It’s that silly time of the year again when we screw up 6 mos worth of circadian rhythms by changing all the external clocks. Since it is fall, we turn the clocks back an hour as daylight savings time (DST) ends and standard time begins.
And to further confuse things, this means we on the east coast of the US are now -5 hrs off of Universal Coordinated Time (UTC) and Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) time (during DST, we are -5 from UTC and -4 from GMT).
While you are changing the clocks, either last night or now, change the batteries in your smoke detectors too. Sure, the battery is might be still good, but it’s better to know you have a live battery in it all the time, dontcha think?
If you have a smoke detector or carbon monoxide (CO) detector, change the battery. If you don’t have one or the other or both, what are you thinking? My brother and his family were sick one day. The kids had gone to bed and my sis-in-law was about to go too. But her mom decided to drop by and immediately recognized the signs of CO poisoning. Lucky for them, she came by! Else, we would’ve had a four casket funeral.
If you live in a rental property, chances are the local codes require the detector(s) to be “hard wired” but many still have a battery for when the power goes out.
The Red Cross recommends that you also take this time to prepare for emergencies by restocking your emergency supplies and other such stuff. They have information about home fire safety, too.
Oh, and one thing I learned a long time ago: fire extinguishers are a great thing to have but only if in the right place. But putting them near possible fire hazards is not always a good idea. For example, most people have one on the counter near the cook stove. But if a fire starts on the cook stove, will you be able to get close enough to reach the extinguisher?! By a door into the kitchen is an excellent place to put it. Make sure everyone in the house knows how to use one. I recommend pulling the safety pin now then putting it back in place. By breaking that seal, you are guaranteeing you will be able to put out the fire instead of having to figure out how to pull the pin! (been there, done that, coughed smoke)