Surplus to Requirements

(If you really hate spoilers, read the post below this one first. Then this one. Or don't. Spoil the whole thing for yourself; see if I care.)


An addition to this amazing adventure: when the beeping began, I was writing an email to someone at work, dispensing elegant pearls of wisdom, and I started the email with this: 

I have officially arrived in 2012 as I've finally got round to learning how to access my email through the web. This achievement is offset somewhat by my inability to make my smoke detector stop beeping (yes, have changed the battery, etc). It's going to be a close run race between the arrival of the electrician and the departure of my sanity.

During the course of tapping out my hotly sought-after advice the electrician arrived and the events described below occurred. So I finished my email thusly:

If none of what I said makes sense, I can understand: the electrician just arrived and pointed out that there's a second smoke detector in the hall, and that's the one that's been beeping - not the one I replaced the battery in TWICE.

I'll be in tomorrow if you want to discuss - my comments, not the smoke detector fiasco.

The person I was sending the email to replied this way:

Thanks. This made me laugh out loud.

Still no word on whether he was referring to The Smoke Detector Incident or my work-related words of wisdom.