A few thoughts prompted by our sunday family fire drill:

- found one smoke detector with a disconnected battery. It was high up above the kitchen, too high to disconnect without a ladder, so I must blame operator error (me) when first connecting it a year ago. Check em, check em all.

- the local media was talking about talking smoke alarms, citing evidence that kids react more swiftly to voices rather than loud 79 db beeping. Too late for this year, but I'll look into this some more and think about switching out my standard smoke alarms for the kind where you record your voice shouting at your kids, at least for the smoke alarms in their rooms. Any more info on this topic, or any recommendations for a good model that records voice (preferabl voice, and then loud db beeping). Wired, with battery backup, and synched so they all go off if one goes off.

- the next door neighbors wanted to know what we were all standing out on the side walk for. It prompted a talk about fire drills, and a pointer to the Scholastic website for their young Zach to review and plan their family's own drill. They are new in the neighborhood, Korean, and not used to planning for household emergencies - 2 million invading North Korean yes, not so much a house fire. I think Yan takes me for a typical American, so if he keeps up the interest he may take on some slightly strange preparedness characteristics.

- the next door neighbors aren't actually our rallying point, that's across the street. It seems like whenever I get outside and rake leaves (rarely), the neighbor comes out and rakes leaves. Sure enough, we had a fire drill, #1 son almost knocked on their door to report a fire, and a half hour later they were having their own fire drill with their twin daughters. Imitation is the best flattery.