once.
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Post by kerouac2 on Oct 5, 2021 9:32:33 GMT
My cheap smoke alarm has always worked perfectly. Even though it is far from the kitchen, it never fails to go off if I fry bacon with too much heat. Since it is on a top bookshelf rather than attached to the ceiling, I just rip out the battery for an hour or so. It took me a while to understand that the mysterious sporadic chirping noise in my apartment was the detector telling me it's time to change the battery.
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Post by tod2 on Oct 5, 2021 15:43:51 GMT
I have yet to find one smoke alarm in a house here! I'ts just something we don't bother to install. Could it be because we BBQ so much? People even have fireplaces that grill meat indoors. I know when we light up and the meat is on, the smoke billows right into the house if the wind direction sends it that way.
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Post by mich64 on Oct 5, 2021 15:56:47 GMT
It is a law here where I live, you must have an operating smoke detector on every floor of your home. The most important one is in the bedroom hallway. We also have to have a carbon monoxide detector if your home is heated by gas.
My smoke detector has gone off often when frying bacon as well! We installed a new range hood and that has helped and I also have gotten into the habit of opening the window.
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Post by kerouac2 on Oct 5, 2021 16:05:53 GMT
Having smoke detectors is the law in France, too. Application got off to a slow start, but Mr. Internet just told me that 88% of residences are now equipped.
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Post by lugg on Oct 5, 2021 19:59:22 GMT
All in all, I can't begin to tell y'all how impressed I was at the overall as mentioned determination, and resilience and sense of community that I witnessed and how this experience made my woes miniscule in the wake of things I have gone through in the past months. Well your recent experiences are certainly not miniscule Casimira. I hope life is getting better for you both now ...
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Post by casimira on Oct 5, 2021 20:52:14 GMT
They would be getting better if City Hall could get their act together and issue us the demo permit. It was 6 months ago that the fire happened. Trying to stay upbeat so, the diversion helps me to focus on something else.
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Post by fumobici on Oct 5, 2021 21:05:09 GMT
They would be getting better if City Hall could get their act together and issue us the demo permit. It was 6 months ago that the fire happened. Trying to stay upbeat so, the diversion helps me to focus on something else. It helps to remember that for many bureaucrats, public and private, the only path they have to feel validated and empowered as people is to exercise their petty power as gatekeepers to prevent and frustrate other people from getting the things they want or need. You want to wring their necks, but instead you should pity them and the empty, meaningless lives they inhabit that have brought them to this sad end.
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Post by casimira on Oct 5, 2021 21:20:46 GMT
I do believe you are absolutely correct Fumobici. I am glad that it is our contractor who is dealing with this and not me in which case it would take even longer. I would have gone off on one of them and be put under a pile of applications.
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Post by questa on Oct 5, 2021 21:28:04 GMT
We are required to have a wired in smoke detector with battery back-up in each house and advised to add battery ones in bedrooms. When we go to daylight savings there are promotions to encourage us to renew the batteries as we change our clocks.
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Post by bjd on Oct 6, 2021 6:16:49 GMT
When we go to daylight savings there are promotions to encourage us to renew the batteries as we change our clocks. Why on earth? The battery makers lobby? Is one hour either way going to make a difference in battery consumption?
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Post by onlyMark on Oct 6, 2021 6:53:25 GMT
It's just to mark a point in time each year to change the batteries so as to get into a routine to do it.
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Post by tod2 on Oct 6, 2021 7:09:51 GMT
It helps to remember that for many bureaucrats, public and private, the only path they have to feel validated and empowered as people is to exercise their petty power as gatekeepers to prevent and frustrate other people from getting the things they want or need. You want to wring their necks, but instead you should pity them and the empty, meaningless lives they inhabit that have brought them to this sad end. Oh so well said Fumobici. This is rife in all our governmental and municipal departments. There is a way around it tho. It's the old "know somebody who knows another body, who may be related - or not" that will with loads of praise about how powerful they are and with their power they can help you. Best is to have their private telephone number and be on first name terms. This method prevents you pulling out chunks of hair in frustration. Casimira - Your contractor is bound to know somebody like that - they may help him if they like him but oh heavens if he is not well thought of they could keep him dangling on and on. Maybe a visit from yourself as a matter of enquiry to the progress - with floods of tears of course........
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Post by questa on Oct 6, 2021 8:24:11 GMT
This is Pixie.
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Post by questa on Oct 6, 2021 8:30:17 GMT
Hello people, my name is Pixie, g'day to all the other animals who may be watching. I've come to live with Questa hope the food is better than the last place!!
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Post by mossie on Oct 6, 2021 9:24:50 GMT
She should keep you on your toes
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Post by questa on Oct 6, 2021 10:50:35 GMT
This was my grand-daughter's idea after she taught me how to post pics. She is 17 and crazy about all animals. I took the pics the night after I collected her from the foster mum.
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Post by tod2 on Oct 6, 2021 11:11:09 GMT
What a doll! Those Maltese Cross bred are so cute. I've had three of them and they all lived into their 20yr plus.
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Post by kerouac2 on Oct 6, 2021 11:17:57 GMT
I can see why you found her irresistable, questa, fleas and all.
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Post by bixaorellana on Oct 6, 2021 16:31:35 GMT
She is a cutie, Questa! the empty, meaningless lives they inhabit that have brought them to this sad end. Just my two cents to counter the stereotype ~ People need jobs. Anyone trained in clerical work is likely to jump at a government job, with its better pay and guaranteed benefits. I'm sure there are some bureaucrats unfairly wielding their tiny bits of power, just as there are in any walk of life. Maybe I've just been extremely lucky, but I have had people in government offices be extremely nice to me, up to the point of bending rules in order to resolve problems. I'm talking about humane responses when these supposedly soulless automatons actually listened and reached out to help.
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Post by tod2 on Oct 6, 2021 16:49:13 GMT
No not me Bixa- I think Fumobici said that ! But I agree!
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Post by bixaorellana on Oct 6, 2021 17:08:25 GMT
Sorry, Tod -- I knew he'd written it, but didn't scroll all the way up the page & erroneously quoted your quote of his quote. Fixed now!
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Post by fumobici on Oct 6, 2021 18:59:50 GMT
Yes of course many if not most bureaucrats are nice, normal people just trying to do their jobs. But there are a *lot* of latent sadists in those positions as well who seem to actually enjoy torturing and frustrating the people who come to them for help for no good reason except they can. The power to make other people's lives miserable is clearly an intoxicating prospect to some who probably lack much else in the way of power or control in their lives—like low-level bureaucrats. That the people coming to them for help are often already in a traumatized, weakened, and semi-helpless state must make denying them whatever benefit or service they are charged with gatekeeping for some insignificant, invented or arcane technical bureaucratic reason even sweeter and more emotionally satisfying for them.
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Post by fumobici on Oct 6, 2021 19:02:59 GMT
Pixie, as you are well aware Q, is utterly charming.
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Post by lugg on Oct 6, 2021 19:35:40 GMT
Pixie is lovely Questa ; happy times for you both
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Post by questa on Oct 6, 2021 23:04:46 GMT
Whenever I have had to get official permissions or pay parking fines etc I always start the conversation gently saying, "I wonder if you can help me with this problem I have, please?" This trips what I call the "Camelot Reflex"...knight in shining armour comes to aid of good people. The "wonder if" component seems to add a little challenge and usually the problem is solved in my favour. I have had perfectly valid parking fines overturned (3 in one year) and forms returned overdue and a building permission modified for me (should have been refused and re-drawn).
I guess this fits in with Fumi's observations except you give the power to the official to do what you want right at the start. Win-win.
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