A Triumphant Discovery

Sometimes I just need a little peace and quiet, you know? Well, I've stumbled upon a no-fail method to grab a bit of this precious peace and quiet.

You see, quite by accident, we discovered that our smoke detector, which is positioned close to the bathroom door, is sensitive to steam. One day when I was taking an especially hot shower, the boys came in and out of the bathroom and left the door open. Then the smoke detector started screaming. I yelled for Eli and made him run around the house and make sure nothing was burning. A day or two later the same thing happened again. I yelled for Eli and he came and said in an exasperated voice, "I know what you're going to say! Go look for a fire!"

Well, the boys are not too fond of this interruption into their play (or fight or whatever they happen to be doing at the moment). Eli admonished me, "Maybe you should just take warm showers!" and they have checked to make sure that I'm not taking too hot of a shower. I told them that if the door stayed closed, the steam wouldn't go out of the bathroom and set off the smoke detector.

This morning just as I had turned off extra hot water from my shower I heard a fight brewing outside the bathroom door. Evan came barging in to the bathroom. "Evan," I said, "you better close the door. I'm taking a hot shower and I don't want the smoke alarm to go off!" He went out and closed the door! But then he opened it again and said, "You not taking shower!" "I just turned it off," I said, "and there's still a lot of steam in here." So he went out and stayed out! And I just stood there with a triumphant grin on my face.