Tuesday, May 14, 2019

Symbolism in the Sign?

Over the past few years I have seen well over 60 cases of electrical or electronic devices mysteriously changing their state. This has included 18 cases of the flashlight at the back of my Samsung tablet turning on mysteriously when the tablet was turned off, 15 cases of an electric toothbrush turning on by itself,  10 cases of a sound machine turning off by itself or changing its channel,  9 cases of a Samsung tablet turning off by itself,  three cases of lamps turning on by themselves, more than 10 cases of a TV mysteriously changing its state (such as switching to a new channel when I hadn't touched the remote), and two cases of a dryer switching its setting mysteriously.  You can read about such cases here.

Yesterday evening there was yet another case of an electric or electronic device mysteriously changing its state. I noticed that the cover of a carbon monoxide detector in my apartment was open, with the battery halfway pulled out.  I had replaced the battery with a new battery about 10 days ago, testing the battery successfully after snugly snapping the battery into the battery slot, and snapping shut the detector cover.   The battery test (done by pressing a button on the front of the detector) will only work if the battery is snug inside the slot, and the detector cover is shut tight. The carbon monoxide detector is at eye-level, and I had passed right by it at least 8 times previously in the day without noticing anything unusual such as the cover being open. The carbon monoxide detector is right in front of anyone leaving the bathroom, about an arm's length away.



How could the detector lid have opened, and the battery halfway pulled out? The only one else in the apartment on this day except myself was my wife. I've been married to her for 26 years, and never once saw her touch a smoke detector or carbon monoxide detector.  Once you snap the battery in and close the cover, deliberate manual effort must be made to either pry open the detector cover or remove the battery from its snug position inside the battery slot.

I can't help relating this mysterious incident to a previous incident in March, described here, in which a locked door mysteriously opened. In both this case and the case yesterday we have a kind of "closed thing opening" motif.  Could these two spooky incidents be a sign that some door previously closed to me will soon open -- perhaps the door to the Great Beyond ? Could the battery half-way out of its confinement place be a metaphor for the soul leaving its confinement place of the body?  Only time will tell whether this mysterious event turns out to be an omen or harbinger.

Postscript: Within a few days after this event, this carbon monoxide alarm started giving a 5-beep alarm once or twice a day. I was puzzled because the battery was new. I did a Google search for "lifetime of carbon monoxide detectors," and found that they lose their effectiveness after 5 to 7 years. The carbon monoxide detector shown above was about that old. So I replaced the whole alarm. 

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