Adventures with Smoke Alarms

A few nights ago we heard a chirping in the middle of the night. We have a smoke alarm that is near the highest point in our house. It's above the stairwell that leads to the basement and I have dreaded it needing to be changed since I moved in. (Of course, I just recently learned that they should be checked and changed regularly, but I was holding onto the dream that the battery would outlast our tenure in the home.) Well, after hoping that it was one of the more reachable alarms, we came to conclusion that it wasn't. Ryan was a brave soul who ventured up on the ladder at 3:15 AM to change the battery. He could barely reach it and it took a little cajoling to get it open (another lesson learned--know how to open the smoke alarms by practicing on the easy to reach ones), but it finally came open and all is well. I'm glad Ryan was coherent and awake enough to get it done. It was kind of blurry to me the next morning, so it's a good thing that Ryan wasn't.